Written on January 27, 2010 by Katherine W. Prawl
After watching the live feeds of today’s Apple iPad announcement, audio/video from Leo Leporte’s Twit, and live blogging by Gizmodo and Engadget (both of which crashed their servers from time to time), I have to have one! As expected, Apple blew away the competition. My KindleDX is now obsolete (not that I was ever really thrilled with its low-contrast, grey-on-grey screen and dismally slow Web experience, but it was the best available at the time), and my little netbook, cute as it is, may also get donated to somebody soon, even though I just recently upgraded its RAM to 2GB and acquired a USB CD/DVD drive for it, as well as a handful of SD cards. Well, maybe I’ll keep it around to run Linux when my desktop computer isn’t available, but that’s just about the only reason I can think of. And I’ll keep the Kindle, too, thanks to all the ebooks I’ve bought from Amazon. But those devices sure look lackluster now that we’ve seen the iPad.
Now the wait. Naturally, I “need” the version with 3G, otherwise what’s the point of a mobile device? That won’t be available for around 90 days. But in the meantime, I am downloading the SDK with iPad emulator from the Apple Developer site, and who knows? Maybe I’ll even get around to developing something for it someday? In my copious spare time, of course.
Posted in AT&T, App development, Design, Hardware, Kindle, Linux, Mobility, Operating System, Tablet, WiFi, eBook reader, eBooks, iPhone, wireless | Comment Now!
Written on August 22, 2009 by Katherine W. Prawl
That’s the slogan used by a new website called Alltop. What they mean by that is that their users can create a page full of RSS feeds, in effect creating a one-page magazine table of contents on just about any topic you can name, easily and quickly. I think it took me longer to make up and type a site password than it did to figure out how to use the site to make my own page, which I call DigiKat, about all things digital.
The way it works, first you create a free account by entering an account name (in my case, “DigiKat”), password and email address, then confirm the address by clicking a link in the email the site sends you. Once that’s done, you go to a list where you can select up to 100 “feeds” — lists of blog or news site articles — to add to your MyAlltop page by simply putting a checkmark beside the ones you want. When you’re done, click the “Save” button, and go see the results. If that’s not easy enough, watch the video tutorials to get a step-by-step walk-through of the process.
Unlike many of the other currently popular create-it-yourself sites out there, there is no way to add personal information or design touches, at least not right now, and any revenues generated by the embedded ads accrue to the Alltop folks, not you. But it’s rather neat to have a page with your own selection of news and info, and to be able to share it with everyone, and their monitization scheme may ensure that the pages will be around for awhile, so it’s all good.
As well as the RSS feed aggregation page, Alltop offers some other “goodies”. An example is the Alltop badge in the right sidebar here, below my Twitter feed badges. The topic I chose for this badge, “Journalism”, isn’t included in my own MyAlltop page, but of course it’s a subject I’m interested in. Maybe I’ll make another MyAlltop page on that subject. Think of a whole page full of paragraph-sized link lists similar to this badge, and you’ll begin to see what Alltop is all about.
If you decide to try it out, post a comment here with your MyAlltop page name!
Posted in Web 2.0 | Comment Now!
Written on August 16, 2009 by Katherine W. Prawl
I was just listening to the latest episode of This Week in Google (TWiG), a new Leo Laporte podcast, when I was struck by the discussion of how microblogging, as on Twitter or Facebook, can sometimes steal posts away from “normal” blogs. I’m not the only one out there who finds myself tweeting instead of writing new blog entries, apparently.
It got me to thinking about the differences between these various methods of self-expression and communication. It’s true that all these social media/social networking sites are attractive, but for different reasons, and possibly different reasons exist for different people, or different moods in the same person. I like Twitter for its immediacy and the ease of very short form updates. I like Facebook because it makes it easy to share photos and my Twitter feed, and for the interactions in comments on my page and those of my contacts. LinkedIn is a good place to keep my expanded résumé, and offers what may be more serious discussion forums than I’ve found elsewhere (although I find I don’t have time to follow them). The dozens of Ning networks I’ve signed up for took a lot of my attention for a few weeks earlier this year, but now I rarely look at them.
For me, my blogs are completely different from the networks I belong to. When I do post blog entries, they tend to be longer and better researched than social network posts, which might explain why I don’t write them as often. It’s a bigger commitment of time and effort. Blogs also have a more permanent feeling to them, with several years’ worth of entries available in their archives, while Twitter and Facebook postings quickly scroll off the page, sometimes in just a few hours, and certainly in no more than days. Indeed, some Twitter users, like Jay Rosen of New York University’s Journalism Institute have been agitating recently for Twitter to provide a searchable archive of past tweets, which highlights the fact that such an archive doesn’t exist.
As we used to say on the pre-Web BBS, YMMV (Your Milage May Vary), but for me there’s a time and place for all these expressive outlets, and I’ll keep using them at least until the next greatest thing comes along.
Posted in Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, Social Networks, Twitter, blogs | Comment Now!
