tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4854550514589499242024-03-13T21:22:05.888+00:00eReaderJoyeReaderJoy: thoughts and news from Eolake Stobblehouse about the wonderful new platform of tablets and e-reading devices. Some say, one of the biggest advances to reading since Gutenberg (Okay, I said that).<br><br>
<i>In e-form, books have never been wider, cheaper or faster available, easier to understand, use, and carry, or more comfortable to read.</i>Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.comBlogger1124125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-45560039356905716952018-11-01T22:52:00.003+00:002018-11-01T22:52:56.194+00:00New tiny books to beat back ebooksHaha, it seems like the big publishers are not at all as confident about having “beaten” ebooks as they want us to believe? (Why would they want to anyway? Ebooks are pure profit, and they can make them as well as anybody.) New <b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/business/mini-books-pocket-john-green.html">mini-paperbooks for commuters</a></b>.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-65166623904009897402018-06-03T15:05:00.001+01:002018-06-03T15:05:04.721+01:00Wonderful new compact keyboardOn my personal blog I made this post about a <b><a href="http://eolake.blogspot.com/2018/06/a-wonderful-keyboard-havit.html">fantastic new keyboard</a></b> I have. I link here because it's just compact enough to take out.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-37433156085279910762018-05-05T20:31:00.000+01:002018-05-13T18:51:13.575+01:00Cheap but good gripsIt turns out that the kind of grip I invented on this blog a few years ago (being irritated by the poor ‘grip-ability’ of tablets/ereaders) is now present in several brands. It’s extremely useful. Search for Phone Finger Grip. (Or Tablet Finger Grip.) Can be used for phone, tablets, e-readers... it makes holding a device for reading or for normal use much more effortless.<br />
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There are different kinds. One kind is a metal ring, another is an elastic strap, another (Lazy Hands) has straps for each finger. They only cost a few bucks.<br />
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I've tried both the strap and the ring, they are both really good. (The ring is good quality for the money.) Both of them comes off most materials without too much trouble or residue, despite sitting securely.<br />
There are other types too, such as Popsockets. I don't recommend that one though, they are over-priced and mine came apart when I tried to move it.<br />
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With the ring especially, I find that I can walk around with the phone in my hand continually without strain or fear of dropping it. That way I have the camera ready, and I can quickly skip back in an audiobook without having to dig it out of a pocket.<br />
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And it makes an even greater difference with an ereader or tablet, because you can't get your fingers all around those. Holding a tablet is dramatically easier.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me with the Ring Holder on an iPad Mini.<br />
Notice it is hanging only on my finger here!</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span>Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-30016193146924187702018-04-27T01:03:00.003+01:002018-04-27T01:03:51.851+01:00iPad software is cheapHere is an upside to iPad which one may not think about: a lot of software, like image processing and writing software, has versions for iPad which is almost as full-featured as the desktop version, but costs less than 20% of it!<br />
Example: Final Draft scriptwriting: $250 for desktop, Final Draft Writer, for iPad: $20. Pretty much same feature set.<br />
The only reason for such a great price difference is that Apple pressured app developers into super-low prices, so it’s a true deal.<br />
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And an iPad with an external keyboard is easily less weight than a laptop, and can do most of the work. I think it’s a great thing for a lot of work which does not require a complex interface.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-29206447436361110542018-04-17T15:35:00.002+01:002018-04-17T15:35:13.669+01:00The beautiful iPad MiniI just have to post about things I find beautiful, and the iPad Mini is one of them.
It’s too expensive sadly (cost more than the current full-sized iPad), but... it is just beautiful.<br />
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Maybe you have to hold it to really appreciate it, but the thinness, the beauty and the functionality of the size, it just strikes me repeatedly.
