Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Remembering Apollo 11

A tribute, on the 40th anniversary of the July 16, 1969 launch of Apollo 11. Some truly amazing photos on this site…wait for them to load, it’s worth it.

Amazon Kindle 2

So on a whim last week, I pre-purchased an Amazon Kindle 2 for Diane. She had been talking about it with her friends at their monthly book club meeting, and coincidentally I had been thinking about getting one for a long time, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger. Wednesday it arrived.

For those of you who don’t know, the Kindle is an electronic device that allows you to purchase, download, and read books from Amazon.com. The selection is surprisingly large (over 250,00 titles.)

You can also subscribe to magazines (Time, Newsweek, etc) newspapers (New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, etc) which are delivered automatically as they are published. Newspapers typically roll in in the wee hours well before they hit newsstands.

The cornerstone of the Kindle is the ever-present access to the internet via a 3G wireless network. Wherever you are, you can access the internet, surf the web, and (Amazon hopes) shop for books. It’s a pretty sweet setup.

The first generation Kindle was kind of an Aztec looking blocky affair. It was angular and sharp, and reportedly the buttons were a bit too big, and a bit too floppy – super easy to press (leading to unwanted page-turns.

The Kindle 1

Pages on the Kindle 1 and 2 are displayed via a technology called “electronic paper”. From Amazon’s website:

We designed Kindle to provide an exceptional reading experience. Thanks to electronic paper, a revolutionary new display technology, reading Kindle’s screen is as sharp and natural as reading ink on paper—and nothing like the strain and glare of a computer screen. Kindle is also easy on the fingertips. It never becomes hot and is designed for ambidextrous use so both “lefties” and “righties” can read comfortably at any angle for long periods of time.

Basically what happens is, the Kindle charges up some spots on the screen, turning them black, and then powers off again. The spots stay black forever, requiring no more power from the unit until the users decides to flip the page. This brings obvious benefits when it comes to battery life.

The Kindle 2 brings several improvements to the table over the first generation unit. More storage, greater detail (16 shades of gray), and superior ergonomics.

Needless to say, we were excited when our new toy arrived. During the unboxing, the first thing that became evident was the quality of the packaging.

Amazon seems to be taking a cue from Spinal Tap with the black-on-black lettering. It’s “none more black.”
Sliding off the slip-cover reveals a black “egg carton” like container.

And inside…

…a blaze of white. (More photos can be found on our Flickr site.)

Now looking at the last photo above, you might think that the instructions are printed on the protective clear plastic covering the screen, but what you’re actually looking at is the Kindle’s amazing electronic ink in action. Starting the unit immediately clears the instructive text, brings up a brief welcome letter from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. From there, it’s on to the main menu. Available is a copy of the Kindle instruction manual, as well as a fully functioning dictionary.

Charging the unit takes place through a supplied mini-usb cable. You can either plug into a wall outlet or your computer usb port to gain a charge, and reportedly a full charge takes 3 hours to accomplish. Battery life supposedly is good at 2 full weeks of reading time.

We’ve used the product for two days, and here’s some of my early observations.

At first, the button placement seems kind of silly. There are “Next Page” and “Previous Page” buttons on the left side, and “Home” and Next Page” buttons on the right. While I can certainly understand the need to be able to change pages from either side of the unit, I’m not sure that this is the best layout choice.

The buttons themselves are well designed. Casual holding will not turn a page accidentally, because the buttons hinge inwards.

The keyboard buttons are small, but they get the job done. This is not a real good platform for web-surfing though.

The d-pad controller is stiff and movement of the on-screen cursor is somewhat laggy. This is probably due to the refresh rate of the screen.

In the Amazon store, if you search for a book and click into it, your cursor is immediately centered on the “buy now” button. If you are not careful, it is all too easy to accidentally buy a book with a second click. There is no confirmation dialog when you press “buy”. This is a huge interface design flaw in my opinion. Fortunately, it’s very easy to cancel a purchase for a full refund – because that’s an option that may people will find themselves using until they get used to the Kindle 2′s interface.

The Amazon Kindle store also offers the option to subscribe to online blogs like Daily Kos and Instapundit. The fee is typically in the range of 99cents per month. The problem with this service is that you cannot click links within the blog. A site like Instapundit, which is comprised MOSTLY of links, is a complete waste of time to try to read on the Kindle.

I purchased one copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and was mostly happy with what I saw. I’m not a big newspaper reader, but I can see this being a real nice feature for those with long commutes on a train or bus.

Another nice feature of the Kindle is the ability to download the first chapter of any book you want for free. This sort of simulates the brick-n-mortar browsing behavior that many people enjoy. You can download as many previews as you want, the arrive almost instantly, and you can read them to see if you like the writer’s style before committing to the whole thing. That’s pretty sweet.

So for our first books, I purchased The Devil in the White City, and Diane grabbed Those Who Save Us. I’m only a few chapters in, but the experience has been great so far.

Other reviews:

Mike’s Quarter
David Pogue: The Kindle: Good Before, Better Now
Kindle 2.0 Review – Should you buy?
Engadget – Amazon Kindle 2 Review
I have a Kindle 2. Jealous much?

Going Solar

No, we’re not going solar, but here’s an interesting series of articles from someone who did.

Going Solar: The Install
Going Solar Power: One Month Later
Going Solar Power: Six Month Update

D O T S

D O T S: The iPhone glove.

This is a bit too geeky, even for me.