March 25, 2013: The Market Barnes & Noble Ignores

Today, May 29, 2013: Leaked Memo Shows Barnes & Noble Bringing Web Browser And Email To Simple Touch eReaders In June

Having brought Google Play to their color tablets in a last-ditch and now too-late attempt at relevancy — and to not strand future orphaned owners — Nook Media is now going to reverse a prior cruel decision and bring back the web browser it earlier shut down on the Nook Touch.

Is anyone keeping score here? Who told Nook Media to do certain things that they are now doing?

Be that as it may — I won’t flatter myself into thinking that at any time in the past several years they’ve emerged from their self-referential shell to read my posts — can someone tell me what the hell they’re trying to do with the Nook Touch? Browsing? Email?

Let me remind everyone the Nook Touch is based on Android 2.1. Unless Nook Media plans to try to cram Android 4.x — with patches necessary for eInk — inside the Nook Touch, these additions seem a bit screwy to me.

What’s the pitch? “Now you can interrupt your reading to be aggravated by all the email you’ve tried to forget by reading?”

This is a half — actually half-assed — measure by Nook Media.

Unless they’re planning to also give people full access to root, these are nothing but self-congratulatory “See? We’re really trying!” moves by a desperate leadership. These additions will only make people feel the limitations of the Nook Touch even more keenly — especially among the general public who don’t know squat about rooting but can see for themselves just how frustrating web browsing and email can be with eInk.

Is it better than nothing? Well, most times something is better than nothing. But they frustrated Nook Touch owners from the beginning by shutting down the browser. Now they’re trying to play catch-up with the Kindle and trying to go one step further with email.

I don’t think this is going to help them at all. And I think these moves will bring a new wave of calls to customer service — which has been the heart of their problems. Their bad moves in limiting their software only compounded the interest on their once-future — and now present — doom.

Radio Shack did them a favor by selling the two Nook models for US$20 and US$30. Maybe they need to follow suit.

Um, no, don’t look at Sarah or Paul …

… study that painting by Felix behind Sarah. Not everything in it is an arm. What.

Karen Walton had a lot of fun writing this script.

There were some lines that made me laugh out loud. And she did plenty with the uptight Allison.

It’s clear the Neolutionists aren’t the source of the clones. I think somehow they got word of them and glommed onto them for their own ends. Otherwise, Leekie would know how many were out there and their names.

Morgue Boy disappointed. He ratted out Felix. Good documentation is really a poor excuse.

Seeing that DYAD article, I think I know what the clones are. Skip the rest of this paragraph if you don’t want such speculation. I think a pharmaceutical company created them for drug trials. They’re a reservoir of standardized human guinea pigs. But maybe that’s too simplistic?

Anyway, the ending was a surprise. But I should have seen it coming, with The City on the Edge of Forever being one of my favorites classic Star Trek episodes. Harumph.

Just two more episodes left! Then the agony of waiting until next year for more.

So far, not a single episode of this series has disappointed or bored me. I’m so glad the pilot made me curious to see the next episode.

Additional:

Orphan Black website

Previously here:

Orphan Black: Episode Six
Orphan Black: Episode Five
Orphan Black: Episode Four
Orphan Black: Episode Three
TV: Orphan Black

Major spoilers ahead!

Bookmark and come back after you’ve seen it.

Steven Moffat doesn’t do things in a small way.

He delivered a truly epic season ending.

So why do I feel so cheated?

Because this abbreviated season worked against everything.

Not counting the Christmas special, there have been only seven episodes leading up to this finale. The episodes that would have further developed and deepened the Doctor-Clara relationship are missing. So this finale feels as if there are bits missing — it feels premature (as did several aspects of their relationship).

It’s almost as if Moffat was hedging his bets, in case there wasn’t to be a next season! He crammed everything he wanted to do into a few episodes that stand out from the rest. There wasn’t the leisurely unfolding of the Clara mythology like the Amy Pond seasons had.

As it is, this episode is — again — epic.

And John Hurt — as the Anti-Doctor! How much better can next season get? Well, I’ll tell you — it’d get better if it was the full run of episodes again. I hope BBC will get on that.

Previously here:

Doctor Who: Nightmare In Silver
Doctor Who: The Crimson Horror
Doctor Who: Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS
Doctor Who: Hide
Doctor Who: Cold War
Doctor Who: The Rings Of Akhaten
Doctor Who: The Bells Of Saint John

Newsmy/Newman S8 Color:

I don’t know what’s happening here. Is Newsmy rebranding from Chuwi? Or are both Chuwi and Newsmy sourcing a design from someone else?

