Seven Ways the Kindle Beats the iPad

An e-reader price war is underway. Amazon just fired a volley with the recent announcement of two new and improved Kindles, a WiFi-only version for $139 and a 3G model for $189. You can also buy the corresponding Barnes and Noble Nooks for $10 more than the new Kindles. Amazon claims both new Kindles offer improved contrast and month-long battery life. Incidentally, both devices are currently sold out on Amazon in advance or the August 27th release date. The big question is does anyone still need or want an e-reader now that the iPad is available? The answer to that according to our own gadget experts and supporting data from a recent Retrevo Pulse study is definitely, yes. Here are some reasons we think e-readers particularly the new Kindles beat an iPad as an e-reader.

1. They're Lighter and SmallerJeff Bezos has always said Amazon's first priority was to create the best experience for reading a book. Amazon thinks the reader should be free to become part of the author’s world and forget they are holding a book. We don't think that could ever happen with an iPad, it's too heavy, too big and too bright to get out of the readers way and let someone lose themselves in the story.

2. They're Easier on the Eyes An e-reader display is reflective, just like paper, meaning the more light that shines on the surface, the better it looks. An iPad display is transmissive meaning the backlit display shines out of the screen into your eyes just like a TV set or computer display. We admit that e-Reader displays may not look as "black and white" as an iPad but Amazon claims the new Kindles offer improved contrast.

3. They're Possible to Read in Bright Daylight Try taking an iPad to the beach (not that you'd want to risk getting sand in a $500 device) and see how the display gets washed out or filled with glare in the bright sun. An e-reader display, on the other hand, doesn't have a problem with glare and looks even better in bright light.

4. Less Traumatic if Lost or Stolen We don’t think you’d want to leave an iPad under a towel on the beach or by the pool at the hotel partly because it could be a very tempting item for a would-be thief and if it did disappear it could be a major financial loss and potentially big personal security breach. Think about the passwords, Facebook access, contacts, etc that could be compromised. Sure you could pay $99 a year for Mobile Me and wipe out your data on a lost or stolen iPad but wouldn't it provide more peace of mind knowing that you'd only be out a $139 if you left your Kindle on the subway seat? You could restore all your books fast and easy and there wouldn’t be any personal identity information exposed.

5. Month Long Battery life One month between charges vs. ten hours – 'nough said. Yes, the iPad offers a respectable battery life but for many trips you could probably leave the Kindle’s charger at home.

6. Free 3G Connectivity Yes, we know you don't pay any monthly fee if you use WiFi on your iPad but you can download books and surf the web on a 3G connected e-reader supposedly for as long as you own it - for free. You can even buy books overseas using the many GSM-based carriers.

7. They're Much Less Expensive to Purchase You can afford to buy 3 WiFi Kindles for the price of the entry-level iPad and still have plenty of money left over to buy a bunch of books. And as we say, it's a much less valuable gadget to leave lying around.

5 Ways Any Student Can Prevent Losing a Laptop & 5 Ways to Retrieve It

School’s almost back in session and tech thieves are starting to wake from their summer hibernation. But thieves aren’t the only reason laptops go missing. Let’s not forget that laptops also fall victim to students being too trusting or just plain forgetful. Getting ripped off or losing your laptop can be expensive, not only to parents, but to college students on a tight budget, so spending a few extra bucks upfront to secure it could be worth it. We’ll shed a spotlight on laptop loss prevention and recovering it if it does disappear, plus, we'll cover how to back up and encrypt your personal data –just in case.

Stop Thief!  5 Ways to Keep Your Laptop Yours

1. Misperception is Everything Nothing says “I'm a laptop, steal me,” louder than the typical-looking laptop bag. Opt for a neoprene laptop sleeve and disguise it in a messenger bag or backpack.

2. Not That I Don’t Trust You, But… Everyone wants to trust visitors to your dorm or apartment, and for the most part you can. But you never know, so please, lock up your laptop when you’re gone.

3. I’ll Be Right Back Never, ever, ever leave your laptop unattended. It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many people just step away for a minute and Ka-Blamo! It’s gone.

4. Out of Sight Lock your laptop in your trunk when you’re not taking it with you. Leaving it in plain sight is a red face waiting to happen.

5. Leash Your Laptop 5. Most of you already have a Universal Security Slot (USS) on the side of your laptop that can be used to connect a cable or alarm leash. For under $40, you can leash your laptop to just about anything that’s bolted down with a Kensington 64068F. Belkin makes similar a device that sells for around $47 that sounds an alarm if it's removed.

Give It Back, Punk Theft recovery apps reside on your computer’s hard drive or in the BIOS. As soon as the laptop connects to the Internet, it sends a recovery report with its current location. These apps will e-mail you, delete files, record what’s being typed, and some will even take a webcam photo of the perp in action. Some of these apps even let you track a lost or stolen cell phone or MP3 player. 5 Ways to Catch a Thief

1. LoJack for Laptops Computrace LoJack for Laptops, by Absolute Software, will run you $45 a year, but it can locate your laptop, remotely freeze files, including the OS, and display a custom message on the screen like “Give My Laptop Back” (or heavier worded messages). In fact, Dell and other major vendors pre-install Computrace directly into BIOS to immunize laptops from wipes and re-installations.

2. Laptop Cop  LaptopCop has a recovery team that works with the police to monitor after-theft activity and remotely control your laptop. You can retrieve and delete files, watch and record what the user is doing, and geo-locate in real-time where the laptop is within 60 feet. It costs $50 for a 1 year license, $100 for 3 years.

3. GadgetTrak GadgetTrak works to recovery mobile phones, laptops (Mac or PC), and flash drives. Their laptop, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile versions are all priced at $35 per year and will send you an email with your device’s location with 10 meters. And if you have a webcam on your laptop, it can snap a picture of that dirty little thief.

