See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This is a review of the non 3G version. Wifi is more than sufficient and transfer speeds are very fast. We run a calibre server at home and grabbing books from it is a breeze. Simply setup a bookmark and open the server to grab books in a few seconds.

From unboxing to setup, the Kindle Touch is a very intuitive and easy to use device.

Compared to the Kindle Keyboard, the weight and feel in the hand is vastly superior. The onscreen keyboard does a good job and is fairly responsive.

The default page turning method has been improved in the touch, it now only refreshes the text by default which results in a less intrusive “flash” on the screen and I believe it is slightly faster also (from observation only).

If however you don’t like this new method, the option does exist to go back to the full screen refresh of the previous hardware versions.

Reading on the device is the usual improvement over LCD technology with the e-ink display. While you do require an external light source, the screen excels with extremely low glare and is very easy to read in lighted conditions such as sunlight or ambient lighting. At night a light source is necessary, which is easily provided by the official lighted case.

This case takes its power from the Kindle itself via two small connectors on the back of the device. The case is very solid and vastly different from previous iterations. The Kindle actually clips into a moulded cut-out in the case which is form fitted. You have to provide quite a lot of pressure and it gives a very solid click when it fits in. Getting it out of the case is not a simple procedure and can make you nervous given the pressure involved. This is definitely a case designed to stay on forever.

Given the amount of extra protection it provides and its low weight and profile, this is not a concern however and I’m sure mine will never come out of its case for as long as it functions. The new light position is superior to the old lighted case and the light itself is very bright and makes reading at night a breeze.

Managing your library is done by mainly by collections, which is the only real issue I have with the Kindle. I believe this could be improved on, as once you start getting into the hundreds of books I can see this being a real pain to keep track of. There has to be a better way.

The reading experience is great although I did find the occasional tap to turn the page is not recognised, requiring a second tap to be sure it turns. Also, the screen is divided into three parts. The majority of the screen on the right is to turn the page, there is a thin bar on the left to go back and a bar at the top to open the menu.

My wife finds this very problematic compared to the Kindle Keyboard, as the dedicated hardware buttons to turn pages back and forward were more to her liking, allowing her to turn the pages with either hand. It also made sure that there was a conscious desire to turn the page - no accidental touches were possible.

On the whole, I prefer this device to the Kindle Keyboard and I also now find I prefer reading on it over my iPhone (my previous ebook reader). My wife slightly prefers the older keyboard version purely for the hardware buttons – she loves the size, weight and case of the new touch however the missing buttons are a major drawback for her. 

See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The chemo doesn't seem to knock me around that much, although I am still less than halfway through so there is still the chance I will deteriorate over the next few months. However I prefer to look on the positive side.

Unfortunately, we're headed into winter, so even if I recover in the next few months, most of the work I want to do (for example the garage) will have to wait till spring now. On the plus side I will be out of chemo then, so perhaps that's for the best.

Now that my brain is engaged again I'm feeling all proactive. I'll try to get back into the writing and photography that was put on hold when I had the bowel perforation and found out I had lymphoma.

There's a huge list of projects a mile long, time to roll up the sleeves and get to work!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

The app loads slowly, crashes often and has extremely basic editing tools. So far finding it harder to use than just opening safari and using the website.

However I still think having the pages dedicated to each story works well. So at the moment I'm writing using the Wordpress app, which has excellent editing and writing tools. Then once I have completed a chapter I will load it up into Posterous.

So updates will become probably more of a weekly deal rather than daily paragraphs. On the plus side, it will be a whole chapter each time.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

If you are checking here for the first time and are a friend of mine, check your google+ stream as I'm using that to filter out random strangers and act as a kind of permissions system. You can get the link from there, or through the writing link at the top of this page.

If you are in my friends or family circle, you will have access to the password to view my new story.

Otherwise, if you are really interested and don't know me from a bar of soap send me an email - you never know I may experience temporary insanity and let you in.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Well Posterous looks interesting, will start looking into how I can get this to update across multiple blogs etc. Looks easy from what I can see so far though, so shouldn't have any issues.

We'll see if I can keep on top of updates though, that almost never works out!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »