eBook Users Have No Regrets

It seems that those of us who have already mode the move to electronic books are very well served indeed by them, apparently regardless of the hardware options.

Indeed, word comes via RegHardware of a survey from industry analysts NPD that those who’ve sprung for ebook reading hardware are very pleased indeed with their purchases. Apparently, 93% of those who’ve picked up an ebook reader fall into either the “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” camps in NPD’s research. Perhaps more interesting still is the fact that only 2% of those surveyed actually said that they weren’t satisfied with their devices.

Sony Considering Charging for PSN

It seems that the rumours that Sony was seriously considering implementing a charge for the use of its PlayStation Network service weren’t entirely unfounded. Sony execs have admitted that the idea is an attractive one.

Word comes from IGN of an interview with Sony’s senior vice president of marketing, Peter Dille, who wouldn’t be drawn as to just whether or not Sony had already made a decision on whether or not it would charge for the service yet, but he puts paid to any lingering doubt about Sony wanting to monetise the service current service. If so, it could well be the beginning of a fairly fundamental shift in the console landscape.

PSP Go Hovering in Limbo

It seems that the overall response to Sony’s PSP Go, the solid-state-only version of its PlayStation Portable handheld games device.

It's a bit of a strange device alright...

Word comes from Engadget that Sony might well be considering something of a relaunch of the device after the lacklustre launch and the fact that the device seems to have managed to fade from the public consciousness incredibly quickly. It’s an unusual tactic, as it effectively announces to the more observant among your potential customers that things aren’t going quite as well as you might initially have expected them to.

Buffalo to Release PS3-Specific Drives

It seems that Buffalo is to launch two new drives, specifically made to cater to those of us using Sony’s PlayStation 3 console as a media player, and somehow, it seems an interesting prospect.

TGDaily is carrying word of the two new drives from Buffalo, news of which has hit in the same week as the announcement that Microsoft is to offer a 250GB external drive for sale, initially at least, only in Japan for its Xbox 360. Still, the drives from Buffalo seem a little heavier-duty than Microsoft’s offering, boasting fully 500GB of external storage for the Sony device.

Sony Ericsson Get Green with the Aspen

Quite why Sony Ericsson have decided to name their new smartphone after a ski resort has not been revealed as yet within their press utterances, but questions about the name aside, the new Aspen is today being heavily promoted for its green credentials.

Part of the company’s ‘GreenHeart’ portfolio, the Sony Ericsson Aspen, combines a touch-screen with a qwerty keyboard, while they trumpet the fact that you can “organise and adapt panels to change during the day and use slide view for quick access to common features”. It comes complete with a 3.2 megapixel camera, A-GPS with Google Maps, 3.5-mm audio jack, WiFi, and microSD expansion, not to mention Wndows Mobile 6.5.3.

Intimate Tech: Nvidia’s GF100

Over the course of the last couple of months, we’ve been hearing an awful lot from Nvidia. While a lot of that attention has been focused on the upcoming release of Nvidia’s second generation Tegra (for now still tentatively referred to as “Tegra 2”), there’s been more and more focus on the upcoming GF100.

The card itself looks a little bulky...

For now, there are a few fairly vital bits and pieces that we just don’t know about the GF100, but there’s still enough floating around to get a very solid picture indeed of what Nvidia is going with the new hardware. For those who are saying, as Shelton did, “Wait… what happened Fermi?” there’s at least the fact that we’re told the GF-100 is Fermi-derived, so we know it has that history behind it at least.

In Simple Terms:

For now, we don’t know the clock-speed of the GF100, and as a result there’s precious little to know about the power consumption for now, except that it’s already been noted to be a little heavier on power than Nvidia’s own GT200.

Still, before we get bogged down in technical terms, we can help to explain a bit about the GF100 and why there’s so much fuss about it since CES, in terms that just about anyone can understand. It’s relatively simple, but it seems as though very few people have actually tried to describe the GF100 in simple terms.

GF100 was initially just the codename, many have pointed out that it doesn’t stand for GeForce, as some expected, but for Graphics-Fermi. Still, it looks as though the moniker has stuck, and Nvidia could well launch the card as GF100. It was originally meant to be released last year, but rumour has it that due to unusually low yields it’s been bumped back, with many expressing fears that the release date is still looking a little hazy now, despite the fact that Nvidia is saying we’ll see it in March.

Amazon Profits Skyrocket

It seems that Amazon has been living it up, thanks in no small part to massive sales of its Kindle ebook reader over the Christmas block.

Amazon seems to have KINDLED a virtual book market... please, shoot me.

According to Cnet, Amazon has had a very fine year indeed, with revenue up to $9.52 billion, a fairly staggering increase on last year, to the tune of 42%. Indeed, reports also indicate that Amazon has seen profits rise by around the 70% mark, which is nothing to be sneezed at. Apparently, the fourth quarter of last year (which happily enough includes both Christmas and the US’s Black Friday sales) was the most profitable quarter the company has ever seen.

PlayStation 3 Hack Released

It seems that the recently revealed hack for Sony’s PlayStation 3 has now been released to the web at large through the medium of the hacker, George “Geohot” Hotz’, blog.

With many questioning the veracity of Hotz’ claim that he had managed to hack the PlayStation 3, or simply to what extent that hack might be useful, it seems that the most sensible move would be to simply release the hack into the wild and see just what the community at large can do with it. Still, it’s well worth keeping in mind that this is the same man who originally managed to hack the iPhone.

Perhaps the most detailed (without being so complex as to be practically incomprehensible) writeup on the first exploit to hit the PS3 has come from Eurogamer.net, which quickly points out that,

Avatar Officially Defeats Titanic

After some fairly dubious initial reviews about its storyline, it seems that James Cameron’s Avatar has finally unseated Titanic as the biggest blockbuster of all time.

The film has long been expected to pass the previous record holder, Cameron’s own Titanic, out in terms of pure ticket sales and has just generally being touted as the biggest movie ever, in case anyone hadn’t quite gotten the point yet. It’s also very interesting to note that it seems to be the fact that the film is one of the first truly major releases to boast 3D, an option that it seems the vast majority of those who have gone to see it have taken advantage of.

PS3 Hacked by Hotz

The BBC got itself a bit of an exclusive this morning when they claimed to have spoken to a hacker who unlocked the iPhone as a teenager but has now hacked the PS3.

George Hotz had his wicked way with the PS3.

No doubt an unpopular scamp around Sony Towers this morning, George Hotz said the hack, which could allow people to run pirated games or homemade software, took him five weeks. He told the Beeb he was still refining the technique but intended to post full details online soon. Sounding like he might have some underlying psychological issues he also told how, “I can now do whatever I want with the system. It’s like I’ve got an awesome new power – I’m just not sure how to wield it”. See, he sounds like a He-Man villain.