Showing posts with label eBooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eBooks. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Amazon Kindle Fire

parislemon On Wednesday, Amazon Will Unveil The “Kindle Fire” http://t.co/OOvg4KJdMon, Sep 26 16:31:04 from Tweet Button
retweeted by arrington

From the article:
Another thing I wasn’t sure about was the chip inside of the device. I’ve now learned it’s a TI dual-core OMAP chip. This is the same chip used inside many newer Android devices. The PlayBook also uses it. I’m not sure what the clock-speed of the CPU will be, but I’d guess 1.2 GHz. This will make it significantly faster than the rival Nook Color, which uses a single core 800 MHz OMAP.
And...
The Nook Color 2 will also be built on top of Gingerbread, Android 2.3, we hear. That would put it ahead of the Kindle Fire, which is believed to be based on Android 2.1. Again, neither of them look anything like Android, but the APIs available are key when it comes to the Android version. 

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Dead Six

I finished Dead Six while at the beach. I liked it. A lot. Even better than Larry's MHI series. I may not keep up with MHI, but, if there is another, and I think there will be, I'll grab it up. And reading it on the Android Nook was a nice experience.

Nook Color Android

So I've been playing with my Nook Color Android tablet. My reference points are an iPad2 (the gold standard for tablets) and my Droid Pro phone (running Android). My first impressions were favorable and that has not changed.

I like the 7" form factor. It is very usable and takes up less space in my bag than does the iPad.

The battery life doesn't seem to be as good as the iPad. I've not done any specific testing, but my gut says I'm charging it more often with roughly equivalent usage. I don't think this is a Nook issue - more of an Android problem. My Droid Pro has mysterious battery sucking apps running that fix themselves.

Unlike the Droid Pro, some applications (Google Reader for one) occasionally blow up and have to be restarted on the Nook Color Android. This doesn't happen very frequently, but I've almost never seen it on the Droid Pro.

Overall, a few hiccups but a great value at half the price of an iPad.


Tuesday, September 20, 2011

eBook for Dead Six

So my complaint with the MHI series is that it involves plots to save the world/universe/the future/the past/etc. I bought the eBook for Dead Six. For six bucks and a good chance the change of genera will limit the scope of the adventure (or maybe not), I think it is worth the click to buy now! Also, I like that I can download it in any format I prefer (for example, ePub for my Android Nook). A quick on-line purchase, a download, copied to my Dropbox, and voila... there it appears in Aldiko.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Nook Color & Nook 2 Android

I really like our iPad. The three of us seem to share it pretty well, but I was already thinking we could really be a two or three tablet family. My uncle is trying out a Nook Color, the Barnes & Noble ebook reader along with a little hack to run the Android OS via a bootable microSD card from Nook 2 Android.

You can pick up a new Nook Color for $250. I got a refurb on Buy.com for $180. You can then order the a Nook 2 Android 8 GB card for $35. So on the cheap side, you can get an Android tablet for $215 plus shipping.

I'm excited about this as I really wanted a tablet and I think this will be a great device. I want it to be my portable documentation repository and library. Dropbox plus some PDFs. YouVersion for multiple versions of the Bible. Add Google Reader for my RSS feeds and I am all set!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Kindle Price Trajectory

Some speculation that Kindles will eventually follow the razor and razor blades model at the Business Insider - see chart below. I have less problem with the $135 for the Kindle than I do for the ridiculous price of the books. I'd be happy to have a "free" Kindle, but I can't see paying extra for an eBook. Sure, it has advantages, but the cost to sell it to me have to be lower, too. Seriously, Amazon's incremental cost must be almost nothing. And there is always the chance Amazon could delete the book from my device. I know that they are looking at ways to enable loaning eBooks, but nothing beats the simplicity of sharing a hard copy.

For example, I bought my used copy of Atlas Shrugged at McKay Books for about $8. The Amazon alternatives:

Paperback - $14.66, Kindle Edition - $18.99

Atlas ShruggedAtlas Shrugged: (Centennial Edition)