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Barnes and Nobles Delays Nook Reader, Citing High Demand

Ryan Whitwam — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:28:34 -0600

If the Barnes and Noble Nook sounds like a great Christmas present, you might want to preorder one now. Everyone’s favorite bookseller has announced that due to massive demand, Nook preorders have been pushed into December. There are also reports that Barnes and Noble stores will have no in-store Nooks until mid December.

According to a Barnes and Noble spokesperson, “Nook has quickly become the fastest selling product at Barnes & Noble. In fact, there is so much consumer interest in Nook, that pre-orders have exceeded our expectations." The Nook will be selling for $259 whenever you can find one. Barnes and Noble opened their eBook store back in July and it currently offers over 700,000 titles.

The Nook will be going up against Amazon’s Kindle reader. B&N is hoping to leverage their brick and mortar stores to gain an advantage over the all online Amazon. Are you considering getting an ebook reader this holiday season?

Michael Dell Doesn't Think You'll Be a Lasting Netbook Convert After 36 Hours of Usage

Ryan Whitwam — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:15:11 -0500

Michael Dell had some harsh words for netbooks in a recent speech. He claimed that a user might like a netbook just fine, until they’ve used it. “About 36 hours later, they're saying 'The screen's gonna have to go. Give me my 15-inch screen back,’” said Dell. He claimed that consumers really prefer higher end machines in the long run.

Of Windows 7 Dell said, “Performance is kind of coming back.” This may have been a well masked condemnation of Vista’s inability to run acceptably on netbooks. Clearly, he would prefer you buy a more expensive computer, but according to Dell’s CEO, 80% of their business doesn’t come from individual consumers anyway. He pointed out that this dynamic meant Dell could bounce back from the slowdown quickly.

The next time you’re about to buy that cheap netbook, just take a second. Think about what Michael Dell would like you to do: spend more money. He’s probably just saying it because he’s concerned for your user experience, right?

Windows 7 Retail Boxes Start Arriving in Preparation for Launch Day

Justin Kerr — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:58:31 -0500

Unfortunately there isn’t much to say here that isn’t already captured in the headline, but it felt newsworthy nonetheless. Engadget has leaked some early photos of the final Windows 7 retail packaging, an image which helps send home the reality that our wait for the October 22nd launch is almost over. The source of the leak wasn't listed, but they did specify that the retailer who took the pictures is based out of Chicago.

The packaging is oddly reminiscent of the impossible to open hard shell case that Vista came in, but if figuring out how to bust open the packaging is the most challenging part of the upgrade, I’m sure we’ll be okay with that. Just in case it isn’t, don’t forget to check out our handy upgrade guide to answer all your remaining questions.

So, are you planning on upgrading right away? Or are you the type that likes to let everyone else shake out the bugs first?

Microsoft Hires Former Apple Exec for Retail Sector

Paul Lilly — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:18:33 -0500

Nobody knows what to expect from Microsoft's branded retail stores scheduled to roll out sometime this fall, but the company's been making some very interesting moves, the latest of which includes hiring George Blankenship to help with the launch. If that name sounds at all familiar, it's because Blankenship is a former Apple executive who also helped launch Apple's retail presence back in 2001.

Microsoft so far has declined to say what Blankenship's exact role will be, but given the success of Apple's store fronts, it's probably a safe bet he'll perform some of the same tasks as before, including helping to select the best locations.

"We're doing stuff and we're in the game and continuing to take some these hard market-share opportunities head on and compete because it's a test of will," said Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer.

During Turner's Worldwide Partner Conference keynote earlier this month, the CEO said the first Microsoft store will open right next to an Apple store.

Microsoft Tries to Beat Apple on the Retail Front with New Stores

Paul Lilly — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:33:28 -0500

As promised earlier this year, Microsoft plans to roll out several Microsoft-branded retail store fronts, but up until now, Microsoft wasn't saying where or when. Keven Turner, Microsoft's Chief Operating Officer, answered both of those questions during his Worldwide Partner Conference keynote on July 15.

According to Turner, the first store will open this fall and take residence right next to an Apple store. How's that for a new neighbor?

"As we progress on our retail strategy there will be scenarios where we have stores in proximity to Apple," Microsoft said a statement to CNet. "We are on track to open stores in the Fall timeframe. Beyond that we have no additional details."

Location aside, Turner insists Microsoft wouldn't be imitating Apple, which goes in line with Microsoft previously saying the stores would focus more on building the company's consumer brand than with distribution.

Analyst Says Windows 7 is Not Affordable Enough

Andy Salisbury — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:10:59 -0500

While for some of us, the pricing for Windows 7 is easy on the wallet thanks to the OEM solution, there are others that aren’t too happy due to the retail prices.

According to a recent study by The NPD Group’s VP of industry analysis Stephen Baker, the mostly free upgrade program for PCs bought on or after June 26, 2009 is extremely commendable, but the retail pricing is a bad idea, especially in today’s economy. “Besides the fact that $119 is a price point that fits nowhere in these economic times, it is still way too much for the software,” stated Baker. “… It is in Microsoft’s best interests to erase all vestiges of Vista from consumers’ homes, and by making the upgrade expensive … Microsoft is creating a large disincentive for consumers to move to a far superior platform with a better user experience.”

