Kindle, Nook hitting rock bottom prices

Technorati Tags: iPad,Apple,Kindle,Android,iPhone,Kindle 2,Nook,Barnes and Noble,Amazon,Sony,Kobo,Borders,E Ink,Vizplex

Image via CrunchBase

With the arrival of iPad from Apple and book reading applications coming quickly on iPhone and Android phones, competition is getting neck-breaking among E-reader devices.

Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook have apparently seem to hit the rock bottom prices for their e-readers and margin of profit is very sleek for e-readers. Only Sony e-reader has not cut down the price among the bigger players whereas smaller companies like Kobo( Borders ereader at $149), iRex,Plastc Logic and others  have to work very hard to compete with the big guns like Amazon and B&N even with drastic cut in prices for their respective e-readers.

The price war started with Barnes & Noble’s introduction of Wifi only Nook for just $149 and Wi-Fi/3G model at $199. Amazon was quick to follow the lead by dropping 3G Kindle 2 price to $189.

Kindle and Nook both uses Vizplex E Ink for crispy paper like display which is superior at daytime compared to its counter part brighter and sharper LCD display used in iPad and smartphones.

After some search and reviews from authetic sites, i believe the main reason behind this critical price cut is due to the launch and popularity of iPad from Apple which has passed the 3 MILLLION mark. Barnes and Noble has openly admitted that they have to cut the price because an all purpose device at $500 is hard to compete with only book reader device at $249.

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Brazil during FIFA Worldcup 2010

Image by han Soete via Flickr

Fifa Worldcup 2010 is gaining momentum so is the down time in Brazil, five time World Cup champion which is also the highest number any nation reached so far to grab FIFA World Cup. Stores, restaurants are closed on game days even churches are hard to find open on a game day.

Brazilian passion for Soccer is well know but it has its cost which is no small amount, well above $1 billion dollars. This cost is based on initial round and can be way higher if Brazil makes it to the final  which is more likely.

TV and electronic retailers are making good money along with clubs and pubs who have set up large Plasmas and LCDs.

Mexico and Germany are expected to hit hard by the employee downtime , estimate of close to $2 billion due to the on going craze of FIFA according to Newsweek.

Brazil is going to host 2014 Fifa World cup and it is expected to have a very positive impact on Brazilian economy, creating millions of jobs and more than $300 million in revenu if tourists stay happy and content.

China Eyes Hollywood with “Empires of the Deep”

Image via Wikipedia

A Chinese real estate magnate is all set to establish china as a global movie maker power house, one that can create big budget English language movies that can compete Hollywood films.

The movie is produced using 3-D technology cameras and is a hot pot of ancient Greek warriors, pirates,nder water kingdoms, a villain called the Demon Mage and mermaids that kill men during sex. The film stars most of the American actors but it is shot on the world’s largest studio , north of Beijing.

The budget is $100 million , the biggest ever for a chinese movie.

There are many restrictions on Hollywood movies in chines to safeguard Chinese film industry. No more than 10 movies can be shown each year in China although American Lobbyist are trying hard to increase this number from 10 to 25 as China can prove to be the biggest market for Hollywood movies.

Mulan, an animated movie based on Chinese legend did not prove successful in China though it was quite a success outside China. Chinese rejected the movie because the character Mulan was foreign looking, different complexion and behaviour from authentic Chinese legend.

Lotus Latern is another successful animated movie primarily in China and if China continues to produce these kind of movies, it can grab global share of market.

Tesla Motors (Electric Car) $185 Million Public Offering

Image by TheNickster via Flickr

Tesla Motors, the makers of electric cars are hoping to raise $185 million through their first public offering.

Due to the limited and costly oil supply, fuel transportation costs, the environment issues(recent BP disaster), the sales of electric cars are rising every year and expected to grow steadily for another 5-6 years.

According to J.D. Power analysts, sales of electric cars are expected to reach nearly 1 million this year which is around twenty five percent increase as compared with the previous year. The total sales of electric cars can jump to 3 million by 2015.

Mostly, the cars are hybrid having both conventional fuel source and plugged in with the battery but the momentum for pure electric cars is building up and it is expected that pure electric cars would be manufactured in more quantity than hybrid cars.

Father’s Day

Today, i receive an email from IncrediMail(a graphical colorful email client with lot of customization available) reminding me that Father’s deserve an extra special day.

