Barnes & Noble Introduces Nook

Yesterday, book-selling giant Barnes & Noble introduced "Nook," a new e-reader that experts say will give Amazon's Kindle a run for its money this holiday season. The e-reader market is expected to see a lot of business with a projected three million devices being sold by the end of 2009 and six million are expected to sell by the end of 2010. This particular device will be available in Barnes and Noble's 800 American stores by late November, however the store is already taking pre-orders.

Barnes and Noble says Nook will allow users to share most books, a function that puts it a step ahead of Kindle. For wireless, Nook will use AT&T and Google's Android Mobile platform. It also features a unique dual use of display and color. A small color display, located below the main display, allows users to browse titles at the bookstore. It also uses e-Ink technology for easier reading. It can hold up to 1,500 books (the same as Kindle) but it does lack a web browser.

Nook books can also be viewed on Blackberries, iPhones, PC, Macs and other personal electronic devices. This publishing standard is called the ePub format. It also acts as antipiracy protection from Adobe. Barnes and Noble is well prepared for the release, with a newly opened bookstore of over 700,000 titles, over twice of what the Amazon store has to offer. Another advantage is that users can connect the device to free Wi-Fi when shopping inside an actual Barnes & Noble store, something Amazon/Kindle users can't do.

Several other e-readers are expected to hit the market soon, but none with the relationship Barnes and Noble has with publishers, which offers another advantage. Upon announcing the Nook, yesterday, Barnes and Noble stock shares rose 10 cents on New York Stock Exchange.

An App a Day

iPhone apps can be confusing. The App Store contains thousands of applications for your iPhone or iPod touch and often, so many of them do the same exact same thing. A quick search for third party Twitter apps brings you over 170 results. But how do you know which one is the best without wasting hours pouring over websites and reviews and asking your friends?

With "App of the Day" you don't have to spend the time looking for quality apps, the suggestions come to you. It features applications that are community-nominated and featured on the homepage each day. iPhone users have the opportunity to comment, submit app ideas and leave feedback for potential app buyers. Each user can only nominate one app per day with the highest nominated application being the winner each day.

The concept is so simple and will add a lot of ease to iPhone use. Many are asking why it's taken so long to make it happen. The website was founded by Jordan Satok, a 15-year-old Toronto-based entrepreneur who focuses on web startups in the software field. Satok built the site, which is hosted on Rackspace Cloud, in less than ten days.

Keeping Your Laptop Secure Outside of the Office

Professionals are traveling outside of the office more and more these days and they are taking their laptops with them. Whether working at another location, visiting a client or simply having lunch at a local cafe, one thing that is often overlooked is laptop security. If it's your personal laptop, a work laptop, or even a laptop rental, chances are it's loaded with files that are important to your life and your business. Whether you are looking to prevent a snoop from gathering your personal information or preventing a thief from taking your entire laptop, there are several good measures everyone should take and a few good habits you should develop.

Starting with the basics that every laptop owner should know, if you're worried about being hacked or robbed while visiting a public Wi-Fi spot, you are right to be paranoid. There are so many different ways criminals can get into your system these days; one of the first things you can do is turn on your firewall. By turning on your firewall, you block unwanted intruders whenever you are in a public place. This is such a simple way to keep yourself secure and everyone should know how to do it. If you are a PC user, simply click on Windows Firewall. If you are using a Mac, go to System Preferences, then Security, and find the Firewall tab.

Another important thing that everyone can do is password protect or unshare your shared folders. Folders of documents and photos that you may want to share with other computers on your home network, might not be something you want everyone on a public network to have access to. Fixing this is simple. See to it that your folders are password protected when you are in public or better yet, turn off any sort of sharing you have enabled on your laptop.

Other ways to protect yourself involve what you do when you visit various websites. Whenever you're visiting a website, use a secure connection if it's an option. This means using "https://" instead of "http://." This option is usually available when checking your email on the web (Gmail and Yahoo Mail for example) or using any type of personal calendar program. Several other site have the option, as well. Another tip is to don't save your passwords in your browsers. Sure, it makes life a lot easier, but if your computer gets into the wrong hands - whether it be a thief or even a co-worker, they will be able to see everything you may not want them to see.

