Gadget-Watch: Electronic Readers…How Do They Stack Up?

First there were cell phones & laptop computers. Then hand-held gaming systems. Then portable MP3 & video players. Then mobile web devices. Which left people asking, “What will they think of next?”

Even though it’s not exactly front page news anymore, I just had to put in my two cents regarding the latest must-have gadget on the market–hand-held electronic readers like the Kindle from Amazon and the Nook from Barnes & Noble.

It’s amazing that even the simplest forms of entertainment–like reading–can be made easier/faster/more portable by modern computer technology. You may be thinking Seriously? What’s more portable than a book? How about a thin electronic tablet that can hold & display the contents of your entire bookshelf? Not only that, you can purchase new e-books directly from your hand-held device.

I recently had my first face-to-face encounter with one of these new e-readers–the Nook–and while I was suitably dazzled (and for a moment felt like I was living in an episode of the Jetsons) it got me wondering how the two brands compare.

In my research, I dug up this review by Rich Jaroslovsky at BusinessWeek. Jaroslovsky seems to feel that while the Nook outshines the Kindle in terms of features, its speed–or lack thereof–makes all the bells & whistles moot.

Read the full comparison here.

The Kindle, from Amazon

PLM as ‘A Central Hub of Product Intelligence’

We found this article in the PLM section of our new favorite resource, BusinessExchange.com.

The article discusses eradicating the top 3 productivity killers in the workplace in order to create better products in less time–and achieving this goal with the use of a ‘central hub of product intelligence’.

I really enjoyed this new term as it applies to PLM. For such a simple concept, I find that many people have a hard time wrapping their minds around the idea of what a PLM system actually is, yet ‘a central hub of product intelligence’ is a simple yet informative & accurate descriptor.

Read the full article & find out what ‘The Top 3 Productivity Killers’ are now.

Product Lifecycle Management News on BusinessWeek’s Business Exchange

Our new favorite resource for PLM news (and really any kind of business news) is Business Exchange from BusinessWeek.

The website is still in BETA, but it is incredibly useful, well-organized, easy to navigate and most importantly, informative–and we’re not just gushing because our blog postings continue to turn up in the news feed (although that certainly doesn’t hurt!) We certainly wouldn’t expect anything less from BusinessWeek.

You can sort stories by ‘News’, ‘Blogs’, ‘Reference’, ‘Most Active’ or ‘Jobs’, and you can register for free instantly with your LinkedIn login ID.

If you haven’t yet, check out BusinessWeek’s Business Exchange (BETA) for PLM news now!