Amazon says eBooks outsell hardback books for the first time

Amazon report that in the second quarter 2010 it sold 143 ebooks for every 100 hardback books. Amazon Kindle ebook reader price fell from £200 to £149 (3G+Wifi) or £109 (Wifi) in June 2010 and concommitantly sales of ebooks have risen threefold. But less than 10% of US population own an ebook reader so it will be several years before ebooks outgrow sales of paperbacks and hardbacks. source: Computer Shopper (October 2010). 

What size can the photos be printed up to after using a Plustek 35mm film scanner?

What size can the photos be printed up to for good quality after using a Plustek 35mm film scanner? asked Claire. In short you need a 3600dpi film scanner for A4 or A3 size prints and a 7200dpi film scanner for A3 size prints when the film is cropped. Here are my calculations:

• 35mm film is 36mm (1.41") horizontal x 24mm (0.94") vertical. 

• For high quality prints you need to print out typically using 300 pixels per inch.

An A4 print (11.7" x 8.3") needs:- 

• 11.7" x 300 pixels = 3510 pixels horizontal 
• 8.3" x 300 pixels =  1692 pixels vertical

An A3 print (16.5" x 11.7") needs:- 

• 16.5" x 300 pixels = 4950 pixels horizontal 
• 11.7" x 300 pixels vertical = 3510 pixels vertical.

The optical resolution dpi (dots per inch) of film scanners varies. Both horizontal and vertical pixels must be sufficient to give high quality prints. 

• 1800dpi film scanner
• 1800 x 1.41" = 2538 pixels horizontal (insufficient pixels to print to A3 or A4 size)
• 1800 x 0.94" = 1692 pixels vertical (sufficient pixels to print to A4 size, insufficient for A3 size)
• 3600dpi film scanner
• 3600 x 1.41" = 5076 pixels horizontal (sufficient pixels to print to A3 or A4 size)
• 3600 x 0.94" = 3384 pixels vertical (sufficient pixels to print to A3 or A4 size)

Rarely do you want to print to larger than A3 size so why are some film scanners 7200dpi optical resolution? The reason is that if you crop your film you will have less film to be scanned and therefore need the 7200dpi resolution. For example, if you crop your film by 50% then:-

• 7200dpi film scanner
• 7200 x 1.41"/2 = 5076 pixels horizontal (sufficient pixels to print to A3 or A4 size)
• 7200 x 0.94"/2 = 3384 pixels vertical (sufficient pixels to print to A3 or A4 size)
• 3600dpi film scanner
• 3600 x 1.41"/2 = 2538 pixels horizontal (insufficient pixels to print to A3 or A4 size)
• 3600 x 0.94"/2 = 1692 pixels vertical (sufficient pixels to print to A4 size, insufficient for A3 size)

Download the Excel spreadsheet Scanning Calculator by Dennis Curtin at shortcourses.com for:-

• pixels required per inch of print (as above)
• file sizes (depends on colour or bit depth of the scan eg 24 or 36 bit depth)

Amazon Kindle - Amazons' vision is to have every book written all available in under 60 seconds'

What is a smartphone?

Share of 2010 Q1 smartphone sales
 to end users by operating system,
according to Gartner.

A smartphone is a mobile phone that offers more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary basic 'feature phone'. Smartphones and feature phones may be thought of as handheld computers integrated within a mobile telephone, but while most feature phones are able to run applications based on platforms such as Java, a smartphone allows the user to install and run more advanced software applications ('Apps' eg Android Market) based on a complete operating system such as Google Android, Symbian, Blackberry RIM, Apple iOS, Microsoft Windows mobile or Linux. 

Simon - the first
Smartphone in 1992

The very first smartphone was designed by IBM in 1992. This phone called 'Simon' contained a calendar, address book, calculator, note pad, e-mail world clock, games and fax with a touch screen instead of buttons. 

So what can be called a smartphone? A smartphone can be defined as:

“a mobile phone that provides additional information accessing features. Any mobile telephone that combines voice services with e-mail, fax, pager or Internet access is called a smart phone” (by CEVA). 
or


"Electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or other information appliance". 
or


"a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, often with PC-like functionality. There is no industry standard definition of a smartphone. ..." 

Acer Stream
runs on Android

Today’s smartphones have Internet access, high speed downloads & uploads (High-Speed Downlink & Uplink Packet Access - HSDPA & HSUPA) and Bluetooth connectivity. They also enable you to edit your information on-the-go including presentations. An Adobe Acrobat Reader is installed so you can view PDFs. That is just the tip of the iceberg, with many note taking & recording applications also available.