I bought this one at reasonable cost, refurbished. Not the speediest, but works for casual use, like movies. And perfect for video chat. Well, in fact it can be used for pretty much everything a full-sized one can, but it’s much lighter.<br />
And that makes it fantastic for e-reading. A phone or a Kindle is great for reading novels, but a tablet is <b>much better for formatted text and text with illustrations </b>and such. Text books, art books, manuals, comics, web articles, etc etc.<br />
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I sincerely hope that Apple does not abandon this wonderful thing, but continue to develop it.<br />
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Oh: and it is even better for reading with a <b><a href="http://ereaderjoy.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/a-simple-strap-can-boost-your-comfort.html">simple strap</a></b>.<br />
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<b><a href="http://ereaderjoy.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/a-simple-strap-can-boost-your-comfort.html">Straps</a></b> I made myself. </div>
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<br />Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-19856144556767358342018-02-26T03:04:00.001+00:002018-02-26T03:04:36.971+00:00Big fiveI really don’t understand why the “Big Five” publishers fight so vehemently against e-books. Every company in the past which has resisted new technology has lost the fight eventually. And their profit on ebooks is potentially at least as good as with paper, since reproduction and production costs are nigh zero.<br />
Don’t they understand that they are not in the paper market, but in the story market? It must just be lizard-brain resistance to change.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-36307902665051138942018-02-21T20:00:00.000+00:002018-02-21T20:00:31.281+00:00In an infamous <a href="https://scroll.in/article/868871/the-ebook-is-a-stupid-product-no-creativity-no-enhancement-says-the-hachette-group-ceo">interview</a>, Hachette CEO Arnoud Nourry called the ebook a “stupid product” because it’s “exactly the same as print, except it’s electronic. There is no creativity, no enhancement, no real digital experience.”<br />
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No enhancement? What an incredibly dim statement. Even if a thousand books in a pocket was all, that’s a colossal enhancement. Add to that changeable type size, that is invaluable to so many readers. Then instant dictionary, etc etc.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-29713158632674563832018-02-03T14:03:00.002+00:002018-02-03T18:38:42.265+00:00Selling paper?<i><b><br /></b></i>
<i><b>“I’m not in the business of selling paper, I’m in the business of selling stories.” </b></i><br />
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- <a href="http://meggardiner.com/">Meg Gardiner</a>, author<br />
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Fantastic. That’s the clearest and most succinct statement on the issue I have heard.<br />
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<br />Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-19125403258876887722018-01-25T23:51:00.002+00:002018-01-25T23:51:27.568+00:00Apple ebooksApple is suddenly - nine years after they got into the ebook market with the iPad - <a href="https://www.macobserver.com/news/apple-hires-amazon-audible-vice-president/"><b>trying to up their game</b></a>, finally, and make the iBooks store (the app will be renamed “Books” apparently) count in the market. They have hired a prominent executive away from Amazon. I think this may be good news for readers, no matter how it goes for Apple.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-35677910833700758422018-01-07T20:48:00.000+00:002018-01-07T20:48:03.303+00:00Claims that ebooks are failing...Some articles are so sneaky. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/27/how-ebooks-lost-their-shine-kindles-look-clunky-unhip-"><b>This article</b></a> starts by claiming loudly that ebook sales are down significantly (17%) and talks about at length how everybody now are into paperbooks. (Not reading actually, mainly the books as artefacts*.)<br />
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... And then near the end (after many have stopped reading) comes this information:<br />
<i><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: #0b5394;"> “The figures from the Publishing Association should be treated with some caution. They exclude self-published books, a sizable market for ebooks. And, according to Dan Franklin, a digital publishing specialist, more than 50% of genre sales are on ebook. Digital book sales overall are up 6%.” </span></i><br />
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There is a whole lot of difference between between 17% down and <b>6% up</b>!<br />
And how it is justified to exclude self-published books from statistics when considering the book market is puzzling to me. That can only be explained by the traditional publishers not wanting to even look at self-publishing because it is so successful in ebooks, and it’s a frightening competitor.
