Borders’ Cash Crunch

Tower Records died. So did Virgin Megastores. Blockbuster is in trouble. When do the big bookstore chains start to fall victim to the digital revolution?

And That’s What You Missed on Technologizer

From a standpoint of tech newsworthiness, how did 2010 rate? Pretty high, I think–it certainly had more than its fare share of surprises. And we at Technologizer had fun covering them. After the jump, a look at some of our stories on major (and minor) events from the first half of the year, plus some of the oddball historical stuff and other random weirdness that’s also part of our stock in trade. If you read all this stuff when we published it, I’m impressed and grateful…

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Android Bug Reroutes Text Messages

Unique Android feature: When you send a text message, it seems that it may deliver it to the wrong person.

The Technologizer Year in Review

[NOTE: Here's a story from our most recent Technologizer's T-Week newsletter--go here to sign up to receive it each Friday. You'll get original stuff that won't show up on the site until later, if at all.]

It’s been Google’s wont for a number of years to publish a year-end wrap-up reflecting what people searched searched for. It calls this report Google Zeitgeist, and several other sites  produce counterparts, such as YouTube Rewind and the Yahoo Year in Review.

If the big guys can do this, why not Technologizer? Here’s a recap of 2010–what you folks were reading and searching for, which sites sent you here, which browsers and operating systems you used, and where in the world you came from.

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E-Readers: They’re All Selling Like an Unspecified Number of Hotcakes!

Back in August, I wrote about Amazon.com’s odd habit of frequently bragging about sales of its Kindle e-reader without ever providing explicit numbers. It continues to do so–and it’s inspired its competitors to do some similarly evasive crowing of their own.

Barnes & Noble issued a press release today that it had sold “millions” of Nooks since the first version’s release in December of 2009. But it mostly bragged about Nook sales without disclosing them, by saying that Nooks are the company’s best-selling products ever, and that the Nookcolor is its best-selling gift this holiday season.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that with millions of NOOK eReading devices sold, the line has become the company’s biggest bestseller ever in its nearly 40-year history.  The new NOOKcolor Reader’s Tablet, introduced just eight weeks before Christmas, is the company’s number one selling gift of the holiday season. Barnes & Noble also announced that it now sells more digital books than its large and growing physical book business on BN.com, the world’s second largest online bookstore.

[snip]

Demand for the critically acclaimed NOOKcolor remained high following the product’s introduction in late October through the holidays. Sales have continued to exceed the company’s high expectations.

The only hard number in the release is the “millions” of Nooks sold; we can apparently assume that B&N has sold at least two million devices. (A few weeks ago, it was a minor news story when an Amazon staffer said that “millions” of third-generation Kindles had been sold in 73 days; I wonder if B&N would have been even this specific if Amazon hadn’t made the leap first?)

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Will Last Gadget Standing Jump the Shark?

Let’s see, we’ve had Elvis impersonators, roving robots, Dr. Evil, mad scientists….could Last Gadget Standing get even kookier?  I’m afraid so.

Next week’s tenth-anniversary edition could be it. In addition to me, Harry McCracken, and your judging team, the event will be hosted by Jon Hein and special guest Gary “Baba Booey” Dell’Abate from The Wrap up Show on the Howard Stern channel on SiriusXM Radio. Hein’s tech claim to fame came is the creation of Jump the Shark, devoted to the moments where there’s only one way to go: downhill. (Just ask Fonzie).

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Video Calling Hits Skype for iPhone

Well, looky here–the iPhone version of Skype we wanted all along is finally here: one that does video calls. It works on the iPhone 4, current iPod Touch, iPhone 3GS, and iPad (although you really want the front-facing camera which the 3GS and iPad lack) and permits calls over both 3G and Wi-Fi. And judging from my very brief time with it so far, the quality seems quite good.

Apple’s own FaceTime set the standard for simple video calling from a phone, and other options such as Tango are already thriving. but if you’re a Skype user calling another Skype user, the new iPhone app couldn’t be much simpler–and you can make calls to Windows users, something that’s still not possible with FaceTime. (You can’t, however, make video calls to Android users–but you gotta think that a video-capable version for Android will come along before too long.)

If you give the new app a try, let us know what you think. Me, I think I’ll use it calling my three-year-old nephew and two-year-0ld niece–neither of who own an iPhone 4, oddly enough…

Coming Next Week: CES Coverage, Ballmer Liveblog

For tech journalists, there’s no such thing as a new year’s holiday. We’re all too busy getting ready for next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The show floor doesn’t open until Thursday, but the festivities get rolling on Tuesday–and on Wednesday evening, Steve Ballmer will give Microsoft’s traditional keynote address. At last year’s event, he announced iPad-esque “Slate PCs” that went pretty much nowhere; this year, he’s expected to talk about another iteration of the concept and maybe even provide an early look at Windows 8.

