Tag: gadgets

UPS Suuuuuuuuuuuuuucks!

I am *so* pissed off at UPS!

First off, I order a projector on Wednesday, with next-day shipping. I expect it will be delivered on Friday (no deliveries on Thanksgiving) and I will have the weekend to set it up.

Of course, UPS doesn’t deliver it, because they suck. FedEx allows you to sign a waiver for most packages so they will leave it, I have a big sign on the front door saying to leave packages in the Drop Box next to the steps. FedEx follows it, USPS follows it, UPS ignores it.

So I call UPS and go through their automated system to have the package held so I can pick it up at UPS on Monday. The recording gives me the address, and tells me they are open from 12pm to 8pm.

Today I go after work. It’s a ways out of my way, I stop on the way so Adam can pick up pizza. When I get to UPS, the main gate is locked. I have a bad feeling. I go around the back, and go to the front door. It is locked. The sign says they are open till 6pm. I tap on the door, the guy inside looks at me and shakes his head. It is 6:08pm.

I leave, enraged.

Now we have to stop *again* on the way home tomorrow. Sarah’s coming to visit, so I’ll have to wait till Wednesday to set it up – I only get to see her like once a week, so I’m not going to spend that time setting up a projector.

So I paid for next-day shipping on a Wednesday, and will get the package on Tuesday, almost a week later. And instead of having the weekend to set it up, I will have to find time in my schedule to do it.

RRRRrrrarrrr!

TaxMan

So I filed my taxes a little late this year (ok, a lot late, but there’s no penalty for late filing if you are getting money back). I just got my return, and put half towards debt, and half towards a new projector and new ebook reader (Sony, not Amazon) – gotta get *some* goodies, right?

My projector would have arrived Friday, but UPS won’t leave packages (like FedEx usually will) and doesn’t have decent hours (like FedEx does). So I’ll go after work today and pick it up. Yay, new projector!

Thanksgiving in Maine

Maine was fun. I gave Judy her Christmas presents early (an iMac and iPod Nano) and transferred all her stuff over to the new machine on Wednesday night.

Then Thursday morning, I baked a pie (for the first time) totally from scratch.
It came out pretty good, the crust was nice and flaky and the pie was not too sweet without being tart.

Click here for more pie=making photos.

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at Mildred’s, with lots of yummy food.

Friday I went for a walk with Judy, then she patched my coat (I still need to sew the button back on, she didn’t have the right thread), and then we went through some boxes of old childhood records and drawings.

More photos of the walk.

I drove home Friday night, and when I got home, lots of surprises were waiting for me:

1. They finished paving Clark street! It’s no longer an obstacle course.

2. My new Sony eBook Reader arrived! Yes, I am a gadget whore.

3. A document from the court came in the mail – my name change went through! I don’t even have to go in to court!

4. UPS didn’t deliver my projector, I have to go pick it up on Monday. This is because UPS sucks. FedEx is so much better.

Amazon Kindle eBook Reader

Following in Sony’s footsteps, Amazon has just launched their “Kindle” device.

Like the Sony Reader, the Amazon Kindle uses an electronic paper display.

Here’s a comparison of the two:

  Sony Reader Amazon Kindle
Price $299.99 $399.00
Screen 6″ 8-grayscale 600×800 E-ink 6″ 4-grayscale 600×800 E-ink
Storage 256MB? 256MB
Expansion SD card SD card
Native Formats BBeB Book, TXT, RTF, PDF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, MP3, AAC Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible, MP3
Weight 9 oz. 10.3 oz.
Size

6.9″ x 4.8″ x 0.3″ 7.5″ x 5.3″ x 0.7″
Inputs 0-9 keys, page next/back, 4-way d-pad keyboard, page next/back, scroll wheel
Wireless none EVDO (free access)
Text Sizes 3 6

At first glance, the Sony Reader looks better, with a $100 cheaper price, a newer version of the E-ink screen, a sleeker design, and support for more file types natively. However, by adding free EVDO wireless and a keyboard, the Amazon Kindle lets you buy books and download content from the reader itself. Plus Amazon may have the weight to get more publishers on-board with the idea of eBooks than Sony can.