Written on August 13, 2009 by Katherine W. Prawl
So, I’ve had my Kindle DX eReader for about 10 days now, and it’s time to write about the experience. Overall my reaction is positive, but there are a few weak points that diminish my euphoria with the device.
First, there is the screen itself. It is not paper-white at all. The contrast is rather poor, and text is not as sharp-edged as I’d like. Not having a backlight, while saving battery consumption, does mean it’s necessary to have a light source handy to read productively. My caveats don’t extend to the point of complete disgruntlement, though. While the screen on my iPhone is backlit and high contrast/resolution, its smaller size makes it much more difficult to read for more than a few minutes. Since one reason I want an eReader is for grad school textbooks, that makes a difference. However, although I can list a number of caveats, my reaction was not nearly as negative as that described by Nicholson Baker in his The New Yorker review. However, even Baker says in his final paragraphs that once he started reading, “Poof, the Kindle disappeared, just as Jeff Bezos promised it would.” However, one feature that leaves me completely unimpressed is the built-in Web browser. I’m not sure if it’s Sprint’s 3G network or the browser software or the Kindle’s hardware, but for some reason opening a page on the Kindle is excruciatingly slow, and unless the page has a very clean design and a well-functioning style sheet, the results can be unreadable. I find that even though Web links normally provide very useful extensions to many documents, on the Kindle they are just too much trouble to be worth the time and effort required to use them.
Kindle for School
Last term I bought several textbooks in ebook editions, and found it quite a hard slog to get through them on the iPhone. For the Fall semester I’ve already purchased a couple of required texts in Kindle format, and I’m much more confident that I will be able to read them more productively than I could on the iPhone. For one thing, the Kindle for iPhone app doesn’t have a way to highlight or mark text selections, a time-honored study technique used by students for countless years. The Kindle DX does allow highlighting, and automatically adds marked selections to a file called “My Clippings.txt”, which can be downloaded to a computer using the USB cable. As a plain text file, these notes can then be organized in any way one chooses. On the Kindle itself “highlighting” consists of a light grey underlining that is not very conspicuous, but not invisible either.
Kindle Resources
Speaking of Kindle for iPhone, since Amazon’s acquisition of the company who make the highly-regarded Stanza ebook reader software, the latest version of this app shows many improvements obviously imported from that excellent application. Stanza itself comes in a desktop version as well as for iPhone OS, which has a feature I just found out about. Possibly new since the Amazon acquisition, it is now possible to save books readable by Stanza Desktop in Kindle’s .azw format. In particular, I’ve found that .epub format ebooks, available from many publishers including O’Reilly and Associates, Baen Books, and the public domain resource, Project Gutenberg, are very easy to use on the Kindle. Just open them in Stanza Desktop, select File-Export Book As-Amazon Kindle and copy the resulting file into the Kindle’s “document” folder when it is connected to the computer with its USB cable. Or, email it to the Kindle using your personal [yourname]@kindle.com address. Before sending documents to the Kindle via email, though, you have to register the email address you want to send it from in your Amazon “Manage my Kindle” account. Using this address costs US$0.10 per document, but will send it directly to the device over the Whispernet Sprint cellular network. There is also a free email address, [yourname]@free.kindle.com, but there is not much point in using that for this purpose since you have to then copy the document from your computer to the Kindle, and if you already have it on your computer in the appropriate format, why send it through Amazon’s system?
The Whispernet cellular network does add a special filip to the Kindle. Buying books on the Kindle and having them delivered directly to it within minutes is possibly the most compelling reason to buy this eReader instead of others on the market at this moment. Amazon’s Kindle Store has an enormous selection of books, magazines, newspapers and blogs available, of course, and the hardest thing about it is to avoid blowing the budget filling up the Kindle with the enticing commercial offerings. But finding a lot of sources of free ebooks has saved my finances. One list of sites offering free ebooks is in The Kindle 2 Cookbook: How To Do Everything the Manual Doesn’t Tell You
, which has a lot of other very useful information, too.
This ought to give you a taste of why I’m happy with my new Kindle DX. Will I still be as thrilled with it if Apple announces a competing product next month? Maybe not, but in the meantime I gotta go now… so much to read, so little time!
Posted in Kindle, Whispernet, eBook reader, eBooks, grad school, iPhone, wireless | Comment Now!
Written on August 8, 2009 by Katherine W. Prawl
The timing couldn’t have been better. My first semester in grad school ended Friday, July 31st, and Monday, August 3rd, the Kindle arrived. I’ve done little else besides fiddle around with it since then. In fact, half a day went by before I realized Twitter had gone down!
I’ll have more to say about it later, but for now you can tell I’m having fun. So much to read, so little time….
Posted in Kindle, Twitter, eBook reader | Comment Now!
