The title pretty much says it all on this one, folks.
Yes, our source tells us that Google is building a Chrome OS tablet. It's real, and it's being built by HTC. No surprise there, since HTC churned out the Nexus One for Google.
Yes, they plan to offer it in conjunction with Verizon -- which probably doesn't come as a shock to anybody at this point. The two recently tag-teamed that Net Neutrality proposal and they've had plenty of discussions in the past about cooperating in some capacity.
As for the launch date of November 26th, well, that's all kinds of brilliant. It's Black Friday 2010 and the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S. -- so what better day to have a shiny new tablet in the cabinet at Verizon kiosks and stores all over the country? You can bet Google's Chrome OS tablet will be heavily subsidized, and I'd go so far as to say it will be substantially cheaper than the iPad -- if not totally free -- with a Verizon data contract.
So what will the Google tablet pack for hardware? It'll likely be based on NVidia's Tegra 2 platform and sport a 1280x720 multitouch display, 2GB of RAM, minimum 32GB SSD, WiFi/Bluetooth/3G connectivity, GPS, webcam, and possibly expandable storage via a multi-card reader. Expect it to be every bit as geek-tastic as the Nexus One -- Google won't want to disappoint its early adopters.
Today I talked to a customer service rep for my power company, SRP. I called them about a billing issue. There were five meters on the bill when there should have been two. She explained to me that it’s because my two meters were read, then replaced with two new “wireless meters”. A week later, one of them had to be switched out. That explains why there were five.
We got to talking about the wireless meters and I told her I was looking into a third party meter attachment that reads the information and delivers in real-time. This would be a great way to learn how our power consumption directly affects our monthly utility bill. She showed me how to create an account to monitor usage using their web site. Within five minutes, I was able to see our daily usage. It’s not real-time but it is daily. No more surprises at the end of the month.
I also configured “Smart meter notifications” so I get an email if my daily kWh usage is greater than the specified number, as well as when my estimated bill is greater than a set number. All great ways to conserve energy.
I’ll share my usage sometime at the end of February and see how it stacks up.
I have been waiting for the computer version of the Kindle since I installed Kindle for the iPhone. Actually, ever since I downloaded my second book on the Kindle v1.0. It's a welcomed addition to the Kindle family of devices in which to view your media. Their software beta works very well. So well that I instantly wanted to view a magazine on it. It is a great platform for magazines. Magazines are great but we all know what is happening to them. It's sad but true. The latest victim is Metropolitan Home which I received as a gift and enjoy.
Viewing a magazine on a Kindle is not very practical and a magazine on the iPhone would be maddening. It's just not the same ... it's not even close. A magazine you enjoy that is sitting on your desk or coffee table, is inviting. It's also a reminder of content you approve and trust. When it arrives in your mailbox and you glance at the cover, you are ready to dig into it. That's why you ordered it. To get monthly, well written and illustrated, focused industry updates. Currently, you can not view a magazine on the Kindle PC beta software version. It's just a matter of time. Times are changing for sure. This industry is changing fast. Many are dying and some will be reborn (I hope). The magazine selection for the Kindle is bleak. Not much to chose from. This will change when Amazon allows magazines on this software version of the Kindle. It can help the industry. Color, hyperlinks, search, highlighting and notations. I bought an issue of a magazine to test it out but it didn't allow me to view it on the PC version. The more platforms Amazon makes available, the more I buy, share and promote. The more platforms they give me, the more features I want. Amazon has it right and opening up more ways to read, the more I read. ---------------------- NOTE: Also, with a decent monitor and increased font size, this is a great tool for folks with low vision that can operate a computer that use those very expensive reading machines.
From: Amazon Web Services Date: October 27, 2009 1:25:00 AM PDT To: scot Subject:Announcing Amazon Relational Database Service, plus Amazon EC2 price drop and High Memory Instances
Dear Amazon Web Services Customer,
We are excited to announce the public beta of Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), a new web service that makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale relational databases in the cloud. Amazon RDS gives you all the features and capabilities of a MySQL database, while managing time-consuming database administration tasks and providing the cost-efficiency of running in the AWS cloud. We're also excited to announce lower prices for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances and a new family of Amazon EC2 High-Memory Instances, tailored for customers wanting to run their own large databases and other memory intensive applications. To get started using Amazon RDS, High-Memory Instances for Amazon EC2, and other Amazon Web Services, visit http://aws.amazon.com.
Amazon RDS provides a fully featured MySQL database, so the code, applications, and tools that you use today with your existing MySQL databases work in Amazon RDS without modification. The service automatically handles common database administration tasks, such as setup and provisioning, patch management, and backup. You also have the flexibility to scale the compute and storage resources associated with your database instance through a simple API call. Like all AWS infrastructure services, Amazon RDS is easy to deploy and simple to manage. Here are some highlights for Amazon RDS:
Simple to Deploy - Quickly create a new production-ready relational database with a simple API call.
Managed - Amazon RDS handles generic, time-consuming database management tasks, such as patch management and backup.
Compatible - All of your existing MySQL database tools, applications, and drivers will still work.
Scalable - With a simple API call you can scale the compute and storage resources available to your database to meet your business needs and application load.
Reliable - Amazon RDS runs on the same highly reliable infrastructure used by other Amazon Web Services. Amazon RDS also gives you additional peace of mind by providing an automated database backup facility.
Inexpensive - You pay very low rates and only for the resources you actually consume. There are no long-term contracts or up-front commitments to use Amazon RDS.
We are also pleased to introduce a new family of High-Memory Instances for Amazon EC2. This new instance family further expands the available selection of computing configurations for Amazon EC2, helping you choose the CPU capacity, memory resources, and networking throughput that your applications require. High-Memory Instances are designed to be used with memory-intensive workloads such as databases, caching, and rendering, and are optimized for low-latency, high-throughput performance. The instance specifications are:
Double Extra Large: 34.2 GB memory, 13 ECU (4 virtual cores with 3.25 ECU each), 850 GB storage, 64-bit platform
Quadruple Extra Large: 68.4 GB memory, 26 ECU (8 virtual cores with 3.25 ECU each), 1690 GB storage, 64-bit platform.
Please visit the Amazon EC2 page for additional information on these High-Memory instances.
Finally, we are also lowering prices on all Amazon EC2 On-Demand compute instances, effective on November 1st. Charges for Linux-based instances will drop 15% -- a small Linux instance will now cost just 8.5 cents per hour of computing, compared to the previous price of 10 cents per hour. For more details by instance type and region, please visit the Amazon EC2 page.
The last three days I have been uploading all my music to lala. All 5400+ songs and only four more hours to go.
I have been looking for a better, more flexible way to listen to my music. For far too long I have been relying on the Sirius crutch. I want to be my own DJ again. Now that iTunes is DRM free and I can stream my music wherever I am, it's time. I'll mess around with this for a few weeks and let you know how it goes.
The Euro version looks great and is packed with features. I have not seen the spec list from Verizon yet but it should compare (I hope). Too bad they are applying there own cosmetics.
