This week Amazon announced new Kindles, both low-power e-book readers that work forever on a charge in ambient light, and the color tablet Kindle Fire.<\/p>\n
Fun.\u00a0 I want.\u00a0 But what do I want?\u00a0 What gadgets do I want?\u00a0 (What do I need?)<\/p>\n
Smartphone, notebook computer, tablet, e-book reader, Ipod, Camera, Hiking GPS?<\/p>\n
Each has its virtues…<\/p>\n
Little, always with me, internet access (when I am in T-Mobile territory).\u00a0 Hard to be without.<\/p>\n
Keyboard, real web browser, lots of disk space, multiple windows at once, lot of familiar software.\u00a0 As a software engineer, needed for nerding.<\/p>\n
(My current notebook is wearing out.\u00a0 Anyone have a good recommendation for a nice sub-notebook? Under 3-pounds, full dimension screen, good trackpad, works well with Ubuntu, tough?)<\/p>\n
I don’t really know, I don’t have one.\u00a0 But I want one.\u00a0 I want something like my phone but bigger.\u00a0 Even though pulling out my notebook and opening the cover is very easy (sleep to RAM wakes up quite quickly) I want something that is even easier: just pull out the tablet and hit the switch, no lid to open nor surface to sit on needed.<\/p>\n
I want a big screen phone with a front-facing camera (my phone doesn’t have that).<\/p>\n
I want to be able to read the New York Times better. My phone can read the Times but with such a small screen. My notebook can read the Times, but such a production to open it up and set it down.\u00a0 (Oh<\/em>, so much work!)<\/p>\n I also want to use Google Maps on a bigger screen than my phone.\u00a0 As impressive as maps are on my phone, maps scream for big<\/em>. Remember paper maps?\u00a0 They are big for a reason, so you can see where you are, and where you are going, and detail in between.<\/p>\n I want to play Angry Birds on a bigger screen.<\/p>\n I have this idea that a tablet can be more opportunistic, not as omnipresent as my phone, but more casual and available than my notebook.<\/p>\n Is rather tempting at $200. Luckily I am saved for the moment because it isn’t yet available.<\/p>\n But it is rather limited:<\/p>\n Still, it is only $200.<\/p>\n Same price as the Kindle Fire, but all those things I complained about? Google fixed them all. Okay, the camera is front facing only, but it is there! Nice machine, I am using it to update this post now. Get one.<\/p>\n The key features here are long battery life, screen that uses ambient light and is easy to see outdoors, and limited function<\/em> so I don’t keep looking at what new Tweets have shown up.\u00a0 The new cheap Kindle is so small and pretty dang cheap at $79 (still only $109 without ads). And so small.\u00a0 And linked to my reading on my phone’s Kindle app.<\/p>\n I’ve been reading a 400+ page book on the Kindle app on my phone and it is taking forever.\u00a0 I have this idea it would go faster if I had a bigger, better reading screen.<\/p>\n (No, I won’t cooperate with marketing driven fuNNy caPITaliZatioN.) I have a 120 GB Ipod and it is great to have a ton of music available.\u00a0 It works without any network connection.\u00a0 It has great battery life.\u00a0 (Alas, it might be discontinued soon. Constantly listening to things I already own, and free podcasts, doesn’t generate any bucks for Apple.)<\/p>\n I also have the FM radio adapter that Apple used to sell, and would listen to public All Things Considered and Morning Edition on it, but now I usually use my phone for that–it gets better reception in buildings.<\/p>\n I don’t usually have it on my person these days, not like I used to, my phone is the bigger entertainment. Instead my Ipod has been relegated to the larger bag I carry my notebook computer in.\u00a0 Handy at work, handy in the car, not terribly far away at most other times.<\/p>\n I like having my little camera with my almost always. I like that “film” is now essentially free, I can use the camera to take notes and document physical stuff (what exact replacement part do I need at the hardware store?, I look the picture I took of the dismantled gizmo at home).<\/p>\n My phone has a camera, but I think it is a lesser device, though I haven’t tried side-by-side comparisons.\u00a0 I know the phone doesn’t have a real zoom. Swapping new memory cards is easier on my camera than on my phone because the phone has other data on the card I don’t want to swap out.<\/p>\n The usage model is different, the phone wants to upload photos, the dedicated camera wants to transfer them to my notebook.<\/p>\n The camera has a battery that doesn’t need constant charging because it is only for the camera.\u00a0 The camera doesn’t have GPS and can’t tag photo locations.<\/p>\n I have<\/em> to throw this in.<\/p>\n My phone has GPS, and better maps than does my Garmin GPS Map 60Cx, but I still like my Garmin with the North American maps I bought for it:<\/p>\n I don’t have my hiking GPS with me always, but I frequently have it in my bigger bag, with my iPod and notebook computer.<\/p>\n I don’t know yet.\u00a0 These are very different beasts.\u00a0 The dedicated devices are nice in that they are better optimized for their specific uses.\u00a0 The multi-use devices (phone, notebook) are nice for their general purpose aspects but I am then afraid of dropping it on a hard rock and being out too many features.<\/p>\n I suspect there are some Amazon products to be added to my list of toys in the next few months.<\/p>\n Stay tuned.<\/p>\n -kb, the Kent who always has some tech on him.<\/p>\n \u00a92011 Kent Borg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So Many Gadgets This week Amazon announced new Kindles, both low-power e-book readers that work forever on a charge in ambient light, and the color tablet Kindle Fire. Fun.\u00a0 I want.\u00a0 But what do I want?\u00a0 What gadgets do I want?\u00a0 (What do I need?) Smartphone, notebook computer, tablet, e-book reader, Ipod, Camera, Hiking GPS? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12,49,114,120,129,147,148,169,170,179,209,212,298,320],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","tag-android","tag-camera","tag-fm-radio","tag-garmin","tag-gps","tag-iphone","tag-ipod","tag-kindle","tag-kindle-fire","tag-linux","tag-nexus-7","tag-notebook-computer","tag-tablet","tag-ubuntu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.borg.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borg.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Kindle Fire<\/h5>\n
\n
Update: Nexus 7!<\/h5>\n
E-Book Reader<\/h3>\n
Ipod<\/h3>\n
Camera<\/h3>\n
Hiking GPS<\/h3>\n
\n
And the Winners Are?<\/h3>\n