Cubalaya Blog US

Amazon Goes Electronic

Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, sounds like he has a new idea that will change the world of books (as he has already done once before).  This time it sounds like something that could change the whole concept of the book- from a simple, ages old sacred source of knowledge into yet another electronic device.

But here's the catch- it's supposed to be that simple.  Amazon designed the "Kindle" to be simple, lightweight, and feel like a book, rather than a notebook computer.  It runs quietly, without heating up, and should have long battery life just like a book is accessible at any time.  Best of all, using a special technology the Kindle mimes the clarity of a printed book, and the print can also be enlarged for those of us who are approaching far-sightedness.

The  Kindle can hold 200 titles onboard, hundreds more on removable media and a limitless amount in Amazon's virtual library.  But it isn't being promoted as a device like as much as a service; the "Whispernet" service is based on EVDO broadband service accessible through cell phone carriers, allowing it to work anywhere (not just in Wi-Fi hotspots).

The Kindle itself is expected to cost around $400, with a separate charge for the broadband service.  Who knows if this idea will catch on, and when, but it certainly is a bold step Amazon is taking here.

Source: Newsweek

3 Skype Mobile Phone and GPhone Updates

3, Britain's fifth-largest mobile service operator, has released a new phone with built-in Skype capability.  British phone users will be able to conduct Skype calls to other users through a dedicated button on the phone's  interface.  With this new model 3 is probably hoping to reverse its steady loss of customers over the past few years, and with an estimated 2.5 million Skype users in the UK, they just might be able to lure some of them over with the mobile VOIP option.

Supposedly the Skype service will be free to users under contract or those who fill up their prepay account regularly.  However, the SkypeOut option (placing calls at low prices to non-Skype users) will not be offered apparently, for the obvious competitive reasons.  According to the Guardian, the phone will reportedly also feature a 2MB and MP3 player with video playback as well.

TechCrunch reports that Skype has an estimated 246 million users worldwide, although only about 70 million of them are believed to be active users.  And many of the active users are not paying users, as regular Skype service is free.

In more news, Google has been talking to US wireless carriers Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon (as well as Vodafone internationally) about its plans for the GPhone.  The way things are shaping out, it looks like Google doesn't want to create one special GPhone, but rather branch out and let the manufacturers use its applications for a diverse selection of devices.  Google already has an extensive list of web-based applications, such as Google Maps and YouTube, and with the recent addition of a word-processing and an excel-like application, the Internet giant has put itself more in a position to battle Windows Mobile than Apple's iPhone.

Altogether, it looks like the mobile industry is headed for some serious changes during the next year or so, with VOIP systems like Skype starting to get a foothold in the market, and Google looking to make mobile phones an open platform for developers to build lots of applications on top of.

Initially cell phones were just taking over the conventional photography. The availability of portable printers made it even easier. However, now it is being used to play the car audio as well, and this is not just the ringtones, but full songs, and hundreds of them.

Born to Run (In Silence)

This year USA Track & Field, the national governing body for running, decided to ban the use of headphones and portable audio players at its official races.  Jill Greer, a spokeswoman for the organization, explained to the NY Times' Juliet Macur that it's actually an insurance issue, with listening to music considered to be a hazard during a road race.  Apparently, runners who can't listen to what's going on around them and heed to warnings from others pose a safety issue for everyone.

This shouldn't bother the "pure" runners, though, those that go into a zone and are tuned into every sense of their body during a race.  In fact, many of them have praised the ban, claiming that wearing headphones would tune out a runner from the experience of a lifetime, like running in New York today. 

However, many of the marathoners these days are recreational runners, not the elite, athletic in-the-zone types.  For them, music helps set their pace and is often what gets them through the infamous 20 Mile Barrier, with a little Bruce Springstein or U2 giving them that needed extra push.  Some of them have reportedly been using the iPod Shuffle which, besides being extremely lightweight, is also quite easy to conceal from race organizers.

Let's hope that all of today's New York City Marathon participants have a great race, whether it be music-aided or not, and that safety will not become an issue at all.

Source: NY Times

Christmas Bargains Online

A recent study conducted in the UK shows that Christmas shoppers can bag substantial savings by going online rather than to the high street, research by consumer group Which? shows.

It found that savings of more than 1,000 pounds could be made on a shopping list of five popular gifts -- a flat-screen television, camera, camcorder, hi-fi and DVD recorder.

Researchers compared prices on 72 products at 111 retailers and found that online savings ranged from 11 percent on digital camcorders to 29 percent on LCD and plasma televisions.

Savings could also be made on everything from books (14 percent) and MP3/MP4 players (11 percent) to CDs (7 percent) and champagne (2 percent).

But games consoles -- such as the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 -- were found to be similarly priced.

"The trick to bagging a bargain is to discover which stores offer the most extras," Which? said in its November magazine.

"For example, while John Lewis sells the PS3 for 398 pounds, HMV sells it for 425 pounds, but with four games (which cost up to 50 pounds each) and an extra controller -- which is the best deal we found."

Consumers could be missing out on savings of up to 240 million pounds a year by not shopping online, recent research by the Office of Fair Trading shows.

People's top 10 reasons for shopping over the Internet include ease of price comparison, avoiding crowds, price competitiveness and more choice, according to a poll of 2,343 Which? online panel members.

Source: Reuters (London)

Cubalaya launches new Homepage

Earlier this week we released a new home page for cubalaya. It was the first time in weeks since the previous change we made to our main entry to the cubalaya site.