Archos 5 Internet Tablet
runs Android OS also
used in Smartphones

Current smartphones also go beyond simple information access, and into the realms of entertainment; some of the larger-screened phones are almost akin to dedicated portable media players such as the Archos 5. Many smartphones also include games pre-installed on the device, or available through an application market after sale. Video and audio playing applications are present on most phones these days, so you can have your phone, mp3 player and work documents all on one handy device.

Smartphones are, in essence just super mobile phones. You can call and text just as you can on a normal mobile phone, but there is so much more available. With the added functionality and the dedicated operating system also comes customisability which is just not possible on a conventional phone – the look and feel can be changed completely, as seen in our blog ‘What is Android?’

Sound good? Have a look at the range of smartphones available from Datamind.

What is Android?

Android is an open-source mobile platform based on the operation system Linux, developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance. The world's first Android-powered phone was announced by T-Mobile on September 23^rd, 2008 with the G1 available to consumers on October 22^nd. The Android source code was made available on 21^st September 2008. Obviously, Android is a fairly new operating system (Windows Mobile appeared in 2003, and Symbian OS 6 was released in 2001) however this does not mean it is inferior. Quite the opposite, as the platform has been built from scratch to work with the newest touch screen devices.

Android Inc. says “it was built to be truly open”, allowing developers to create their own applications and make them available on the Android Market and which can be downloaded direct to the phone. Since there are more than 70,000 apps currently available on Android Market; with Android you are spoilt for choice. Also, being created partly by Google means that Android integrates easily with all of Google’s own products, such as Gmail and Maps.

In addition to the huge array of apps, the open-source nature of the platform means that new technologies and features can quickly be added to the system and taken advantage of. The newest version of Android is V2.2, called Froyo, and from the improvements we can see just how useful this open-source platform is. Announced updates include:

• Up to 5x faster than Android 2.1 (Éclair)
• Dedicated shortcuts on the home screen
• Multiple keyboard languages
• Portable Wi-Fi hotspot capability

So you have a mobile platform which is getting better all the time, with more apps than you could ever need. What else? Well, one of the problems with conventional mobile platforms is that everyone’s looks the same. You can change the colour, maybe change the desktop wallpaper. However, with Android’s open-source system if you’re not happy with something then chances are someone, somewhere, has come up with a fix. A quick search reveals that you can completely change the feel of your system, get new themes or even down to getting a new style of clock on the home screen.

Android say on their website:

“With devices built on the Android Platform, users are able to fully tailor the phone to their interests. They can swap out the phone's homescreen, the style of the dialler, or any of the applications. They can even instruct their phones to use their favourite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos”.

As you saw in our previous blog, Android is expected to rapidly increase their market share and with the features, apps and advances of Android it is not all that surprising!

Acer Android Smartphones & Archos Android Tablets

Acer Smartphones with Android | Archos 5 Internet Tablet & Archos 7 & 8 Home Tablets | Compare specs Android Acer v HTC Smartphones v Archos Tablets (xls file)

Portions of this page are reproduced from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

Archos 7 Home Tablet and the Android Market

Android Summary

Android is Google's operating system for mobile devices based on ARM architecture. Android is a competitor to the Nokia Symbian platform, Apple's iOS for the iPhone and Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Windows Phone for mobile devices all based on ARM architecture.

Android Market Share

Smartphone Market Share for Android (wikipedia):- By Q2 2009, Android had 2.8% market share of the worldwide smartphone market rising to 3.5% in Q3 2009, 5.2% in November 2009, 9% in February 2010 and 13%  in May 2010, only 0.2% behind Microsoft. Android's Q1 2010 US was 28% share surpassing the 21% iPhone share. In June 2010 Android was getting 160,000 new users per day up from 100,000 per day in May 2010.

In October, 2009, Gartner Inc. predicted that by 2012, Android would become the world's second most popular smartphone platform, behind Nokia's Symbian OS, BlackBerry would fall from 2nd to 5th place, iPhone would remain in 3rd place and Microsoft's Windows Mobile would remain in 4th place. 

Android also competes with Blackberry for use in smartphones, tablets, portable media players and book e-readers.

Archos 7 Home Tablet (now in stock at DataMind.co.uk) has an Android 1.5 (Cupcake) operating system - released by Google in April 2009. Android 2.1 (Eclair) released January 2010 has support for more screen sizes and resolutions.

