They have a 150 inch plasma. There's a "life wall" that lets you interact with a wall. GPS devices in everything. And lamborghinis pimped until they scream (a little louder). Ambilight has gone bigger and Microsoft's surface is here. Seriously, CES is a ton of fun and something that anyone who digs gadgets MUST do before they die.
Look for a lot more from me in a few days. I promise.
So when the Amazon
Kindle was first announced I was immediately intrigued. eBook readers have been something that seemed
like a great idea from the beginning – at least to me. I had some problems with the earlier models –
price, availability of content, and my #1 issue: The fact that electronic books weren’t
cheaper than their paper counterparts. Truth is that a book doesn’t cost THAT much to manufacture but the
related distribution costs, retail overhead, etc, adds up to a premium that
downloads just didn’t have to deal with. I wanted the eBooks to be cheaper than the paper books and Sony’s store
(and others previous like Audible) didn’t
agree. Amazon did.
The Kindle has been panned for its industrial design. It has been criticized for its price point. I am not an overwhelming fan of the photography of it so far but honestly everyone that sees it says “oh, it isn’t that bad.” Functionality wise the side buttons allowing for previous and next page movement are quite convenient. The keyboard is a bit awkward but you only use it for very specific tasks, which I’ll get to later. In general it is light and easy to hold. I think the design is a personal preference thing and less of a serious hindrance to actually using it. (Note: I’ve read recent articles talking about how Amazon should license the Kindle store out to other manufacturers of hardware so they can stick to what works for them. This is genius and I agree whole heartedly… because…)
The integration with the Amazon store is amazing. Take first just the integration of it online, via the web, where you can easily search for and find, then buy, any book that has a Kindle edition. Most of the best sellers (91 out of 100 or so) have Kindle editions (a modified Mobicreator format) and are easily purchased. Amazon does one thing right – that’s work pricing and convenience down to a science. They’ve got it right here once again. THEN consider the integration at the device level. There’s nothing extra to do to get the content to your Kindle other than turn it on and let it wirelessly download via the Amazon Whispernet (EVDO) access. A truly genius move was to make that wireless access free. You’re paying for it as part of each download but you don’t notice, hence you don’t care. Smart. The emotional ease of buying more content will lead to higher sales in the long run guaranteed.
So what is it like to read on it? Personally I feel that it is better than reading on paper because of the variety of content piped into one small device, the ability to search interactively, and the resizing of text. The contrast of the screen is more than adequate and will only get better over time. I think the placement of the buttons is fine and useful, haven’t had an issue with them yet. I’ve found myself reading MORE because of the kindle, and that’s great. Given I’m reading more of my always loved sci-fi and futurist novels, but reading anything is good ;)
So what’s the keyboard for? You can search the Amazon store right from the device, complete with rankings by bestsellers, price, and even reviews which strike a rather personal chord with me. You can search through the texts of what you’ve got on the device. You can browse the web even – albeit not flawlessly – and hit sites like Wikipedia and news organizations. It is useful in a pinch but by no means a replacement for a laptop, iPhone, iPod Touch, Nokia tablet, or any other wifi enabled real browser.
And what about the storage? First off it has 250mb or so of internal storage that seems to work just fine for me. I’ve got a dozen books, a few magazines, lots of newspapers (various days of the WSJ or Investors Business Daily) and have no problems so far. Also you can add SD cards to increase the storage at will. Even more slick is the Amazon store holds references to your purchases and can retransfer them to the Kindle at any time. Take note iTunes – this is something that annoys the hell out of me when I buy a song and then have to worry about losing it.
