Entertaining, but also informative in a short format. Good quick overview of some of the most popular devices.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Rumors of next Kindles
Here's speculation about a front-lit e-ink Kindle, and a slightly bigger Kindle Fire (9 inches).
Both interesting if they are true. I particularly wonder if a front lit e-ink reader could overcome my aversion to the grey background, which otherwise is a deal-breaker for me, sadly. Or maybe it's too late, having been reading on the iPad 3, with the super awesome razor-sharp Retina display. I'm not sure.
Both interesting if they are true. I particularly wonder if a front lit e-ink reader could overcome my aversion to the grey background, which otherwise is a deal-breaker for me, sadly. Or maybe it's too late, having been reading on the iPad 3, with the super awesome razor-sharp Retina display. I'm not sure.
iPad and common formats
I'm a huge iPad fan, that's well know. But there are a few issues.
One is: if Apple is going to prance around bragging about how they are inventing the platform which will replace most of the desktop and laptop computers in the world, it is amazingly lame that:
1: Pages on iPad does not use the same file format as Pages on the Mac.
2: The iPad does not support .RTF, one of the most common text formats in the world, and the one used by default by the Mac Apple text processor, TextEdit.
In fact, overall, document exchange between iPad and the existing power platforms is a nightmare, and very limited. If the iPad was being sold as a reader and entertainment center, that would be understandable, but right from the very introduction, Apple made and makes a big deal about the "post-PC world". And for the iPad to build this Brave New Production world without any contact with desktops or laptops and the mountain of existing work is just a crazy idea.
One is: if Apple is going to prance around bragging about how they are inventing the platform which will replace most of the desktop and laptop computers in the world, it is amazingly lame that:
1: Pages on iPad does not use the same file format as Pages on the Mac.
2: The iPad does not support .RTF, one of the most common text formats in the world, and the one used by default by the Mac Apple text processor, TextEdit.
In fact, overall, document exchange between iPad and the existing power platforms is a nightmare, and very limited. If the iPad was being sold as a reader and entertainment center, that would be understandable, but right from the very introduction, Apple made and makes a big deal about the "post-PC world". And for the iPad to build this Brave New Production world without any contact with desktops or laptops and the mountain of existing work is just a crazy idea.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Rooting e-ink Nook
Did you know you can root a Nook (e-ink) ereader so it becomes an Android Tablet? I sure didn’t. I guess most games won't run well on it, but there's bound to be some interesting options which open up, like first of all several different e-reading applications one can use. And Instapaper (or Readability) -compatible apps, making it easy to send web articles to the Nook to be read in clear formatting.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Ereader use study
Tablets use study, article.
A quarter of women are happy to give up sex (25%) to keep their tablet.
Woa. The existence of this blog is an indication of how very important I think readers/tablets (same thing to my mind) are, but still...
A quarter of women are happy to give up sex (25%) to keep their tablet.
Woa. The existence of this blog is an indication of how very important I think readers/tablets (same thing to my mind) are, but still...
Ebooks: a new publishing solution to an old business problem?
Ebooks: a new publishing solution to an old business problem?, article.
The rise in popularity of e-readers such as Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad presents a new market for magazine and newspaper publishers to explore
This idea hadn't occurred to me, but I think it's a great one.
For many years, micropayment were seen by many, like Jakob Nielsen, Guy Kawasaki, Scott McCloud, and well, me, as being the great solution to content sales on the web. Make a system where people could pay 10 or 25 cents per picture or article, that should work.
A decade ago I was invited to join a micropayment system/company, BitPay I think it was called, which Guy Kawasaki had a stake it. And I have reasons to believe that I was one of the biggest sellers for them. But in the end, they closed. And my own experience showed that when people had the option to buy content in large packages, these sold much better than selling it piecemeal, even though there was not any bulk pricing involved!
I suspect it is the sheer mental weight of making 200 "small" decisions rather than make one bigger one. Because contrary to what one might think, a "small" decision is not all that much less stressing than a larger one. Many people will be familiar with this scenario: having a hard time deciding whether to spend ten cents on a shopping bag, while deciding to buy a stereo system on the spur of the moment. It's the same mechanics at work, so fewer decisions is much less stressing.
The rise in popularity of e-readers such as Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad presents a new market for magazine and newspaper publishers to explore
This idea hadn't occurred to me, but I think it's a great one.
For many years, micropayment were seen by many, like Jakob Nielsen, Guy Kawasaki, Scott McCloud, and well, me, as being the great solution to content sales on the web. Make a system where people could pay 10 or 25 cents per picture or article, that should work.
A decade ago I was invited to join a micropayment system/company, BitPay I think it was called, which Guy Kawasaki had a stake it. And I have reasons to believe that I was one of the biggest sellers for them. But in the end, they closed. And my own experience showed that when people had the option to buy content in large packages, these sold much better than selling it piecemeal, even though there was not any bulk pricing involved!
I suspect it is the sheer mental weight of making 200 "small" decisions rather than make one bigger one. Because contrary to what one might think, a "small" decision is not all that much less stressing than a larger one. Many people will be familiar with this scenario: having a hard time deciding whether to spend ten cents on a shopping bag, while deciding to buy a stereo system on the spur of the moment. It's the same mechanics at work, so fewer decisions is much less stressing.
"iPhone Plus"
A mock-up of the next iPhone. (Not likely they can make it that slim though.)
