A note on the 2013 Kindle Paperwhite

I got my 2013 Paperwhite.
Should you upgrade?

We don't know if the software changes will come to the earlier model or not, so I won't comment on them.
But the page is whiter... very slightly. Barely noticable. The same is true of sharpness, contrast, page flipping speed...
The most noticable change for me is the brighter and more even front light. The unevenness did bother me a little before.

The slider for quick moving through the book is fantastic. I wonder why this is the first time it's appeared on an e-ink model? Have they been too slow? And the fact that it happens in a small window so you always have your present page anchored outside it is genius.

Altogether, if the 2012 model works fine for you, don't bother. If you don't have any ereader, this is a good time to get one. The Paperwhite is good for undisturbed long reading. (If you like shorter reading, and games and email, a tablet might be the ticket.) If you like the first one, and you like to always have the best, go for it.

Free pulp novels

Over a thousand free pulp era books as ebooks.

That Samsung smart-watch (Galaxy Gear)

OK, so the first serious smartwatch is here.
It is getting very mixed reviews. Some say the interface is really good, but the design and heft are much reviled.
In any case, it's a start, and I guess further developments and model are inevitable.



Given though that the screen necessarily is even smaller than that on a normal cell phone, I don't expect to get much reading done on watches ever!  


It has been said that the ad ows a lot to an older Apple commercial:



... But I don't know. Like David Pogue said; you can't keep a good idea down. It's OK to fight for your copyright to the exact details of your work, but if broader ideas get tied up one by one, creativity will stall over time.

The New World of Abundance

Open letter to Len Edgerly (Kindle Chronicles):


I feel your, uhm, pain regarding having fifty books waiting on the Kindle, and yet looking at new book sources.

I think we need to change our mind-set. From the old Scarcity mindset, where a book was something rare and precious which had to be guarded and savored.

... To the new mindset of Abundance, where the world presents within easy reach and cheaply ten thousand times as many books as we could possibly read in a lifetime.

It’s a new world, where there should be no shame in “owning” 7,000 ebooks which may or may not ever be read, or in reading 40% of one, and 8% of another.

Warm regards, Eolake