Either way, some competition is a good thing, and will hopefully drive the price down and the quality up. $300 and $400 are still too pricey for the average user.

One laptop per child

So the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) program finally launched!
Yay for Nick Negroponte!

XO computer

For two weeks they are running a “give one, get one” program. The OLPC machine isn’t available to consumers, just developing nations – but for these two weeks, if you order one for a developing nation, you can also buy one for yourself at the same time.

They didn’t hit their mark of the “$100 Laptop”, ended up coming in at $200, which is still damn cheap for a laptop. And I would think costs would come down over time.

While not at slick as the $400 Asus Eee PC, the OLPC XO machine is still pretty nifty.

It might seem silly to some people to supply laptops to children in developing nations, but think about it this way: $200 would only buy, what, 10 schoolbooks? You could easily put 100 books on a laptop. There are thousands of public-domain and otherwise free texts that could be used.

Not only that, but this will be the first step in connecting them with the world.

I’m not saying it’s a panacea or anything, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to give some education technology resources.

So I put in an order, and bought one for me and one for a child somewhere.
Hopefully they’ll make good use of it.

Projector Crossroads

So I’m at a decision point for my projector.

The blue is messed up on it.

It could be the blue polarizer, in which case it’s a $100 part.
It also could be the blue LCD panel, in which case the entire optical block needs replacing. A new optical block is prolly around $1000.

It would cost $100 to bring it to a shop to find out which thing is wrong.

On the other hand, a new DLP projector is around $900.

Do I bring my projector in for $100 and find out what’s wrong, or do I sell it for $100 (it still has some life in it), and buy a new one?

More PRS-505 Details

From Sony’s site:

What are some of the most important changes between the PRS-500 and the PRS505?

  1. The PRS-505 has a new screen that has a faster refresh than the PRS-500’s screen and is also a bit lighter. The new screen also supports 8 shades of gray vs. 4 on the PRS-500.
  2. The User interface is much improved with:
    • Page turn buttons moved the right side of the Reader
    • The Numerical numbers now match up against the screen so when menus are displayed the appropriate button is to the right of the entry.
    • The Menu key is now by itself and clearly marked
    • The Jog stick is gone replace with four way arrow buttons and a center enter button.
  3. Books have become easier to search as there are now tools that sort the books into alphabetical groupings for Titles or Authors.
  4. The PRS-500 had a single storage media slot that could handle both SD or Memory Sticks. These cards could support either 2GB (SD) or 4GB (MS) for a maximum external storage of up to 4GB. The PRS-505 has two slots in parallel that allow for SD and Memory Stick Duo cards. These cards can support up to 2GB (SD) and 8GB (Memory Stick Duo). Because there are two separate slots the total amount of external storage the PRS-505 can support is up to 10GB.
  5. The USB functionality is much improved
    • The PRS-505 supports the USB 2.0 standards which allow for faster transfer of data.
    • The PRS-505 can be charged when the battery is empty from the USB port of almost any PC even if there is no software loaded on it. The PRS-500 needed to be plugged into a PC running pre-installed software before it can charge and even then it could not charge if the internal Reader’s battery was dead.
  6. The Connect Reader software is being replaced with “eBook Library v 2.0” which does look and work much like the older software. The only noticeable difference is that with a PRS-505 the new software can use a new Auto-sync feature. Please note that the PRS-505 cannot work with the older Connect Reader software.

Sony Reader v2 is out

Sony announced an updated version of their eBook Reader (PRS-505)!

Differences from the old one (PRS-500):

  • 8-shade greyscale instead of 4
  • Improved page turn speed
  • Twice as much internal storage (now 128MB)
  • Memory is accessible directly as a mass storage device over USB
  • Improved button layout
  • Now comes in silver or dark blue instead of just dark blue
  • Improved screen contrast
  • Automatic Sync option
  • Lower price (now $300, was $350)

Will I get one? Well, you know me, so probably. I really like the v1 one, and better refresh speed, contrast, and more shades of greyscale would all be good features to have.

new iPod!

