Day: February 26, 2010

USB is fast enough for transferring folders or simply word documents from one computer to the other. Right now the Light Peak technology is invented, what else can i look forward to in the future ?

Led by one of the the largest CPU producers Intel, information transfer has now entered a new revolutionary era. Applying the Optical Fiber technology invented by the Nobel Prize Winner Professor Charles Kao 高錕 into a computer CPU, information transfer between devices can be done in almost a split-second. US B 2.0, which was not the USB finger that i originally thought but rather it refers to the plug itself, is the popular plug that we can see in common electronic devices like those monitor and camera plugs to computer. Yet Light Peak’s speed is USB 2.0’s times 30 (10Gb per second) as it does not use the usual aluminum wires anymore.

The superspeed Light Peak is already invented and its a tinier router with less energy consume and contains 2 sets of channel that doubles the speed into 20Gb per second. It is even faster than transferring files through online synchronization in the Internet.

“Intel is working with the optical component manufacturers to make Light Peak components ready to ship in 2010”.That means I can transfer my photos from my camera simultaneously to my computer soon! If the internet cable was all replaced with Optical Fiber, speed would not be a problem anymore. Entertainment, information and news can be download, upload and deliver instantly. But keep in mind that more subtles issues such as spread of viruses may arise to become a headache.

More details on Light Peak Techonology can be found @ Intel website.

Early at the end of January, when iPad was introduced to the market, not only there were many criticism across the Internet about its originality, Amazon also launched a ‘fight’ with one of the largest US book publisher MacMillan. Amazon removed the purchase button for all the MacMillan published books and only allow third-party to sell them on Amazon.com. In the past few years, as Amazon aims to obtain large market shares with the best selling ebooks price set at $9.99 each, books publishers have a limited profit margin. In addition, publishers usually sells actual books (averagely at $24 US) before selling eBook online. Hence, as Apple introduced iPad and launched the iBookstore online, publishers favored Apple’s suggestion to allow them to set the price and the online retail agent gain 30% of it as commission. Now the eBook price could be increased up to 12.99 to 14.99 US and Amazon accepted the same suggestion with its publishers. In the future, Kindle may share its current 60% market shares with iPad.

This negotiation progressed only in a few days and Kindle accepted the reality pretty quickly which limits its sales loss during its shutdown to MacMillan’s eBooks. And i realized how one product can affects others’ strategy to sustain its profit margins, and how amazon changes from a price setter to become a price taker following the inevitable Apple trend. As a consumer, iPad current prices is starting at $499, while Kindle is $330. I would rather buy a Kindle over iPad as Amazon is a long standing online retailer with stable and varied product online services.Plus, Kindle is more simple to use and has more reading oriented functions, such as instant dictionary and Wikipedia connect, and i guess the color display is not really a necessary  feature when it comes down to almost $200 price difference. (A comparison table can be found here) Yet I like the Microsoft Courier concept the best and if it could be manufactured and sold in store I would immediately go line up and buy one, because its idea is just addicting and exciting, and its high level of interaction is just like playing a video game where you can have substantial control of your own computer. And I’m sure if Microsoft can produce this, thousands of Apple fans will turn to follow Microsoft.

Yet their latest product the Microsoft’s slate PC is simply like a Window fits into a iPad case, and i would not buy one as i have a laptop already even though its heavy carrying it around.

And here is just a random funny video that i found when i typed in iPad on youtube: iPad on MadTV