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Borders Books announces e-reader with apps for iPhone, OS X and the iPad
Borders has announced a very low cost e-reader that will ship in June. The device, made by Canadian company Kobo, will sell for U.S. $149.99 and come preloaded with 100 classic books. At a much lower cost than the iPad, the Barnes and Noble Nook, and the Amazon Kindle, the book reader may get some attention from bargain hunters. Borders has also announced that e-books will also be available from an app that runs on the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad. There will also be a version for Apple desktops and laptops. It's not likely that the books themselves will be any cheaper than they are on other services, but Borders is likely to have a better selection that the Apple iBook Store, which is pretty thin right now. Borders says it will have a million books available online, while Apple claims to have "tens of thousands." The Kobo app (without the Borders connection) is actually already available for the iPhone and the iPad, but neither app has garnered very positive reviews. Our own Erica Sadun found some things to like about the iPad app in her preview last March.
An iPhone and iPod case that includes speakers
We all know that the iPhone and iPod touch have pretty skimpy speakers. iPods have no speakers, so we're dependent on headphones or speakers to get any tunes out of them. Portable Sound Laboratories has an interesting solution that will protect your electronics and give you good sound at the same time. It's called the iMainGo2, and it's a 9 oz., clamshell zippered case that will hold an iPhone or an iPod touch. There's a headphone compatible 3.5mm plug that connects the case to your device. The unit runs on 4 AAA batteries for about 30 hours. We have one on loan for review, and I've been testing it around the house for a few days. How does it sound? Better than I expected. It had nice bright highs, which were especially audible on percussion like snare drums and triangles. The bass is good, but this is not a device to equal a much bigger speaker system with a subwoofer. Still, it's more than reasonable. The unit appears to use a bass reflex or ducted port design, and if you close your eyes and just listen, you would think you were listening to a bigger system.
Can't find the apps you need? Of course there's an app for that.
If you're like me, you find it impossible to keep up with the constant stream of apps being written for the iPhone and iPod touch. As a result, you wind up missing some useful or fun apps that you would buy if you just knew that they were in the App Store. Searching the App Store using iTunes doesn't work very well, and there are plenty of sites that review apps (including TUAW), but there are so many apps out there that finding what you want can be a matter of luck rather than skill. That problem has largely been solved with Appsaurus [iTunes link], a U.S. $0.99 app that can quickly focus on what kinds of apps you like and make decent suggestions for new apps to try or buy. Here's how Appsaurus works. When you launch the app for the first time, it presents you with an explore mode. It displays a list of apps, and you tap the ones that are of interest to you. You may have some of the apps, but you probably won't have all of them. When you select a favorite you'll get a new list that includes apps that match the general description of the app you clicked on. Run through a few iterations of this process, and the app begins to learn your preferences.
NDrive brings a low cost nav solution to the iPhone
Gee, I thought we had seen all the nav apps, but new ones keep popping up. NDrive, a new U.S. $32.99 app [iTunes link] is actually pretty good for the money, and has a reasonably complete feature set. I don't put it in the class of the TomTom, Navigon or Magellan apps, but they cost twice as much. Here's what you get for your 32 bucks plus change: The maps are built into the app. No cell connection needed Auto day/night switching Alarms for speeding Portrait, landscape mode Alphabetical or QWERTY keyboard option POIs with favorites, descriptions, phone and website links The app features voice instructions, but no text-to-speech until a Mid-December update. While driving around town it worked pretty well. The POI database was not better or worse than some of the more expensive apps, as I think most are drawing on the same sources. I found it to be reasonably complete. An added feature is some limited 3D landmarks in the larger cities. The app has a strange syntax when announcing a turn, saying something like "in miles .3 turn right." The developer says that will be fixed in a couple of weeks. IPod support is weak with no control of the music, it just keeps playing what you are already had on. That's going to be fixed too. I thought the GUI was actually quite nice. Zooming is and out is done by pinching and squeezing, but if you zoom out too much you won't see many details. The app was quick to get a GPS fix, but I found turn instructions came just a bit late. It needs to anticipate the upcoming turn in enough time that I can get in the correct lane. Bottom line: A pretty good app for a reasonable price. If you are on the fence about a GPS app, and want to get something for holiday travel but don't want to sink $80 or more into some of the other offerings, NDrive is a pretty good app. With the update scheduled for a couple of weeks out, the app will get even better. %Gallery-79101%