Of course there are several more obvious options. Most people are aware that anti-virus and malware software and programs are an important part computer ownership. And it's important to keep a back-up of all your important data. Whether your computer is stolen or you just spill your coffee, having all of your important files backed up can save you time and agony. If you have to leave your laptop unattended for any reason, a laptop lock is inexpensive and will keep your computer stuck to any table or desk.

If these tips don't ease your mind, there are always a few extra precautions for the tech-savvy. With a number of tools, you can encrypt your hard drive or just a few files which essentially means scrambling it up so it's unreadable to anyone who does not have access via a master password. To do this on a Mac, you can do this by creating an encrypted disk by using the disk utility application. Windows Vista and 7 also offer a data encryption application. There are also a number of free programs such as TrueCrypt that serve the same purpose.

Securing your network with an SSH tunnel is also an option, but again, this is usually reserved for the most tech-savvy of laptop owners. An SSH tunnel is a secure connection to an outside computer to connect to the internet. An outsider trying to break in would think you are sending encrypted information to a single destination when in reality, you're using a trusted remote server as a proxy.

Adope Flash Player 10.1 For Some Smartphones

Adobe has announced that it will release Flash Player 10.1 for Windows Mobile and webOS, with Android, Symbian and Blackberry to follow shortly after. Whether or not they will release it for iPhone is still up in the air but quite likely. A spokesperson for Adobe says they are still waiting for some cooperation from Apple.

So what exactly does this mean? Well, expect more flash-heavy programs and a wider, more diverse range of apps for your mobile devices. Count on more games, GPS services, social networking and videos. While most smartphones have always had a version of Adobe Flash, it has always been a lower-power version because of limited processors in the various devices. But with the release of the Beta version, software developers will be able to get their hands on it by year end and new apps should be in the works sometime during the first half of 2010.

About 75% of all websites use Flash for video and running online advertisements, which should be extra incentive to various websites for creating mobile versions of their brand. Many websites depend on advertising to survive, and in the past, many of them have blocked mobile access due to the lack of ability to properly advertise. Sounds like the new addition of the more advance Adobe Flash is a win-win situation for both consumers and retailers.

Sprints New 4G/3G Routers to Support Multiple Wi-Fi Connections

Long gone are the days of searching for an elusive Wi-Fi hotspot for Sprint mobile broadband customers. Instead of having to hunt for a cafe or other public wireless hotspot, users can now create their own Wi-Fi hotspot by connecting multiple Wi-Fi devices such as smartphones, laptops and cameras to Sprint 3G/4G networks. Sprint's new Mobile Broadband Routers can connect any Wi-Fi-enabled device at 3G or 4G mobile broadband speeds anywhere that Sprint 3G and 4G networks are available.

The Sprint Personal Hotspot PHS300S and the Cradlepoint MBR-1000 Broadband Router are both essentially Wi-Fi routers that accept both 3G and 4G USB wireless dongles. Plug the dongle into the router and you have a Wi-Fi network that runs without a hard line. This means that Sprint's new Mobile Broadband Routers can connect any Wi-Fi-enabled device at 3G or 4G mobile broadband speeds anywhere that a Sprint 3g or 4g network is available.

The Sprint Personal Hotspot PHS300S model can support up to four simultaneous Wi-Fi connections while the Cradlepoint MBR-1000 Broadband Router for business will support up to 32 simultaneous Wi-Fi connections. The ability of these wireless routers to be used with 3G and 4G networks looks to offer unprecedented advantages for the growing number of Wi-Fi users in the country. As 4G continues to be implemented across the country users will be able to maximize their wireless performance as they begin to start connecting to the industries fastest available network.

Heres what Todd Rowley, Vice President of Sprint 4G had to say about their newest broadband routers.