I am amazed at what people can make with their 3D packages. As an artist I'm rather envious. I could learn it, you say. Sorry, I don't have the patience (and maybe not the brains). I can barely do basic photoshopping.
(I love that he made a faux Apple page for it.)
I am amazed at what people can make with their 3D packages. As an artist I'm rather envious. I could learn it, you say. Sorry, I don't have the patience (and maybe not the brains). I can barely do basic photoshopping.
(I love that he made a faux Apple page for it.)
Form and content
Writer Maurice Sendak said about ebooks: “I hate them. It’s like making believe there’s another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of sex. There isn’t another kind of book! A book is a book is a book.”
To be blunt, what bollocks. I am astonished by how otherwise intelligent and educated people can so completely mix up Form and Content. A book is coherent (hopefully) collection of text (or pictures). It is not a stitched stack of paper. It's not a roll of animal skin. It's not a slate of glass and aluminium, or a string of bits. A book is a specialized collection of thoughts presented in a package.
To say that a book is not a book if it's not printed on paper is like saying that a film is not a film unless it's projected off a roll of celluloid.
BTW, this was Sendak. I am not surprised he looked like that. Why are old writers always such bitter old cusses? Maybe being a professional writer is really not good for you?
To be blunt, what bollocks. I am astonished by how otherwise intelligent and educated people can so completely mix up Form and Content. A book is coherent (hopefully) collection of text (or pictures). It is not a stitched stack of paper. It's not a roll of animal skin. It's not a slate of glass and aluminium, or a string of bits. A book is a specialized collection of thoughts presented in a package.
To say that a book is not a book if it's not printed on paper is like saying that a film is not a film unless it's projected off a roll of celluloid.
BTW, this was Sendak. I am not surprised he looked like that. Why are old writers always such bitter old cusses? Maybe being a professional writer is really not good for you?
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Temple Grandin on ereaders
For example the lower screen contrast of the Kindle and the flicker-free nature of tablet screens may help many people.
Friday, May 4, 2012
(Updated) Barnes & Noble shipping GlowLight Nook
Barnes & Noble shipping GlowLight Nook, article.
It's an e-ink display. It's not backlit. It's front-lit. From the sides, but still pretty evenly. Quite interesting. And once again, B&N beat Amazon to it, like they did with the color reader and with a touch reader.
The contrast of the screen itself does not seem to have changed from the miserable middle-grey background e-ink always has had so far. But maybe the light helps. In any case, I'm curious. But not available outside the States, of course. I could buy it from the US, but I couldn't buy any books for it, so that'd limit the joy.
I wonder what technology they use to spread the light evenly over the page, from a narrow slit by the edges. I can't really figure that out.
I found a video showing it clearly. It looks very attractive to me.
(Does this video show to you? If you can't see it, try here and tell me what you get please.)
I think that maybe my problem with the e-ink screens is less the low contrast, and more the overall darkness of it, it is not one of the brighter things in my field of vision, so it does not attract my attention. Judging from this video, this may make a significant difference in that area.
In any case it's much superior to the little exterior light sources people have had to use, because they give light so uneven that I just couldn't use them (I tried a couple, including Amazon's leather Light case for Kindle 3). Well, they are usable if you really have to, but for me at least they are not pleasant at all.
It's an e-ink display. It's not backlit. It's front-lit. From the sides, but still pretty evenly. Quite interesting. And once again, B&N beat Amazon to it, like they did with the color reader and with a touch reader.
The contrast of the screen itself does not seem to have changed from the miserable middle-grey background e-ink always has had so far. But maybe the light helps. In any case, I'm curious. But not available outside the States, of course. I could buy it from the US, but I couldn't buy any books for it, so that'd limit the joy.
I wonder what technology they use to spread the light evenly over the page, from a narrow slit by the edges. I can't really figure that out.
I found a video showing it clearly. It looks very attractive to me.
(Does this video show to you? If you can't see it, try here and tell me what you get please.)
I think that maybe my problem with the e-ink screens is less the low contrast, and more the overall darkness of it, it is not one of the brighter things in my field of vision, so it does not attract my attention. Judging from this video, this may make a significant difference in that area.
In any case it's much superior to the little exterior light sources people have had to use, because they give light so uneven that I just couldn't use them (I tried a couple, including Amazon's leather Light case for Kindle 3). Well, they are usable if you really have to, but for me at least they are not pleasant at all.
No convergence please!
Believe it or not, this spoof was made by Brydge, the company with the so-far most serious attempt at actually making something like such a convergence.
Brydge is making a quality keyboard component which fits the iPad.
When the iPad was new, I knew these things were bound to come. Now they are here, I'm not at all sure if I want it, or if I really should bring the MacBook Air when I want to use a keyboard a lot. There are many things you can do on a Mac which you can't do on an iPad. But then this is also true vice-versa. And you can pull the iPad from the keyboard and then you just have the lovely iPad. Sooo...
Brydge is making a quality keyboard component which fits the iPad.
When the iPad was new, I knew these things were bound to come. Now they are here, I'm not at all sure if I want it, or if I really should bring the MacBook Air when I want to use a keyboard a lot. There are many things you can do on a Mac which you can't do on an iPad. But then this is also true vice-versa. And you can pull the iPad from the keyboard and then you just have the lovely iPad. Sooo...
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