booking

DailyCandy and the blogs-to-books trend

NEW YORK--Tuesday night was the first time I'd been to a digital-media-related event at a bookstore, unless you count the time that Google threw a conference at the New York Public Library.

It was the launch party for girly e-newsletter DailyCandy's new book, The DailyCandy Lexicon: Words That Don't Exist But Should, at the McNally Robinson bookstore-cafe in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood. Refreshments consisted of rum cocktails and, not surprisingly, candy.

Sample entry in the book: "textual frustration: a late-night text exchange that fails to result in old-fashioned lip-locking." DailyCandy staffers told me that about … Read more

My MacBook Air dies while Google Docs is offline

I've been a proponent of the Cloud and hosted applications for quite some time but today I am dramatically feeling the effects of having zero control over my infrastructure and the inability to get anything when a Cloud provider has issues.

My MacBook Air is clearly in it's death-throes just six months after purchase and today Google Docs was down for over an hour. I basically have no way to do any real work at this point as I can't use most of my applications and can't get to my documents on Google. I'm a … Read more

Battle of the breeze: MSI Wind vs. MacBook Air

Remember back in the day when we went nuts and compared a Samsung Q1 Ultra to an Apple Newton? We've been eating the crazy pills again. Today, we woke up and decided we'd do another mental comparison--the MSI Wind versus the similarly gusty MacBook Air.

Despite the price disparity, they're both laptops, they're both ultraportable, they both have keyboards and screens, and they're both so gorgeous they cause random strangers to accost you in the street, demanding to know where you got them from. So which is best? The great silver hope from Apple, or … Read more

Apple MacBook: Change is in the Air

The Apple MacBook Air has been a ground-breaking first-generation product (in my opinion). So, what will Apple do to top it when an update comes later this year? There are some telling indicators already. This is what I expect--and hope for--as a user.

First, a disclaimer. I am not an Apple fanatic. The MacBook Air is the first Apple product I have ever used for more than a few days. For well over a decade, I have been wedded to Wintel (Windows-Intel) laptops.

Before I dive into upcoming features, I should also mention that I have been extremely pleased with … Read more

Looking back, looking ahead: The week in laptops

Ah, summer. Summer means long sunny days, vacations at the beach, and--if you're in the United States--the Independence Day holiday. Which is why this weekly wrap-up is coming a day early: tomorrow my colleagues and I will be busy eating grilled meat and watching fireworks, all in the name of patriotism.

Because it spans the middle months of the calendar, summer can also be a time of reflection. We took the opportunity this week to look back on all that's happened so far this year and came up with a list of notable notebooks from the first half of 2008. … Read more

Apple cuts price of flash-drive MacBook Air

Updated 2 p.m. PDT Monday to clarify that Apple has cut the price of a MacBook Air with a solid-state hard drive and faster processor by $500 total.

Apple has quietly reduced the price of the flash-memory version of the MacBook Air.

Appleinsider tipped us to the new price, which can be found at the online Apple Store. Before today, you would have paid a $999 premium if you wanted a MacBook Air with a solid-state hard drive, but Apple has reduced that premium to $599. It's also now cheaper to upgrade the processor from 1.6GHz to … Read more

Fujitsu laptop strikes (pink) gold

All laptop makers have joined the fashion bandwagon--some later than others--so it's no surprise that Fujitsu is continuing to experiment with its runway persona. The Japanese company has gone through some interesting evolutionary phases of its designer laptops, from finishes in ubiquitous pink to an odd cedar and now precious metals, at least in name.

The Fujitsu LifeBook P8010E has already gotten a good review from CNET (7.5), but its new "Limited Pink Gold Edition" is trying to sell beauty as well as brain and brawn with such aesthetic features as a high-gloss finish and chrome … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 755: Issues of men and womthem

Thorny gender issues arise on Facebook, Bill Gates takes his leave, Sony announces movie downloads without any movies but their own, and anyone in North Carolina who's offended by their own, inadvertently rude "WTF" license plate can get it replaced at no cost. But we say: drive it with pride! Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 755

For Bill Gates, the next phase begins http://news.cnet.com/For-Bill-Gates%2C-the-next-phase-begins/2009-1014_3-6242476.html

Sony yet to sign PSN movie download deals http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11133&Itemid=2… Read more

David Sedaris: I'm a Mac

SAN FRANCISCO--The staff of Beyond Binary has been working hard, so I decided to take the whole crew on a field trip Thursday night to hear our favorite author--David Sedaris.

Sedaris was at a local bookstore to read from his latest tome, When You are Engulfed in Flames. There wasn't time before his reading for in-depth questions, but I did manage to get in a short one while he signed a book for a co-worker.

I went for the obvious one--Mac or PC?

"Mac," he told me.

In the audience question and answer session, he went into … Read more

Dual-display e-reader opens new chapter

In what seems like an eternity ago, Crave posted an item about a dual-LCD concept that was designed as a digital newspaper of sorts, folding at the center like a broadsheet. Now, finally, some universities are reportedly working on a prototype based on similar principles for e-books.

Researchers from Berkeley and Maryland are developing a dual-screen reader with digital pages that can be turned by way of a built-in trackball, according to Engadget. And for flexibility the two displays can be separated and viewed horizontally if needed.

There have been other double-display portable computers on the market, though none made … Read more