This day is celebrated on the third sunday of June in more than 55 countires of the world and is quite similar to Mother’s day celebration. The history of the day according to Wikipedia goes like this

 

The first observance of Father's Day is believed to have been held on June 13, 1910 through the efforts of Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington. After listening to a church sermon at Spokane's Central Methodist Episcopal Church in 1909 about the newly recognized Mother's Day, Dodd felt strongly that fatherhood needed recognition, as well. She wanted a celebration that honored fathers like her own father, William Smart, a Civil War veteran who was left to raise his family alone when his wife died giving birth to their sixth child.   Father’s Day on Wikipedia

The event is now widely used by the merchants to sell their products by playing with the parenthood sentiments. It seems that every famous celebration has more to do with marketing and commercialization than culture or sentiments.

The dates for this event varies throughout the world but mostly it is observed with the US date. Like Father’s day, there are following relation days observed with similar passion and traditions

• Mother’s Day
• Children’s Day
• National Grandparents Day

Flawed Spill Reponse Plan of BP

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BP presented a seriously flawed spill response plan for Gulf in 2009 which even listed  a national wildlife expert who died in 2005. BP used incompetant and screwed methods to calculate spill volume that produced a lot lower spill volume that the internationally accepted formula.  There are grave and ridiculous mistakes in the data provided by BP in the plan. Many marine mammals listed in the plan does not exist and many that exist are not listed in the plan. Names and numbers of marine life specialists are incorrect along with marine mammal stranding network offices in Louisiana and Florida. 

One of the companies website that BP relies on for equipment to clean a spill directs to a Japanese-language page. It seems that most of the plan is made up without real data on assumption that nothing would go wrong ever that has resulted in on-the-fly measures to deal with the spill issue. Computer projections of  oil reaching coasts have proven way off and oil even reached locales that were characterized as safely out of danger in BP's plan.

State prisoners who are given training to wash birds have never been mentioned in the plan and although 100's of birds have been treated and washed , dozens have died and been covered in crude oil.  Countless fish, hundreds of turtles and several dolphins have also died due to the oil spill. 

BP has tried many methods to stop the spill including pumping mud and debris in the pipeline. Placing containment cap,first a smaller and then a larger cap  to seal and trap the oil on surface where natural gas is burned and oil is shipped to the shore .

Its almost seven week since the oil spill and the total amount of oil lost is betwwen 23 and 51 million gallons , the largest oil spill in the history of the nation.

According to BrassTV, 10-20 years of seafood has been destroyed in the gulf of mexico. 

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$42 Billion Lost to Pirated PSP and DSGames

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According to the study by the Computer Entertainment Suppliers Association, nearly $42 billion worth of Sony PSP(Portable Play Station) and Nintendo DS games were illegally downloaded from internet. This does not include peer-to-peer sharing methods and pirated CDs in Asia especially China, India , Pakistan, Bangladesh which could put the numbers at a significantly higher value. America is number one with the most servers hosting piracy sites, with China at number 2.

This figure is quite close to the approximate loss in software industry in 2009. Italy tops the list of countries with Video Games Piracy Losses followed by China, Spain , South Korea, Russia, Mexico, Taiwan, Brazil, Sweden, India (losses more than 100 Million) and so on. 

TorrentFreak reveals that in 2009,the PC version of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was downloaded 4.1 million times from torrent sites. The Xbox 360 version of the game was downloaded more than 970,000 times.

The figures are related to portable games and Console based games are yet to be comprehensively analyzed

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WALL-E Masterpiece from Pixar Studios

Cover of Wall-E (Single-Disc Edition)

WALL-E, does not seem to be the name of a cute visionary robot who is the only working robot on a devastated, barren earth full of mechanical debris. With the history of so many super hit animated movies, Pixar was bound to deliver another master piece to maintain their high profile of producing great animated movies and they did it with shining colors.

WALL-E which stands for Waste Allocator Load Lifter – Earth Class, pretty long name for a cute small robot that abbreviates  beautifully as WALL-E and really sounds charming from EVE, the female heroine robot( yes, she is the heroine in this movie). WALL-E is probably the first robot whose got a heart and a heart lover EVE.

The film starts with the scenes where WALL-E is cleaning up the trash and is the only working robot left on earth. The humans have left the unhabitable toxicated planet earth on a spaceship habitat  AXIOM created by Buy N Large corporation( who also created WALL-E). WALL-E wakes up everyday with the orchestral bells of Macintosh(Pixar paid tribute to its old founder Steve Jobs) and performs his duty with an amazing human touch. He does not trash everything that comes his way rather builds a treasure of his own containing a plastic dinosaur, light bulb, small seedling saved in an old boot. He concludes his day watching old video tape of Hello Dolly which shows his taste for music and dance, another humanly characteristic.

