Barnes & Noble Inc. is a publicly traded company to offer online customers the Web’s first destination for books, DVD, music, video games and other services. The Barnes & Noble.com has created a vast numbers of stores that include also Audiobooks and the Bargain Area. Recently the company has declared that e-books will be counted among the priorities to be set in the company’s future strategy. On Monday the Barnes’ digital strategy was revealed, a strategy that included two main announcements regarding Barnes&Noble eBookstore and the plans reserved for the e-book readers together with the partnership they have with Plastic Logic for producing e-book device.

Monday the eBookstore was launched offering 700,000 titles considering the Barnes & Noble’s press releases, but later in a conference they declared that the eBookstore includes actually 500,000 free titles accessible to the public providing new releases and bestsellers at $9.99, the same as Amazon’s Kindle store. It is expected that the selection they have at present to increase up to one million or even more in the next year, selection that incorporates e-books from established publishers, Google and independent direct-to-e-books publishers.

William J. Lynch, President of BN.com, while being asked about how soon Barnes & Noble figured to increase its proportion of the eBookstore (without Google offerings), said that the company is planning and dedicated to offer the B & N consumers every title that is available in digital format. In this regard, B & N e-Bookstore will operate only for EPub, which is the standard from the International digital Publishing Forum for free and open e-book. The books will have a copyright protection and will be accessible for downloading as well as capable of digitally storing in Your Library.

Lynch declared that the downloading can be performed to multiple devices, since Barnes & Noble provides the latest eReader software for a number of device platforms, such as cell phones (iPhone, Blackberry), PC and Mac computers, and as it has been lately announced the eBookstore will be available for all platforms through the eReader software that was acquired from Fictionwise. In case your hard drive fails, or you lose your mobile phone, B & N enables you to digitally access your books, so long as you are on their records as a purchaser, you are allowed to download it whenever and how often you need to.

The digital book reader – eReader - that belongs to Plastic Logic (the partners of B & N) is supposed to be released on the market in early 2010 and Barnes & Noble eBookstore is set to have exclusiveness for this eReader, according to Lunch who revealed no further details regarding other levels of partnership. The eReader provided by Plastic Logic will be 8.5” by 11”, having a wireless connection, displaying a more comfortable size of a sheet of paper, becoming in this way a real threat to Amazon’s Kindle DX.

With the new 12.3 megapixel D5000 DSLR camera, Nikon hopes to launch a less expensive DSLR that produces HD, connecting the simpler compacts models in the sub-$400 with the ones in the above-$1,000 price point. The users that go from fixed-lens cameras to SLR can find everything included in this new package, the Quick Start Guide keeping you informed at a blink of an eye. The Software Suite DVD has image browsers, Raw converters, Nikon Transfer and a lot of other utilities to view and edit photos, a Nikon strap, an EN-EL9a Li-Ion battery with a charger, an AV cable to connect to HDMI input on TVs and an USB cable to connect to computer or printer. The model uses SD and SDHC memory cards and stores images as JPEG, NEF RAW or these two combined.

The design is quite impressive considering how many features Nikon has managed to put in the package; the 2.7” panel is turned around in order to provide protection from scratches or other damages. A sub-command dial near the shutter button is missing but it is replaced with other controls that are now performing a double duty, for instance the exposure compensation button performs also the changing of aperture while turning the rear command dial. The top of the camera presents a mode dial that presents all the modes for exposure that a Nikon user is familiar with.

The image quality ranges in normal ISO standard from 200 to 800 offering an excellent quality related to the image sensor that is the same as in D90 model. The burst rate is also impressive since the D5000 is able to cut through 63 large JPEGs at a rate of 4 frames per second, it can shoot 11 RAW files at the same frame rate. The kit lens 18-55mm uses a plastic mount and a VR (vibration reduction) function which enables taking shots in lower light with as less shake as possible to be visible in the image. The viewfinder of the camera is built of a penta-mirror instead of a penta-prism the one available in the higher priced DSLR cameras.

The Live View feature in an important one and D5000 excels in that it can compose without looking into the eyepiece, enabling you to manipulate the LCD in order to get a head-on view at most common angles. The 720p shooting mode functions at a 24 frames per second using a rolling shutter technique to enclose the clips, and this thing makes an unusual “waving” if the camera is in motion instead of being fixed in the sync. The model is presented with only one microphone having no external plug-in, and its video size is limited to five minutes segments.

Conclusive, Nikon D5000 is a useful way for the former amateurs to get familiarized with the DSLR market, having a slightly shrunken design; it is offering also limitations regarding the high speeds of the shooting or the clean shots in capturing. However, if we consider the Nikon’s highest feature in mastering still images, we can recommend D5000 model above others, but be aware of the experience you have and what you expect to get at the price you pay for this new entry of Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

Consumers that have purchased a 2.8ghz  15” MacBookPro claim that there is a problem with the hard drive Seagate 500GB 7200RPM they have ordered together with the notebook, a hard drive that seems to beep, click and stall. The thing is that one of these users believes to exist a kind of secret “internal Apple document” regarding this issue.

He says that upon receiving and using the laptop, he heard from time to time a noise resembling to a click-beep that finally ended up with sinking down the system. Then happened something that made him realize that actually there was something wrong with that click-beep sound, the system completely hung up and upon a further attempt of rebooting, the system stayed on the gray screen displaying at the same time a folder/question mark icon, for in the next 2 weeks to fail completely. The user called the technical support and from there he was guided to get it into an Apple Store being told that actually the device was dead right from its arrival. Then a new order followed via online store and the new device received presented again the same click-deep.

