Too late for Father's Day? Some ideas from Consumer Reports

At KDKA.com's Consumer Web Extras last night (June 17), their top recommendation for a Father's Day gift caught my eye - yes, a Kindle.
  That turns out to be based on Consumer Reports' recommendation for the holiday, but they had Kindle as the lead paragraph:

' KDKA) Father's Day is Sunday, and if you're still not sure what to get your dad, Consumer Reports has some suggestions.

If your dad likes to read, one of the hottest new gifts this year is an e-book reader.

Consumer Reports recommends the six-inch Kindle e-reader. It's easy to use, loads quickly and costs about $260. Best-selling books range from $10 to $15 at Amazon with free downloads. '

 It's too late, if one wants one from Amazon, to reach the household on Sunday, but now there's Target, and the Kindle seems to be at most of their stores country-wide now,  if only as a demo model,  until they're more set up.  Instead of 30 days given by Amazon to return it for a refund, Target allows 90 days.  So that might be something to consider.

Other recommendations by Consumer Reports, and they should be easy to find where you are if you're in an urban area on Saturday:  (I'll provide Amazon links for info {if available} or for checking after the holiday for other occasions)

  1. Pocket camcorders like the Pure Digital Flip Video Ultra-HD,~$180, said to be among the best at capturing HD-quality video.
  2. For still camera photographers: the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W380,~$140
  3a. digital picture frames: 10-inch HP Dream Screen 100, CR considers the best of the bigger frames but it's ~$200 ($150 at Amazon)
  3b. For much less, testers recommend the eight-inch digital Spectrum Memory Frame MF 801, at ~$70
  4. Garmin Nuvi 265-T GPS unit for ~$150 - a full-featured navigation unit with free traffic service.
  5. Gas grills - Two lower priced choices: a Grillmaster from Lowe's for ~$200 (Lowe 10% off coupons from Home Depot: (1)),   (2)
    and from Walmart, the Uniflame #GBC1059WB grill for ~$250.
  6. Cordless drills: top-rated Panasonic EY6432GQKW combines performance and light weight, but ~$200 cost
    The Craftsman 11588 - "which right now is on sale at Sears for ~$99;
    or you can even further downsize to the Ryobi HJP001K for $80, a compact drill that's a good alternative to pricey cordless screwdrivers."
  7. For the yard: "the electric Black & Decker GH1000 String Trimmer for $~70 is easy to handle, and the Toro Ultra Blower Vac 51599 for $70 blows away the competition."
  8. For the Steelers fan, "the Olympus 8x21 RC-I binoculars for just $50. They say the binoculars' ability to focus close-up makes them a good choice for someone who attends live sporting events."

So, you still have Saturday, to look around your neighborhood :-)

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Check often:  Latest temporarily free non-classics or late-listed ones.
  Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.

Consumer Reports has some issues with 3G iPad streaming video

I posted this at An E-Reader World blog, but I am re-posting it here because many Kindle owners I know have bought WiFi-Only iPads and some had said they are returning them to buy the 3G cellular wireless iPad being released this week.

Consumer Reports writes about its tests with streaming video on the 3G cellular wireless capable iPad, which is being shipped to those pre-ordering earlier and will be officially available for others on May 7 -- for $629 for the lowest storage capability of 16G.

They speak to the issue of $15 vs $30 for a month's of cellular web-data from AT&T's 3G network on top of the added $130 cost for 3G capability of the hardware.

Most of us know that 3G cellular wireless will tend to be slower in real-world access speed than a strong WiFi system.  But I would have held out for the 3G capability for use when not near a WiFi hotpoint.  This report recommends against that.

Excerpts: notable points

3G was slower than Wi-Fi. Download and upload speeds were significantly slower than the Wi-Fi version, but still fast enough for routine Web browsing.

You can’t stream all sources on 3G.
  [ The ABC Player app does not support cellular apps at this time.]
  [CR's attempt to download a TV show over 3G from the iTunes store was also thwarted, with a message they'd need Wi-Fi or should use iTunes on a computer to buy the video.]

Video quality varied by app
[ The YouTube video was blocky and lacked detail.  Netflix was better but still softer ]

Video quickly eats into the cheapest iPad 3G plan
[ The $15/mo. plan can be used up pretty quickly -- a few Youtube videos, a short segment from a Netflix movie, downloading some small apps and buying a couple of books used up more than 30%.]

[They'll run more tests over the coming week.   but here's their take so far:]

You won’t want to buy the iPad 3G to stream videos; we encountered too many problems.  It might come in handy for Web browsing and e-mail, but odds are you already have a smart phone to do just that.  Unless you want to spend another $30 a month to browse on a large screen, we recommend a pass.

My take The 3G iPad does have WiFi capability too though, so it's still at least as useful as the WiFi-only model while giving some capability when away from hot spots, if you can justify the expense.

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 See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
  Check often: Latest free non-classics, shortcut http://bit.ly/latestfreenonclassics.)