His lonely life changes dramtically with the arrival of futuristic probe robot, EVE, who is sent by Axiom to scan earth for any signs of habitual life instantly wins WALL-E’s heart. EVE and WALL-E become friends gradually and their courtship is brilliantly done without dialogues and words, only with the help of beeps and chirps which is remarkable achievement of sound directors. To impress beautiful EVE who is as beautiful and sleek as iPhone(according to NY Times), WALL-E presents her the seedling in the boot. EVE stores the seedling inside her body,sends a return message to ship and goes into hibernation due to her automated  system. WALL-E does not abide her status and does everything to bring her back to life even going on a date with her to reactivate it. WALL-E clings to the ship that takes EVE back to space.

On the Axiom, humans have become extremely obese and suffered great bone loss after living in microgravity and relying entirely on ship’s automated system. The ship is controlled less by captain and mostly by the autopilot, AUTO. Captain learns that if EVE has brought a plant from earth then they can travel back to Earth as it has become habitable again but the plant is missing when EVE is opened which results in her dispatch to repair ward. WALL-E mistakenly takes it for torture on EVE and accidently releases malfunctioning robots. EVE gets angry and discovers the missing plant while attempting to send WALL-E back to earth. WALL-E manages to escape with the plant and EVE gives him an electric KISS before a overjoyed spacewalk around the Axiom.

The captain reviews EVE’s visual records and get convinced that humans need to return back to Earth. EVE also falls in love with WALL-E after watching her own visuals where WALL-E was lovingly taking care of her and cutely trying to saving her from harsh environment out of his humanly robotic love. AUTO electrocutes WALL-E and send him to a garbage store with EVE and declares to captain that it wont let Captain to activate the holo-detector.

EVE struggles with the help of malfunctioning robots and succeeds in placing the plant in holo-detector which activates the ship back to Earth. On reaching the Earth and fixing WALL-E, EVE gets hearts on finding that WALLE-E has lost his memory. EVE gives him a farewell kiss which dramatically brings his memory back and they reunite in humanly robotic way. Various forms of Arts are shown at the end of the film including Egyptian hieroglyphics, Grecian urns, Da Vinci sketches and paintings of Vincent Van Gogh۔

Its a true and unique story between two robots that teaches to stick to the love no matter how bleak and gloomy the situation seems. It gives an environmental message in a very subtle and beautiful way without a taunting and authoritarian style.

Andrew Stranton,  who won Oscar in 2004 for Finding Nemo has achieved unimaginable heights with this master stroke of animation blended with elusive love.

Reviews

This film has approval rating of 96% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and score of 94 on metacritic.

 

The first 40 minutes or so, in which barely any dialogue is lspoken, and almost no human figures appear, is a cinematic poem of such wit and beauty that its darker implications may take a while to sink in.       New York Times

The Hollywood Reporter declared that WALL-E surpassed the achievements of Pixar's previous eight features and probably their most original film to date. It had the "heart, soul, spirit and romance" of the best silent films.

Once again, the Pixar wizards have pushed the animation envelope in unexpected directions and come up with a winner. Wondrously inventive, funny and poignant, WALL*E is part sci-fi adventure, part cautionary fable, part satire and part love story, which may be the best and most improbable part of all.   Newsweek

 

Awards and Nominations

WALL-E won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing at the 81st Academy Awards.  ( Wikipedia)

from the Boston Society of Film Critics (tied with Slumdog Millionaire), the Chicago Film Critics Association,the Central Ohio Film Critics awards, the Online Film Critics Society, and most notably the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, where it became the first animated feature to win the prestigious award

TIME ranks WALL-E #1 in "Best Movies of the Decade"

It won all three awards it was nominated for by the Visual Effects Society: Best Animation, Best Character Animation (for WALL-E and EVE in the truck) and Best Effects in the Animated Motion Picture categories

It won Best Animated Feature Film at the 66th Golden Globe Awards, 81st Academy Awards and the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2008

(Source WALL-E Awards on Wikipedia )

Freedom Flotilla Attack Videos

We have often heard that a picture is worth thousand words which is very true. What about a video then, million words.

