The Kindle Won’t Replace My Paperbacks

When Amazon announced their new e-book reader, the Kindle, earlier this week, I scoffed. Now that the buzz has died down and I’ve had some time to review the details, I have to admit my reaction is…still a scoff. That’s not to say that the Kindle is bad. In fact, if I was in the market for an e-book reader, I might even consider purchasing it. So why the scoff? Let’s review…

Kindle Features:

• Uses an e-ink display that provides a sharp, high-res screen
• Wireless connectivity over a EVDO network let’s you shop the Kindle store from anywhere and download a book within a couple of minutes
• Displays formats like basic HTML, Word .docs, and PDFs
• 88,000 books, top U.S. Newspapers, top international papers, 250 tops blogs all available
• Free book samples - try before you buy
• Lighter and thinner than a paperback (10.3 ounces)
• Can hold 200+ titles
• Long battery life - only recharge every other day; charges in 2 hours
• Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle

Paperback Features:

• Uses a print technology that’s easy on the eyes
• After purchase, paperbacks are available to read immediately just by opening the cover
• You can loan a paperback to a friend without losing 200 of your other paperbacks in the process
• Never needs charging
• Supports color
• Can get wet, dropped, stepped on, thrown, etc. and will continue to work

The thing is, like many readers, I doubt I will ever be in the market for an e-book reader. For me, reading for pleasure is a visceral activity. I love
paperbacks - the feel of the pages, the smell of the paper, the way you
can bend the cover all the way back to hold the book at just the right
angle to block the sun as you relax on the beach. You can drop a
paperback in your beach bag where suntan lotion leaks on it and grains
of sand coat its pages and it’s still perfectly fine. You can dog-ear the pages and write in the margins. I also love
hardbacks; looking at their shiny covers look lined up on my bookshelves, I see the books that I couldn’t wait to
own. These are my favorites, the ones I bought the minute they arrived.
Although the e-book reader is the greener choice (until it’s time to upgrade), the more practical choice for many people is not going to be a $400 device that simply gives you the pleasure of buying books in a different way. This is not a paperback killer. It’s just another toy.

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Tab Mix Plus is my new favorite Firefox extension. If you want to really extend Firefox’s tabbed browsing capabilities, this is the extension for you. The extension includes features like duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, and a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can save and restore combinations of open tabs and windows. With the extension installed, right-clicking on a tab brings up an extensive menu of options: New Tab, Copy Tab URL, Reload Tab, Reload All Tabs, Undo Closed Tab, Closed Tabs List, Close Tab, Close Other Tabs, Protect Tab, Lock Tab, Bookmark This Tab, & Bookmark All Tabs. You can even go into the Tab Mix options (from Firefox’s Tools menu) and further customize this list by adding or removing items to be shown in this context menu. However, one of the best things about the Tab Mix Plus extension are the buttons that you can add to your browser toolbar. The “Open Tabs” button quickly brings up a list of all your open tabs, which is handy when you have a million tabs open. But it’s the “Display Closed Tabs” button that is the best. Although you can get to your “Recently Closed Tabs” list via Firefox’s History menu, having a button where you can access this information with one-click is a real timesaver.

Popular online storage and file-sharing service, Box.net has just launched a new services platform called OpenBox. With OpenBox, you can add powerful services that work with your online files and let you do more with your data. For example, OpenBox integrates with many third party services to let you do things like edit and preview office documents, photos, and CAD files; fax documents and get them digitally signed; make t-shirts or holiday gifts from your photos; create ringtones for your cell phone from your audio files; send file links to twitter; and much more. The current services that OpenBox works with include: Autodesk Freewheel, Blogger, LiveJournal, WordPress, EchoSign, eFax, Myxer, picnik, Scribd, Snipshot, thinkfree, twitter, Zazzle, and Zoho. To use the new services, click “OpenBox Services” in the top right corner of your screen after you’ve logged into your Box.net account. You can then browse the current offerings, and click the “Add Service” button next to the services that you want to enable for your account. Once the services are enabled, you can right-click on any file in your Box and choose from your enabled OpenBox Services to begin working with the file.

Surprisingly, I heard about Songza on Uncov, the blog of dissing everything web 2.0. For it to actually get a rave review over there, I decided it was worth checking out. Unlike peer-to-peer (P2P) or BitTorrent services, Songza users can’t (illegally) download songs, only listen to them online, internet radio-style. But where Songza differs from current internet radio providers like Last.fm or Rhapsody is that you don’t have to listen to a “station” based on the artist you enter; instead, you can choose exactly the artist or song you want to here and stream it live, without having to pay or subscribe to Songza in any way. Really! You just type in a song title or artist and click “search” and Songza will load and play the song. Songza’s creators designed the site to show what they believe is a “human interface,” a term they’re using to describe interfaces that reflect how people actually use software. For them, Songza presents this “humane interface” concept through the site’s clean, clutter-free design and transparent remote control.

