Amazon's "big package"

Amazon is promoting something big coming, disruptive, and "bigger than the Kindle".

“Bigger than the Kindle”... hmmm.  Perhaps they are doing word plays, something PR and editors seem unable to stay away from.
But sort of switched. Maybe it’s simply bigger, physically. Maybe they want to get a jump on Apple and Samsung with a 12-inch tablet. And it has some capability which can be considered disruptive. (That's a real buzz word these days, innit?)

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Oddly, I think they need a 5-inch phablet too, because they’re promoting “Listen Anywhere” (or Audible is, on the Kindle Fire), and they have nothing pocket-sized at this moment. The phone part is immaterial.

I mean, look at this ad. It's a promo for Audible, on my Kindle Fire. It's a comple give-away: Where is she gonna stick it?! The 7-inch Kindle looks ridiculously clumsy for audio content next to an iPod or iPhone.

A great portable writing station, Logitech Wired Keyboard, "clicky"

Finally, a portable keyboard with "clicky" keys...

The LWK with iPad Mini, my new favorite
away-from-home writing station. The cable is shortish,
but I later found a 1-meter extension cord on eBay. 

So, I've gotten a new keyboard... again!
This is the Logitech Wired Keyboard with Lightning Connector for iPad.
It is excellent. In fact, if I had to pick right now, I think it's my favorite of portable keyboards.
At about $58 at the moment, it's more expensive than for example the Amazon Basics keyboard, but it's much more rugged and to me feels better.
It's nice that you don't have to fumble with Bluetooth, which I find unreliable (like I find all wireless technologies). You also don't have to fumble or remember batteries, it gets the power from the iPad (but uses very little).

I wondered why the bottom of the keyboard is neon green (!). But when I saw that it is mean primarily for classrooms, that was explained.
My top favorite sort-of-portable keyboard is on the Alphasmart Neo. That in fact is a fantastic keyboard.
So I guess we can conclude that when companies build for young students, they make better keyboards. I think it is because they are then not afraid to make the device a bit thicker than is the vogue these days. Like the fashion industry, they are endangering the functions of the models by squeezing them thinner and thinner.

The Logitech is *almost exactly* the size of Apple's portable Bluetooth keyboard. The keys are the same size. It is a few milimeters wider and thicker. And it is 25 grams lighter. In fact it weighs only 300 grams (10.6oz), like the iPad Mini. Nice. And while the Apple keyboard is a good keyboard (and looks great), this one has a deeper travel, which I like.

LWK with iPhone 5s

This means they had the space to make the keys more "clicky" (or "clacky"), meaning they give a slight sound (it's pretty quiet though), and you can *feel* when the key activates. This is, for many typists, very important for comfortable and speedy typing, and it's the first portable keyboard I've had that I could say this about. (That's the main reason I've bought so many!)
Of course it's not as "clicky" as the top-shelf keyboards like the DAS Keyboard or the Matias Tactile Pro, but it's much better than other portables I've tried.

Because of the Lightning connector, it does not work with Android devices or early iPads. It only works with iPads with the Lightning Connector, Like iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad Mini. And new iPhones! (But they also have one with the older wide plug.)

Update:
Especially with the iPad Mini, this make for a great portable writing station. In cafés, on holidays, on the beach, when you wait... Seriously. 600 grams including a full sized keyboard. And the iPad, of course, additionally has all the surfing, research material access, reading, and video you could require on the go.
(I'm not sure why I find the Mini so fitting here. Maybe just my old fetish for compact and light, but effective technology. Anyhow, the iPad Air would be awesome too.)

Update:
This is still my favourite keyboard for tablets/phones.
There is one consisistent bug though (at least with the extension cable which I have to use): After the tablet as been asleep, the keyboard is usually not connected for some reason, and one has to first put the cursor in a text  field, and then disconnect the cable and reconnect it. On  the other hand I see it now also happening with my Apple Wireless keyboard, so it may not be anything to do with the Logitech at all!

Have fun, Eolake

Update:
TCGirl said:

That's a pretty cute keyboard! I have to say that I'm pretty much "in LOVE" w/my new MacBook Air... I tried the mini and it didn't much do it for me... It would be cool if they made that in wireless; must check...even though, right now, I don' t have any use for it... :-/

Heck, there's hardly much not to love about the Macbook Air! (Or the new slim Macbook.)

I could as easily use that for writing on the road. I guess only a couple of things tilts it to the iPad: my weakness for simplicity, and having the iPad with me for text and media consumption.
And the Mini is much easier to hold for a length of time without tiring the hand.

Oh, and also, because of the Macbook Air's super-slimness, this Logitech keyboard actually have deeper (to me: better) key travel than the Airbook's. (Though I must say that considering the space available, they made a damn fine keyboard on that machine.)

 It does not require any special software, it just works like any keyboard.

Update3:
Alex T said...
What is the name of that stand you're using for your iPhone & iPad Mini in the two pictures with the LWK? It looks very useful for wired connections!

