Barnes and Noble to announce eReader; Apple rumor mill churns
(NECN: Ted McEnroe) – As a tech person, it’s hard not to like fall – the season of product launches. The biggest one is expected later this week, when the new operating system from Microsoft, Windows 7, is publicly released. But the rest of the week promises to be interesting as well. Today it’s e-readers. The Wall Street Journal reports that Barnes and Noble joins the e-reader wars this morning with the rollout of a new e-reader called the Nook. The Nook features a bottom color LCD display below the e-ink display of the reader, wireless downloading and in a cryptic statement, it will let people borrow books from each other. We’ll have to see what that means when Barnes and Noble holds a news conference and launches the Nook.com website later this morning. At $259 – the Nook price matches the Amazon Kindle. And there may be something new from Apple. Hidden beneath the headlines of their, what’s the word, ummm, kickbutt earnings report – are a series of comments that suggest the company may have something up its sleeve. The blog 9-to-5 Mac notes that company officials expect a spike in air freight costs in the coming quarter, but won’t say why except that it’s not iPhone-related. Don’t expect some huge step, like a tablet – but the rumors are flying about anything from a new line of iMacs to a new version of the iPod touch to a revival of the company’s Mac Mini line. It’s gotten people talking about Apple on a week that really should belong to Microsoft – which might be what Apple’s biggest goal might be, but regardless, it means there will be more new fun stuff to look at, play with and maybe purchase for the holidays. But if you’re short of cash, there’s something for you this week as well. U2 will be streaming its concert at the Rose Bowl on Sunday night to a worldwide audience via YouTube. The show begins at 8:30 Pacific time on YouTube and U2.com, and will replay twice for people who might be asleep at 11:30pm in Boston (or 3:30am in London). It could potentially be the largest concert the site has ever handled as a livestream. The band’s manager Paul McGuinness said the band was already filming the show – so they decided to try the streaming as well.