Richard asked DataMind.co.uk today "Do you know if Archos 7 Home Tablet 8gb can be upgraded to android 2.1 or if there's a way of getting marketplace onto it?"

Android 2.1 Eclair

Android 1.5 Cupcake

The Android Market is an online software store developed by Google for Android devices (wikipedia). An application program ("app") called "Market" is preinstalled on some Android devices and allows users to browse and download apps published by third-party developers, hosted on Android Market. Android market emphasis is on smartphones. Minimal hardware requirements for submissions include : GPS, compass, 2-MP autofocus camera, 3-axis accelerometer and 9 physical buttons. 

Android devices are listed in Wikipedia including Smartphones (Acer, HTC etc), Tablet Computers incl. PMP (Archos 5 IT, Archos 7 Home Tablet etc) & E-Reader devices.


AppsLib is for Archos devices and tablets that are running Android. AppsLib has Social, Games, Multimedia etc applications.


ArchosFans post Operation Unbrickable: The quest for Google Apps has information about running Android apps on Archos 7 Home Tablet (A7HT) including Android Market, Gmail, GMaps, Google Talk and Google Calendar but Abobe Flash will not work.

Archos 8 Home Tablet

www.Data-Mind.co.uk are taking pre-orders (no credit card details required now) for Archos 8 Home Tablet 4gb.

A pre Cebit show German Archos press release states that the Archos 8 Home Tablet 4gb is for sale in May at 149 Euros:-

"ARCHOS 8 Home Tablet

With a large 8-inch touch screen makes the "ARCHOS 8 Home Tablet" primarily for surfing the Internet for web services and video playback. The Home Tablet can also be used as a digital picture frame.

With only 12 mm in height and less than 400 grams of weight, is the "ARCHOS 8" a product that can be used as a digital picture frame and as a mobile video player or Internet browser.

The "ARCHOS 8 Home Tablet" will be available from May 2010 with 4 GB to a suggested retail price of 149 euros."

ARCHOS Home Slate - A70HB

Archos press release at cebit show - ARCHOS Home Slate - A70HB

Pre-order at www.Data-Mind.co.uk

Archos 5 Internet Tablet - press release at Cebit show

Archos 5 Internet Tablet - press release at Cebit show. Android OS - 5" screen.

Archos 5 IT available in stock at www.Data-Mind.co.uk from £199.

Archos 9 Internet Tablet - press release at Cebit

Archos 9 Press Release. Runs Windows 7 with a 9" screen

Archos 9 Internet Tablet available in stock now at www.Data-Mind.co.uk here for £429.

Archos 7 Android born - named as Archos 7 Home Tablet at Cebit show

Pre-Order Now the Archos 7 Home Tablet for shipment worldwide during April or May!

DataMind inadvertently released news of the 'foetal' Archos 7 Android (codename A70K) on January 27th 2010. The previous day DataMind had received a Powerpoint file from an Archos distributor. The distributor had been given the file by an unnamed person who had failed to explain to the distributor that the Archos 7 Android Powerpoint was in fact under embargo until Cebit.

The Powerpoint slide as reported by Archosfans 

On the 28th January Archos UK phoned DataMind and requested we pull the news from our site because, as DataMind then learnt, the information was under embargo. DataMind immediately acceded to their request. But by this time the Archos 7 Android news, via ArchosFans, was in the Blogosphere and reported by Stuff.tv, Crunchgear, Carrypad, Wirefresh, T3, Engadget,  Gizmodo, i4u, imp3.net (japanese) and cnetfrance (french) amongst other bloggers.

Entirely coincidently and perhaps fortuitously on 27th February Apple iPad was announced worldwide by Steve Jobs. As people were discussing the WiFi iPad specs they were also comparing it to the less expensive Archos 7 Android that was 'leaked' the same day! The iPad 16gb has a 9.7" diagonal screen with 1GHz, WiFi & Bluetooth and a slated £350 - over twice the price of Archos 7 Home Tablet.

Originally DataMind posted the news on ArchosFans.com on 27 January but the Archos 7 Android news spread like wildfire on the internet so we had hundreds of links to "DataMind "Archos 7 Android"" within a week and 19,000 links to the officially unannounced "Archos 7 Android". If a leak was to occur any Archos PR machine couldn't have paid for a better timing of Archos 7 Android 'leaked news'!