Blogger Eolake Stobblehouse said...
Yes, it's a pity how few stands allow for the plug to be at the bottom.
This is a DarwinMachine.
It looks good and it quite useful.
(Though it may not be very stable laterally for full-sized tablets.) 

The big-tablet race is on

Samsung is first out of the gate, because they care about the CES show, which Apple doesn't.
I hope Apple comes out with one soon. I really don't want to be "forced" to buy yet another Android device which I buy because of the screen size, but then put in the drawer because the software is so awful.

Blek, unusual iPad game

This looks tricky, and cool. And inventive, who could have imagined something like this before we had been around tablets for a while?

Ebooks create many new readers!

In Len Edgerly's newest Kindle Chronicles podcast, he interviews several people in the tech/media industry, and ask  them about their relationship to ebooks.

One amazing thing that came out was that two people out of this small sample of sucessful and tech-savvy people said that before ebooks, they never read books! One of them actually got through medical school, but his girlfriend had to wake him up all the time because of his problem with books.

I think the deeper causes are mysterious as to why an ereader device will make avid readers out of people who never touched books, but it's a real phenomenon, and undeniably important.

Self-publishers will rule

The Day the World Turns Upside Down, article.
 I’m saying that major publishers will do things to make their books look indie [self-published] in order to appeal to readers who enjoy discovering new and underground works, who like supporting artists directly, who enjoy being part of a movement and a new cultural trend. ... It’s happening. I know people who read almost nothing but indie books.
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"Flote" table tablet stand review

I've long been happy with my Flote floor stand, it has made my bedroom and adjustable bed (with memory foam mattress) into the most comfortable reading/browsing/video station I could make.

And now they have also made a desktop model, in the same aesthetic quality. Of course the two products have much in common, so to save wear on my DasKeyboard, go read my review of the big one first. Then come back here.

The two bulges on the left are SoundJaw,
which direct the sound to the front.

There really is not much to add. The Flote Desktop does what the Flote Floor Stand does, except it is smaller and stands on a desk!
Of course in the nature of things, it does not have the super-reach that the floor stand has, but also it is smaller and lighter, and so easier to take to the summer home or whatnot.

Say I see something on the TV that I'm curious about (like: "how does the eye work" or "what did Paris Hilton do that made her famous?"), and I just reach out and swing the tablet in, and look it up.
By the way, if you need to temporarily minimize its footprint, you just swing the arm straight up, and it takes up no more space than a vase.

The design is smart, and like the big one, this looks great, it's hard to imagine a room or office where you would not want to bring this in.

A good stand makes a tablet a lot easier to use, and I don't know of any stand better than this.

As you can see, the floor model really is much larger.

[Photos by Stobblehouse]

iPad mini retina vs iPad Air

iPad mini retina vs iPad Air, comparison.

After the biggest iPad got smaller and lighter, and the Mini got the Retina display, choosing has become harder. This article attempts a bit of perspective.

An Apple Geek’s Week with Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX

An Apple Geek’s Week with Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX, article.

Good article, comparing the iPad Mini with the KF HDX 7-inch.

It's so hard to make good gear decisions and make clear reviews. Even with something as simple as a hammer, how Good it is depends on the job to be done, differences in exemplars, how you hold it, how big or strong you are, your experience, etc. And of course a tablet is a million times more complex, so...

I have a Kindle HDX just for one thing really: so far it's the only machine which will read out loud my Kindle books. And it does it in the best quality I have heard, sometimes I actually catch myself in thinking of the "person" who is reading aloud, so close has it come now.
But to illustrate my point, there is always something, durnit. Sometimes the Kindle will start to turn the pages faster than the speed at which it is reading, so I lose my place. Ot is will simply stop reading (for some reason always after a full stop). It has not happened often with bought Kindle books, but it has happened a lot with homemade Kindle books, collected from fanfiction found on the web. It is really irritating. I managed to remove some of it by emailing (for conversion) a .docx format file instead of a .txt file. It's clear that there are some hidden codes in there which are doing havoc with the Kindle, but which ones? I can't even see them.

Also, just trying something as simple as to install an alternative browser (like Chrome) on the Kindle Fire is a loooong excercise in frustration. Some people, like above reviewer, can't even access the Google Play Store. For some reason I can. And I can install Chrome. Or rather, it tells me it is installed, but it's not, can't find it anywhere. And one file of another app just downloaded. I had to figure out that there must be a Download folder somewhere... but do you think Amazon has made it easy to find that? If so, congratulations on your trust. I tend to be a happy little trust machine myself, but even I am suspecting that Amazon has done all in its power that the KF is only being used in exactly the ways Amazon wants, and none else. And most of those ways is sooner or later leading to your next Amazon purchase.
Granted, it is more stable than other Android tablets I have tried, but it is very limiting for people who want a tablet rather than an Amazon Window/reader/player.

With such complex things, "your mileage may vary" is a gross understatement.

Daylight bulbs are better for E-ink screen reading

For those who read on a Kindle without front-light (non-Paperwhite, that is), you may find it easier to read it if you replace the bulb in your favorite reading lamp with a DAYLIGHT spectrum bulb. At least I find it so. Very clear difference.

