Category: product endorsements

do you need a Kindle?

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, books, product endorsements1 Comment

I don’t.

Because I no longer read.

I pick up very few newspapers or magazines. And almost never read books.

My preferred input source is my ears. I listen to audiocasts including:

  • Buzz Out Loud
  • The Economist
  • NY Times Front Page
  • MacBreak Weekly
  • net@night
  • NPR
  • On The Media
  • Slate Magazine
  • This American Life
  • This Week in Tech
  • WNYC Radio Lab

    • And listen to books on tape. Currently Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by Paul Theroux.

    But those who still like to use their eyes to read … are quite charmed by the Kindle.

    click image for details on Amazon
    click image for details on Amazon

    A respected review:

    The good:
    Slimmer and sleeker looking than the original Kindle; large library of tens of thousands of e-books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs via Amazon’s familiar online store; built-in free wireless “Whispernet” data network–no PC needed; built-in keyboard for notes and navigation; a faster processor speeds up the device; with 2GB of internal memory, it’s capable of storing 1,500 electronic books; font size is adjustable; improved battery life; displays image files and plays MP3 and AAC audio; compatible with Windows and Mac machines; new Text-to-Speech feature allows you to have text read aloud.

    The bad:
    No expansion slot for adding more memory or accessing files; files such as PDFs and Word documents aren’t natively supported, and need to be converted at 10 cents a pop by Amazon; no protective carrying case included; battery is sealed into the device and isn’t removable; hardware and content is still too expensive.

    The bottom line:
    While it’s still short of perfection–and has a price tag that’s too high–the Amazon Kindle 2 offers a range of improvements that makes it the best overall e-book reader we’ve seen to date.

    Price range: $359.00

    CNET

    new Safari 42x faster than IE 7

    On By Rick McIn Apple, Google, internet, product endorsements2 Comments

    As my default browser, I’m just about to switch from Opera to the beta version of Safari 4 on Mac.

    It’s fast. (smaller is faster)

    pc_benchmarks1

    The main thing this graph shows is that Internet Explorer is for idiots. It’s horribly slow.

    Opera is good. But has some annoying features that cannot be modified.

    In future, I will keep Firefox and Safari open at the same time, switching back and forth. Safari now offers full screen zoom like Firefox. That’s the main feature I need, aside from speed.

    Google Chrome is not yet available for Mac.

    Cnet – Safari 4 benchmarked: 42x faster than IE 7, 3.5x faster than Firefox 3

    Arstechnica – Hands on: Safari 4 beta fast, mixes polish, rough UI edges

    Facebook v Friendfeed v Twitter

    On By Rick McIn product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

    race_to_mass_marketFacebook is confusing. And is pretty crappy, to be honest. But my friends number amongst the 175 million regular users. They like it.

    Facebook recently got popular in northern Idaho. And New Zealand.

    It’s getting so popular that old fogies like me are making Facebook uncool in the same way we ruined Twilight. (Cool kids may abandon it soon.)

    I “friend” someone on Facebook nearly every day.

    Friendfeed is better and different than Facebook. But it’s not nearly so engaging.

    Twitter seems a useless waste of time to almost everyone who tries it. Yet many experts feel that Twitter is the future. That it could supersede Facebook one day.

    Why? Why? Why?

    Twitter is cryptic and random. I cannot even respond to a message sent me on Twitter. Frustrating!

    Here’s why:

    What if you could peer into the thoughts of millions of people as they were thinking those thoughts or shortly thereafter? And what if all of these thoughts were immediately available in a database that could be mined easily to tell you what people both individually and in aggregate are thinking right nowabout any imaginable subject or event? Well, then you’d have a different kind of search engine altogether. A real-time search engine. A what’s-happening-right-now search engine.

    In fact, the crude beginnings of this “now” search engine already exists. It is called Twitter, and it is a big reason why new investors poured another $35 million into the two-year-old startup on Friday. Twitter is not the only company trying to solve this problem. Facebook, FriendFeed, and even Google are trying to crack it, but Twitter has a decided advantage in that it is capturing the vast majority of the real-time thought stream on the Web (because more people enter their thoughts directly into Twitter’s database than any other, and are doing so at an increasing rate).

    What makes Google and other search engines so valuable is that they capture people’s intent—what they are looking for, what they desire, what they want to learn about. But they don’t do a great job at capturing what people are doing or what they are thinking about. For thoughts and events that are happening right now, searching Twitter increasingly brings up better results than searching Google. …

    flickr - pbo31
    flickr - pbo31

    read the rest – TechCrunch – Mining The Thought Stream

    I dunno.