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* I love books as artefacts, I have many beautiful ones. But it has little to do with the content, which after all is the point of books. Books expand the mind, but only if you open them.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-67870547667046787882017-12-31T21:37:00.002+00:002017-12-31T21:38:16.789+00:00iClever travel keyboardI am testing a new pocket keyboard which is highly interesting, <a href="https://eolake.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/iclever-keyboard-testing.html"><b>read here</b></a>.<br />
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<br />Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-38133059811621805792017-12-13T21:57:00.000+00:002017-12-13T22:12:03.630+00:00Tablets need a grip!For realsies: tablets need to get a grip.<br />
Apple has a way too big fetish about thinness, and the iPad's shape then was taken up by others. It’s very pretty, but it is counter-productive. Who couldn’t find space in a bag for a tablet which has a, say, half-inch grip on one side, on the back?<br />
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The handle could hold the battery for example, making the rest of the tablet lighter, so it would be way more comfortable to hold, because half the weight is in your hand. (The Kindle Oasis has a bit of it, and users love it.)<br />
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And it would make tablets <b>much</b> more usable. I’ve been working with ways to make different kinds of grips, because tablets are simply really hard to hold comfortably, they are thin and slick and have thin bezels, and there is nothing to hold onto. You have to cramp your fingers so much that you get tired after a few minutes, basically hand-holding is not practical for many things like reading or surfing in bed or on trains, planes, and automobiles.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEileH_1ZZC5HLQFNflRmpx5jNJMzAlFziwWGxkWs3P04JnZGYbwC_gchD_iGE4nGLjXdyYGz75ZT21606KkQ19tN0Mgu53Qv6jeOvF23sf_4w8Zlst4zgE2NGdV1Txv9EficixpamyNXIE/s1600/B4P8hPDCYAASHin.jpg-large.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEileH_1ZZC5HLQFNflRmpx5jNJMzAlFziwWGxkWs3P04JnZGYbwC_gchD_iGE4nGLjXdyYGz75ZT21606KkQ19tN0Mgu53Qv6jeOvF23sf_4w8Zlst4zgE2NGdV1Txv9EficixpamyNXIE/s400/B4P8hPDCYAASHin.jpg-large.jpeg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me with my grip I made from Sugru. Obviously<br />
a built-in grip could be larger with no harm</td></tr>
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<br />Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-62376338963738528222017-11-29T16:08:00.000+00:002017-11-29T16:08:04.614+00:00Tablets are pushy... I just noticed something. I was sitting in my relaxy-chair (not a TM) and reading on my iPad, which was on a big floor stand right in front of me. Maybe because of a good lunch, I started feeling good in an interesting way and I closed my eyes, wanting to meditate on it a little. And I noticed that even with my eyes closed, I could *feel* the tablet right in front of me, and I pushed it away.<br />
<br />
And I think this may be a main reason why many people prefer paper-books or non-lit ereaders over tablets or phones: because a lit screen is “pushy”, it walks into your space whether you want it or not.<br />
<br />
It’s probably a big part of why I love tablets (and big phones) so much. They do a lot of the attention work for you, they walk towards you as it were. But, it’s the same as with quite outgoing persons; it’s often a good and pleasant thing, but in certain moods you may not welcome people or devices who walk into your space.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-82242011015167802752017-10-13T21:27:00.002+01:002017-10-13T21:27:44.432+01:00New Kindle featuresAmazon has released a new Kindle model, the “All New Oasis”. It has a bigger screen, 7 inches, it is water-resistant (splash resistant), and it will play audible audiobooks over bluetooth speakers or earphones.<br />
<br />
More importantly to myself, Amazon readers and apps finally feature a bold-level setting for the text, and something I’ve written about here and to Amazon more than once: finer gradations for text size. Finally. The jumps between text sizes were just way too crude.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-49683008412955714482017-09-30T19:20:00.001+01:002017-09-30T19:22:22.181+01:00Nostalgia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the early posts I made on eReaderJoy.com was actually a book shelf with only a couple different ereaders on it.