Now 6 weeks later Archos shows the device at the huge Cebit Germany show - the Archos 7 Home Tablet was 'born' on 2nd March 2010. The Archos UK site also features the product.

Archos 7 Home Tablet image courtesy of Archos via cnet.com

image: aving.net

Archos 7 Home Tablet is available to Pre-Order Now for £129.99 incl.vat (no credit card details are taken when you pre-order) at www.Data-Mind.co.uk

Why is Archos 7 Home Tablet such great value?

At 2 minutes Charbax (probably the worlds greatest exponent of Archos devices!) does a great job of explaining why the Archos 7 Home Tablet 2gb at £130 inc.vat ($179/Euro 149) is 20% less expensive than the equivalent Archos 5 Internet Tablet Android.

DataMind  sells the 8gb Archos 5 Internet Tablet for £200 inc.vat. Assuming a gb costs an extra £6 you'd expect a 2gb model to sell for £165. The Archos 7 Home Tablet uses a slower 600 mhz processor (ARM 9 Rockchip 2808 processor running at 600 mhz) than the faster 800mhz processor used in the Archos 5 Internet Tablet (OMAP 3440 ARM Cortex A8 800mhz).

DataMind sell the Archos 7 Home Tablet for £130 - thats 20% (£35) less than an equivalent Archos 5 Internet Tablet but with a screen size increased from 5" to 7" diagonal.

JKK Mobile reviews Archos 7 Home Tablet from Cebit too:-

Pre-Order Now the Archos 7 Home Tablet for shipment worldwide during April or May!

Chat with Charbax about Archos 7 Home Tablet on the ArchosFans Forum and spec.

Archos 9 - more stock available at Data-Mind.co.uk

DataMind will be getting further stock of Archos 9 at Data-Mind.co.uk  (£470 inc.vat) on Wednesday 16th December for shipment to arrive to UK customers on Thursday 17 December 2009. Just in time for Xmas!

Archos 9 runs on Windows 7 with a 60gb hard disk and 9" screen and plays multimedia including HD video.

Archos 1 budget mp3 player

Following on from the Archos Clipper, Vision 2 and Vision 3  is the £30 Archos Vision 1. The 1.5-inch LCD screen lack video support but does support MP3, WAV, WMA, APE, FLAC,  music files and plays continuously for 20 hours at a single charge. 4gb device available end November 2009.

The cheapest 4GB 1.5" (128×128 resolution) Mp3 player in the world, positioned at 4x cheaper than the ipod nano and weighing 28g.

Whats the difference between Archos 2 and Archos 2 vision?

Archos 2 vision

V

Archos 2

• Availability: Archos 2 is no longer available whilst Archos 2 vision is in stock at DataMind now! 
• Spec: with Archos 2 vision view and store images. You can't view images on Archos 2
• only the 8gb is available not 16gb
• Colour: Archos 2 vision available in red and chocolate brown, Archos 2 in white, black and purple

Feature Differences	Archos 2 vision	Archos 2
Plays WAV	Yes	No
Tactile slider	browse lists, control volume by caressing screen	buttons
Screen	2" - 220 x 176 pixels	1.8" - 128 x 160 pixels
Weight	38g	50g
Size	95x52x9 mm (35% larger)	82mmx44mmx9mm

Archos Android Phone Tablet

Archos has an Android Phone Tablet via PMPToday

Available from Data-Mind.co.uk probably Q1 2010

Sat, Sep 26, 2009Archos, Mobile Phone
As PMPToday advise today: a very, very interesting announcement today from Archos. No official name for the Phone Tablet yet but it’s touchscreen, shiny and equipped with a 1GHz ARM Cortex processor. It will be official unveiled with features and everything at the next CES. Other known features include 3.5G connectivity and a big 4.3-inch screen supporting an 854 x 480 resolution, also a 10mm slimness.


Archos - Android Smartphone - introduced by Mr Rochas - to be launched at CES in Las Vegas, January 2010

PenPower mini scaneye 11 - a pen scanner which reads words out aloud

The PenPower mini scaneye 11 sample has been sitting on my desk for ages. Today I got around to testing this Korean designed usb pen scanner. Once sentences are scanned the words appear instantly on your laptop or PC. You can edit these words to incorporate into your essay. As you scan the words they can be read out aloud - a great feature for dyslexics or foreign language students.

PenPower mini scaneye 11 has a couple of features which its nearest competitor, C-Pen 20 does not have; namely reading words out aloud and scanning images such as logos. This latter feature was available with JNotes on the older C-Pen 600c/800c models but C-Pen 20 did away with scanning images, which is a pity.