On top of the comparison shopping information I believe that cubalaya provides a unique package of content to its users, including  Product reviews, buying guides and the Blog.
In a way, I felt that many of our users were missing this content and never got to read it.

Our new Homepage brings our unique content package to the front stage (quite an improvement, last time you could get to it from the page footer only…) and now there is no way you will miss it . I believe that the clean and simple structure of the homepage will be more appealing to our users then the previous one (comments are welcome).

With the entry of printers and memory devices like pda indeed  photography has changed a lot in the past decade.

Enjoy ! 

Social Shopping Experiences

Online shoppping is quickly becoming more social-oriented, as ebay's and Facebook's recent upgrades show.  While the former is first and foremost an e-commerce giant, and the latter is the leading social networking online service, they have each taken steps that bring them closer together. 

ebay has launched "ebay neighborhoods", which are micro-social networks focused on a single product or category.  Inside these neighborhoods one can find blogs, guides, reviews, product searches and users- all content found across ebay.  Members can join these neighborhoods and add to discussions, post photos, invite friends, write reviews and meet other like-minded people.  It is also possible for users to start new neighborhoods for specific products, sports teams, hobbies or any other idea.

Facebook has thousands of applications for members to use as add-ons, but the most interesting addition is "My Shopping".  This application, powered by SecretPrices.com, allows users to shop within their own Facebook user, where they can search for products, rate items they want or already own and get advice or make a recommendation on a product.  A recent survey shows that many teenagers communicate with their friends while shopping- either by shopping together physically, talking on cell phones, texting or IMing.  Facebook is looking to enhance the social aspect of online shopping through its social environment.

It will be interesting to see if these two leading Internet services end up competing with each other as social shopping networks, and how this will affect the rest of the online shopping world.

Women's Blogs

A recent survey shows that 50% of Americans regularly visit blogs, and more interestingly, that more women have blogs than men, as 20% of women who regularly visit blogs have one themselves, as opposed to 14% of men.  Taking this statistic for granted, one shouldn't be surprised by the index sites for women's blogs, listing blogs on every subject from Arts to Websites.

One example of this type of site is blogher.com.  Besides reading other women's blogs, it is possible to register your own blog and add it to the database.    Blogsbywomen.org is another example, with over   5,100 blogs listed.

There are also more topic-oriented sites, such as askpatty.com, which specializes in automotive advice for women. 

This site has everything a woman needs to know about cars; there's a list of women-friendly certified dealers across the country, information about alternative fuels, an advice page for car trouble and much more.

And allwomenstalk.com specializes in fashion, style and entertainment, as it gathers  articles from popular blogs and websites for women and shows them all in one place.  This site is more trendy than the others, with a more stylish design and user interface.

Hot Dogs and Wii

Last week the Cubalaya Team got some relaxation after work- at a company barbecue.  After dinner we had time to unwind with the Nintendo Wii- some bowling, golf and tennis for everyone.  In the photo above our product manager is going for a strike.

HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?

For those of you who are confused by the terms HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, let's try to sort out the mess and see what the future of home entertainment holds for us.

Right now the digital media world is in the midst of a format war. In the red corner, supported by Toshiba, HP, Microsoft and Kenwood, storing up to 30GB of high-definition video, stands the HD-DVD format. And in  the Blu corner, supported by Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and Philips, and with a capacity of 50GB, stands the Blu-Ray.

Honestly, it is too early to tell who will win this one. VHS beat Beta, PC beat Macintosh (although the Mac came back), yet there is almost no difference between these two formats, making it impossible to predict the outcome. The quality of high-definition video and sound is equally fantastic on each of them, and so far the larger capacity of the Blu-Ray hasn't really given it a big lead.

This competition has been closely linked with the Xbox 360-Playstation 3 one, as Microsoft's Xbox has an optional HD-DVD external drive, while the Sony Playstation's built-in drive uses Blu-Ray. And both of them play their respective high-definition formats quite well, doubling as complete DVD players.

In fact, the only thing that does separate them is the amount of titles released on each format. So far, Blu-Ray has a head-start, with more than 330 titles released, as compared to HD's 130. And if anything might be the deciding factor in this war- the race to release more titles just might be it.

If HD-DVD is what you want, I'd recommend the Toshiba HD-XA2, which is also very strong on playing regular-format DVDs. But if you'd rather go for a Blu-Ray model, the Panasonic DMP-BD10A won't disappoint you.

For now, though, you might want to consider a sort of compromise that will let you benefit from both worlds. The LG BH100 does this well, and will let you wait out the war knowing you'll have invested in a win-win proposition.

Cubalaya Launches a Product Review Service

To enhance the Cubalaya shopping comparison service, we have started a product review section on the site.  The reviews are mini-product reviews, giving you the short story rather than the lengthy technical description.  For instance, if you're interested in the new Nokia N95 mobile phone- you should check out its review; however, if you're not sure what you should be looking for in a DVD player, the relevant buying guide will help you figure that out.

Each product review page is divided into 3 parts:

• Ratings- the product rated according to its design, features and other attributes. Each category of products has its own specific attribute list, making product comparison easier.
• Overall Review- a written review of the product including technical details, features and other important information.
• Summary- The no-nonsense bottom line.

So far we have covered some popular products, and soon we hope to expand our reviews database and create another useful tool for online shoppers.

Furthermore, at the bottom of each review page you can find a link to full-length review from a different site.  Besides being more detailed, these sites usually have consumer reviews as well.

Last, but not least, each product has its own video review as well.  These videos give you a good first look at the product and also a visual explanation of its functions.  The following example is a video review of the Panasonic TH-42PZ700 television: