After disrupting the entertainment industry, Apple has now set its sights on the education sector. In an event held at the Guggenheim museum in New York City, Apple announced its plans to reinvent the textbook industry.

At the heart of Apple’s textbook strategy is the iPad. The iPad’s potential as an educational device was apparent from the very beginning. More than 1.5 million iPads are currently being used in educational programs. However, the lack of structured content has prevented students and teachers around the globe from realizing its full potential. All this is set to change with today’s announcement of iBooks 2.

Textbooks are informative and comprehensive. Unfortunately, they are also dull and boring. “There is no reason to assume today that kids need to use the same tools they used in 1950”, explained Apple. iBooks are essentially full-fledged iPad applications that are designed to make learning fun by tapping the intuitiveness of learning on a multimedia capable touchscreen tablet.

iBooks will feature interactive graphics, 3 dimensional models, videos, search, interactive quiz, glossary, and more. Apple’s iBooks makes highlighting content, taking notes, and creating study cards as simple as a few taps and swipes on the screen. Additionally, books purchased will be perpetually available in the library, and will continue to be updated as the publisher releases new editions.

The advantages of Apple’s new digital textbook platform are several. However, none of that would have mattered if they were not priced right. Thankfully, Apple is again adopting its already proven model of undercutting the established distribution model with smart pricing. All textbooks will be available for $14.99 or less, which is an astronomical price reduction when compared to their dead tree counterparts. Currently, college students often end up spending upwards of thousand bucks on textbooks alone.

Apple is not only making it easier to consume information, but also to create information. It is releasing a new application for Mac called the iBooks Creator. As the name suggests, the iBooks Creator is aimed at publishers looking to create iBooks (which may or may not be textbooks). It is a WYSIWYG editor that makes creating gorgeous and interactive textbooks drop dead simple. Most of the stuff can be accomplished by simple drag and drop, and more advanced features can be added through HTML and JavaScript widgets. The iBook Author is available as a free download.

Apple is launching its new initiative with all the big guns on-board. Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which account for 90 percent of textbooks sold in the US, are among its launch partners.

[images via Engadget]

Yesterday, in a blog post by  Ashish Arora, Vice President and General Manager, Digital Home Group, Logitech introduced the Harmony Link and the Harmony Link App. The Harmony Link is a device that allows you to remotely control up to eight devices in your home. It is a sleek looking device with a slim profile. You can see a picture of it compared to the iPad and iPhone below.

Photo Courtesy of Logitech Blog

The most impressive addition, however, is the Harmony Link App. The app is free to download and works seamlessly with the Harmony Link device. It basically turns your iPad into the coolest remote control ever! The app is available for the iPod Touch, the iPhone, and Android devices too. However, there are features that will only work on the iPad. One of the coolest features is the ability to get in-app TV listings. Pictured below, you can see what the TV listings look like in the app.

Courtesy of Logitech Blog

With a swipe of a finger, you can navigate through TV listings on your iPad. Want to see a show you like? Just tap the picture and the app will tune your TV to the show that you want to watch. You will also notice, in the picture above, an “Activities” menu. Here is a list of one-touch commands that will automatically power on the devices that you need in order to perform the activities.

Setup is easy. You connect Harmony Link to your wi-fi network and then tell it what devices you have. The device comes ready to control 5,000+ devices. It has the ability to learn commands from other remotes. It also comes with a “Mini Blaster” accessory, which allows you to connect to devices that might be hidden from view.

I have to admit, the gadget geek in me loves this new offering. It has a nice design and appears to be easy to use. It will be interesting to see how well the device works.  The Harmony Link device is set to hit the shelves in October. You can pre-order the device  here.

What do you think? Is this an app you would like to have for your iPad? Personally, I can’t wait until they come up with an app that feeds the dog. ;)

The Dutch web retailer bol.com has revealed Sony’s next Reader – the PRS-T1. Although Sony still trails Amazon by a large margin, it has been doing reasonably well in the eBook reader market. At the very least, Sony has managed to offer stiff competition to Barnes and Noble, which has managed to innovate its way into the segment with the Android powered Nook readers.

The T1, which was spotted last month in an FCC application, will have an E-Ink screen just like its predecessors. E-Ink screens mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper, and are easier on the eyes as well as the battery. According to the specifications revealed by Bol.com, T1 will have a 6 inch dual-touch screen with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels and support for pinch-to-zoom gesture for adjusting font size. A stylus shouldn’t be necessary; however, Sony has opted to include one nonetheless. The 2GB internal memory should be sufficient to store more than a thousand books. However, if you find yourself needing more memory you can add additional storage through microSD cards. Wi-Fi support along with Google Search and Wikipedia have also been added to the T1. Another interesting enhancement spotted by Mike Cane is that the T1 will display the cover of the book you are currently reading in standby mode.