Upon his appointment with customer service the problem couldn’t be properly traced therefore he tried to reach another employee this time from the sales department. This time the device was taken to be checked on some troubleshooting documents and when the employee came back he said that the click-beep was actually a normal behavior for the device, according to Apple’s indications, but one could see quite clear that even the employee wasn’t buying it.

The customer asked him if this problem occurs only for the 7200rpm drives and not the 5400rpm ones, but his question wasn’t answered. Instead he received the reply that there was an internal Apple document which he didn’t have the liberty to discuss upon. The customer realized that something is wrong in this matter, the issue representing a problem for the 7200rpm drives, a problem that Apple tries to secretly work on. The fact is that Apple isn’t willing to stain their image by agreeing publicly that there is an issue with the products they are selling on the PC market. The Apple politics regarding the existence of such problems is hard to be understood, since they are supposed to help their paying customers in every matter that occurs in the functioning of their products.

So, the only solution for the unsatisfied client was to return the device back without getting back a restocking fee and to purchase a 5400rpm from the Apple store. The user preferred to make this issue public hoping that it might be of any help in determining the extend of the problem as well as in disclosing the internal Apple documents that exist on this aspect, rhetorically asking: Is MacBook Pro hard drive, a matter of Apple’s internal affairs?

Meanwhile it is reported that the 5400rpm hard drive doesn’t represent any problem so far, and it is an irony considering that this model comes with the same version firmware released by Seagate for the 500GB 7200RPM hard drive type.

Google declares that it attempts to release an operating system designed for netbooks which is said to boot in seconds, to remain immune to viruses and to run Web-based apps in a good manner. Google’s Chrome OS may represent in this case a threat to the software producers, such as Microsoft, but at the same time Google won’t mind if its OS will be a success or a failure.

After the announcement was made everybody, including the consumers, is eager to lay hands on it. Meanwhile chip makers (Qualcomm and Texas Instruments), computers producers (Acer and HP), together with software developers (Adobe) are co-operating to design and build Chrome OS devices.

This operating system is targeting to the growing segment of the computer industry – the netbooks, since they are statistically recording a 260 percentage in worldwide sales. It is not a sure fact, but gossip says that HP might end up selling Chrome OS netbook connected to a wireless plan belonging to Verizon Wirelss. All this time netbook producers and wireless carriers are displaying several netbook promotions, even though Chrome OS is going to be free and for running it you do not need a maximal hardware requirement, in this way allowing computers companies to come up with very cheap computers. This situation is similar to what Apple has accomplished through its iPhone when it revolutionized the wireless industry in that it created a Chrome OS device to connect to a source for running apps such as iTunes App Store.

With the new Chrome OS, a lot of challenges are on the way; Google has to compete with Linux option called Moblin backing the Intel and planned to reach the netbooks in a short time. Another challenge would be cast by the privacy issues; the question is if the consumers would like to have their computing habits exposed to the eyes of their company. Not to mention the fact that Microsoft in order to protect its software field will feel the menace and will probably campaign about its desktop software assuring the consumers of its presence on the netbooks next to its Windows 7. In July Microsoft is known to release its own brand of Web services with the online versions of Office software free for consumers, months before the Chrome OS is programmed to be launched.

It is not officially stated but it is thought that actually Google’s plan is to wake up the software producers and make them realize that the future belongs to online programs rather than desktop software. Its purpose is to force software developers to consider the option of building Web services that can be run in the browser system instead of Windows OS. And if so, we are left with the question: what is the reward for Google? Well, maybe it doesn’t necessary have to be one, considering that Google is a master in advertising and all it does for now is owning almost every aspect that is contained in your digital life starting with OS you use to how you browse and work on line.

Is that possible that Apple TV might get some increased features? According to the new Apple patent which made its entrance at the US Patent & Trademark Office by the number 2009182670, it is a possibility that one may get on-demand video and other content rental.

The patent involves a system to watch an ‘on-demand’ video rental via Internet. You can access an on-line store that can provide video program or movie. The period for rental is restricted to 30 days but the movie you want to see or the video program is available for a limited time imposed by the on-line store which allows you to view in a time window of 24 hours. The on-line store keeps a database for every rental transaction at the same time supplying keys for decrypting the videos or movies that are encrypted.

On-demand video is a technology that allows users to select and watch digital video content through a cable TV that belongs to interactive TV system. This technology is based on streaming the content in order to be seen in real time or downloading it on a set top box in the cable TV context before you start viewing. These systems are displayed on the background of cable and telephone companies or the networks that distribute satellite television. Each viewing is made under a payment subscription, since the transaction is seen as a real video renting in a restricted time of 24 hours. The system are created in such a manner that the user has to begin viewing immediately after the purchase is made, this happens due to the limitations of the delivery system and the user’s device which is represented by a cable TV set top box or something similar.

To make the things easier Apple attempts to provide a system on-demand through the computer’s Internet content. It is known that users can download movies or video to their PCs or their electronic devices such as iPods or Apple TV, and after being purchased, if there is the case, a movie or video program can be watched as many times as the user wants. Due to the new approach on video on-demand, user will still be able to rent a limited time audio or video for after that to view the content whenever and wherever he feels like.

The new system issued by the Apple’s patent is conceived in one embodiment supporting movie rentals from an Apple iTunes Store which is a content central website. From this store the rentals will be made and viewed on the users’ Apple TV or iPod devices. Other embodiment displays the possibility of transferring the material from one device to another in any convenient day from a period of 30 days. Another embodiment available is one that supports high definition TV and standard definition TV.