E-readers are the future

After a rough night yesterday I just woke up an hour ago or so and no matter how I feel, I always check the news on my phone first before I crawl out of my bed. The first news subject I opened was the technical news, and there I read something about a comparison between e-readers and normal old fashion books. I know this isn't really important news, but surprisingly this kind of news always get the attention of my eyes first.

It started with a little intro, that we live in a digital time age and we prefer simplicity above tradition and old habits. I guess this is a pretty obvious statement but its true. What would you rather have, a bookcase full of books, where you have to search for like an hour for the books you wish to read, or a simple electronic display in the form of a book where you can simply search for the book you wish to read in a big book-database? I guess the answer for this question is also pretty obvious. Most of us would rather choose for the e-reader.


And this is what 36 percent of the 11-20 aged American citizens also think while 19 percent still use books (old, dusty, rusty and stinky books). 26 percent of the American citizens who are reached the age of 21 and further uses e-readers also while 19 percent doesn't. I guess this is the hard evidence that the books as we know them are going to get replaced by the simple and handy e-reader.

Maybe you don't like this, but I guess you like the money savings for the back-pain of your children, who don't have to carry 50 kilograms of books to school everyday but only 1 e-reader (and some chocolate also).

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The iPhone 5 Rumor Roundup Redux

A lot's happened since the last time we put all the iPhone 5 rumors in one place for you. So here's an up-to-date look at what we're expecting from Apple's next iPhone.
We're going to tackle the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S rumors separately, since they're often at odds with each other and very well might be talking about two completely different pieces of hardware.

The Latest

Some time in July, an iPhone 5 prototype reportedly went missing. There are some questions left unanswered, but Apple has been actively trying to recover the handset, with at least some form of assistance from the SF Police Department.

iPhone 5 Hardware Rumor

Let's get this out of the way first: We still don't think that the next iPhone is going to have LTE. But there have been a few rumors about Apple testing LTE tech on iPhones and in their retail stores, so it remains an outside possibility. More likely is that they're running a typically long product cycle and this is early testing for next generation.

Full size

An icon in Apple's Photo Stream app has sparked a fresh round of wider screen/tinier iPhone design talk. Our best guess is that the icon translates into an iPhone 5 that is shrunk significantly, with a screen that's a scoche (3.7 inches?) larger, but with the same resolution and proportions. We've seen a number of cases and informed renderings that suggest the phone is skinnier, shorter, and wider, so that seems like a good bet.

And for what it's worth, a new round of 3rd party case analysis from MacRumors backs up ThisIsMyNext's earlier "teardrop" renders, and sizes the screen at a bigger-than-expected 4 inches. Yet somehow their rendering came out smaller than the cases we've already seen. Interesting.

We're pretty sure that the iPhone is going to be available on all four major carriers, or at least on Sprint, even if they don't want to talk about it just yet. Verizon's changed its mind on 3G Facetime, no longer swearing it off completely, but now saying it only wants it to be available to customers on a tiered data plan, which could be a harbinger of how carriers try to force users off of grandfathered unlimited data plans.

We're also relatively certain it'll make the jump to an 8MP camera, improving on the iPhone 4's 5MP sensor, and should continue the iPhone's run as the best phone camera.

iPhone 4S Hardware Rumors

The iPhone 4S is the name the tech blogosphere has bestowed upon a less-than-hoped-for refresh of this year's iPhone, and more recently, a rumored budget-friendly 8GB iPhone 4. The best evidence that we've seen for this phone being a reality has come in the past few weeks, when leaked images of purported iPhone 5 (or 4S) parts have surfaced. Some of the model numbers and much of the design suggest an incremental refresh to the iPhone, and they are convincing (and numerous) enough to be taken seriously.

Launch Date Details

BGR has its hands on Best Buy docs that detail iPhone 5 pre-order and launch week information. According to the docs, leaked from an insider, preorders could begin as early as this week with an official launch slated for the first week in October. It should be noted that Best Buy also states these in the slides that even these hazy date ranges are subject to change.

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Amazon Is Testing a Tablet-Focused Web Site Redesign

The Amazon tablet is for real. TechCrunch did played with it. We made a mockup. The Internet had a field day. The only thing left for the company Amazon to do now is prepare, and prepare they have.

The website from amazon, for example. It's currently being tested for a brand new redesign. Not just any redesign, but a tablet friendly design.

And the redesign mockups even appear a little "higher class" than the old familiar site. More spartan. More white. More touch-tastic. Definitely space for thick fingers to dance around and paw at online wares, sans a mouse cursor.

Reuters reports that the new pages boast a bigger search bar and more of the aforementioned white space (all the better to highlight e-books, games and apps from the Amazon App store). 

We're very exciting, Amazon!

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