My opinion is positive on the Kindle. I like it, I’m using it almost daily, and I am reading a lot more for it. I want to see more titles available on the Kindle store and improvements in the future to the eInk technology. Supposedly there’s some new stuff at CES ;)
I’m heading home to visit my family for the Christmas
holiday and I’m traveling with technology. Not just the usual cell phone or digital camera, but an entire list of
devices. Here’s what an early adopter
type rolls with:
1. Blackberry 8800. The absolute necessity. I’ll wear the same clothes 3 days in a row but I won’t MOVE without my blackberry. I’ve got 4 email accounts routed to it, text message threads with friends, and GPS navigation when I get lost. While I really did love the iPhone, it didn’t replace my blackberry for work and personal messaging combined.
2. Bluetooth Headset for the Blackberry (Motorola HS850). A must have. How else can you look so sweet in public places? I especially love the people that wear the headsets even while they’re having lunch with someone. As if they’re going to need to take that emergency call 1.2 seconds faster than without it already on. Ridiculous.
3. iPod Touch. I sold my iPhone because the crackberry won out, so I had to replace it with a dvice that’s the exact same just without the GPRS/EDGE radio. Love the iPod touch for all music and video watching needs.
4. Amazon Kindle. Wha what? I got one the day they were announced. Honestly I LOVE the thing, but my office has notable dissenters. I’ve already read the last three days worth of Wall Street Journals and one day’s worth of Investor’s Business Daily. Out of everything I’m carrying for “entertainment” this one will likely get the most usage. I’ll be writing a full review over the holiday so look forward to that.
5. Canon Powershot SD850IS. I’m not a fan of crappy phone pictures (nor does my 8800 offer that feature) so I carry a great camera in a super small form factor. I rather enjoy capturing photos along each step of a trip (particularly one for pleasure) so I’m glad I’ve got this trusty sidekick with me.
6. Nintendo DS Lite. That’s right, I have a DS Lite. So what. I enjoy the mental distraction of video games and honestly some of them are rather educational. Brain Age is a great example of something that’s Sudoku-like (does anyone even do Sudoku anymore?) and fun.
7. Low Tech stuff. Magazines, a pen and small moleskine notebook, and my boarding pass. Why magazines when I have the Kindle? Many of the ones I love aren’t yet available on Kindle (Wired Magazine isn’t for one) and some magazines are about the photography or imagery (gaming magazines in particular). This guarantees the continuance of paper for a bit longer. Wait until eInk technology goes color commercially (already has in limited beta testing) and the quality rivals CMYK printing. Not far off.
EDITED 12/23/07: I forgot my Dell Latitude D820 on that list ;) I was using it to WRITE the review so you wonder how I even could forget it. Either way - it's a beast of a machine but with 1920x1200 resolution and 2.5 hour battery life (or more if I optimize it a bit) I can't beat it. I love my Macbook at home but rarely travel with it because of the work+life combo this affords me. And yes I'm running Vista.
What do you carry when you travel for fun? Write a comment and tell me.
It has already been one amazing season for new technology. From the early kickoff of the iPhone (and numerous copies) to the recent releases of Rock Band, Amazon's Kindle, a TON of games for PS3, XBOX360, and the Wii, and more than a few releases in the GPS world (even ones for mountain bikes) - there's no shortage of stuff to drool over and eventually buy.
I haven't written in quite a while and plan on writing a few posts soon about the Kindle, Rock Band, and a few other things I've managed to pick up or play with. If you're reading this and have an idea or question, post it as a comment. I'm interested to know what you're buying. Or intentionally not ;)
And no, that gadget pile isn't stuff I own. Well at least not all of it. I probably did at one point though.
GPS technology is a sector of tech that's hot right now. Why? Because everyone and everything needs to know where it is, always. Think about it - even when you're dying to get lost from it all, you're really not interested in actually being LOST.
The companies that are really interesting right now are Navteq (NYSE:NVT), Garmin (NASDAQ:GRMN), SiRF (NASDAQ:SIRF), and maybe Magellan (private). I'm personally an investor in Navteq and it has risen by 178% in the last 8 months. The sector is moving in that direction with the ever increasing number of cars that come standard with GPS based navigation, the proliferation of phone based GPS systems like on the Blackberry 8800 (my business phone), and the price decreases seen in consumer devices like the ones from Garmin.
