By Jeremy Greenfield, Editorial Director, Digital Book World Toasters, coffee machines and vacuum cleaners are all perfectly good things to buy on Amazon, the general manager of Toronto-based Kobo told us yesterday when we sat down with him for a product demo of the company’s latest e-reader tablet, but not books. Books, according to Matt Welch, general manager at the e-reader manufacturer and bookseller, are best read on the Kobo Vox, the company’s new seven-inch, touch-screen, color tablet that ships to consumers today and retails at $199. As we reported last week, the Vox signals several important trends for publishers, authors and e-book producers and distributers. And next week, we’ll be giving you the inside scoop on the Vox – what works, what doesn’t, and whether it’s really better than the competition, as Welch and Kobo product lead Jason Gamblen asserted in our sit-down yesterday. For now, here are some salient points from our talk and a subsequent email exchange, including Kobo’s differentiators, what Kobo has to say to publishers and why Welch thinks nobody should be buying books from Amazon.

Jeremy Greenfield: What sets this new tablet apart from the Kindle Fire, for instance? Matt Welch: We’re about reading, they’re not. In the 10,000 word press release they put out about the fire, only about two things mentioned reading. The Vox is all about reading. JG: What do you say to publishers who have to worry about getting their books formatted and up on Amazon, the Barnes & Noble store, your store and others? MW: If I were them I would want to sell a lot of books and I would want people to discover books. How people discover books is social and Kobo is social.But through apps like Subtext, which made a splash this week with its new social app, other e-readers can be social, too. Will Kobo, which runs Android 2.3, allow Subtext and other social apps to be downloaded on the Vox and work with the reader? MW: We don’t stop anyone from installing and using outside apps. There are 15,000 free Android apps available on the Vox. JG: What about the Kindle app?

JG: Speaking of Amazon…would you say that the best place to read Kindle books is the Vox? MW: The best place to read Kindle books is nowhere, in my opinion. Why would anyone buy an e-book from Amazon? Freedom is a value held dearly in America and around the world. People should be able to transfer and read their books on any e-reader they wish, and don’t like being trapped in one ecosystem, which would be the case if they started building a Kindle e-book library. More and more people are realizing this, and are saying they don’t want to get stuck in the Amazon. They paid for their e-books after all. Why are they held captive? Readers get quite irritated (understandably so) when they learn they can’t they take their kindle e-books with them if they decide to upgrade to the Kobo social e-reading experience. This lack of freedom seems like a very un-American idea to me, coming from a very American company like Amazon. That said, I recently bought a very nice toaster, a coffee machine and a vacuum cleaner from Amazon, so I think it makes perfect sense to buy myriad different types of products from Amazon.

JG: So, what’s next for Kobo? Will we see a 10-inch tablet next year? MW: I’m going to give you the old Steve Jobs answer – we don’t comment on product roadmap. *Response edited from an email for style and space. /voxpop/2011/07/01/open-robotics/ on this server. Your technical support key is: 36f5-0266-1756-6707 If you are unable to fix the problem yourself, please contact tom.bruce at cornell.edu and be sure to provide the technical support key shown above.industrial vacuum cleaner ebayYou can find our products at Ahlsell.best suction vacuum cleaner nz We are also the general agent for LIFA Air solutions in Sweden and Denmark.vacuum cleaner bags hoover type a PM is short for “particulate matter”.

It refers to particles found in the air, including dust, dirt, soot, smoke, and liquid droplets. Particles can be suspended in the air for long periods of time. Many man-made and natural sources emit PM directly or emit other pollutants that react in the atmosphere to form PM. These solid and liquid particles come in a wide range of sizes. Some particles are large or dark enough to be seen – like soot or smoke. Others are so small that individually, they can only be detected with an electron microscope. What is the difference between PM2.5 and PM10? PM is usually measured in two size ranges: PM10 and PM2.5. PM10 refers to particles with diameters that are less than or equal to 10 microns in size (a micron, or micrometer, is one-millionth of a meter), or about 1/7 the diameter of a human hair. PM2.5, also called “fine particulates,” consists of particles with diameters that are less than or equal to 2.5 microns in size. That’s about 1/30 the diameter of a human hair.

PM2.5 is a more serious health concern than PM10, since smaller particles can travel more deeply into our lungs and affect your health. Where does PM2.5 come from? Fine particles are produced from all types of combustion, including motor vehicles, power plants, residential wood burning, forest fires, agricultural burning, volcanic eruptions, dust storms and some industrial processes. Some are emitted directly into the air, while others are formed when gases and particles interact with one another in the atmosphere. Why is it so dangerous? The health effects of PM10 and PM2.5 are well documented. Over-exposure to PM increases the risk of heart and lung illnesses and can reduce an individual’s lifespan. Alarmingly, there is no evidence of a safe level of exposure or a threshold below which no adverse health effects occur. Numerous studies have linked long-term particle pollution, especially PM2.5, with significant health problems including: Increased respiratory symptoms, e.g. irritation of the airways, coughing or difficulty breathing

Development of chronic respiratory disease in children Development of chronic bronchitis or chronic obstructive lung disease Premature death in people with heart or lung disease, including death from lung cancer Short-term exposure to particles (hours or days) can: Aggravate lung disease causing asthma attacks and acute bronchitis Increase susceptibility to respiratory infections Cause heart attacks and arrhythmias in people with heart disease Even if you are healthy, you may experience temporary symptoms, such as: Irritation of the eyes, nose and throat How can I find out about PM2.5 level in my community? Unfortunately, unlike neighbouring Singapore and even Indonesia, Malaysia does not publish any PM2.5 data. While the Department of Environment (DOE) Malaysia releases its Air Pollutant Index (API) readings taken at 52 stations hourly, the air pollutants measured do not include PM2.5. The five pollutants currently measured are ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and PM10.

The pollutant with the highest concentration is then taken as the API reading and this is usually PM10. The DOE in its website said it is in the midst of finalising the new Malaysian Air Quality Guidelines to include the standard limit of PM2.5 in the ambient air based on World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 2006 guidelines. “Subsequently, we will need to come up with a PM2.5 Air Quality Index System and data integration with the existing system in our Environmental Data Centre (EDC) prior to including it in our API calculation.” Adoption is likely to happen by end-2016. How does our API readings compare with, say Singapore? Singapore uses the PSI (Pollutant Standards Index) which measures what Malaysia’s API does, plus PM2.5. Both Malaysia’s API and Singapore’s PSI are standards developed for measuring pollutants by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and have similar categories — a reading of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51- 100 ‘moderate’, 101-200 ‘unhealthy’, 201-300 ‘very unhealthy’.

A reading above 300 is ‘hazardous’. But a straightforward comparison between them will be like comparing apples to oranges. As Malaysia does not measure PM2.5, its API shows substantially lower readings. This creates a more positive but ultimately illusory picture of the state of our nation’s air quality. Be Aware of Indoor Air What can I do to reduce exposure to PM2.5 when the haze is bad? Stay indoors in a room or building with filtered air. PM can get indoors, so consider getting an effective air purifier. Air cleaners that remove particles include high-efficiency mechanical filters and electronic air cleaners, such as electrostatic precipitators Keep your activity levels low. Avoid activities that make you breathe faster or more deeply to reduce the amount of particle pollution you inhale into your lungs. Don’t add to the air pollution. Avoid using anything that burns, e.g. cigarettes, candles, incense. Keep the indoor environment clean but don’t vacuum unless your vacuum cleaner has high-efficiency particulate arrestance (HEPA) filters.