A short while ago Amazon released its ‘revolutionary’ eBook reader, the Kindle. When I first saw it, I didn’t know what to think. I kind of agree with Zack Klein, in that it looks surprisingly like the ‘Pontiac Aztek of e-readers‘. Well get this - but watch the video first… If you want:

Amazon’s new Kindle ebook device sold out almost immediately after going on sale. And there won’t be any more available until after Christmas:

Kindle Availability
Due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is sold out. Because orders are prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis, please ORDER NOW to reserve your place in line. Your Kindle will not arrive by December 24th. Note that Kindles cannot currently be sold or shipped to customers living outside of the U.S.

The device, which sells for $400, also is unavailable outside of the U.S. So if you want one now, you have to go through eBay or another second hand retailer.

And it isn’t going to be cheap. Prices range up to $1,500 on eBay. The average final price is $830, and one person paid $1,500 (see Terapeak). So if you want one, you’re going to have to pay.

Couldn’t help myself; had to show you the hideous, hideous Aztek. Believe it or not, this is the 2005 model. Looks at least a kajillion times its age in terms of design.

Source: TechCrunch

“Mapping out routes for its drivers, drastically reducing the number of left-hand turns they make helped the company shave 28.5 million miles off its delivery routes, which has resulted in savings of roughly three million gallons of gas and has reduced CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons”. - According to the NY Times…

Prime Minister Helen Clark has entered the blogosphere, posting a rebuttal to The Press political reporter Colin Espiner’s On the House blog over her criticism of journalism standards.

Source: Stuff.co.nz

One of my favourite websites, Valleywag, today commented on Apple’s intention to open an additional 40 stores in 2008. Currently, Apple operates over 200 stores internationally. It’s likely that next years expansion efforts will focus on the international markets. To support this assumption, Apple is in the process of building a flagship store in Sydney.

Ron Johnson, Apple’s Head of Retail recently told the media that there ‘will be a larger number of international stores among the 40 or so that will opening in fiscal 2008′.

Bec and Lleyton Hewitt apparently have a stake in online venture, eSwap.com.au. I wonder how it goes for them.

Doris Lessing, winner of 2007’s Nobel Prize in Literature on the Internet:

“We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned and where it is common for young men and women, who have had years of education, to know nothing of the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some speciality or other, for instance, computers”.

Ok. Sure why not.

Source: TechCrunch

How does a sleepover at Ikea sound?

Sounds to me like the adult equivalent of staying a night in the toy store.

Well, as much as this is old news, it is new news to me:

“Later this month (July 2007), Ikea Norway will let shoppers sleep overnight in one of its two Oslo warehouses, an operation that will last a week. “It will be like an alternative hostel,” said company spokesman Frode Ullebust.

“There will be the regular dormitory with lots of beds stacked up together. We will also have a bridal suite, with a round bed and a hanging chandelier, and the luxury suite, where customers can enjoy breakfast in bed,” he said. Family rooms will also be available for parents and children to join into the Ikea fun. None of the guests will be charged for their stay”.

PJG

THE surfwear and streetwear company Billabong International has snapped up the Tigerlily swimwear and clothing business from Jodhi Meares, the former wife of James Packer.

Billabong, which has a market capitalisation of $3 billion, has not revealed how much it paid for the operation but it said the acquisition would be earnings per share positive in the first year.

However, market sources said Ms Meares would be paid between $3 million and $5 million for the company she built up over the past nine years.

Continue reading about Billabong’s take-over of Tigerlily

I am not much of a 50 Cent, let along, R’n'B fan but he certainly puts it well:

Q: “How are G-Unit Records doing in these times of file-sharing?

“Not so good….The advances in technology impacts everyone, and we all must adapt. Most of all hip-hop, a style of music dependent upon a youthful audience. This market consists of individuals embracing innovations faster than the fans of classical and jazz music.”

“What is important for the music industry to understand is that this really doesn’t hurt the artists.”

“A young fan may be just as devout and dedicated no matter if he bought it or stole it.”

“The concerts are crowded and the industry must understand that they have to manage all the 360 degrees around an artist. They, (the industry), have to maximize their income from concerts and merchandise. It is the only way they can get their marketing money back.”

“The main problem is that the artists are not getting as much help developing as before file-sharing. They are now learning to peddle ringtones, not records..They don’t understand the value of a perfect piece of art.”

Cari Spivek thought it was wasteful that so many employees like her were driving to work in different cars. Her idea became the Google Shuttle, a private transit network made of biodiesel-powered, wi-fi-enabled, air-conditioned buses transporting employees from around the Bay Area to Google headquarters in Mountain View, south of San Francisco.At first it was used by a hundred employees from the entire area. But Google has been growing and now shuttles more than 1,200 Googlers every day, many from the Mission District, which has recently added a second bus.

Anyone who has ever taken a population class knows that every migration has a countermigration. In addition to all of the Google employees already living in the city and doing less environmental damage by taking the shuttle, many employees are choosing to move to the city because there is now a comfortable shuttle to take them to work.

Read the rest of this article here.