You get them in the modern energy-saving flavor, so you will also save 75% on the electricity.

As to why this would be so, it makes sense to me that when one uses *all* the light receptors in the eye to their full capability, one gets a clearer image. Like a camera sensor, different receptors are sensitive to different colors of light.

Additional advantages is that your indoors photos may look better, and if you don’t get all that much sunlight on your face in the winter-time, then having daylight-spectrum indoors lamps may actually lift your mood.

More info.

The "iPad Air" moniker

Hey, I had forgotten that I actually predicted Apple using the device name "iPad Air".

Kindle Fire's super-display with "quantum dots"

Kindle Fire HDX 7, iPad mini & Nexus 7 display shootout has a winner, article.

The iPad Mini's display, surprisingly, loses because of a low color gamut! (How many colors it can show.) Strange, because when iPad three came out, it was clear to the eye that it had a rather larger color gamut than the iPad 2. Red was much deeper, for example.

The winner is the Kindle Fire HDX.
Soneira notes it’s the first tablet display to use “Quantum Dots,” a technology he says is going to “revolutionize LCDs for the next 5+ years.”

Surprisingly (as it were), I am not surprised!
When I got my new KF HDX, I was really surprised at how much better it was. I don't think it's explainable by resolution (for one thing, I have middle-aged eyes), so I guess that "Quantum Dots" thing is it. I'll have to look it up.
But it struck me how amazingly crisp the new Kindle display is. It is really beautiful. I think it has to be seen to be appreciated. It is just like text and images are etched in there. Beautiful, and a well done to Amazon's engineers.

Also, the KF's text-to-speech, which I have praised, is even better now. Probably many small things are improved, but one big thing is for sure: there are now several voices to choose from, I love that. The original is good, but I think I may like one or two of the others even better.
These voices are not cheap to produce, so for Amazon to just include them as a free extra is great.

Apple's over-minimalism

Here's a short exchange from this post.

M Johnston wrote:
“Apple has been getting into the habit of obscuring functionality for the sake of aesthetics, and that’s not good design. So let’s hope that this is a short-lived trend.”

I answered:
I couldn’t agree more, I have thought that myself more than once. It’s really frustrating that they can’t see the wrongness of it.
In fact, the whole idea of iOS7’s design is “well, now people have gotten used to smartphones, we don’t need to show what’s a button anymore.”

The trend is not new. In the old OS, there used to be lines in the top of the active window. Those were grip lines. Up through the early stages of OSX, these got more and more line pinstripes, and eventually disappeared totally.

And how about mice with a cord so short it can’t reach around a small laptop!? But it sure looks more tidy!

I think Ive and Jobs are/were over-infatuated with minimalism, at least a little bit. I’m a minimalist myself (I keep my desktop totally free 80% of the time), but it’s important to know where to stop. Where you hurt functionality is the limit.

I refined the design of my web sites (made it all myself) for years (it only took years because I have no real training as designer). But then I couldn't go further without getting "fancy", and "fancy" hurt things like readability or navigation. There are quite narrow limits on the web because of all the different devices it needs to work on. So I just stopped, my artistic sense would just have to bite its metaphorical tongue, because it had reached a hard limit.
It's not regrettable, much. Form must follow function. Fine art is only free where there is no real function.

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An example. How would you ever know that you 

can tap in those areas to go to the playing app? I suppose the title is meant to be the button, but it's just quite hard to hit it, both on the iPhone and iPad.

Terry P cheaper in the UK

My UK (or European perhaps?) readers may be interested to know that Sainsburys eBookStore is selling Terry Pratchett books cheaper than Amazon.

If you don't know Terry Pratchett, you are really missing out. I'm currently re-reading most of his books for about the third time. (Oh, take no notice of the garish covers. Terry told me that the publisher says they sell, but I never cared for their super-saturated colors much.) (Another note: his first two books are amongst my least favorites. Neither the story nor the humor is as sharp as it became in the witches books or the Watch (city guards) books.)

Ooh, I just thought of a funny coinkidink: I first discovered Pratchett when I lived in Edinburgh in 2000-2001. And it was in Sainsburys supermarket of all places!
(Well to be exact (and to increase the brackets count (!) in this post), the very first one I read was his very first, years earlier, but like I said, the first two did not catch my interest and I still think they are weaker (along with other books featuring Rincewind the wizard).)

Flote tablet holder

I'm still pleased with my gen-1 Flote.
And I think I'll get the table model too.




Funny enough, today I got the iPad Air. It is definetely a better "presence" than previous generations. (Compare it to the first one, man!) Prettier, lighter, good to hold.
But: I think for it to really become a one-hand device for reading/browsing at length, it still needs to be about 150-200 grams lighter. So stands like the Flote are still very relevant.

Not to mention that rumors about both Samsung and Apple coming up next year with 13-inch tablets are thickening, hurrah! (If we are lucky, they'll just fit in the current models.)
[I think that when we some day have a 13-inch reader at 250 grams, we have finally the perfect reader machine.]

Look at this: finally an iPad who can hold all my favorite episodes of Phineas And Ferb:

Over 100 Gigs free!