UPDATE! I originally wrote this post for Channel 10 and since they decided to run it, I’m sending my traffic over there. The first five hacks are here. To read the rest, click the link at the bottom of the page to see all 10!

Hack #1: Multi-Extension Support mod - This hack makes the Zune program support more types of video, audio, and image extensions. This mod converts files for use on the Zune. Files are automatically converted to the exact specifications used on the Zune device, so no guesswork is involved. It also adds the songs and movies to your library. The hack current supports the following: Audio: .aac, .aif, .aifc, .aiff, .au, .cda, .mid, .midi, .rmi, .snd, and .wav files are now automatically added to your library and later converted and synced with the Zune device. They will not play in your Zune program, though. Video: .asf, .avi, .dvr-ms, .m1v, .m2v, .mod, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpa, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, and .wm videos are now automatically added to your library and later converted and synced with the Zune device. They will not play in your Zune program, though. Images: .png, .bmp, .gif, and many other image file types have been found as being supported by the Zune program, but as of yet they cannot be added to the library or synced to your device.

Hack #2: Not really a hack, more of a break-it-open guide - Rapid Repair, a personal music player parts and repair site, has opened up the new Zune 2 and has the pictures to prove it. With their step-by-step guides, you, too, can bust into your Zune, old or new, and replace a part or two.

Hack #3: Use the Zune 2 as a flash drive - this hack makes your computer recognize your Zune 2 just like it’s any ordinary USB flash drive

Hack #4: Convert DVD, video, audio, iTunes and YouTube video to Zune or Zune 2 - this hack gives you directions to convert DVD and popular video and audio file formats like AVI, MPEG, DivX, XviD, MOV, ASF, RM to Zune, convert iTunes to Zune, iPod to Zune, M4P to Zune, M4v to Zune, and download and convert video from YouTube, FLV, Google, Myspace, iFilm, etc. to Zune. It was written up for the original Zunes, but sources say it works on Zune 2.

Hack #5: Another conversion hack - this hack shows you how to convert DVD video to play in your Zune 2.

To see all 10 Zune 2 hacks, click here!!

This post breezed by on LifeHacker, but I thought it was worth a second look. A free software application called iTunes Agent lets you sync up your non-iPod mp3 player with your iTunes library. Seriously! As great as iTunes is, it is, unfortunately, locked down so you can only use it with an iPod. With iTunes Agent, you can create a playlist for your non-mp3 player in iTunes and then sync that playlist to your mp3 player. iTunes Agent rests in your system tray, always on the lookout for new devices being connected to your system. If a device it recognizes is connected, it enables you to manage it via a playlist in iTunes. You can even associate your mp3 player with a Smart Playlist, like “Party Shuffle”, and always have a new collection of tracks on your player.

The software supports almost any non-iPod device from your PSP to your Walkman phone to your Creative Zen. In fact, the only criteria to determine whether or not a device is supported is whether or not you can map it to a drive letter under “My Computer” in Windows. Since Microsoft Zunes don’t show up as a drive letter, you would first have to follow the steps in this hack to get your Zune to show up as a drive letter before you could sync your Zune to iTunes with this software (in theory…anyone who tries this please let me know! Especially with Zune 2 software!).

To use the iTunes Agent software, you’ll need to install the .Net framework version 2.0 (if you don’t already have it), then download the iTunes Agent software. Although the website doesn’t specifically say, it appears that the software supports both mp3 files as well as acc (m4p). Of course, if you run into trouble with your device, you could always rip the DRM from your iTunes music by using QTFairUse software.

Even better, stop buying DRM’d music!!

If you have one or two blogs that you are addicted to, you may find this service useful: SendMeRSS. Unlike an RSS email subscription like service like mine, which emails you a digest of recent blog posts, SendMeRSS will deliver individual posts as they go live in a single email to an email address you provide. The service is not only useful for keeping tabs on your favorite sites, but could also come in handy to receive blog posts on a mobile phone, a computer where the website is blocked, or a computer where you have email but no internet access. However, if you sign up for more than a couple of blogs using this service, your inbox will soon be overrun with blog post emails, so use this service sparingly!