A fleet of six naval ships Flotilla Freedom carrying aid to Gaza strip came under attack when Israeli troops raided it leaving 19 activists dead and several injured. Three Pakistani journalists including Talat Hussain(Director Aaj News) were taken captive along with many other journalists and human activists from all around the world.

There are two versions of this story, one from Israel Foreign Affairs and the other from The Free Gaza movement and people on board Flotilla Freedom.

 

The fleet was carrying aid to the area, which is under a naval blockade. Israeli troops were attacked with guns, knives and clubs when they boarded the ships after having given repeated warnings, the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs said.  During the interception of the ships, the demonstrators onboard attacked the IDF naval personnel with live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs," the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs.    Guardian, UK

 

Both sides were well armed when Israeli commandoes attacked the “so-called Freedom Flotilla”. Both sides have released a blizzard of video clips as evidence that the other side was the aggressor in the conflict on Monday which left nine activists dead.   New York Times

“Without an Israeli response, which came out later in the day and seemingly proved that the soldiers acted in self-defense, the media were full of one-sided reports based on Al Jazeera,” the newspaper stated. “What Israel needs to realize is that in today’s media world, every minute counts.”  Jerusalem Post

Video Evidence By Israel against Activists

 

 

Now some excerpts from the sources who are blaming it all on Israel

Under darkness of night, Israeli commandoes dropped from a helicopter onto the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began to shoot the moment their feet hit the deck. They fired directly into the crowd of civilians asleep. According to the live video from the ship, two have been killed, and 31 injured. Al-Jazeera has just confirmed the numbers. The attack has happened in international waters, 75 miles off the coast of Israel, in direct violation of international law.         The Free Gaza Movement reported on Guardian, UK

The attack must be condemned by the international community. If the attack on South Korean ship is risking economic sanction on North Korea by some of the most powerful nations, I hope they will react the same towards Israel and its cowardice attack.

This is a black day when a humanitarian initiative is being attacked and suppressed.

 Khoo Kay Peng from Malayasia on Global Voices Online

Videos of Israel Soldiers Attacking Flotilla

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Interestingly, there was one Holocast survivor on Flotilla Freedom convoy.

Walk yourself Skinny

Drop 5,10,15 pounds with an easy at home routine.

This is what i read today on the cover page of a magazine and before i could read in the details, the library time was over and i only succeeded in writing the first line with the heading

Walk yourself Skinny

Is there any real easy home routine to drop 5 to 15 pounds? i seriously doubt it because loosing pounds is the hardest thing in the world which reminds me of the easiest thing in the world, putting on pounds.

The usual stuff like eating fruits, vegetables, drinking 8-10 glasses of water , brisk walk and excercise for at least 30 minutes a day is effective and do bring results but i came across two really easy and workable home routines that everybody can follow.

1. Jumping on a mini trampoline during commercials which can be the best thing to do while watching commercials and this can make watching TV a healthy experience instead of becoming lazy,dull and obese.

2. Sucking in lower belly and holding it for 20 seconds for just five minutes a day. This really seems easy and fun.

Following are some good techniques for loosing weight

• Stomach Excercise
• Burn Stomach Fat
• Belly Fat Excercises
• Cellulite Excercise
• Fat Sculpting

Sticking  to a balanced diet is the golden rule in staying fit and slim.

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Amazon Associate Program

Today, I have registered Amazon Associate program to enhance my chances of earning some money from my blogspot blog. This post is going to take an overview of the Amazon Associate program, its main features, benefits and usage.

I am using blogger platform for blogging so this post is specifically targetted to integration between Amazon Associates and blogger. From blogger, its literally few clicks to enable Amazon Associate on your blog and start advertising Amazon products on your site with links, banners and widgets from Amazon.

Amazon claims that its associate program is one of the first online affiliate programs launched in mid 90’s. The associate program works when webmasters or bloggers create links and ads through which customers click, visit Amazon to buy prodcucts from Amazon and endless.com, as a result associates earn referral fees. The referral fees can go as high as 15% which is quite tempting.

Banners, links are available for refreshing and stylish ads to present Amazon products to targetted audience. Amazon also provides an option to create a professional online store in few minutes which can also be linked to an existing website.

Slideshow Widget, Deal Widget, Wish List Widget, MP3 Clips Widget , Amazon Video on Demand Movie and TV Preview Widget are few of the more popular widgets.

Reports can be tracked on daily basis and best of all, this amazon associate program is free.

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• Monetize with Amazon (katrinablogs.com)