Reshuffle: Apple's new iPod navigates by voice

Smaller than your average shuffle - the new iPod with VoiceOver Apple has released the third generation of its smallest, cheapest MP3 player -the iPod Shuffle. The new shuffle, which packs 4GB of storage for roughly 1000 AAC encoded songs (perhaps more in MP3 format) is even smaller than its predecessor and eschews the buttons and clickwheel which was a staple in the past two versions. Without any buttons and controls on the iPod Shuffle (they've been moved to a sliver of plastic attached to the headset), the anodized aluminum device (in black or silver) is sleek and seamless. It is smaller than a AA battery and with the attached clip the new shuffle is super-portable. VoiceOver in the House Taking a feature from the current iPod Nano, the new Shuffle can access song names and even playlists using VoiceOver. This feature is enabled once you press on the headset dongle. The robotic voice is eerily similar to the one belonging to the new Amazon Kindle, making us think that a trend of talking gadgets and devices are well on their way. The VoiceOver technology manages to work in different languages as well. VoiceOver solves a problem with the shuffles which made it impossible to create or navigate playlists. Competing products from Creative and others manages to squeeze in tiny OLED screens to help guide users through the navigation. The new iPod Shuffle doesn't have a standard headphone jack, so if you're particular about the headset that you use you might need to wait until Apple comes up with a solution (supposedly in the works). Otherwise you will need to content yourself with the white buds that come with the controller. The iPod Family - Now easier to lose As you can see the new Shuffle is incredibly tiny. Hopefully the sound quality is outstanding and the VoiceOver technology works well or is easy enough to use. It seems that the unibody look and construction of the MacBooks is quickly inspiring the rest of the Apple product line.

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Amazon's Kindle and the Possibilities of Paperless Publishing

Kindle goes 2.0 but only in America By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla Amazon's Kindle Electronic Reading device was recently released in the US and has caused quite a stir. Version 2.0 was redesigned by former Frog Design employees and they have done a great job prettying up the once unattractive but useful device. With the Kindle and the Sony eReader hitting their second and third product generations respectively -we wonder if these paperless devices can serve beyond their current functions and replace some of our current paper models. Here in Canada, the only option we have for a handheld reading device is Sony's Digital Book which is limited to ebooks and RSS feeds and requires a PC connection in order to purchase and download the digital books. Amazon's Kindle, on the other hand, relies on PC-free wireless connection to deliver content on demand and this includes books, newspapers, magazines and RSS feeds. Is an Amazon Kindle in the cards for Canada? The new Amazon Kindle offers the following new features: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you Large Selection: Over 240,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases (US) $9.99, unless marked otherwise - The Kindle certainly has the upper hand in terms of instantaneous delivery of content, its Whispernet over-the-air service is basically unlimited, on-demand wireless Internet. This is ideal for transferring text and some monochrome images quickly and can be a useful method of sending newspaper stories, textbook chapters, serialized fiction, comics, magazine subscriptions and newsletters. Going beyond the fiction and non-fiction book-selling aspect of these early eBook readers, we can see a myriad of truly useful uses for a wireless distribution system. As a number of traditional newspapers have stopped their presses, perhaps an inkless, paperless and purely electronic means of distribution is the way to go. Certainly, we have the Internet and an increasing number of publications have deferred their content to their online versions since these are more instantaneous, easily updatable and cost nearly nothing to disseminate. Reading online isn't as easy as reading print and despite the increasing portability of computers, tablets and smartphones - they will never be easy mediums to read on. E-ink, on the other hand, is the most paper-like technology available today. E-ink is easy to read, non-reflective and sips battery power. On our Sony reader device, we can turn 300 pages before the battery needs recharging, that's the length of the average work of fiction and over a week's worth of newspapers (minus the adverts). We believe electronic, portable reader devices are a no-brainer solution for newspapers, magazines and serialized content. Once you are done reading the content it can be archived or deleted easily, hard drive space costs next to nothing when you consider the diminutive footprint that mostly-text files carry. For students, who pay a fortune for shoddily-rehashed and often bulky textbooks, a Kindle-like device which can manage thousands of pages worth of information makes total sense. New Edition? No problem, just beam up the updated chapters, references and marginalia and everyone with a subscription gets it within minutes. There will be no problems with copyrights, photocopying and reselling of used textbooks either as it seems that eReader devices are strictly attached to digital rights management. In a lot of university courses, two or three textbooks by different authors are chopped and merged to create a more targeted curriculum but this often results in additional print runs and uses up a lot of paper, production, transportation and storage resources. This sort of tailored hodge-podge can be achieved a lot better and more efficiently if it is done centrally to one file and then disseminated to all the users for that specific course. There seem to be other perks as well, the new Kindle offers a passable text-to-speech technology which can read the content of the text files to the user. This may not be ideal for most as it sounds robotic and monotonous but has its advantages for users with accessibility issues. This makes more titles available to persons with disabilities who now have access to books and newspapers that can essentially read themselves out loud. There are a number of things still to consider. In Canada, there's the copyright and fair use of the books, magazines and content that may be available to US customers. Sony's Reader Store has a fair amount of content but you will see lots of titles marked "Not Available in Canada." The delivery of over-the-air content relies heavily on wireless providers. For the Amazon Kindle, data is transferred by Sprint EVDO. The only companies in the Canadian setting that can offer EVDO are Telus and Bell. Seeing how local data plans today are almost obscenely priced, its very hard to reconcile a lifetime of free data service tied into a device unless it is sold for thousands of dollars. These are just some of the challenges we need to overcome in order to realize paperless publishing. It is achievable, the technology is already in place, we just need to set things in motion and get it all to work together.

