TechBytes: Kindle for Android
iPhone mobile payments, social network for kids, office robot.
May 19, 2010— -- Amazon is releasing Kindle software for phones running on Google's Android operating system. The free software will let users buy books from Amazon's online store. It will also keep track of where you are in a book, so you can start reading on your phone, and pick up in the same place on another gadget. Kindle for Android will be available this summer.
iPhone owners can leave their wallets at home when they go shopping. Some new technology available through Visa is transforming the device into a debit card. It requires a special case with a secure chip that you wave in front of a Visa terminal to pay. The technology also works with most smart phones that have a chip memory slot.
Parents worried about their kids logging on to social networking sites such as Facebook have a new alternative. Togetherville, a site designed for kids ages 6 to 10, is launching today. It provides a safe environment that teaches them how to communicate online, while allowing parents to participate. The Wall Street Journal's Katie Boehret said it offers kids their first taste of social networking like grown-ups.
"It seemed like a fun place to be if you were a kid. You can really personalize it and make it your own, and when you're the kid, you go to Togetherville.com and you log in with your own password and credentials," Boehret said. "So it feels like something that's your own, even though the parent does have access to see everything that's going on."
You can read Katie's complete review on the Wall Street Journal website.
Don't want to go to the office today? How about sending a robot in your place? A company called Anybots has developed the QB. It's sort of like a dedicated video conferencing computer on wheels, rolling around the office and allowing you to sit in on meetings. The $15,000 robot will be available in the fall. And with an eight-hour battery life, you won't have to work overtime.
