Tech Talk

The Internet has been compared with an untamed wilderness because of its seeming ability to foster rebels wishing to strike against the world’s most powerful and then elude capture.

However, the world’s reaction to the WikiLeaks diplomatic cable leaks has shined a light on how even the Web could fall in line with the world’s standards, expecations and influences.

As documents continue to surface against the wishes of some of the world’s most powerful players, a noose continues to tighten around the resources and founder of WikiLeaks.

The site was banished from Amazon’s servers last week, as Tech Talk reported. Days later, PayPal followed suit. And most recently, MasterCard and Visa have cut payments to the organization.

As if Amazon’s blow was not difficult enough for the organization to overcome, the loss of income could be devastating to WikiLeaks’ very survival — particularly at a time when it needs liquid finances the most desperately.

Meanwhile, WikiLeaks founder and editor Julian Assange faces a potential extradition to face sexual assault allegations in Sweden.

The situation reminds us that no one could hide on the Internet from a determined world — and ultimately, cyberspace is not much different from our brick and mortar world.

Amazon will release a less expensive version of its e-reader next month, the company has announced on its homepage.

Among the features Amazon touts on the 21 percent smaller third generation device:

• A new, high-contrast e-ink screen with 50 percent better contrast than any other e-reader
• The ability to read in bright sunlight with no glare
• A 15 percent lighter device
• A longer battery life allowing a single charge to power the device for a month
• Double the storage capacity allowing for up to 3,500 books
• A “worry-free archive” to recover deleted books

A WiFi and 3G-equipped device will sell for $189, and one with just WiFi will sell for $50 less.

On an open letter to customers posted on Amazon’s homepage Thursday, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, wrote:

I believe in the transformative power of reading — the ability of an author to transport you to new worlds, introduce you to new people, and even alter your perspective. Reading is important. Reading is why we build Kindles. Reading is why millions of people use Kindles.

“At $139, we expect many people will buy multiple Kindles for the home and family,” the letter continued.

Orders for the new Kindle are now being accepted — and will begin shipping on Aug. 27.

What is your take on e-readers? Do you use one? Would you?

Woot, the popular monkey-dwelling deal-a-day site recently acquired by Amazon, has called the Associated Press out on one of the wire service’s more controversial decisions — the move to charge non-subscribers for using its content.

As you may have read last year, the AP announced that it would harass folks who published as few as 39 words from its reports.

Fast forward to present.

It came to the Cosmo Kramer of Internet retailers that the wire service reported on its acquisition — and on Tuesday, Woot responded in a very Woot kind of way.

“You printed our web content in your article,” Woot declared on its homepage. “The web content that came from our blog! Why, isn’t that the very thing you’ve previously told nu-media bloggers they’re not supposed to do?”

Woot determined that the sinking wire service owed it “roughly $17.50 for the content you borrowed from our blog post.”

However, being the generous souls that Woot is known for — it offered a deal:

“How about this: instead of cutting us a check for the web content you liberated from our site, all you’ll need to do is show us your email receipt from today’s two pack of Sennheiser MX400 In-Ear Headphones, and we’ll call it even.”

How kind — and well played.

Woot, a site Tech Talk told you about last year, will become an independent subsidiary of Amazon, the item-a-day site announced Wednesday on its blog.

The Carrollton, Texas-based company known for its bags o’ crap and Woot offs vowed that things won’t change through a rapping monkey puppet.

Included in the message: “Nobody freak out. Woot will operate as an independent subsidiary of Amazon. That means we’ll still be able to get away with the same hijinks, horseplay and shenanigans that made us Woot in the first place.  Seriously. Just you wait.”

The company will operate as autonomously as other Amazon properties, like Zappos and Audible, the Woot blog stated.

While many of the reader comments offered were congratulatory, there was some concern of changes.

In a company memo to employees, Woot CEO Matt Rutledge wrote: “We plan to continue to run Woot the way we have always run Woot – with a wall of ideas and a dartboard.”

To that end, the memo stated:

“Amazon is interested in us because they recognize the value of our people, our brand, and our unique style of deep-tissue, toxin-releasing massage. And they don’t want to start changing things now. Amazon’s hoping our nutty Woot steez continues to grow and develop (and perhaps even rubs off on them a little). They’re not looking to have their folks come in and run Woot unless we ask them to, which incidentally you can do by turning off the bathroom lights and saying the word “Kindle” three times; a helpful Amazon employee will appear in the mirror. That said, Amazon clearly knows what they’re doing in a lot of areas, so we’re geeked about the opportunities to tap into that knowledge and those resources, especially on the technology side. This is about making the Woot brand, culture, and business even stronger than it is today, and we expect that any changes will be for the better or we wouldn’t bother with this endless paperwork.”

Woot offers some of the best discounts on some of the most diverse products – everything from computers and iPods to pistachio nuts and screaming monkeys. As a result, Woot has one of the most active audience bases – some customers won’t even go to bed before 1 a.m. Eastern Time just to see the latest offer. It would be a shame if Amazon ruined all of that.

“We’re always going to be the same Old Woot you’ve come to know and tolerate,” Woot promised.

Here’s hoping they hold true to that.

Ross Riskin, of Orange, performs for Tech Talk.

Technology is music to one area musician’s ears.

Ross Riskin, of Orange, frequents area cafés and music centers throughout New England and New York with his acoustic, quiet alternative sounds that he both writes and performs. He said he has been compared with John Mayer, Third Eye Blind and Matchbox Twenty.

