Categories
Design Innovation Reading Tablet Technology

New Kindle from Amazon

new_kindleTonight Amazon introduced a new Kindle. Set to ship August 27th, the new revision is 21% smaller and 15% lighter than its predecessor.  The new unit will ship with an display E Ink that has a 20% faster refresh rate.

The unit will also have two wireless options: a $139 WiFi only version and a $189 3G version.  Storage has been increased to 4GB.

Let the eBook price wars continue!

Tags: Amazon, Kindle, ebook, price war, ebook sales, reading, trends

Categories
Design Globalization Reading Tablet

Kindle v3.0 on the way ?

Amazon plans to introduce a new version of their Kindle e-book reader in August.  However after a recent price cut just three weeks ago, Amazon is now out of their current Kindle and their site suggests a new model is on the way.
kindle_supply

The device is rumored to be even thinner an updated refresh screen and enhanced imaging. The new Kindle will remain greyscale and will not support a touch screen….but may include apps.

Tags: Amazon, Kindle, ebook, price war, ebook sales, reading, trends

Categories
Education Globalization Reading

Latest read: The Big Short

Credit default swaps — those infamous three words: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis is a fast-paced, right-to-the-point story about CDS and the collapse of Wall Street.  While recent best sellers have addressed big players and multiple companies involved in the crash Lewis’s focus is just credit default swaps, how they were born, who made millions and how American taxpayers got burned in the end.

the big shortCriminal insanity with a slice of reality over a ton of F-bombs.  I found it hard to put down and actually ripped through the book in a single night.

Lewis follows the few hedge fund managers who actually predicted the collapse, how they managed to bide their time and padded their wallets by betting against subprime loans.  Crowdsourcing at it’s best….or worst?

Steve Eisman, Michael Burry, and Howie Hubler all have interesting roles in the credit swap and collapse (among others) that combine to document how greed, pure greed and outright criminal theft led to the economic collapse of financial giants and ruined our country.

Steve Eisman was blunt — to say the least when insulting financial CEOs but he was right all along about the coming collapse.

Why didn’t others listen to him?  Maybe its how the game is stacked to reward the few and control the governing agencies.  Wall Street views S&P and Moody’s as the guys unable to survive at a brokerage so they work outside the real game.  Lewis has much more to show how the game is stacked for the wealthy and against middle America and especially the poor.

Maybe the best part was his explanation of how Wall Street actually pays S&P and Moody’s for their credit ratings….

Hubler made the worst trade in the history of Wall Street. He lost $9 Billion on a single trade for Morgan Stanley.  And yet he was permitted to leave with a $100 million bonus.  $9 B I L L I O N and he walks unscathed?  Lewis briefly touches on how his actions were covered up by Morgan Stanley and buried from the light of day.

Categories
BMW Design Education Innovation Technology

BMW 6 Series Exterior Design

BMW’s official video regarding design-futures of the 6 Series Gran Coupé concept.

Anders Warming, Head of Exterior Design BMW, provides the overview about the exterior design and the future of the 6 Series and BMW design directions.

Tags: BMW, BMW 6 series, innovation, design directions, concept, ideas, business, trends

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Design Education Innovation Network OpenSource Technology

FireFox’s Tab Candy

FireFox is set (soon I hope) to launch an innovation called Tab Candy.  This will permit Firefox to act more like a OS.  Kinda Chrome like if Google has their way.  The focus of Tab Candy is multitasking and sharing. Tab Candy is managed by Aza Raskin, the Head of UX at Mozilla Labs. Raskin is the son of Macintosh creator Jef Raskin.


Tab Candy features:
Organize tabs into groups that you can name and position on a desktop-like view
Search and Save tab groups to look at later
Have multiple profiles so that you can sign into the same site with different logins in two different tab groups
Share tabs or tab groups between users, computers and devices (Smartphone supported)