Written on July 30, 2009 by Katherine W. Prawl
Well, probably not, but as soon as I posted my query about whether or not to cancel my order for a Kindle DX, I got an email announcing that my order would be shipping sooner than expected. It’s actually been shipped now, expected to arrive Monday, so it’s too late to cancel it. Thanks to those who voted in my first blog-poll, though. While there weren’t enough votes to be statistically significant, it’s interesting that only 25% (1 of 4) thought I should cancel it, and no one thought I should sell it once I replaced it with an Apple iTablet, when and if that’s available.
You may be sure I’ll write more about it after receiving it next week, but right now I still have a term paper to complete, so that’s all for now. Ciao!
Posted in Kindle, eBook reader | Comment Now!
Written on July 27, 2009 by Katherine W. Prawl
It now appears to be if not official, then at least pretty credible. Apple will have a tablet within months, possibly before Christmas, and it will have color, and apps, and shiny, oh my!
Now I have a problem. I ordered a Kindle DX
a couple of weeks ago. Naturally, I’d rather have this new thing from Apple, especially with what I expect will be a high-res color screen and other functions besides just being an ebook reader. Think about a 10-inch iPod Touch…
So, should I cancel the order? Or use it for a couple of months until the Apple tablet comes out and sell it? Tell me what you think I should do. Vote in the poll in the sidebar before July 31st.
Posted in Kindle, eBook reader | Comment Now!
Written on July 26, 2009 by Katherine W. Prawl
Right now I’m deep in the throes of writing a term paper for my summer online grad school class on Online Journalism, but I just came across an interesting and pertinent blog post about social media and other Web 2.0 technologies as they relate to the future of higher educational institutions. Enjoy! And I’ll be back soon to discuss some of the tools I’ve used during this term that have made my studies more efficient.
Posted in Education, Journalism, Online, grad school | Comment Now!
Written on July 20, 2009 by Katherine W. Prawl
Just today there was an announcment from Barnes & Noble about a new eBook reader they will be selling, made by Plastic Logic. I’ve already downloaded B&N’s iPhone app, which sits next to Kindle for iPhone in my reading apps page. They have matching apps for Blackberry, Mac and PCs as well.
But I don’t regret placing my order for the Kindle DX. Of course, it hasn’t arrived yet, but the B&N-Plastic Logic reader won’t be available until next year. So much for instant gratification.
The good news about the Barnes & Noble announcement is that they plan to make their ebooks available on many platforms. Here’s what the company president had to say about that:
“Today marks the first phase of our digital strategy, which is rooted in the belief that readers should have access to the books in their digital library from any device, from anywhere, at any time,” said William J. Lynch, President of BN.com.
Posted in Kindle, MacOS X, Plastic Logic, WindowsXP, eBook reader, eBooks, ePublishing, iPhone, smartphones | Comment Now!
Written on July 18, 2009 by Katherine W. Prawl
I have been resisting the Kindle
ever since it was introduced. Of course, I had lots of good reasons. Books published on Kindle have DRM, and in years to come when the hardware is obsolete, I may not be able to use the books I’ve bought on this platform. The Kindle itself is not the best possible implementation for an ebook reader. Many reviewers have complained about various aspects of its user interface (UI). Since my Kindle DX hasn’t arrived yet, I can’t comment on that, but for now I’ll take it as a given that at least some of these complaints are valid. The Kindle is overpriced. Amen to that!
But in spite of all these factors, I’ve still bought one. Why?
The fact is, I’m impatient. I’ve long seen the benefits of digital media. Indeed, I’ve even published books electronically myself. A decade ago, I owned a PalmOS device (a Handspring) on which I read a number of ebooks as well as kept track of appointments, played games, and so on. That device finally failed, and I didn’t replace it, so all the content I’d bought for it, while still in my computer’s archive folder, is essentially lost. Still, I did enjoy the handheld experience, and know I’ll use any ebook reader I finally acquire. There’s the practical issue of portability, too. My husband and I live in our motorhome nearly half the year, and there is just not enough room to carry all the books I’d like to have available in there.
But what about that iPhone I’ve written about so often? I’ve even written about the Kindle for iPhone app on this blog and I use it still. But as much as I love my iPhone, it is the case that my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be (which never was that great), and these days I simply cannot read for long or as well on even as good a screen as the iPhone’s simply because of its small size. I find that although I have read entire books on it, I don’t retain as much sense from them as I want to. Also, the iPhone app doesn’t let me highlight blocks of text to refer to later. Yes, I can create bookmarks, but that’s not quite the same. Since I have bought some of my textbooks for grad school as ebooks, these are critical shortcomings.
In short, the Kindle for iPhone app is a stopgap. I had hoped Apple would announce a tablet computer or ebook reader this summer, and if they had I would have held off a while longer, but they haven’t. Oh, if they do eventually come out with a new gadget, especially if they make a deal with Amazon to allow Kindle-formatted ebooks to work on it, I will cheerfully throw my Kindle up on eBay and jump on the killer iBook. But until that day, Amazon is getting my somewhat grudging allegiance and money.
Posted in Kindle, Mobility, Online, eBook reader, eBooks, ePublishing, grad school, iPhone | Comment Now!