And if there is an argument here, I'm sorta on both sides of it. Books are much better to hold and have, but ebooks are much better to read and carry.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-87766758649202700572017-08-20T13:56:00.003+01:002017-08-20T13:56:34.666+01:00Renting movies and why not ebooks?A post I just wrote about <a href="http://eolake.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/rental-time-limits-are-dumb.html">movie and ebook rentals</a>.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-42076128281252165152017-05-26T18:37:00.001+01:002017-05-26T18:37:28.801+01:00Open letter to AppleDo me a favor: <a href="https://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html"><b>send this to Apple</b>.</a><br />
<br />
---<br />
<i>Please, make it so we can change the font size in Safari on iPad! </i><br />
<i>It's been six years now...</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Also, make it so we can see the *whole* of an image used as wallpaper on iPad, without croppping, even if it does not happen to have the exact proportions of the screen. </i><br />
<i>(A bit of grey background showing at the sides never hurt anybody, but a portrait being cropped so half the face is missing...)</i><br />
---Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-4713421684157345862017-02-11T19:42:00.001+00:002017-02-11T19:42:46.617+00:00Big iPad Pro<br />
Please, Apple, do <b>continue</b> to make new models/varations of the the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Please. It is an essential model in many ways.<br />
<br />
--<br />
<br />
(The same goes by the way for the "tower" (screen-less) Mac (currently cylindrical). The professional community needs them, and Apple needs the professional communituy.)Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-51188864969683940522016-12-31T20:16:00.002+00:002016-12-31T21:14:18.266+00:00iPad sound reflector amplifiersiPad sound reflector amplifiers: I like these things, they really work in enhancing the sound and make it louder for you (about 10db, quite noticable) and quiter for the rest of the world.<br />
<br />
There used to be one called SoundJaw, but it's not so easy to find now. But <b><a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/SoundBender-Easy-Fit-Magnetic-Sound-Enhancer-for-iPad-2-3-4-/291951796447?var=590942427232&hash=item43f9aee0df:g:M6gAAOSwiDFYNd8U">SoundBender</a></b> is current.<br />
<br />
These things do not stick very strongly to the device (works with various kinds of tablets), can be easily knocked off but also easily returned, and it may be seen as a bit expensive for a bit of plastic, but for what it does I find it reasonable, although you need two if you want stereo.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.audioamp180.com/"><b>AudioAmp180</b></a> is an alternative which will work with the tablet in a (thinnish) case, that's not the case (no pun intended) with SoundBender.<br />
<br />
I find them useful if: 1: the iPad needs help given the ambient noise. 2: You don't want to disturb others too much. 3: this includes if you play music/video late at night (or in church, haha).<br />
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Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-56121400465974524562016-12-30T20:32:00.001+00:002017-01-02T05:20:18.727+00:00About the Amazing KindleIt is funny, but despite reading much more on tablets than Kindles due to their speed and flexibility, I own all major Kindle models ever released, and I still find myself drawn to them.
I am not entirely sure why... now, a tablet is almost too amazing a device to fully comprehend, but a Kindle is just remarkable enough to be real durned amazing. I look at it and I think, or maybe rather feel: "a thin, light handheld device which can hold thousands of books at once, display book pages as clearly as a printed page, advance pages at the press of a button... this just blows my mind, even after nearly a decade."<br />
<br />
It's so wonderful that *not* owning one is out of the question. I don't understand people who can resist them, I suppose that either they have a paucity of imagination, or they have far more self-control than I have...<br />
<br />
If I have to be critical, what I still want is that the Kindle should be faster, the background should be white even without front-light, and they should have a pocket model. I don't understand why they have not brought out a model the size of the new large phones, it's such an obvious idea.
But all that does not change the fact that the Kindle is an object which would make any mentally agile book lover in history cream his bagels if he could have imagined it.
<br />
<br />
Also, and I have mentioned this before both here and to Amazon: It's a flippin' oddity that the Kindles have such <b>huge steps between font sizes</b>. I can rarely find a size which pleases me (not on the Fire tablets either), and the programming to correct this should surely be trivial, other ereaders have had stepless adjustments for years. (And also adjustments of boldness of fonts and other things which can mean a lot for the comfort of the reader. Please Amazon, I will chip in if you can't afford to hire the extra programmer it might take...)<br />
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<br />Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-91074971602883907402016-12-29T15:37:00.001+00:002016-12-29T15:39:31.183+00:00Phones are taking over e-readingI just saw a Kindle Unlimited ad which shows a woman reading a Kindle book... on a phone instead of an Amazon Kindle!
The end of days must be nigh.
Funny how after all these years, ebooks are moving to phones in a big manner. I don't believe it's because of the new big phones (though that's it in my case), I don't think enough people have them. So I wonder what happened and why it took so long.
(Even WorldReader.org is concentrating on phones these days.)<br />
<br />
I didn't see it coming, because to my taste, a screen less than five inches is just not satisfactory for e-reading. But clearly I'm in the minority. It's just interesting to me that it took most of a decade for the general public to catch on.<br />
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<br />Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-42588571546223613792016-12-17T02:18:00.002+00:002016-12-17T02:32:25.600+00:00Sanity arrives at Apple's iPad section[<b>Update</b>: Oh no! This whole post is a mistake, Apple has NOT fixed the problem. I just overlooked (it's very late here) that I was looking at *screenshot* images, so they already had the black background built in! Sigh, the futile wait continues... will it take most of a decade to get fixed like it did in OSX?]<br />
<br />
Sanity on the iPad screen.