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Apple releases Safari 4 beta for Mac and PC

Surfing Safari: Apple By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla While the browser wars aren't as exciting as they used to be, things are starting to shake up. Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 seems to be a whole new beast and offers better functionality with less bloat more security and added speed. Current leader Firefox has been evolving steadily and gives users a richer user experience with its large selection of add ons. Google's Chrome, quickly gaining ground for its simplicity and speed. Apple's Safari has been great for Mac users and somewhat lacking their PC counterparts but with the recently released Safari 4 beta, there are some interesting changes across the board. See all of your favourite sites on Safari 4 The Safari Experience The latest version of Safari, which is available as a beta for both Mac and PC (Hear that, Chrome?) seems faster than Safari 3 and the new Top Sites View seems handy for resuming where you left off before previously. You get the option of seeing anywhere between the last six to twenty websites that you visited with thumbnails of the webpages. You can also scroll through your bookmarks in CoverFlow mode just as you would your photos in iPhoto or your albums in iTunes. While this is novel, it can get distracting for some. On Windows Vista, Safari now seems to be a native application and despite the odd placement of the tabs in the interface, it does work quite well. Safari 4 seems speedier than Firefox 3.0.6 and very similar to Chrome (which shouldn't be surprising since they are both developed from Webkit ) so they are running on the same engine. Apple has called their implementation the Nitro Engine and has posted some of their comparative results against popular browsers. Using the Google search bar is predictive and seems to offer up a number of useful options based on previously searched items or higher ranked items on the search engines. Search smarter with the options offered up by Safari In the Mix The enthusiasm for Safari's earlier versions from PC users was rather dismal. There were too many compromises and while speed was there, Google Chrome seemed a better browser overall. Right now things could change, although Safari is way behind in usage it may at least overtake Google Chrome and older versions of Internet Explorer, who knows. Apple has shown some flexibility with the Windows native look and feel on the PC version of the beta which should make PC users a bit more comfortable. The verdict on the new tabbed interface is still out, personally It is something we can get used to. Once Safari 4 goes beyond beta and the plugins ( like our favourite Foxmarks) are available and stable, it should be interesting to see how people respond. We are just really curious as to why Apple is fervently pushing their browser initiative and ensuring the cross-platform availability. The best thing about Safari 4 is that it will push its competition to rethink their features and their performance and this can only be a good thing for us users. Its got a very, very long way to go but Apple seems comfortable coming in from behind and challenging the status quo. The browser, after all, has become the most important and most used application for the majority of users and we all know that market share in this space leads to better branding opportunities.

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2009 Canadian International Auto Show - Overview

Text and Photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla This year's Canadian International Auto Show pushed on bravely despite the economic downturn and glum news of layoffs in the industry. They mood at this year's Auto Show was sombre and low key, a big difference from the glitz and spectacle if the past years. Aside from a few dozen car aficionados snapping photos and enthusiasts checking out the latest and greatest, you could feel the heaviness of the times clear across the exhibit floor. The focus of this year's show was hybrid and green technologies that improved on economy over horsepower and styling. The Nissan GTR Supercar makes an appearance in Toronto More on the 2009 Canadian International Auto Show after the break. The Subaru G4e Electric car concept: A sign of green things to come This year's Car of The Year award went to the Hyundai Genesis, a luxury sedan and the first Korean-made vehicle to ever take top honors in the show. The Toronto Star explains the reason why the Genesis turned so many heads. "The Genesis, Hyundai's first rear-wheel drive, performance sedan, beat 11 other "Best New" category winners to win the top prize, adding to its win earlier this year as the "North American Car of the Year." To win Canadian Car of the Year honours, the Hyundai Genesis was first named AJAC's Best New Luxury Vehicle Under $50,000, defeating several other well-known luxury brands, such as the Audi A3, Acura TL and Infiniti G37X. Following rigorous testing, the auto journalists decided the Genesis surpassed competitors in areas such as engine refinement, ride comfort, exterior styling, visibility, roominess and comfort. " Hyundai Small was Big Subcompacts, specially those with electric engines or hybrid variants were popular at the show even if most of them were prototypes. Kia and Nissan lit up their exhibit spaces with the Soul and the Cube respectively. Mitsubishi, whose iMiEV concept car is a full time electric car and is about as large as a Smart ForTwo, was a popular draw in the show. Mitsubishi was on board with their electric iMiEV concept car . The 2010 Kia Soul - Subcompact with an attitude. The desire for small, economical cars is reflective of the tough times faced by car buyers specially considering the pressure to consume less gasoline and simplify the way we commute. The only problem we saw with the latest batch of micro compacts is that they haven't really evolved stylistically and remain unattractive, boxy and look like derivatives of the popular Honda Element and the Scion xB. We get the need for cheap and functional transportation but really can't fathom the milk truck cookie-cutter approach taken by the manufacturers. Jonesing for the Trucks Trucks and pickups are still popular specially when you consider models like Hummer's H3-T truck, Ford's Raptor Pickup and some of the more sober models from Jeep. Raptor in Toronto: Grilled out and massive, Ford This Hummer hauls: The H3T truck All in all, the 2009 Canadian International Auto Show managed to showcase the trends for the coming few years quite well. We would have liked to have seen more innovation and technology as well as exciting new models in all fronts but 2009 is obviously a year of introspection in the market. This mood was evident in this year's auto show.

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