I’ll be covering the show all week, and will liveblog the Ballmer keynote as it happens. You can join me at www.technologizer.com/ces2011–and if you head there right now, you can even sign up to get a reminder by e-mail.

Why Conference Wi-Fi Wi-Fails

If you attend as many tech conferences as I do, today’s biggest hazard isn’t rubber chicken or pricey parking–it’s Wi-Fi that just doesn’t work. Wi-Fi expert Glenn Fleishman explains why it’s difficult–but not impossible–to deliver fast, reliable wireless Internet to large crowds.

This Old House: Fiber Arrives

If you recall, we recently picked up a new (old) house and our plate is full of projects – including some relevant to a digital media blog. So, on with the story…

I’ve continued to make progress removing and recycling speaker and aerial antenna wire as I encounter it. There’s no way I’ll extricate it all, and fortunately I’m not quite OCD enough to have to. But it’s no longer an eyesore in various built-ins and closets.

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Last Gadget Standing Faceoff: Two Ear-Related Gizmos

We’re down to ten finalists for our Last Gadget Standing competition. None of them competes directly with any other item on the list, but we do have two unusual devices you hook to one or both of your ears.

The $199 Looxcie looks like an oversized, old-school Bluetooth headset, and while it can indeed serve as a headset for your phone, its main trick is that it’s really a camcorder that can send video clips to your iPhone or Android handset–and it has a buffer, so you can capture stuff going on around you even after it happens.

Sonomax’s Soundcage–also $199–is a set of in-ear headphones with a unique twist: It comes with a headband that lets you sculpt the buds for maximum comfort for a bespoke fit that’s otherwise the province of much pricier, fully custom headphones such as Ultimate Ears’ highest-end models.

Your verdict, please…

Make 2011 Predictions, Get a Chance at a $150 Amazon Gift Card

Once again, in time-honored Technologizer tradition, I’m asking you to make tech-related predictions about the year ahead. (As a group, you guys seem to be much better at it than I am.) And we’re offering an incentive: Everyone who submits a prediction will be entered in a random drawing for a $150 Amazon.com gift card.

Here are the official rules for this little exercise:

• 1. Enter by making predictions about technology news we’ll see in 2011. They can involve products, companies, technologies, people, or any combination of the above. Serious ones are preferable to silly ones.
• 2. You can submit predictions in any of three ways:
  • Make the predictions by adding comments to this post; please provide a working e-mail address in the specified field. (Your e-mail address won’t be published, and we won’t use it for any purpose except to contact you in relation to the contest.)
  • Submit a prediction on Twitter by tweeting me at @harrymccracken. (You can optionally use the hashtag #tpredicts as well.) Be sure to follow me so that I can direct message you if you win.
  • Post your prediction to Technologizer’s Facebook page (click the Status link near the top).

You can submit more than one set of predictions if you like, but multiple submissions won’t increase your chances of winning.

• 3. Everyone who enters gets one chance at winning the $150 Amazon.com gift card. We’ll choose our favorite entries, and they’ll get an additional four chances a piece at winning the gift certificate. (In other words: The best contributions will have a five times higher chance of winning.) The winner will be chosen in a random drawing.
• 4. Favorites will be judged for creativity, plausibility, and quality of writing. Being interesting counts, but ones that sound plausible will have an edge on ones that don’t–”Google will release a version of Chrome OS for desktop computers” might be a favorite, but “Google will announce it’s opening an office on Jupiter” would not.
• 5. Feel free to make multiple predictions in one comment, and take as much space as you need. We may use your entry in articles based on the contest, and reserve the right to delete entries.
• 6. The contest will close at 12am midnight PT on Saturday, January 1st, 2011–that is, as ring in the new year–so please enter by then; we’ll notify a winner by Monday, January 3rd. We’ll also publish a story with some of our favorite predictions.

Good luck, and have fun–and if you need inspiration, check out the reports on the Technologizer community’s predictions for 2009 and 2010.

Presto Chango!

How to turn a Nookcolor into…a Kindle.

Skype Outage Explained

Skype’s CIO has blogged a detailed explanation of why the service was down for 24 hours last week. Like the even longer Skype outage of 2007, this one was an interesting reminder that a service that relies on peer-to-peer technologies rather than centralized servers can still be crippled if large quantities of those peers run into trouble all at once.

Last Gadget Standing: The Ten Finalists

Dozens of companies that will be demonstrating their products at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show nominated themselves for the Last Gadget Standing competition. We judges whittled the contenders down to 25 semi-finalists. And now we’ve cut down that list to ten finalists who will get to show their stuff at our event at CES in Las Vegas next week. One of them will be…the last gadget standing.

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2011: What (Probably) Will Be

Over at TIME.com, I’ve compiled a sneak peek of 2011′s technology products and trends–not predictions so much as notes on pre-announced products, likely announcements based on past timetables, and a plausible rumor or two.