FINALLY! Somebody at Apple has finally kicked the benzos and fixed the long-standing wallpaper problem which was driving me nuts: the braindead situation that one could not fit the whole of an image on the screen of the iPad as wallpaper without cropping it, unless it happened to have exactly the same dimensions as the screen. Now we can.
Thank you, sane person, and stay off the pills.<br />
(They also fixed the newer problem that wallpapers were made darker than the source image. Also thanks for that.)<br />
<br />
(See, a week ago this painting would have been cropped at both ends instead of simple being fit in with letterboxing.)<br />
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<br />Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-33451870136477507422016-12-14T16:30:00.001+00:002016-12-14T16:30:19.711+00:00Faster charging(This may even work for Android devices, haven't tested.)<br />
<br />
The 13-inch iPad Pro, wonderful as it is, unfortunately ships with a charger which i under-powered for the job. It takes a silly number of hours for it to charge this large tablet to full.<br />
<br />
One can get faster results by buying a Macbook charger and an adapter, but at a price.<br />
<br />
One thing I've found which helps a lot: when charging the iPad (or iPhone), instead of putting the device to sleep, <b>turn it off fully.</b><br />
This turns off the wireless services, the checking for email and such things. It may even make a difference in the way the charging itself works. In any case, it makes the charging gratifyingly faster.<br />
<br />
BTW, I recommend the 13-inch iPad Pro. It's less portable of course, but if you have it in a stand, it makes a great difference to surfing, usability in general, reading of graphic-rich publications, and video. It's a pleasure. Before it came along, I wrote several times about how we needed a bigger "iPad Pro", and I was not wrong.<br />
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<br />Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-77975332714590597742016-12-10T00:31:00.001+00:002016-12-10T00:42:16.669+00:00iPad Mini 4I held out from upgrading my iPad Mini when version 2 came out, with Retina (high-res) screen. I found that the screen on the first one was very good, good enough for almost any purpose. And this I still think is true.<br />
<br />
But because I plan to use it more, I have now upgraded finally, to the iPad Mini 4. It's much faster, and of course it has the newest version of the Retina Display.<br />
<br />
And that screen is just awesome. It's hard to "count the ways", but it is. And I have looked at computer screens daily for over two decades, and tablet screens since the very first iPad kickstarted the market six years ago. This really rocks. For example looking at a full page of a magazine or a comic on it is just a joy. The colors, the contrast, and as much detail as the best eyes can take in...<br />
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---<br />
You can get cheaper tablets if you can stand them, sure. But:<br />
A good way of saving some money on that iPad or iPhone for that lucky amongst your loved ones, is to buy a refurbished one ("refurbish"; to renovate inside and out). You can do so directly from Apple.<br />
I've done so before and this time also, and honestly the experience is exactly like getting a new one. All new packaging and so on. And get this: the outer shell as well as the battery are *also* brand new, and it has a full guarantee. So in practice no difference, but you save maybe 25%.<br />
---<br />
Oh, and to save even more, Apple is usually still selling last year's model for a drastically reduced price. For example they now sell, brand-new, the iPad Mini 4 side-by-side with the iPad Mini 2. The price difference is substantial, much bigger, I think, than any tech difference (mainly the 4 is a bit faster).Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-485455051458949924.post-46763337435806496702016-12-02T01:49:00.001+00:002016-12-03T21:57:02.049+00:00Netflix now unpluggedI really like that with the new Netflix app for iOS you can download shows or movies and watch them later where you don't have any broadband connection. (It is not permitted for all their materials, but a decent portion.) OK, I could, and have done, do that with iTunes before, but getting my video appetite subdued that way gets costly quick.<br />
<br />
This is great for taking my iPad Mini to the cafe over lunch, pull out the keyboard and pretend I'm Iain M. Banks for a while, and then kick back with Arrested Development or Gilmore Girls over coffee. <br />
<br />
And then read some articles in Pocket or Zinio on the 'pad, or continue my book in the Kindle app. Or audiobook in the Audible app.<br />
<br />
--<br />
Update: it seems downloaded films are SD (Standard Definition, old TV standard) rather than HD (High Definition), so if you watch them on a large device and plan to watch while you *do* have wifi, you'll get a slightly more detailed image by *not* downloading them before watching.<br />
Me, I find the difference barely noticable, although more so with CGI movies (like Pixar's) where everything is so sharp and detailed.Eolake Stobblehousehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07126147415891586345noreply@blogger.com1