So what do you think? Is the pricing for Windows 7 too rough on the pocketbook, or is the pricing just fine the way it is?

Image Credit: Microsoft

Acer to Soon Knock Dell from Number Two PC Maker Slot

Pulkit Chandna — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:29:29 -0500

Acer’s rise to the top perches of the PC manufacturing industry has been brisk and unceremonious. Now it is almost certain to wrest the number two spot from Dell, according to a New York Times report. To put things into perspective, Acer will become the first non-US company to occupy the number two spot.

It has benefited greatly from being on the vanguard of the netbook revolution – Aspire One is the best selling netbook. Its streetwise, efficient sales model can also be credited for its success.

"We collect the order from the customer, place the order with the manufacturer and they ship it," Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci told the New York Times. He added that Acer doesn’t lay its hands on the goods. Dell on the other hand has a plethora of troubles to contend with.

Four Ways to Separate Open-Source Winners and Losers

David Murphy — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:30:38 -0500

The competition between open-source projects and retail applications is a never-ending struggle. Even when two products aren't in direct competition -- like Adobe's Photoshop versus the GNU Image Manipulation Program -- there's still an underlying push and pull for your attention and resources. The struggle only deepens when the retail version of the two programs approaches an inexpensive or free pricing model. Open-source is an alternative, but when is it the better alternative?

Open-source software developer Patrick McKenzie wrote a post recently about the various ways retail software developers can out-develop open-source alternatives to their products. While it was geared toward the perspective of an open-source creator, he nevertheless gave some good insight as to what differentiates quality open-source projects from the muck. And a number of his points apply to some of the very applications I've recommended in these weekly freeware/open-source roundups.

What does the program do?

To start, McKenzie suggests that a number of open-source projects navel gaze on the specifics of the software and the licensing behind its creation rather than the solution said software provides for a user. For this, look no further than a project like FreeNAS. FreeNAS is a wonderful open-source alternative to pre-installed software setups on network-attached storage devices. But if you check out the project's Web site, you will have no indication as to why you would ever want to install the app. What's the benefit? There's a ton of information about the program's features, requirements, and updates... but comparisons of FreeNAS versus common open-source and retail equivalents are sorely lacking. What problem does FreeNAS solve? What makes it better than the standard? Why should I turn to open-source?

Design Disasters

McKenzie's second point concerns the design of open-source projects, and this one hits especially close to home. I discover a number of interesting applications in my search across the Web for new projects to highlight. Invariably, I have to kick some out of the pile--not because they're poor implementations, but because they're ugly enough to distract from the application's powerful functionality. This proved especially heinous when I was going through finance-related open-source applications for Maximum PC's tax-time feature. Hint to open-source developers: If your program doesn't look at least as smooth as Excel, people aren't going to want to use it.

User Experience is Full-Circle

The user experience presented by an application--or SourceForge itself, in McKenzie's example--is another determining factor that separates quality open-source from questionable applications. It's difficult to parse out specific example in this case, but there are a number of open-source programs that look as if they were created using a 7-year-old installation mechanism. Worse, these programs won't even leave a means for uninstalling the application, save for whatever you might be able to accomplish in the Windows Control Panel.

I never used to use Revo Uninstaller before I started running these open-source roundups; I now consider it a critical component of my work. Invariably, of the five open-source applications I install each week, two to three will leave junk on my hard drive or, worse, spare folders in critical system areas (My Documents, an uber pet peeve). A quality user experience doesn't begin and end with the actual running of the application--the entire process is as important as the actual program itself, and this is an area where retail applications can shine over their open-source friends.

Help! I Need Somebody! Help!

Finally, there are the support mechanisms. Nothing's more frustrating than having to wade through Google-searched forum posts or those damnable Wikis just to find the answer to a simple question about lost features or a confusing user interface. When possible, open-source software needs to walk users by the hand through every facet of its operation. I'd love to see a common video encoding application actually bundle half of the information found across the Internet about encoding types and mechanisms. Better yet, I'd love for a video encoding app to recognize what file I slap into its "Input" field and give me a step-by-step overlay as to how I can go about converting that video to any format the encoder supports.

Simplifying this concept, quality open-source projects are more than just scatter houses of user-built information across the Internet. They are apps like Pidgin, which integrate comprehensive search listings of potential problems, mailing list support, IRC queries, and large user guides right on the big-and-bold help section off of the main site's homepage. Making the support system as easy as possible for the user to interact with is the mark of a solid open-source project. Querying hundreds of Internet forums to find answers is the surest way to turn a person back to the retail alternative.

One of the greatest advantages of open-source software--for consumers, at least--is that it provides a free method for accomplishing tasks that would otherwise require you to purchase expensive software. But just because a program is priced to nothing doesn't mean that it's automatically going to attract user interest regardless of its design, user experience, or marketing. Free software isn't a free pass to ignore the basic qualifications that retail software has to entertain to attract customers.