dws90 - Slashdot User

Amazon acquires maker of Stanza ebook reader-> 0

Submitted by dws90 on Tuesday April 28 2009, @10:18PM

dws90 writes "Amazon has acquired Lexcycle, the maker of the Stanza ebook reader for the iPhone. Stanza competes directly with Amazon's Kindle iPhone app, and, of course, with the Kindle itself. Amazon claims that Lexcycle will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary, but there is concern that Amazon will use this as an opportunity to kill one of its primary competitors, as it is accused of having done with Mobipocket. Of course, the best case scenario is that Amazon will give the Stanza iPhone app the ability to read protected Kindle files without crippling the application's ability to read books from other sources."
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Comment: No notes? (Score 3, Funny) 385

by dws90 on Friday April 04 2008, @08:27PM (#22969758) Attached to: Lecture Notes Considered Infringement

If this lawsuit succeeds, does that mean students won't have to take notes anymore?

This may be the first fair use lawsuit where college students actually support the person suing!

Zonbu Launches 'Green' Laptop-> 0

Submitted by dws90 on Thursday November 29 2007, @12:57PM

dws90 writes "Zonbu, makers of the Zonbu Mini desktop PC, have announced the release of a Linux-based notebook computer to be manufactured by Everex (the same people that make the gPC). From TFA:

the Zonbu Notebook is designed to be environmentally friendly, with lower power usage and less hazardous material than normal laptops, and proper recycling techniques.
The laptop sells for $279 upfront, with a $14.95 monthly subscription fee, which provides software upgrades and online storage, amoung other things. It runs the same Gentoo-based OS as the desktop version."
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Zonbu: a cheap, green PC.-> 0

Submitted by dws90 on Monday July 16 2007, @10:10AM

dws90 writes "Two entrepreneurs and their company, Zonbu, are introducing a new twist to subscription- based computing. According to a NY Times article, they're offering a "simplified Linux-based PC for $99 and a $12.95 monthly subscription charge." The twist? The device received the highest certification possible from the Green Electronics Council, and requires only 15-watts, which they estimate will save the user $10 a month in electrical bills over a 200-watt computer. Zonbu uses a version of Gentoo Linux, and comes preloaded with software: OpenOffice, Firefox, Skype, and some games. Instead of storing of a hard drive, the device uses a 4GB CF card for storage, as well as an additional 25GB of remote storage on Zonbu's servers (their website shows that 50GB and 100GB remote storage packages are available, albeit at a higher cost). They will also sell the device for $250 without a commitment to the remote storage service, for Linux developers and people that want to use other storage methods."
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$99 green Linux PC shown at Computex->

Submitted by

dws90

on Wednesday June 13 2007, @08:11PM

dws90 writes "Among the products shown at the recent Computex show in Taipei was a $99 Linux PC called Zonbu. According to the article, Zonbu is the size of a small cigar box but combines a green (the environment, not the color) PC design with a Linux OS and a web-based service. The web-based service is $12.95 a month, and provides remote storage on Zonbu's servers. Since it stores its information remotely, Zonbu has no need for a hard drive (using a 4GB CF card to store its applications and currently-in-use data), and is therefore completely quiet. It includes a number of everyone's favorite open source apps: Firefox and OpenOffice, to name a few. The "green" part comes as a side effect of its low energy consumption — it is carbon emission-neutral.

With Dell's Ubuntu experiment and now this, is this the beginning of a rise in pre-installed Linux in PCs?"
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Zonbu, a $99 Linux PC

Submitted by dws90 on Wednesday May 23 2007, @04:52PM

dws90 writes "Zonbu is a brand-new $99 Linux PC, according to a Gizmodo review. Instead of a hard drive, the device stores its data on a Amazon S3 server, using a 4GB CompactFlash card as an intermediary. Data from each device is seamlessly synced with the servers. It runs a tweaked version of Gentoo Linux. The device comes with 22 open-source applications preinstalled, including Firefox, Evolution, OpenOffice, Gimp, and others. The out-of-the-box version of Zonbu's OS doesn't allow new applications to be installed, but a downloadable version of the data-syncing OS can be downloaded from the Zonbu website and used on any other device. The first 500 units will be sold in late June, and the device is expected to go out of beta in September."