Want To Buy A 3 D Printer? Staples Will Have Them Soon! Nook HD Becomes A Real Tablet & More On Aereo

Want To Buy A 3 D Printer? Staples Will Have Them Soon! You’ve probably heard a bit about 3 D Printers and how they will transform the way we life when they become available. And that day is almost here! Staples spokesmen have announced that in June it will begin selling the Cube 3D Printer for $1,299!

And just as a refresher in case you’re thinking the term “3D Printer” sounds familiar but you can’t quite recall all the ins and outs about it…3 D Printers aren’t really printers but instead can be thought of as entry level replicators (for all the Star Trek fans out there!). The “printers” will create 3 dimensional objects based upon information users send a 3 D printer via a computer. So if you need a new cover or case for your iPhone or tablet – and you’d like a bright blue one you’ll be able to create one at home with your 3D Printer. If you want to create a chess set, a new shirt, new hat, new action figures for your grandchildren or colorful jewelry to go with that new outfit you just bought – you can use your 3 D Printer to create those items!

3 D Printing is cool technology and will be available at a Staples near you very soon!

Here’s a link to a Verge article, titled Staples becomes first major US retailor to sell 3D printers with $1,299 Cube, on the subject:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/3/4297612/staples-first-major-us-retailer-sell-3d-printers-cube-3d-printer

And if you’d like to know more about 3D Printers or the 3D Printing process this link will take you to the tech site Mashable were you can learn more:

http://mashable.com/category/3d-printing/

Nook HD Becomes A Real Tablet: Barnes & Noble has just made the Nook HD a real tablet! And by “real” I mean that the tablet will now have access to the Google Play Store and be able to run all Android apps in the store. This new functionality does make the Nook HD a real tablet because previously you could only run select Nook tablets on it – which means you didn’t have access to all the apps in the Play Store. But now if you have a Nook HD, or  you get one for Mother’s Day (B&N is running a big sale on them this week) you’ll have access to the entire Play Store and be able to install any apps in the store like for example the Amazon Instant Video app or the Amazon Kindle app! Yes it is true for the first time ever you can now read Amazon Kindle e-books on a Nook! And that is something you cannot do in reverse – you cannot read Nook e-books on a Kindle — at least not yet but Amazon isn’t one on its laurels so I bet we’ll see that functionality added to the Kindle Fire HD series in the near future.  

More On Aereo: I came across a cool article on the Aereo TV services this weekend that pretty much sums up my reaction to the outrage the traditional media companies and networks are expressing over the success of to this television service company.

Just as a refresher Aereo made its debut last year and what it does is to assign an antenna to each customer; and that antenna then records the free over the air video transmissions that major networks have always sent out over the airwaves for free for people so that people who don’t have cable television can receive those signals/videos via rabbit ears or some other type of antenna. It is legal for people to use antennas to receive and record television programs over the air for their own use and it has been twice ruled as being legal for Aereo to provide a service to customers by offering the same service – assigning one antenna and DVR for each customer and those customers can then access recorded content on any tech device they own at any time – smartphone, tablet, PC etc.

So having finished with the refresher section I have to say I agree with Nick Mokey the author of the Digital Trends article on Aereo titled “Aereo’s quasilegal TV streaming is just what we need to slap big media awake.”

I too think that established media, network and cable companies want to hold on to their traditional status quo and would rather everyone pay them for an expensive cable package then to be able to watch the television shows, movies and other content they broadcast whenever they want to on any Internet connecting device that they own. So those same media, network and cable companies are dragging their feet when it comes to providing consumers with access to television shows, movies and e-books on all their devices and on demand – they could do so — they have the ability to do so – they could create a CBS, ABC & NBC, Universal, MGM etc. video store with accompanying app that would allow consumers to buy al la carte content on demand directly from them at any time – they’d make money hand over foot just not via their traditional business models. So I definitely concur with Nick Mokey that Aereo’s success is a very good thing because just maybe those media, network and cable companies will start to innovate and get on the bandwagon of allowing easy 24/7/365 access to content that their customers and many others want. I know I’d be happy to pay for episodes of television series that I want to watch and if back catalog content were available through Network stores I’d be thrilled I might actually get to watch seasons 4 & 5 of Hill Street Blues again – you can stream and buy season 1 & 2 but forget about buying a DVD or streaming seasons 3-7 they are not currently available in either format.

And I’m getting off my soap-box now! Thanks for reading & have a great day!

Linda R.

Here’s the link to the Digital Trends article on Aereo:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/aereos-hellraising-is-just-what-we-needed-to-slap-tv-networks-awake/

Have a great day!

Linda R.

References

Bohn, Dieter. (2013, May 3).Nook HD & HD+ get full Google Play support for Android apps. Online.

Mokey, Nick. (2013, May 2). Aereo’s quasilegal TV streaming is just what we need to slap big media awake. Online.

Welch, Christ. (2013, May 3). Staples becomes first major US retailer to sell 3D printers with $1,299 Cube. The Verge. Online.