Detech Technologies

Qualcomm Unveils Thinnest, Lightest Mirasol E-reader, The Hanvon C18

2012-01-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

Chinese e-reader maker Hanvon will sell the thinnest and lightest e-reader yet to utilize Qualcomm’s energy-efficient mirasol displays, the Hanvon C18.

Hanvon's C18 e-reader is the thinnest and lightest e-reader yet to use Qualcomm's mirasol display.

Qualcomm Chief Executive Paul Jacobs made the announcement during his Jan. 10 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote presentation. Besides the device’s relative slimness, San Diego-based Qualcomm is touting the Hanvon C18 because it sees it as evidence of momentum for mirasol, a technology the company has been refining for several years. Hanvon is the third company in two months to incorporate mirasol displays into an e-reader device.

Other than its thinner, lighter profile — it is 10 mm thin and 300 grams in weight — the Hanvon C18′s hardware closely mirrors that of the two previously announced mirasol e-readers, the Kyobo eReader from South Korea’s Kyobo Book Centre and the Bambook Sunflower from China’s Shanda Networking Co. The C18 too sports a 5.7-inch “XGA” format, touchscreen mirasol display and runs on a 1.0 GHz Snapdragon (S2, single-core) processor from Qualcomm. Its operating system, like that of Kyobo’s eReader and Bambook’s Sunflower, is a custom interface on top of a Google Android (version 2.3) core.

Hanvon and Qualcomm have not yet disclosed pricing for the C18 but say it will be available in mid-February.

Since the Hanvon C18 utilizes mirasol, it promises the same kinds of benefits the technology does, namely bright colors even in the sun, weeks-long battery life and a refresh rate fast enough to support video. Mirasol enables this by reflecting light between two conductive plates. The setup allows mirasol displays to be built without backlights, which Qualcomm says improves outdoor readability and conserves power.
Regarding content, Beijing-based Hanvon says the e-reader will come with access to tens of thousands of e-books, more than 100 newspapers and more than 300 magazines. One unique feature is that the C18 will also have a handwriting recognition feature known as Hanvon Input.

The Hanvon C18 has a more streamlined design than other mirasol e-ereaders.

The Hanvon C18 news comes just six weeks after Kyobo’s eReader was unveiled and one day after the Bambook Sunflower announcement. But while mirasol adoption is accelerating, the technology has yet to reach the U.S. or Europe. Like the Kyobo eReader and Bambook Sunflower, the Hanvon C18 is only designed for a specific Asian market.
Qualcomm, of course, would like e-reader makers in other regions to use mirasol, too. It doesn’t look likely in the U.S. Amazon has so far declined to produce a color version of its Kindle besides its Kindle Fire tablet, which is much more than an e-reader. Barnes & Noble, meanwhile, employs a different technology for its Nook Color e-reader.
Qualcomm is still hopeful. “Mirasol could come to the U.S.; nothing would prevent it from doing so,” said Bill Davidson, Qualcomm’s Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Investor Relations, in an interview with Forbes in December.

At the same time, Qualcomm acknowledges it can’t yet produce mirasol displays in large quantities, a fact that limits the kind of partnerships it can enter. Qualcomm has been tinkering with the mirasol technology since 2004 but since it took years to catch on with gadget makers, the current mirasol foundry is not designed for high volumes. Qualcomm is building a dedicated mirasol display “fab” in Taiwan but it won’t be ready until later this year.

Once its production issues are resolved, Qualcomm plans to bring mirasol to its core markets. Davidson said the technology can be applied to phone and tablet displays. Digital watches, billboards and car dashboards are also possible mirasol markets – “anywhere you have displays in the sun,” Davidson pointed out.

Web domains to get major overhaul with custom names

2012-01-10T23:29:00.000-08:00

Applications will soon open for new top-level domains in the biggest change to the system in over two decades.

From Thursday it will be possible to register almost any word as a web address suffix.
Familiar endings like .com and .org could potentially be joined by the likes of .pepsi, .virgin or .itv.
The proposals are controversial but Icann, the organisation which regulates domain names, says the change increases choice and competition.

In December, the US Federal Trade Commission wrote to Icann warning that the expansion of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) "has the potential to magnify both the abuse of the domain name system and the corresponding challenges we encounter in tracking down Internet fraudsters."
And in the US, the Association of National Advertisers, whose members include some of America's biggest companies, have also opposed the changes.

Not cheap
But Peter Dengate Thrush, a former chairman of Icann's board of directors, said the change was necessary.
"It's badly in need of overhaul," he told the BBC.

"No-one would design a domain name system now for several billion users just using a couple of names that we started the system with in 1985."

Mr Dengate Thrush is currently chairman of Top Level Domains Holdings, a company developing registry services for top level domains.