Students get Windows 7 for £30 via Microsoft

Microsoft are offering students the opportunity to buy Windows 7 for an amazing discounted price, £30 for either Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional.

You can take advantage of this offer from October 1st but you will need to be quick as it is for a limited time only and is only eligible to college and university students with a valid .EDU email address (an email address given by the college or university, for example: Suzanne@leeds.ac.uk ), a PC that is currently running a genuine copy of Windows Vista or Windows XP and can run Windows 7.

This offer will be available from 1st October so please check back then for details on how to take advantage of this great offer.

Why Windows 7?

We have designed and refined Windows 7 based on your input. You’ve essentially asked for a PC that’s simple to use-one that’s faster, easier, and works the way you want. So we made hundreds of basic improvements, and a few you might not have imagined. From switching between programs to recording TV, Windows 7 simplifies the way you use your PC-and the way your PC connects with the world.

Click here for the £30 Windows 7 offer from Microsoft.

For more information on these features and more that we think you'll really like, click here

News via ElectricPig.

Archos 5 Android Internet Tablet hands-on [Video]

SlashGear stopped by the Archos launch event last night for the company’s new Android-powered Internet Tablet, the Archos 5. The idea is straightforward: all of Archos’ usual media-centric abilities are there, including broad codec support and the ability to play local and network-based content, but rather than their home-grown Linux-based OS the French company has turned to Android and a custom UI shell.

Stand-out specifications include WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth (with straightforward pairing to your cellphone, for mobile internet access), a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen (using a resistive, not capacitive, panel) and an 800MHz OPAP3440 processor. ...

As you can see from our hands-on images, the QWERTY is well-spaced (especially when you compare it to what’s on offer from the HTC Hero) though we wouldn’t want to do document creation on the PMP; incidentally, while at release the Archos 5 will only support viewing Office documents and PDFs, editing is expected to be added before the end of the year.

As you’d expect from a media-centric company, the Archos 5 concentrates its efforts on audio, video and picture playback. As well as being capable of 720p output via HDMI, there are various docks on offer including a DVR Station which allows you to record VGA-quality TV and other video directly onto the PMP’s internal storage. Alternatively you can surf the web at 1,280 x 720 resolution on your HDTV, with either the optional ultra-thin QWERTY keyboard, Archos’ existing mini-keyboard remote, or the on-screen ‘board (or indeed any Bluetooth keyboard and mouse).

Still, since this is Android there are apps to be had, though Archos would prefer you to source those through their own AppsLib store (which features software fettled for the larger display). ... Archos have also cherry-picked a selection of apps to preinstall, including Twidroid and a new MP3 download store.

All in all, it’s a tempting machine, though we’re holding off final judgement until we see exactly how well the Archos 5 manages web browsing. While there’s Flash support, it’s not in-browser (videos open up in a separate window rather than running in-page) but the speedy CPU has us anticipating a slicker, more desktop-like experience than on most Android mobiles.

Archos Phone Tablet tipped: 1GHz Android 4.3-inch smartphone

via Slashgear via usarchos
While Archos’ event this week was predominantly about their Archos 5 Android-based Internet Tablet, they couldn’t help but tease with another upcoming device building on Google’s open-source platform. The Archos Phone Tablet is, as the name suggests, a 3.5G-enabled version of the Archos 5, adding HSDPA/HSUPA connectivity to the PMP’s existing WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth.

Full specifications of the smartphone are unclear, but Archos did confirm that it would have a 4.3-inch 854 x 480 touchscreen (slightly smaller, but slightly higher resolution, than the Archos 5) together with using a faster, 1GHz ARM Cortex processor. It also keeps its PMP-sibling’s slender build, measuring just 10mm thick, and a brief rear glimpse showed a camera lens.

No word on what sort of internal memory we can expect – though we’d like to think that Archos will offer the same 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flash versions as the Archos 5 – nor when the Archos Phone Tablet will drop. Still, it certainly has potential as a MID/smartphone crossover device.

Megapixels Ltd on Twitter

Megapixels Ltd is on Twitter: twitter.com/MegapixelsLtd

I'll twitter on topics from all of Megapixels Ltd divisions: Data-Mind.co.uk; MegapixelsTrade.co.uk; BeSeenPromotions.co.uk and BeSeenOnABike.co.uk and other work related stuff.