4. iHound On the inexpensive end, iHound Software can track your iPad, iPod, iPhone, or other USB device and pin point its location on a map for $4. You can download it from the Apple App Store.

5. LAlarm This one’s free. LAlarm makes free software that can sound a perimeter alarm if your laptop gets up and walks away from a defined area. It also comes with a Data Destruction feature that eliminates personal data if our laptop is taken. You can also do things like recover your data and program your laptop’s response to being stolen.

Extra Protection

Back It Up & Encrypt It It’s smart to keep sensitive information on a USB drive or in the, "Cloud." Sites like Backupify will give you 2GB of free cloud storage or you can get up to 25GB for $60 per year. For added protection, encrypt all the data on your disk. There are many drive encryption programs on the market. Some versions of Vista and Windows 7 include BitLocker Drive Encryption. You could also use a free open-source on-the-fly encryption program like truecypt.

Sync It. Find It. Delete It. MobileMe can store your contacts, calendar, and emails in a cloud and sync up your iPad, iPhone, PC and Mac. Check out their Find My iPhone App. You can download their Find My iPhone App for free in iTunes. It can locate your iPhone or iPad on a map and remotely display a message on-screen or activate a sound to help you find it. Plus, once it’s considered missing, you can remotely set a passcode and wipe your data so others cannot access it. Having your devices and personal data ripped off can really ruin your semester so defend yourself. Even if a thief catches you off-guard, you can ruin their score by rendering the device useless or by getting it back and handing them over to the cops. If you do lose your laptop or mobile phone, you can always play “detective” and track it down. Worst case scenario: you still have your data backed up, so you can keep your life on track.

Should You Be Thinking About 3D Home Movies and Photos?

Avatar may have cost around 300 million dollars to make and the 3D cameras probably accounted for a share of that but now that 3D is in the living room is it time to consider making your next camera or camcorder 3D? The answer to that question depends on how far ahead of the 3D curve you want to be. Although there appears to be standards in place for still photo and video file formats getting a photo or video to display on your TV, computer, iPad or other devices might not be as easy today as it will be in the future.

Choices for Consumers Are Limited Even if you wanted to be the first one on your block to take 3D photos and home movies, you'd find the gear expensive and the selection limited although when we went looking for 3D cameras we came up with an interesting mix of gear that will cost you anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars to over $20,000. Here's a roundup of some 3D cameras and camcorders:

Fuji FinePix Real 3D W1 To create a 3D picture you normally need two lenses separated by about the same distance as your eyes. Fuji was one of the first, if not the first to offer a point and shoot 3D camera with two lenses. You can still take 2D pictures with it record 2D images to a standard JPEG file. The camera also supports the new MPO 3D file format (see below). This 10MP 3D camera is not cheap and costs around $800.

How Will You View Your 3D Photos? A file format called MPO (Multi Picture Object) appears to be the accepted format for 3D images. We expect support for viewing MPO files on 3DTVs, computers, tablets or special viewers will become commonplace. Some 3DTVs support MPO files already. We read about someone who took a USB drive loaded with MPO files from his Fuji 3D camera into a store, displayed them on an LG 47LX6500 and said they looked great. Unfortunately 3D movies is another story. We are also sure to see more applications like StereoPhoto Maker that can take MPO files and turn them into stereoscopic images that can be viewed as anaglyphs with those old red and blue cardboard glasses.

Sony Says Their New Cyber-Shots Are World's Smallest 3D Cameras Sony recently announced two new Cyber-shot point and shoot cameras that use a novel technique for generating 3D images with only one lens. The DSC-WX5 and DSC-TX9 use a variation of Sony's Sweep Panorama mode that stitches together images from a "panning" camera into a 3D image that can be viewed on "compatible" 3DTVs, presumably Sony's. Both cameras will go on sale in September, with the DSC-WX5 costing around $300 and the DSC-TX9 around $400.

Aiptek 3D-HD Camcorder Will Cost $199.99 You'll have to wait until August 15th for this very attractively priced 3D camcorder ($199.99). They say you can view 3D recordings right on the screen without glasses using "Parallax Barrier" technology. We're curious to see how that looks. There are plenty of options to watch 3D videos shot on the Aiptek; you can output the MPEG4 file to a 3DTV (and keep your fingers crossed), you can play (or edit) your video on an NVIDIA 3D Vision-equipped computer, you can turn it into an anaglyph and watch the video with those old red and blue cardboard glasses or you can upload it to YouTube that now supports 720p, "3D" videos.

Good Old Fashioned Stereo Pictures from Your DSLR This novel add-on can turn many DSLRs into 3D cameras. The Stereo Lens-In-a-Cap from Loreo costs around $150 and fits onto the front of your DSLR. You can print the "side-by-side" images and view them a Loreo viewer or view them on a computer screen with their inexpensive viewer

New Panasonic 3D Camera Due Out Any Day You may only have to wait a few more days for a chance to plunk down $21,000 for a new "consumer-level" Panasonic camcorder called the AG-3DA1. The 6.6-pound camcorder uses 3-MOS imagers to record full HD 1080p video in 3D. The camera stores over 300MB a minute to SDHC cards. We sure hope Panasonic has something more affordable in the way of 3D camcorders for the holiday season.

Pretty Slim 3D Pickins' With all the major TV manufacturers bringing 3DTVs to the market, it's only a matter of time before we see more affordable 3D cameras and camcorder from companies like Samsung, Panasonic, and Sony. We imagine Canon and Nikon will have to get on board too. However, for now the market for 3D cameras and camcorders is just emerging and there aren't a lot of products to choose but we look forward to the holiday season and CES 2011 for new 3D camera announcements./td>