Kindle for iPhone

Just a week after launching the Kindle2, Amazon has released an iPhone/iPod touch application that allows users to enjoy the Kindle collection of over 240,000 eBooks right from their device of choice. 

The Kindle app is free, and is a really interesting launch from Amazon’s standpoint. While the eReading experience on an iPhone or iPod touch is nowhere what it is on the Kindle, many users may now avoid spending $359 on the Kindle2 device and still purchase and use eBooks through Amazon. But Fast Company is quick to point out a couple of reasons why the iPhone/iPod Touch is no replacement for the Kindle: 

[T]he Kindle device itself probably won’t be threatened by the iPhone app. For two main reasons. The first is display technology: Though the e-ink screen used on the Kindle isn’t the most amazing out there, it’s certainly a rather closer experience to reading a book than viewing text on an iPhone.

Amazon’s Kindle2

Meet Amazon’s just-announced Kindle2. The device is an update to the Kindle, which launched in November of 2007. The Kindle2 is, at its heart, very much the same device as its predecessor. The most notable difference in the updated model is a sleeker new form factor, which incorporates improvements to many of the details users used to complain about. For example, there are now two sets of page turn buttons on either side of the screen, allowing users to hold the device in either hand. Other improvements include faster page turns, improved battery life, and a text-to-speech option which lets users hear their books read out loud (albeint in a roboticized voice). The device still retails for $359, and all open orders for the original Kindle will be fulfilled with the updated model instead.

Creating a World Without Poverty

Last night, I attended a talk at NYU put on by Stern’s Berkely Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. The speaker was Muhammad Yunus,  founder of Grameen Bank and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Yunus focused his speech on the idea of “social business,” a topic he covers extensively in his new book, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. 

It was an extremely interesting speech, especially given today’s economic environment and Yunus’ audience of “Sternies,” who are notoriously profit-minded, Wall Street-focused individuals.

The Mixtape Lives On

The “Mixtape” – a painstakingly dubbed compilation of sentimental songs – was once the tried and true method of letting someone know that you really cared. But sadly, the mixtape seems to have died off along with the cassette tape itself. Sure – people burned compilation CDs that served the same purpose, but it somehow just wasn’t the same.

This Joost In

In other online video news: Joost, another network-supported video site, will begin testing live broadcasts on March 20^th. Live streaming video in and of itself isn’t anything new – but Joost will be broadcasting NCAA March Madness basketball games live, with potentially millions of viewers tuning in to watch simultaneously. Most live internet broadcasts have had a few thousand participants watching, so companies have been able to stream media directly over the web from a single dedicated server. With millions of concurrent viewers (who are also able to chat with one another in real time), the delivery becomes much more complicated. Joost devised a way to use P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to make the broadcast possible.

Technological wizardry aside, this test is sure to make a huge splash in the online video world. Live broadcasts are critical for events such as political speeches and sporting events, both of which attract millions of viewers. As Joost tests and refines its live broadcasting technology to support millions of concurrent viewers, the delay (currently between 10 and 45 seconds) will diminish to almost nothing. There’s tremendous potential here for advertisers to reach and connect with viewers in ways that television simply doesn’t allow, and what better way than during a live broadcast? Stay tuned for updates on how the technology works. Learn more at Joost.

Hulu Hits the Web

Last week, NBC Universal and News Corp launched Hulu, a video sharing site with completely free, legal clips from the likes of Fox, NBC, MGM, Sony, Warner Bros., and Lionsgate. Users can log on to catch full-length episodes of current primetime television shows such as The Simpsons and The Office the morning after they air. “Classics” like Miami Vice and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are also up for grabs, as are clips from Saturday Night Live, Nip/Tuck, and many others others. Hulu also offers full-length feature films like The Usual Suspects, Ice Age, and The Big Lebowski, in addition to clips from films such as Napoleon Dynamite, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Devil Wears Prada, and many more. Hulu is free and ad-supported – and it’s available 24/7 for anyone with a broadband connection in the U.S.

Freeing the Financial Times

This week, the Financial Times announced a program that will allow college students to access all of the publication’s web content for free. How is the FT doing it? Facebook, of course. The news site launched an application within Facebook that provides university users with a PIN, which can then be redeemed for a gratis annual premium subscription. Students will be able to renew their subscriptions annually for the entire length of their college careers.

The whole Facebook spin on the subscription isn’t just a matter of cool-factor – by launching an application in Facebook, FT can verify that users are, in fact, university students. Some might recall that the New York Times offered free Times Select subscriptions to university students a few years ago (before the company killed Times Select and began giving all its content away for free on the Web). The problem with the Times’ system is that anyone with a .edu email address could avail of the discount – alumni and faculty included.

Though it’s likely that this FT/Facebook experiment will help the company attract new readers – it’s probably going to be tough to get people to cough up the ₤99 annual subscription fee once they’re out of school. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Learn more at Media Week.

The World’s Hottest Clubs Hit the Web

Frequent club-goers know that the world’s greatest hotspots are great not because of décor, drink menus, or exclusivity; but because of the music that pumps through the speakers. Now, anyone with an internet connection can enjoy the work of some of the world’s best DJs live through awdio.com. The site streams live music from participating clubs, restaurants, hotels, and lounges from Paris and New York to Sydney and Tokyo.

The AwdioBlaster Player is integrated into the site with tools to filter programs by style, artist, and agenda. The technological secret behind Awdio is its AwdioBox – 19″ racks that are installed in each venue allowing them to broadcast 2 streams simultaneously up to 192Kbs in real time. The first stream is 100% musical and extracts the sound from the mixing desk. The second stream mixes the ambiance with the music. These boxes are completely autonomous and allow a constant connection between the Awdio servers and all the sources on the network over 5 continents.

Just another example of how the internet and a little ingenuity are completely erasing borders and geographic boundaries. Learn more at Awdio.