E-Readers

I’ve been looking at e-readers for e-books.

I have a bunch of e-books that I’ve gotten off of Project Gutenberg and I’m not reading them.  Why?  Because reading on a computer screen is a pain in the butt for too long.

Yes, I know, I spend WAY too much time in front of the screen but I’d like to get away from the computer every once in awhile and opt for an e-ink screen.  I still read traditional books (I’m still in the middle of one I started awhile ago) and I love love love magazines.  I’d sub to more magazines if I could get them in digital form, I think, because, what the heck do you do with the mag when you’re done with it?

Anyway, I think this would be a neat thing to try out.

I’ve looked at the Kindle, the Sony e-readers, the Nook by Barnes and Noble, and a couple others made by other manufacturers.

The Kindle looks sweet.  I don’t know if I’m cool with the keyboard on the front of it.  It looks like a very nice gadget, but I can’t play with it or look at it before I buy.  And a picture on Amazon doesn’t count.

The Sony e-reader is massively expensive for the one I’d want (about $50 more than the Kindle or Nook).  The one that’s in my price range ($200) is much smaller than the Nook or Kindle, and has fewer features.

The other brands seemed very expensive with fewer options.

This brings me to the Nook.  There were a few bad reviews of this device saying it was slow, and that it had some quirks.  What really sells this reader to me is that I can play with it in the store (I did this the other day), that it has wifi and 3G connectivity, that it works automatically with Barnes and Noble (my local book chain), and that it will work with the books I’ve downloaded.  I’m hoping that there will be some new reviews up soon with the updates in the software.  There’s supposed to be PDF support; this is important to me because I have some magazines (Linux Journal and BSD Magazine) that I’d like to read on this device; they are in PDF format.

I’m thinking that I’d actually read more with this thing.  We’ll see if I actually get it.  It’s *only* $259.  I have a good selection of books to read on it, and I can stick it in my purse/bag to read when I’m out.  This would come in VERY handy when I go to Indianapolis in June; I’d have something to read when I’m waiting for people and other things.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Sony Walkman

No, not the cassette version, but I had one of those for a long time… I finally had to retire it, as the radio didn’t work anymore, and the cassette motor burned out.  Poor walkman…

Some background:

I was getting sick of my Sansa View (If you recall, I talked about it here).  It was freezing on shuffle (a regular problem, not being fixed by any sort of firmware; see here and here).  I’d have issues with it connecting as a USB device so I could transfer music to it.  I decided to get this. 

Picture:

It’s easy to use… It was detected by Songbird in Windows… I have yet to muck about with it in Ubuntu yet.  It uses MTP, so I should be able to install some stuff and it should work.  A report will forthcoming.

The radio is also much better on this than it ever was on the View.  I get stations I never could dream of getting on the View.

A very simple interface (just what I want), a good radio, lightweight, fast and good case design… It’s a recommend, but we’ll see after a year and a couple firmware updates…

Edit: Drag ‘n drop works with this player in Linux by opening the player in Nautilus and dragging what you want to it. It doesn’t work in amaroK, Rhythmbox or Banshee right now.

Edit 2: Works with Rhythmbox… I had to add an empty file named “.is_audio_player” to the root directory of the player. This makes the player all sorts of awesome.

Blogged with the Flock Browser</div

Chumby?

Or not to Chumby?  That is the question.

Well… I’ve fallen in like/love with this:

It’s called a Chumby and it is an alarm clock, a radio, a podcaster, a gaming machine, an email checker… and it’s cute!  I don’t really "need" anything like this, but my old alarm clock is getting old.  I think if I move away from home (again), I’m definitely going to get one of these things so I can have it in my bedroom.

It doesn’t run on batteries, but that’s ok.  My normal clock plugs into the wall as well.  But my normal clock has a battery backup… I guess since this thing syncs with the web, it’ll hold all your informaiton in an account, then refresh that account (much like an iGoogle page).  Matter-of-fact, that’s what this reminds me of… an iGoogle page that you can have next to your bed.  I might just have to check this out…