Jacob Hall, Editor-in-Chief of TapSauce | APPS | 08.15.2012 @ 1:00 pm
Today in “Cheap Nooks”:
If you’ve been considering buying a Nook, this may be the perfect time. Earlier this week, Barnes and Noble slashed prices across the entire line. The 8GB Nook Tablet dropped from $199 to $179, the 16GB version dropped from $249 to $199 and the Nook Color dropped from $169 to $149. But why the drop and why now? Make way for speculation! Barnes and Noble could be afraid of Google’s Nexus 7, which has launched to glowing reviews. They could be concerned about the rumored iPad Mini, which will be Apple’s first foray into the seven inch tablet market. There’s also the likely chance that this is the company attempting to move as much product as possible before a new version launches in the coming months. In a way, dropping their prices like this will sell more units, but it will also indirectly inform their customers about the competition. Oh, tech industry.
Today in “Old Fashioned Things Getting in the Way”:
And while we’re on the subject of eReaders…is the publishing industry making the same mistakes the music industry made a decade ago? We all remember how record labels viciously fought against Napster and Limewire and ended up on the losing end of file sharing. Now, the industry is at peace with the fact that people will never buy music the way they used to and have started building new models that allow them to work with the new system rather than against it. eBooks and eReaders are just as tricky, especially when you deal with sharing. With a physical book, you can pull it off your shelf and lend it to your buddy and no one cares. With eBooks, it’s different. If you want to “lend” your digital version to a friend so they can read it on their Kindle, you have to use a service like LendInk, which allows readers to readers to trade authorized books via their Kindles. Apparently, there was a mass confusion among authors and publishing types and LendInk was shut down, not only wrecking the sharing community built around the site, but hurting the independent authors who relay on “lending fees” (yes, such a thing exists) to get by. Ouch for everyone involved.
Today in “Being a Start-Up”:
How is running a successful start-up much like attempting a career in stand-up comedy? This excellent Mashable article explains why. After all, if Louis CK can become one of the most successful comics of all time strictly through hard work and online entrepreneurship, so you can you. Unlike comedians (who can work in obscurity for years), early success, even minor success, is often vital for start-ups, most of which don’t survive their first year. There are many reasons why, but let’s jump right to an obvious one: the sheer number of start-ups in the tech haven that is San Francisco have caused rent to skyrocket. Hmm…good thing Rocksauce Studios built its roots in Austin!
Today in “Apps! Of the Future!”:
An augmented reality app that transforms your app into an x-ray scanner?! It sounds preposterous, but they’ve built one! Sure, the app is only a commerical for Volvo and will only work on Volvo vehicles, but hey…THE FUTURE!