“I write songs about the events that have taken place in my life and how they have made me feel. I write songs about girls, friends, love, death and pretty much everything,” he said in a recent interview with Tech Talk.

Social media and the Web have helped him to capture and share his music, he said.

“Technology has a played a huge role in my efforts to gain exposure in the Indie music scene,” Riskin said. “I have been able to reach thousands of people all over the world that would not have been possible without the use of technology.”

The rapid advances in recording interfaces and software have allowed him to record his original music in home studio, he said.

“Technology has helped me become a better marketer, distributor, producer and musician,” Riskin said.

He recently released his first full-length album, “Keep Moving.”

“It describes my journey from the past, through the present, and into the future,” Riskin told Tech Talk. “It reflects my strong belief that no matter what choices you make, good and bad things will happen. Some things in life can be controlled and some things can’t. Sometimes all you have to do is keep moving.”

In an effort to get his music to potential audiences, Riskin, who has been writing and recording music since the eighth grade, has utilized Web 2.0 methods to both market and distribute his soothing sounds.

“The main services I have been utilizing for marketing have been Facebook, Twitter and MySpace,” he said. “These sites are free, global and easy to manage.”

Riskin said he could easily get the word out about new releases and updates to thousands of fans through these outlets within sounds.

“For my media distribution, I use four primary services: iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby and Digstation,” he said. “While iTunes and Amazon might be better known, CD Baby and Digstation are in most ways more artist friendly. CD Baby is the largest independent music distributor that allows artists to sell both digital and physical copies of their albums along with setting their own selling prices for them. Digstation is also a large independent distributor that allows artists to set their own selling prices and amazingly collect 100 percent of the sales.”

Riskin said he will begin utilizing YouTube more over the summer.

“I believe YouTube is one of the best places to gain exposure for anyone, especially musicians,” he said.

Riskin is offering a special perk to Tech Talk readers. Readers can download two free tracks off of “Keep Moving” for free.

As technology continues to evolve, it will undoubtedly allow more artists to record, edit and distribute their pieces with the general public.  Which, as Martha Stewart would say, it’s a very good thing.

Amazon removed e-copies of George Orwell‘s “1984” and “Animal Farm” late last week from countless Kindle e-readers across the country late last week, the New York Times reports.

The digital copies of the books were added to the Kindle store by a company that did not have the rights to them, an Amazon spokesman told the newspaper.

“When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers’ devices, and refunded customers,” Drew Herdener told the Times.

Books purchased for the Kindle are transmitted electronically over a wireless network, the Times reports.  Amazon can utilize that network to synchronize books between devices — and unbeknownst to some users — remove them.

Kindle customers have complained about losing electronic copies of other books as well, the Times reports — including of the popular Harry Potter series.

One Kindle user said Amazon took more than a book, they took his work:

Justin Gawronski, a 17-year-old from the Detroit area, was reading “1984” on his Kindle for a summer assignment and lost all his notes and annotations when the file vanished. “They didn’t just take a book back, they stole my work,” he said.

Amazon’s move highlights the dangers of relying on e-books (or e-newspapers.)  Despite their convenience over their printed cousins, they carry very real risks — including the potential for remote meddling and censorship.

Amazon would not have the ability to remove physical copies of these Orwell classics from its customers’ homes, as it has these electronic books. 

New guidelines need to be instituted immediately to prevent future frustrations and infringements of user rights.

In the meantime, potential Amazon customers should consider refusing to purchase new digital copies of materials for their Kindles — or else risk more serious threats to the freedoms they have taken for granted for so long.

For years, newspapers have been able to keep the price of their products relatively low in part by inserting advertisements throughout its pages.

Fig. 3B, as shown in The Register, is a pictorial diagram of an illustrative page image including margins suitable for printing advertisement and other content.

Now, it seems, Amazon may be developing a similar strategy for its e-book reader, the Kindle, as well as paperbacks purchased through its book publishing service.

The Register, a British tech Web site, reports that the retail giant filed two U.S. patent applications July 2 potentially setting the stage for customer-tailored advertisements:

“While on-demand printing hasn’t yet ‘adapted to modern marketing,’ the patent states, many ‘free’ internet sites are able to operate at a profit by serving up ads along with their content.”

“The patent applications explain that embedded ads could be contextually sensitive. For example, Ann of Green Gables could include pitches from the Cavendish tourism board, or the ending of The Great Gatsby advertisements to local automotive repair shops. Alternatively, the ads could be targeted to a customer’s general interest based on their Amazon user profile.”

However, one of the two patents states that the introduction of advertisements would benefit customers, stating:

“Including advertising and/or related content with on-demand printed content may prove advantageous to a consumer. For example, a lower price may be offered to a consumer regarding a request for on-demand printed content if the consumer is willing to accept advertising in the printed content. …  Additionally, a consumer may benefit from content-related information that is not part of the requested content, such as supplemental reference material, relevant footnotes, illustrations, and the like. Content-related information, as well as advertisements may be included in the form of appendixes or in-line with the requested printed content.”

You can check out the second patent here.

While I initially hesitated at the idea of inserting advertisements in books, I have come to the opinion that it would actually be a good thing.  Not only would it likely reduce the cost of printed books, and potentially lead Amazon to eventually offer a free ad-supported e-book for every printed copy purchased as the MediaPost hypothesized, it could offer the reader relevant suggestions and ideas as to what else he or she might enjoy.

What do you think?