This is a tad disconcerting. A developer has created a piece of prying software that can use a camera to video you typing on your smartphone and know what you typed. Considering the number of security cameras in a mall or even Wal-mart, a malicious no-do-gooder could have a treasure trove of smartphone-typing to steal. [...]
Amazon loses $10 on every Kindle Fire sold, but could gain much more after the sale
Gadgets
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Oct 012011
You knew Amazon was out looking to leave their mark on the tablet market. Many folks are excited about their latest product, the Kindle Fire. Indeed, it is a tablet device I could see getting my kids even myself. At $200, it’s a whole lot easier to justify and pay for my kids. After all, many portable game devices will cost you that much. Amazon has clearly hedged their bets on people purchasing a Kindle and buying into their products and services. The estimated cost of the Kindle Fire comes in just under $210, so Amazon will lose $10 on every Kindle Fire sold.
The recently demised HP TouchPad was fire sold at $99. Consumers responded with open wallets and credit cards in hand. Clearly, people are looking for an affordable tablet device. If Amazon’s new tablet offering can give the customer a solid, clean, app-filled, and enjoyable experience, it will see great success. At this point, we will have to wait until mid-November for the device to reach consumers hands. Then we will have some real-life tests.
A thought does arise for myself as an iPad user. Is an Kindle Fire a better choice than the iPad? Some may balk at such a thought. Others will point out missing features on the Kindle Fire like a microphone, camera, etc. Consider this. While the Kindle Fire doesn’t much up spec for spec to the iPad, it does offer something that even Apple doesn’t have- the Amazon Store. How does that make a difference? For a mere $79 a year, you can have access to Amazon’s streaming video offerings and free 2 day shipping from the Amazon Store via Amazon Prime membership. Amazon knows their Prime membership could be a huge attraction to tablet users- especially those considering jumping from an iPad to a Kindle Fire. For instance, an iPad user purchases the base iPad for $500 and subscribes to Netflix for $95.88 (for one year). That totals nearly $600, while for an Amazon Kindle Fire and Amazon Video, it’s only $279. Now sure, it’s not a fair comparison as the iPad clearly out-specs the Fire and Netflix has a larger library of streaming videos, but as Amazon releases updates to the Fire and adds more videos to their library, the deal will get much sweeter.
Apple is not worried at this point since the Kindle Fire is still not on the market, nor has any user feedback. I doubt that the Kindle Fire will make a huge dent in Apple’s iPad pie right away, but like a little dog with a big bite, Kindle Fire is going to nip at the iPad’s heals all the way. A day is coming where Apple won’t be able to ignore the Fire at their feet.
Amazon tablet costs $209.63 to make, IHS estimates | Reuters.
Sep 072011
The folks at Brando are showing off a new case this morning. If you work for a mail or delivery company or you just love stamp collecting, this may be a case for you. Check it out below.
Leather Postcard Pouch For iPhone 4
Leather Postcard Pouch is dressed up in signature colors and playful designs-exclusively for iPhone 4 / iPod Touch / smart mobile. So pull your smart mobile out of your bag. Load your favorite app, and take a moment to stop and enjoy the party.
Features :
- Inner Size: 110mm x 70mm
Colors :
- Brown
- White
Model :
- iPhone 2G
- iPhone 3G
- iPhone 3G S
- iPhone 4
- iPod Touch 2G
- iPod Touch 3G
- iPod Touch 4G
Aug 302011
Remember shoe boxes of 3×5 or 4×6 photographs. What about that vast collection of CDs you use to have? Has your book collection grown stagnate? If so, you may be experiencing the effect of technology on our stuff. We no longer have real, tangible items in our possession. Instead, we have devices that connect us to our virtual photos, music, books, etc. Even now, I am working at replacing my physical books with PDFs and Kindle books. I am looking at the convenience of technology to help me lighten my book library.
Is this a good thing? Can’t say one way or the other. It’s great that I can take as many pictures as my device allows and view them immediately. I know if I got the shot I wanted. Yet, I’ll never hold them or tuck them away in a book or my wallet. They will reside in a virtual cloud in someone else’s place. Of course, it is not the end of these tangible treasures we have. I still have a few photos in a shoebox, but they too are making the gradual transition to the digital world.
We could really sum it up in one word- change. Change is happening and our children will think nothing different of storing their photos on a smart phone or in the cloud for that matter. With technology changing our world at a dizzying pace, it’s good to remind ourselves about where we came from and where we are going.
Jul 162011
I like surprises. Whether it is my birthday, Father’s Day, or any day, I like surprises. When I discovered Outreach by Lancaster Baptist Church, I was surprised. Why? Well, it’s not often you find independent Baptist churches developing an app for iOS devices. It’s exciting to see a church making an effort to develop useful evangelistic and visitation tools for those in ministry.
Outreach is a visitation/soulwinning contact management app. With it you can record your visits, phone calls, and followups on your iPhone or iPad. The app is not fancy, but it’s simple UI makes it easy to use. You can add in a prospect as an individual or couple. There are a number of lists including Sunday School prospects, Church Prospects, Members, Salvation Prospects, and more. You can also create your own custom lists. The app features an activity log that allows you to record just about any visit not just evangelistic visits. You could record church member visits or phone calls and make notes, so that the next time you visit or call, you’ll remember details about the visit.
You can also view a simple stats page that details the number of visits, phone calls, saved, baptized in total and over the last 30 days. Now numbers shouldn’t be the be-all-end-all, but it does give a good idea of our effectiveness and faithfulness.
I like the app and glad to see something like this available. Hopefully, LBC will continue to develop this app. I’d like to see a way to import a contact from my address book rather than typing in all the information. Also the activity log is great, but you cannot delete an activity, nor do the activities organize themselves by date. It would also be good to see an export or another way to backup your data. A few tweaks like these could make this app even better. It’s a great start and was a good surprise for me in the App Store. At $.99 and a universal app, it’s a good buy.
Outreach app description below.
“We all desire to be more effective reaching others with the gospel, seeing them baptized and added to a local church. Striving Together is happy to announce a new tool that can help you follow up on your prospects more effectively. The Outreach mobile app has been developed by the technical team of Lancaster Baptist Church under the direction of Pastor Paul Chappell.
Once installed you can track the progress of each of your soulwinning prospects— you can quickly view a map to their home, make a phone call, and record each contact and spiritual decision. You can also view and organize your prospects into custom lists.”