Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley February 2010 Issue December 29, 2009 Words on a Screen: E-Books are the Future Amazon’s Kindle is now the best-selling product the Web retailer has ever stocked. No single book, CD, or DVD comes close. Barnes & Noble ran out of the Nook before Christmas. Sony cannot ship the Sony Reader (despite the lack of an original name), fast enough for stores like Target and Best Buy. The e-book has arrived, with e-readers selling faster than even their greatest supporters imagined. Considering how mediocre the technology is, the demand proves that as e-readers improve the demand will grow exponentially. The list of current deficits should be hurting the e-reader market, but it isn’t. • The screens are limited to black and white because the “digital ink” display technology doesn’t support color (yet). • Amazon, like Apple, attempts to limit purchased downloads to their hardware platform. • Popular digital books cost as much as printed books, de...

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley January 2010 Issue November 26, 2009 Peering into My Crystal Ball My crystal ball was recently upgraded to organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology. This gives me a much brighter, clearer and more energy-efficient view of the future. In fact, I see OLED displays become standard as their prices continue to fall. That, and California is mandating more energy efficient video technologies. What else does the future hold for residents of the Virtual Valley? Gazing through the virtual Tule Fog, which can be quite dense when trying to see the technology trends of tomorrow, I see the “connect living room” is finally arriving after years of hiding. The promised media center computers are not bringing us this networked entertainment hub. No, the Microsoft Windows Media Center and even Apple TV failed to match the marketing hype behind them. Yet, it is Microsoft delivering this future to many households. The Xbox Live video rental model is going to ...