I wasn’t planning on it, but I picked up a new iPod on the way home last night.
I got the 80GB “Classic” iPod, in black.

My old iPod still works fine, but I thought it would be nice to have a color screen, and be able to view photos and watch videos.

The new one holds twice as much (80GB vs. 40GB) but is half as thick. That’s technology for ya.

Here they are side by side. Click the image for more photos.

you eDiots!

So here we go again – Amazon is getting ready to launch its own eBook reader.

The good: they are Amazon, and it is an eBook reader

The bad: preliminary pictures show a clunky design with a full querty keyboard, and the projected price will be over $400.


Amazon Kindle

What will make a popular eBook reader?

  • LOW price point. Like $50-$100. Perhaps a maximum of $200, but only if it comes with a coupon for $50 worth of free books or something.
  • Simple, easy-to-use design. If you are shooting for wide acceptance, the average joe wants it to look like a book, not a computer. Tons of buttons and complicated design are intimidating to users. The design should have a minimal number of buttons: a page next, page back, and a 4-way d-pad and select button for navigating menus. Or just a page next, page back, and a touchscreen. The design should be symmetrical, with the buttons on the side, so it can be held by righties or lefties, also so you can switch hands if one gets tired, or if you are lying in bed reading on your side and roll over to the other side.
  • Crisp display. It needs to look like a book. eInk, like on the Sony reader, looks good. But they need how to work out how to make that self-illuminating somehow.
  • Long battery life. Books don’t run out of batteries, eBooks should go a long time without recharging. The Sony reader is pretty good in this department.
  • Rugged. The design should be ruggedized, and if possible, be able to survive a drop or two. Especially if you’re going to get students, teens, and kids using it too.
  • Books. An eBook is worthless without content. Like the DVD format getting studios to sign on, an eBook format needs to get publishers to sign on.
  • Workable DRM. I understand why publishers want DRM, to prevent pirating of content, but it’s got to be a workable system. There needs to be a way for people to lend their eBook to a friend, or even sell it in a used eBook store. Another part of this is that there are tons of different devices and formats. There need to be some standards that are universally accepted.
  • Marketing. Most people have no idea what an eBook is, some have heard of it but don’t understand it, and some actively oppose them. Sony Readers sit quietly in Borders on a lonely little kiosk. There needs to be a major promotional push to get peope excited about eBooks.
  • Reasonable book prices. If the hardcover is $20, the eBook should not be $20. I don’t care what bullshit spin or cost justifications publishers put out there, eBooks are cheaper to make. Period. When a book goes to print, it’s in a digital form already. For eBook publishing, it needs to be reformatted to the eBook file format, and put up on a server. That cost has to be way less than printing a book and shipping it all over the world. And as eBooks are published more often, the cost of format conversion should get cheaper, or even nonexistent, if publishing software offers a pushbutton conversion to eBook formats. So if the hardcover book costs $20, the paperback costs $10, the eBook should be $5-$8. It should *always* be cheaper than the cheapest printed version. Amazon has tried selling eBooks in the past, but often prices would be based on the hardcover book, so the hardcover would be $20, the eBook would be $18 or $20, but the paperback would be $10. And when the hardcover and paperback prices fell, often the eBook prices would remain as they started, so it would be more expensive than the hardcover!

Instead, Amazon will probably have none of those things, and surprise, surprise, it will be a flop. And publishers will say “See? eBooks just aren’t a viable platform!”

Sigh.


Sony Reader

Incidentally, the best eBook design I’ve used so far was the Rocket REB 1150, which is still sold by eBookWise.


REB1150

The design is decently rugged, with two big buttons for page next, page previous and a touchscreen. The design is such that you can use it with either hand, and switch hands easily. The innards of the REB 1150 are kind of outdated, though. It uses the all-but defunct SmartMedia memory cards, has an old LCD screen, which isn’t terrible, but isn’t that great, either. The software for interfacing with it is clunky.

My perfect reader:
REB 1150 case, though slimmed down a bit, and lighter. Sony Reader innards. Bam!