If you haven’t figured out RSS yet, check out this video for a great explanation:

(via Digital Inspiration)

You can’t avoid it…it’s political season! However, there are some websites that make learning more about the candidates, the political process, and the issues more fun. If your normal voting strategy is “I’ll just vote for the lesser of the two evils…”, take some time to explore the world of politics 2.0. A quick list:

Political Base: Follow the money, compare the candidates on the issues, participate in the conversation, wiki-style

Political Trends : keep tabs on how the blogosphere is reacting to the issues

DeclareYourself: a non-partisan site that wants to get 18-year-olds interested in politics. Lets you spread the word with SMS, website buttons, newsletters, and more.

Hostile Crowd: Digg-like political news site

SparkMeter: A political news site that analyzing media bias. Here you can vote on the stories to show how much they lean to the left or right.

essembly: a non-partisan social network that allows politically interested individuals to connect with one another, engage in constructive discussion, and organize to take action.

Vocal Nation is a social network created so that people can share their diverse opinions, and get to the core of the issues. This is accomplished through a democratic rating system, where the community collectively decides what is most worthy of recognition.

Jott the Vote: (covered here) A service that lets you share your views with the presidential candidates by leveraging Jott technology.

I’ve had my video iPod for a while now and I’ve amassed quite a collection of some of my favorite TV shows, but I’m running into a storage problem. I have multiple seasons of these shows, but I only want to sync the current season to my iPod. Unfortunately, when selecting what you want to sync, iTunes only gives you the choices to sync x amount of “selected TV shows”, “selected playlists” or “all TV shows.” Why can’t I just select TV shows by season? I hope they introduce this feature in the next version of iTunes. In the meantime, the following are the workarounds I’ve found for dealing with this shortcoming. Let me know if you have any better suggestions!

1. Create Video Playlists: On the TV Shows tab, you can change it from syncing “selected TV Shows” to syncing “selected playlists.” This requires a little manual labor, since you have to build your playlists, so the best way to do this is to use the “Smart Playlists” feature. Go to File –> New Smart Playlist (or Ctrl + Alt + N). Change the first drop-down box to “Show”, the second drop-down box to “is”, and the third to the name of the TV show you want (it will even auto-fill as you begin typing.) Then click the plus sign (+) to the right of this third field. Now you can add more conditions. Change the first field here to “Season,” the second to “is,” and the third to whatever season you want to sync. Click “OK”. Since “Live Updating” is checked by default, unless you uncheck it, the playlist will auto-update as new shows from the season are downloaded. Now you can change the settings from syncing “selected TV Shows” to “selected playlists” and sync away.
2. Edit the Show tag: Another option is to edit the TV show’s tag so iTunes thinks it’s a different TV show altogether. Doing this will let you just use the checkboxes on the TV show tab underneath “selected TV shows.” To change the show’s name, you right-click on the show in iTunes and choose “Get Info.” Then, click on the video tab and edit the show’s name.
3. 3rd Party tagging programs: Using 3rd party tagging programs will let you do option #2 faster than editing shows one-by-one. Here’s some I found:
   mp3Tag: This is a tag processor for MP3, WMA, OGG, WV, APE, FLAC, WAV, AAC, MPP/MPC/MP+, MP4/M4a files. The features include an automated search for lyrics and pictures (album covers), tags import from Amazon and FreeDB, and an automatic tag filling option, which works for mp3 albums that come without tags and meaningless file names, like 01.mp3, 02.mp3, 03.mp3, etc. You can view and edit tag information, save lyrics and pictures inside MP3, M4a or WMA-files, view technical information about music files and delete unused MP3-tags.

   iPodTVShow: A Windows GUI for setting iTunes-style metadata into MPEG-4 video files

   I don’t have a Mac, but I hear AtomicParsley is good for Mac users.

Any other ideas?

ShareThis is a web service that lets you instantly access all of your profiles, blogs, friends, and contacts for easy sharing of web content. Now, the company has just announced a new version of the popular ShareThis button, ShareThis 2.0. The button, designed for content publishers, lets your site’s visitors easily share your content via social bookmarking websites or by emailing the post to a friend. With ShareThis 2.0, the button has gotten a major overhaul. You can now configure the button type, which social web services you want to include (including Facebook & MySpace), and you can even pick colors that match your website. You can also now share via IM and mobile chat protocols, like SMS. There are new tracking reports so you can see how people are sharing your content. (These will be available after the button has collected a month’s worth of data). However, the biggest news is that the new button supports non-WordPress platforms, so you’ll probably start seeing a lot more of this button soon.