Full details are in the Guide To Chinese iPad Mini Clones (jump to the bottom).

Here are two posts:

English at Arctablet: Onda V818 mini (V1 hardware) Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean root custom firmware V3.0 (2013-05-15) — which requires registration to see links (I wish forums would stop that practice)

Spanish at Forotablets: [TUTORIAL] Actualizar ROM v3.0 en Onda v818 mini. (Android 4.2.2)

Maybe combining the two can do it without registering at Arctablet.

I don’t own an Onda V818 so can neither test this nor vouch for it. Those of a less adventurous nature might want to wait for the final non-beta firmware via OTA notification.

If you do this, run a new AnTuTu test and Comment with the score and other observations.

The Onda V818 runs on an AllWinner A31s CPU. Do not try this firmware with either the HKC Q79 (Quest) or the Chuwi V88!

Previously here:

Onda V818 Gets Android 4.2.2 This Week

… given the alarming rate at which consumers worldwide are speaking with their wallets and selecting Android handsets over iOS handsets. With just a few more quarters like this, coupled with the cumulative effect of similar sales data over the past 2-3 years and the likely coming wave of Android-based tablets, it is a given (to me, anyway) that Android will be soon be effectively ubiquitous around the globe.

Google Play Services gives control of Android back to Google

For a minute, forget all the complaining about how Hangouts weren’t instantly available for everyone at the same time. Most everyone should be good to go by now and have their new Hangouts app. Everyone. Think about that — Google Talk, a long staple and core feature of the operating system, was updated with a slew of new features without you getting a system-wide update.

Two interesting posts that somehow fit together. But I can’t concentrate on them right now, so here’s this post for later.

Cube is pimping its yet-unavailable iPad Mini clone, the U35GT, as being the first to have Android 4.2. It’s also pimping this outrageous AnTuTu score for it:

Notice, however, the device designation in AnTuTu is U30GT! Um, yeah. The U35GT will have a 4000mAh battery, according to Cube. That’s less than the Chuwi V88. Depending on how efficient Android 4.2 is, that might not matter much. Maddeningly, despite all the press coverage calling their iPad Mini clone the U35GT, on their website in English, Cube is still calling it the U33GTmini. In Chinese, it’s the U35 (without the GT or the Mini). Before anyone thinks this is a good alternative to the Chuwi V88, Cube is so far offering a single model with just 1GB of RAM.

ZOL has done a review of an Ericsson 9.7-inch tablet with Retina-class display [Google English]. It’s based on the quad-core Rockchip 3188 CPU, so it’s of some interest for those — OK, me — who wonder what impact a Retina-class display could have on a future iPad Mini clone. For one, battery life will take a great hit. So will the framerate of graphic-intensive games. As for AnTuTu, this is what they claim:

If that score is true, that’s about 3,000 lopped off the score by Retina. Another iPad clone tablet from Onda, based on the quad-core A31 CPU, has an AnTuTu score of 10,395 [Google English]. That score makes it less powerful than the Onda V818 iPad Mini clone, which uses the A31s CPU.

Previously here:

Chinese iPad Mini Clone Notes #1

And today Archos announced the 80 Xenon tablet — which will have the same price as the 80 Platinum.

The Platinum has 2GBs of RAM and 8GBs of internal storage.

The Xenon will have 1GB of RAM and 4GBs of internal storage. As well as a Snapdragon S4 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, Adreno 203 GPU, GPS, and 3G SIM slot. It will lose the mini-HDMI port of the Platinum.

Is the Xenon going to replace the Platinum in the U.S.? I have no idea. Who can make any sense out of a company that creates the ChefPad?

That’s DigiTimes, which has a spotty record.

What’s interesting is that Chinese sites are adding that it will MSRP for US$249-$299.

Screen resolution is unknown. Would MS go for 4:3 at 1024 x 768 or stick with 16:9 and do 1280 x 800? Which would they mimic, an iPad Mini or a Galaxy Note 8.0?

I can see a “Nook RT” succeeding — but I have my doubts about a Surface RT at eight inches getting many sales.

RCA and CBS were at war over how to do color TV. The FCC played referee and they each came up with a method of being compatible with monochrome TVs (most of the TVs sold and owned then).

Eventually, the RCA method won. As you’ll see, CBS had a crazy Rube Goldberg-like method with several points of failure.

Original images (click to enlarge):

Look at that RCA studio camera! Today a cellphone camera people can carry in their pocket can do full 1080p HD, a resolution far exceeding the NTSC of those days (which was more theoretical than what people actually experienced with their home TVs).

That was fifty-nine years ago. What will it all be like fifty-nine years from today?