Apple iPad, Applications and Accessories

At last, you can get rid of those last few dirty, dusty paper books Picture this. You have wholly converted to e-books. The very thought of buying another bundle of paper fills you with revulsion, and all your reading is done on an e-reader or a tablet. But one problem remains. You have a stack of old, out-of-print books which you still love, but which are taking up space. Worse, you can’t even buy digital versions as it would seem that their publishers hate money

The NY Times will flip the switch on its digital paywall next Monday, and the Grey Lady don’t come cheap: $15/month for the website and the phone app, $20/month for the website and the iPad app, or a wallet-singeing $35 for web, phone, and iPad. But there are loopholes! And they are generous. Here’s your game plan. More

Ok so you might find the next few links interesting. These are from around the web, just random snippets that I’ve picked up in my reading, but I found some.

We suppose the good news is that Cablevision COO Tom Rutledge mentioned the intent is to bring all of its services — broadcast TV, video on-demand — to networked devices capable of displaying video, specifically mentioning the iPad , and that it is also working on program guide software for Android and PCs. Unfortunately, unlike the TV Everywhere websites from others like Comcast , or Dish’s Sling-powered placeshifting Cablevision only plans to allow access within the residence. According to Light Reading , the comments came during the company’s second quarter earnings call, when he also noted that the PC to TV Media Relay for bringing web video to the cable box was still undergoing testing ahead of a fourth quarter launch, while the long awaited network DVR is in its second phase of testing will also begin rolling out later this year. We’re not sure if Cablevision’s reluctance to extend video beyond our four walls is a technical issue, greed, or if it’s simply tired of fighting Hollywood over content rights after the network DVR legal battle , but we’re still hoping for a change of plans down the line

Barnes and Noble has updated its iPad e-reader app, and it has fixed many of the oddities that made me describe it as “adequate” back in May. The biggest changes are in the reading interface. You can now dim the display from within the app, just like you can in iBooks and Instapaper. Brightness is one of my biggest niggles with the iPad in general: I’m forever heading over to the settings app to tweak it

The e-reader price wars is on. Amazon has cut the price of its Kindle e-book reader to $190 from $260 earlier. Amazon’s move comes in response to Barnes & Noble’s price cut on the Nook earlier Monday

Comic book fans with iPads: You have two new reasons to get excited today. A new application, Comic Viewer , has just been approved in the App Store. And today’s update of the popular e-reading app Stanza enables it to work on the iPad — and, more importantly, to display comics. Comic Viewer comes at a reasonable price of $5, compared to the $8 you have to spit out for Comic Zeal , another comic-reading app. Still, that’s five bucks more than you’ll be spending on either the Marvel or Comics apps, which are currently free

Barnes & Noble has released its e-reader software for the iPad, adding yet another way to buy and read e-books. It’s as slick as we’ve come to expect, but suffers from several minor flaws and one fatal problem: Unlike iBooks, where you can buy easily and seamlessly from with the application, the B&N reader boots you out to a website, just like Amazon’s Kindle App. The app is available only in the US App Store, but as it is free you can create a US iTunes account and grab it anyway. That way you can try out sample books and also download free e-books (credit required, although not for samples), of which there are surprisingly many (mostly romance and Star Wars novels). Once you have completed the transaction in your browser, you step back to the app and hit refresh.

If you’re reading Engadget today (and let’s be honest, you’re reading it right now), then you might have noticed that Adobe has launched a pretty full-force campaign to call out Apple on its anti-Flash mission . If you don’t know what we’re talking about, it’s the advertisements that start with “We [heart] Apple.” Along with the web ads, the company has also snagged a full page in today’s Washington Post to address the battle in which the two companies have been engaged . All of this links back to a new statement from Adobe, as well as an open letter from founders Chuck Geschke and John Warnock (“Our thoughts on open markets”), addressing Apple’s recent spate of clear and direct attacks against the company and its products. Most of the reading should sound familiar to those of us who’ve been following the saga, but here are a few choice quotes from the duo: We believe that consumers should be able to freely access their favorite content and applications, regardless of what computer they have, what browser they like, or what device suits their needs. No company – no matter how big or how creative – should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web. When markets are open, anyone with a great idea has a chance to drive innovation and find new customers

Memes, Facebook apps added secretly and iPad addiction lead the reading list.