At a cost of $185,000 (£120,000) just to apply, obtaining one of the new names is a serious financial commitment.
"Probably you are closer to half a million dollars to get it off the ground," said Jonathan Robinson, a non-executive director of Afilias, a registry operator which manages extensions like .mobi and .info.
The cost has lead to concern among some non-profit organisations that they will have to spend considerable sums defending themselves from cyber squatters.

Last month, the Reuters agency reported that the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and 26 other international organisations wrote to Icann asking it to protect suffixes like .imf from cyber squatters.
Deadline approaching

In spite of the cost there has been significant interest in applying for the new general top-level domains before the deadline for applications closes in April, according to companies advising on registrations.
"We're already working on over 100 applications - we're expecting that to increase," said Stuart Durham of Melbourne IT DBS.

He said around 25% of those had been "from Fortune 500 companies", with the majority of interest from the retail and financial services sectors.
As well as brand names, Mr Durham said there is likely to be a lively interest in place names.
"A lot of the geographic extensions that are being discussed like .london or .nyc will have a very good solid business case," he said.
"We've recently had extensions like .cat for the Catalan community that's done very well as well."
However, Mr Dengate Thrush worried this could lead to some conflict issues with places like Wellington, capital of his native country New Zealand, which shares its name with other places around the world.
"I think there are about 20 or 30 other cities called Wellington." However, he believed the systems set in place by Icann will ensure these issues can be successfully negotiated.
Cyber squatting Even those who support the change foresee some issues.
"I would say it's almost certainly a good thing," Afilia's Mr Robinson told the BBC.
However, he says "you open up a whole new second tier of real estate that could be cyber squatted".
But Mr Durham thinks that there's very little that could be done to eradicate malicious squatters and others seeking to exploit the system.
"Cockroaches would survive a nuclear attack," he said.
"Some cyber squatters and infringers would too."

Apple's one-day sale discounts Macs, iPods, more

2011-11-27T00:33:00.000-08:00

If you're taking to the stores on Friday to kick off the holiday season, keep the Apple Store on your list. As teased earlier this week, Apple is holding a one-day shopping event, with discounts on both its own products and many third parties' as well.
The discounts, while not huge, are still significant for Apple, which tends not to knock its prices down. You can pick up iPads for around 8-percent off, iPod touch models for around 10-percent off, and iPod nanos for $11 off. Those looking to pick up a new Mac are in luck as well: MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, and iMacs are all $101 off. (Apple, however, has not put any discounts on the Mac mini or the increasingly long-in-the-tooth Mac Pro.)
Apple's also put several of its accessories on sale, so you can save $11 on a Magic Trackpad, Wireless Keyboard, or Magic Mouse; $21 on a 2TB Time Capsule or AirPort Extreme; $11 on an AirPort Express; and more. You'll also find discounts on many third-party products, including speakers and headphones, cases for your iPhone or MacBook, app-enabled accessories, and other tools.
The special pricing is valid for Friday, November 25 only, and doesn't include taxes. Customers also can't combine the special pricing with other offers. While the deals are available in brick-and-mortar Apple Stores, not all products may be available in all stores, and supplies are limited to stock on hand. Of course, you can always shop online as well. Happy bargain-hunting!

Apple's 'Black Friday' sale cuts Mac prices up to 10%

2011-11-27T00:22:00.001-08:00

Apple today cut Mac prices up to 10% in a repeat of the last two years' stingy "Black Friday" deals, which authorized resellers again trumped.
For the second year in a row, Apple also sold the iPad at a discount.
Apple's one-day sale reduced most Mac prices by $101, a 10% cut on the entry-level 11-in. MacBook Air, which sold for $898 on Friday. The across-the-board $101 translated into discounts of 6%-8% for 13-in. MacBook Airs, 4%-8% for MacBook Pros and 5%-8% for iMacs.

The Mac Mini and the Mac Pro were not included in the deals.
Apple's Mac discount was identical to those of the last two years' Black Friday sales, although unlike in 2010 , Apple did not exclude its lowest-priced notebooks this year's.
The iPad 2 was reduced between $41 and $61 depending on the model, a discount of between 8% and 9%, and for the priciest iPads, slightly more than in 2010. Apple also dropped the price of the iPod Touch between $21 and $41, and cut prices for the iPod Nano by $11.
Apple's prices were good at both its online and brick-and-mortar stores through the day. Many of the latter opened at 6 a.m. local time in the U.S., several hours earlier than usual.
Some rival online sellers, however, beat Apple's sale prices.
Amazon.com, for example, listed the least-expensive 11-in. MacBook Air at $849.99 and the entry-level 21.5-in. iMac for $1,049.99.
Apple also discounted several software packages today, including the three-license edition of Microsoft's Office for Mac Home & Student 2011, which was priced at $128. But others beat Apple's sales price on that product, too: Amazon listed the application suite at $99.99, or 33% below list.