All in all, the T1 is a nice update to the current generation Sony Readers. With T1, Sony will have another well rounded reader in the market. However, it will definitely not set the e-reader segment on fire. While T1 seems good enough to maintain status quo, it doesn’t do anything that can help Sony in establishing its superiority over the Kindle or the Nook.

The wait is almost over guys. According to reports, Verizon stores have already begun receiving shipments of the highly anticipated Motorola Xoom, which is slated to go on sale on Thursday (Feb 24). Several stores including Best Buy have already begun accepting pre-orders. However, as AP pointed out, it seems that Best Buy’s offer of $799.99 for the 3G-enabled Xoom doesn’t include taxes, while WireFly’s offer does.

Motorola is also working with European retailers to make Xoom available soon across the pond. The 3G version will be available in the UK via The Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy, while the Wi-Fi only version will be available through Currys and PC World. It should be available in additional markets across Europe through Deutsche Telekom.

The Honeycomb (Android 3.0) flavored Xoom sports a 10.1” widescreen HD display, 5-megapixel camera with HD (720p) video recording, and weighs in at 730 grams. Underneath the hood it has nVidia’s powerful Tegra 2 chip, which features a 1 GHz dual-core processor, and was one of the highlights of last month’s CES.

While the sale price of Xoom turned out to be a much more realistic than the initial rumored prices, it’s still a cause for concern. Motorola is definitely taking a big risk by asking for more than the market leader (iPad). When coupled with Verizon’s steep data charges ($20 for 1GB and $80 for 10GB of data – 1 month mandatory), the Xoom becomes quite an expensive affair.

SlashGear has gone hands-on with the highly anticipated and controversial tablet from India, the Adam, and they are impressed. Adam has excited and teased tablet users and Android fans around the world since its announcement last year. Things turned ugly (and fast) with the opening of pre-orders, thanks to Notion Ink’s inexperience. However, as the video demonstrations have shown, Adam is quite unlike any other device on the market.

Apple has made a name for itself by paying attention to detail. Now, Notion Ink is trying to challenge iPad’s supremacy by following the same principle. Although the Adam is an Android tablet running on the powerful Tegra 2, it has its own user interface (called Eden), and its own set of carefully developed applications.

According to Slashgear:

Eden, the multitasking UI, splits the screen into three panes, and intelligently uses the dual-core NVIDIA processor to balance power and battery life. For instance, the CPU shows up as a single core in the Android Aboutpage; Eden won’t activate the second core if there’s still capacity in the first core. The way individual apps are handled does its part to minimize Tegra 2 exertion too. In the mail client, for instance, when you’re only reading emails it doesn’t load the send-mail library. That reduces load times and shrinks the amount of memory and power required. Other apps work in a similar way, only loading the libraries that are necessary for the functions you’re actively using. Background apps are frozen to free up their resources.

Thanks to all the optimizations, Adam is silky smooth even under heavy load. Switching between applications is near instantaneous, and video playback is remarkably fluid. In fact, SlashGear found the entire experience to be as smooth as watching videos on a dedicated Blu-ray player.

Judging from the initial impressions, Adam might indeed be the perfect blend of beauty, flexibility and power. I am expecting iPad 2 to get multi-tasking capabilities. If that indeed turns out to be true, it will be interesting to see Apple’s approach, as Notion Ink seems to have done an outstanding job.

It’s CES’ worst nightmare come true. Apple products hogging the limelight even before the event could kickoff. Earlier today, Engadget spotted an eager exhibitor at the CES 2011 showing off what appeared to be cases for the yet to be unveiled iPad 2.

Very little is known about iPad 2, and even that too is mostly through unconfirmed rumors. However, that hasn’t stopped several manufactures from designing cases for the highly anticipated successor to the king of tablets. Dexim, the manufacturer in question, has gone a step further than others, and has even prepared an iPad 2 dummy to display with their cases. The dummy iPad 2, as captured by Engadget, is displayed below in its full glory.

If Dexim’s sources are correct, then the iPad 2 will indeed be slimmer and slicker than its predecessor. It will also have a camera at the rear and front, along with a larger speaker. Apple is expected to announce the iPad 2 in the coming weeks.

After all of mine and Pallab’s rant we finally got to see a real video of Notion Ink‘s Adam in action. All through mine and Pallab’s post we were very skeptical about this device, but in the end looking at the product demo in action made me change my mind.

However, Notion Ink brought this on themselves, first the stupid pre-order system and the stupidly written policies then the video lure which they could not upload would have thrown off anyone.