"These mobile broadband routers provide an unprecedented bridge to high-speed network performance for multiple Wi-Fi devices or multiple users," "The addition of these mobile hotspot products offers even faster connectivity speeds to Wi-Fi users without the need to find a Wi-Fi hotspot. These two new products can potentially connect the Sprint 3G and 4G networks to the hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi-enabled devices in the U.S. today."

For more information about Sprints 4G network, check out their site at Sprint.com/4G.

New Sony Reader PRS-300 Pocket Edition & PRS-600 Touch Edition

Electronic books or "e-books" have become one of the latest trends in technology and Sony is just one company that is profiting from the idea. The Sony Reader not only allows users to purchase and read books from the Sony Connect eBook store, but it can display Adobe PDFs, ePub format, personal documents, blogs, JPEG files, RSS newsfeeds, and Sony's BroadBand eBooks, as well as playing MP3 and unencrypted AAC audio files. It is viewable in direct sunlight and requires no power to keep a static image. While the Sony Reader has been available since 2006, on August 5th, 2009, Sony announced two new versions of the reader, the PRS-300 Pocket Edition and the PRS-600 Touch Edition.

PRS-300 or the "Pocket Edition":

The PRS-300 or the "Pocket Edition" has been put on the market to replace the now discontinued PRS-505. Priced very competitively at $199, it has a smaller display screen than the larger version (five inches) and a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, with three adjustable font sizes. It features 512 MB of internal memory with 440 MB of it accessible. The battery is said to last up to two weeks on a single charge. It is available in navy blue, rose pink and silver.

PRS-600 or the "Touch Edition":

The PRS-600 or the "Touch Edition" is meant to replace the PRS-700 model that is no longer offered. It's the high-scale version of the Sony Reader and boasts a touch screen. The PRS-600 features six inch display screen with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels and has 512 MB or memory with 380 MB accessible. It does, however, support the Sony Memory Stick Pro DUO and SDHC for expanded memory purposes. Like the PRS-300, a fully charged battery is said to last up two weeks but this edition is priced higher at $299. The PRS-600 is available in black, silver and red.

New Smart Phones Coming this Fall

Word has been out about Verizon's upcoming HTC Whitestone for some time now but now we finally have some specs and images to put with the name. Some other news that leaked was about Verizon's HTC Mega and some more news on the Tachi.

The Verizon Diamond 2, or "Whitestone" as it is being called, is trying for a September/October release date so we could see this in our hands i in the near feature. The specs for the Diamond 2 are pretty impressive, especially considering that this isn't a keyboard phone. The Diamond 2 has WM6.1, 512MB ROM/256MB RAM, 5-megapixel autofocus camera with anti-handshaking, GSM/CDMA World Phone, Qualcomm 7600 at 528MHz, 3.6" WVGA touchscreen and gpsOne (aGPS and full GPS). One thing it doesn't have that some people may have been expecting is WM6.5 on launch.

The next piece of leaked intel comes in for the Verizon HTC Mega. Until recently, we haven't known a whole lot about the HTC Mega. We knew it had new TouchFlo 2D and some other low-range specs but that's about it. But now we have some new information and it comes as follows. The HTC Mega will have WM6.5, 256MB ROM/256MB RAM, GSM/GPRS Edge/HDSPA, gpsOne, Qualcomm 7225 at 528MHz and a 3-megapixel fixed-focus camera. As you can see, the HTC Mega isn't the greatest thing to come out, but it is obvious that it is geared more towards the low-end of the market, and even so it isn't bad for that group.

The only new news on the Tachi is this picture of it's design. The biggest noticeable difference is that the d-pad doesn't have as much chrome on it. But that is basically it so far. One thing we can almost be sure of is that the Tachi will more than likely not be available in the U.S and instead will be available in China.

Well it sure is good to finally put a face to the name with the Diamond 2 and the HTC Mega and I guess it is even a good thing that we saw the latest Tachi version. It will be good to see how these devices when they hit store shelves and we can finally get them in our hands.