    Compare my Facebook, Friendfeed and Twitter accounts.

    Which seem most useful to you?

    I have very few friends on Twitter or Friendfeed. So Facebook is the clear winner, for now.

    battery life – Duracell better than Energizer

    On By Rick McIn product endorsementsLeave a comment

    … After testing out the NiMH rechargeable batteries on an LED flashlight, Gizmodo found that the Duracell batteries lasted far longer – ranging from about 5 to 6.5 hours in life compared to the 3.5 hours of Energizer. …

    Treehugger

    battery-battle

    … The Duracell family of rechargeable batteries also come precharged out of the package, so that’s very convenient. They’ve also got USB ports for charging USB gadgets. …

    Gizmodo

    I need more hard drive space

    On By Rick McIn product endorsements2 Comments

    My current 3 smaller hard drive back-ups are FULL.

    I may buy two of these: one for video, one for laptop Time Machine back-up.

    41zprzvtjil_ss400_

    500 GB external hard disk with rugged, shock resistant case

    Triple interface including FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 for speed and universal connectivity

    Backed by a 3-year warranty

    Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.6 x 3.5 inches ; 8.8 ounces

    LaCie 301371 500GB Rugged All-Terrain FireWire 800/ FireWire 400/USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive – Amazon

    US$155. Double this capacity would be better, but this model does not have it yet.

    Leave a comment if you can recommend an alternative.

    what are you doing in June?

    On By Rick McIn cycling, health & fitness, kayaking, product endorsements2 Comments

    I’ll be Adventure Racing and part of the organizing committee at Adventure Week 2009 in Idaho.

    adventureweek2009


    Our official website – AdventureWeek2009.com

    Let me know if you want to join in the fun.

    Facebook not a Safe Haven

    On By Rick McIn internet, product endorsements1 Comment

    The bad Facebook press of the past week was overblown. Mostly by journalists that don’t use it.

    TechCrunch posted the best reality check:

    Facebook just turned 5 years old. But a week that should have been filled with reflection and good times was instead marred by a series of breaking news reports detailing sex scandals, phishing, and other malicious activity on the world’s largest social network. …

    Wake Up Call: Facebook Isn’t A Safe Haven

    facebook

    Most young people where I live use Facebook every day. And cannot live without the site.

    The good far outweighs the risks.

    how will Microsoft screw up Windows 7?

    On By Rick McIn product endorsements4 Comments

    Never have I heard better buzz for a Microsoft product than I’m hearing for their NEXT operating system, called … Windows 7.

    Even Apple Fan Boys like it:

    Windows 7 is shaping up to be an awesome OS. It’s everything people wanted Vista to be and more. Which is exactly why Microsoft should give it away—or offer it dirt cheap—to Vista users.

    Windows 7 is the solution to Microsoft’s Vista problem, which is really a nasty hydra of a problem. Let’s not pretend that this isn’t the case. There are three major heads to the beast: Consumer perception of Vista as an abysmal failure and a crappy OS (hence, Mojave); the use of XP instead of Vista in increasingly popular netbooks; and the critical lack of Vista interest from the business community.

    Windows 7 neatly resolves them: Word-of-mouth sentiment for Windows 7 has been overwhelmingly positive, …. Windows 7 is slimmed down when it needs to be, running fantastically on netbooks. And the IT buyers and consumers who skipped Vista have been waiting, cash in hand, for whatever came after, so Windows 7 will have a much more enthusiastic customer base.

    The stars are aligned for Windows 7. It could wash the bad aftertaste from Vista out of everybody’s mouth. But that’s only if Microsoft sells it right. …

    Gizmodo – Why Microsoft Should Give Windows 7 Away

    windows-7

    They won’t sell it right.

    SOMETHING will go wrong.

    I can’t imagine how it’s possible to bungle this sure winner. But MS will find a way.

    Congratulations to the product development team, though.

    just finished the Twilight series

    On By Rick McIn books, movies, product endorsements2 Comments

    All 4 published books are good. It kept me going right to the end. (I’d like to know what happens next to the Cullen clan.)

    The writing is not Nobel Prize worthy, but the plot is engaging.

    I’m looking forward to the next movie. Rumour is Dakota Fanning will play super vampire Jane.

    Book 1
    Book 1

    Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)

    Twilight is a series of four vampire-based fantasy/romance novels by the American author Stephenie Meyer. It follows the adventures of Isabella “Bella” Swan, a teenager who moves to Forks, Washington, and finds her life turned upside-down when she falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen. …

    Wikipedia

    I immediately started the next Harry Potter book in audio. It’s titled Harry Potter and the Gob of Deathly Phoenix Blood … something like that.