Now here is what the case is, these guys do not seem to be aware of the fact that there is something called as Public Relationships. Yes, the entire PR team of Notion Ink should be sacked or sent on a vacation, because they created the biggest problem of all, not bringing the device closer to the users who matter to their sales and to their reputation.

Hell, the Adam founder Rohan who I interviewed back in March 2010 is taking all the onus on himself  to provide updates himself. I have seldom seen a CEO or founder of a product taking so much pains to explain why they exist, least of all take all the criticisms.

Nevertheless, I wanted this product to succeed all this while. My skepticism came from the fact that they did not know how to handle things. It still remains, however, it is subdued now and will remain subdued for a while. Remember that I have a very curious and national interest in this project.

Would I order this device now? Of course, I *might* order the Adam on a future date, but I would rather wait for CES 2011 and MWC 2011 before I make a decision. It looks like a very good portable device with a lot of slots among other things, but again, there is no promised Pixel Qi, which is a deal-breaker for me, I will wait till I see that in action.

Rest aside, I quenched my doubts and choked on them, Adam exists and it is good. But I won’t order it as of yet.

Microsoft has launched the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 in India. Kinect which is a controller free gaming system allows users to play games using motions which is detected by the Sensor.

Kinect has been a huge success across with Microsoft selling over 1 million units in 10 days. Microsoft Kinect sensor standalone will sell for an estimated price of 9,990 along with "Kinect Adventures". The Xbox 360 4GB console with Kinect sensor and Kinect Adventureswill be available at an estimated retail price of  22,990.

Microsoft will be selling Kinect at 150 large retail stores in 7 top cities in India including Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune.

For more information about Kinect, visit our earlier post to know What is Kinect or read the Microsoft Press release here.

Amazon Kindle, which got a price drop last month and now sells for $189 has been selling like hot-cakes according to a recent press release from Amazon. Kindle Books have also been outselling Hard Copy books in the past 3 months.

According to Amazon, the Kindle has been the best selling device for over 2 years and is also the most-wished-for, most-gifted and the product which has received the most 5 star ratings on Amazon.com.

"We’ve reached a tipping point with the new price of Kindle–the growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled since we lowered the price from $259 to $189," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "In addition, even while our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books–astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months."

Amazon has had to cut the Kindle price thanks to competitors like Sony and Barnes and Nobles slashing pricing and also more direct competition from the Apple iPad in the e-Book reader segment. However, the price drop has helped significantly along with some good sales in Kindle books too.

Amazon states that over the past three months, for every 100 hard copy books sold by Amazon, there are 143 Kindle books sold. The past three months Kindle books sale is 3 times that from the earlier quarter.

The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 630,000 books, including New Releases and 106 of 110 New York Times Best Sellers. Over 510,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 75 New York Times Best Sellers. Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle.

More at the Official Amazon Press Release.

NVIDIA has announced a DirectX 11 GeForce GTX Graphic card which will sell for $199. The DX11 GeForce GTX 460 card comes in two versions, one with 768MB memory and the second one with 1GB memory.

NVIDIA today announced the latest addition to its Fermi-class of graphics processing units (GPUs), the NVIDIA ® GeForce GTX 460 — which delivers a great DX11 gaming experience and is priced right at the market’s $199 sweet spot.

The new GeForce GTX card is built from ground up and deliver up to 4x tessellation performance(i) over competing GPUs. The GTX 460 bring the ultimate gaming experience with DX11 bundled with Windows 7 and Windows Vista. GeForce GTX 460 also supports NVIDIA 3D Vision technology.

Epic Games, Tim Sweeney who is the Chairman, CEO and Technical Director commented: "With the GeForce GTX 460, NVIDIA is really upping the ante with an amazingly fast DirectX 11 GPU available at a great, mainstream-friendly price. Its new hardware tessellation support will enable games to reach an entirely new caliber of graphics."

GeForce GTX 460 Specifications and Pricing

Both the GTX 460 cards will have 336 CUDA Cores and 675 MHz Graphics Clock. GTX 460 will also have a 1350 MHz processor and a texture fill rate of 37.8 billion per second. The 768MB version will have a 192-bit memory interface and Memory Bandwidth of 86.4 GB per second.

On the other hand, the 1GB card will have a 256-bit Memory Interface Width and a Memory Bandwidth of 115.2 GB per second. The 768MB GeForce GTX 460 GPU will sell for $199, whereas the 1GB GPU will sell for $229.

The GeForce GTX 460 768MB version will be available starting today from NVIDIA add-in card partners. Wider availability of the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is expected by July 26, 2010.  For more information and specifications visit the product page for GeForce GTX 360.