I owned a Garmin eTrex when I was having fun with Geocaching and enjoyed it thoroughly. We'll only see more interest in Navteq data as systems like Google Earth and others become the basis for so many mashups and useful offshoots.
I'm no Jim Cramer, but I firmly believe that GPS tech is a great investment for the next year at least.
I'm in London. I'm flying home in about 11 hours. It is late and I'm syncing my iPhone so I'll have new crap to listen to on the flight. I'm thinking - I really want to hear "easy like sunday morning."
Some typing, a few clicks, and the song is mine. For $0.99. Sorry brits, here its 79p (about $1.60 in USD).
That's easy like sunday morning.
Flickr is one of the best services available for sharing photos. There are others, and some even more popular like photobucket, but Flickr is superior. Why? Feel. Experience. Fun. Something. Hard to explain. Feature wise they’re all similar, but Flickr just has a better way of doing it. They also have something I haven’t seen with other services – the ability to look up photos by type of camera AND to see statistics on each, based on the frequency of user of each camera and photos taken by that camera. The photos can be broken down into types as well letting you see if a particular camera is good for portraits or landscapes or close ups. I love it.
I recently upgraded from a Canon SD500 to a Canon SD850 IS. I’m a huge Canon supporter (with TONS invested in Canon pro digital bodies and lenses) and love their point and shoot cameras for my casual shooting. I think their design is fantastic, size of the camera is great, and the image quality is best. When I went to Flickr and clicked through to the canon SD500 area I found that usage has declinied significantly in the past few months. You can chart the rise and fall of a camera which as a data nerd I find super interesting. The 850IS however is on the rise, being newly released, and the comparison shots showed me what I wanted to see – that the images do look a little better.
Next time you’re looking for a camera check out the reviews on a place like CNET or retailer like CompUSA or Best Buy, then head over to Flickr and see what other images from the same camera look like. Can’t beat that.
The company I work for, Bazaarvoice, affords me the opportunity to travel internationally. Its exciting because its different. I’ve had the chance to fly American Airlines and British Airways, each on a Boeing 777 and each from DFW to London’s Gatwick airport, which of course means I have an opinion about which is better. And technology comes into play as always. Read on.
On the BA flight the plane is configured with first class “pods” that look like little walled mini-cubes, but they’re not cubes at all. They’re circular, provide for some privacy, and are offset and facing each other allowing for people traveling together to enjoy some conversation. They’re well appointed, serviced like royalty, and fantastic. That is, from the vantage of the other classes of seats – i never flew first. Business is similar, just smaller a bit, but still outstanding. Upgraded coach is roomier with fewer seats total, then there’s coach. Its what you’d expect, fine seats and decent legroom, but nothing special. The seats each have video systems with multiple channels of audio and video allowing for some selection as to which movie you watch. There’s a corded controller that is capable of multi-button input for gaming or otherwise, but the software they have for the entertainment system hasn’t taken advantage of it.
On the AA flight the 777 is packed with more seats. First and business are just seats, but really nice seats. No pods. The coach sections are both the same, none are upgraded in any way, and provide for a similar amount of legroom. The video system is different – a touch screen enables all of the controls without having to touch the controller, corded again, in the seat arm. The controller allows for duplicate channel and volume changes and has the buttons for a gaming setup as well, but isn’t used. Flight maps are available, just like in the BA flight, and the programming is similarly varied. Other than the glitch at the beginning of the flight that disabled the entertainment for 30 minutes, it was similar.
Overall the technology in coach is parity between the two. I preferred the AA flight’s touch screen because it allowed for visual selections of entertainment but they’re really the same. Overall I’d rather fly British Airways because of the general service. Free alcohol on the flight doesn’t hurt either. Oh, and the accents make you feel like you’re international before you leave US soil. Fun.