1) ConsumerReports video: E-readers for the holidays. 2) A DIY book scanner

Consumer Reports has made a videoclip titled "E-Book Readers for the Holidays" which they feature on their ConsumerReports.Org page.  They allow embedding of the video on blogs and other websites, so if you click on the picture or on the link above, you can play the video.

They discuss the Nook, Sony, and Kindle readers and make recommendations.
  Which reader(s) will get the nod?


UNUSUAL GIFT SOME CAN MAKE FOR THEMSELVES (only a few)


Priya Ganapati of Wired.com's Gadget Labs writes about an amazing Do-It-Yourself  book scanner put together by Daniel Reetz who saved several thousands of dollars by building a system with simple materials that cost him about $300.   Ganapati explains:

'So over three days, and for about $300, he lashed together two lights, two Canon Powershot A590 cameras, a few pieces of acrylic and some chunks of wood to create a book scanner that’s fast enough to scan a 400-page book in about 20 minutes.

  To use it, he simply loads in a book and presses a button, then turns the page and presses the button again.  Each press of the button captures two pages, and when he’s done, software on Reetz’s computer converts the book into a PDF file.  The Reetz DIY book scanner isn’t automated – you still need to stand by it to turn the pages.  But it’s fast and inexpensive.

“The hardware is ridiculously simple as long as you are not demanding archival quality,” he says. “A dumpster full of building materials, really cheap cameras and outrageous textbook prices was all I needed to do it.”

... commercial book scanners that are completely automated cost anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000. The $50,000 Kirtas book scanner, for instance, can capture 3,000 pages an hour. '

See the photos of his basic setup, including an animated one showing it from all angles, at Wired's report.  I have similar cameras and would be tempted if I were of a more creative bent.  Questions of digital rights are discussed, of course, as well as a lot more in this meaty story -- it's a fun read.

  You can download his 79-page guide to building the DIY book scanner at Reetz's site.

My visit to BN and the Nook last night & more videos - Updated

Driving past Barnes and Noble last night, 1/2 hour before they closed, I thought it might be good to drop in and actually see the Nook function, in person, instead of via videos.   They had it at the customer help booth, which is fairly large and had two Nooks, both chained to their posts.
Both had clear plastic over the entire face of the Nook to protect it.

To my eyes, the Nook has a beautiful exterior design, more striking in person than in photographs, and the screensaver of the San Francisco bridge shown was gorgeous and much more welcoming than the forlorn-looking author pictures we're used to.  I asked if I could open a book, explaining that I had read reviews about the formatting time, and also see page turns for myself to see if any slowness was that bothersome.

Both staffers told me it was not possible to open a book because the store is only having 'demo' Nooks and they don't allow downloads, and to open a book you must download it first.  What?!  I tried to explain they can download it and it will be on the unit and not have to be downloaded again!   They said, no, it wasn't allowed, as the management erases stuff on it each night and they don't want children [or children-like?] people downloading away on it -- so they didn't have a book to open on it, because of the no-download policy (!)

I then explained this would look very strange because reviews are saying it's too slow to open a book and that page turns take an inordinately long time -- people will wonder if that's why they're not allowing customers to even open a book on it.

After awhile, when a couple also really wanted to see this, one of them agreed to download a book.  Then I saw it was a sample!  I explained that was not a good test of load times :-)  They were very pleasant and said I should probably come back in the morning because the day crew knows more about the Nook, so that's what I'll do.

In the meantime, Barnes and Noble has a problem (as seen on the forums when people have asked questions at the stores and received quite inaccurate info) in that their general customer service in-store will not be as trained on the Nook as official customer service people specifically trained on an e-reader (and even the latter is not wholly dependable or course).  I heard a staffer tell a questioner that yes, she could buy and download books from B&N while traveling in Europe.  But B&N staff online have explained why this is not possible for the Nook and they hope to have publisher agreements to be able to do that someday.

In the meantime, I must say that if I didn't already have a couple of good e-readers I would have bought it on the spot!  It's very attractive, and all the menu steps and delays (an added 30 seconds for a Google book he opened, one Nook owner said) would not bother me if I weren't now used to more direct opens (which I appreciate even more these days), searches (w/excellent search-result displays - see sample below), and faster page turns.

  It's my feeling that people new to e-readers could be very happy with the Nook, as it has a very friendly feel to it, and the screen text to background contrast ratio is decidedly better than the Kindle 2's, with the background lighter and the text fatter and therefore darker.

SONY POCKET READER
  I also liked the Nook immediately more than the Sony readers I've seen.  The Sony Pocket reader is 'only' $200 and fits into a pocket nicely, so a lot of men prefer it even if it does not have an inline-dictionary, any search capability, annotations, or wireless features.
  It just lets you read and is very compact.  But I think they'll need to bring that one down to $150 and then I might get one, just for reading ePub formats (instead of doing auto-conversions on them as I do now), especially with the Adobe Digital Edition in place, with library capabilities, even if its screen is slightly smaller.  On the other hand, I am spoiled by having search capabilities and dictionary summary defnitions at the bottom, of a word my cursor is on, so am not sure about that but I'd be tempted.
 See a recent review by Huffington Post's Stephanie Vaughn Hapke, aka GeekGirl, who is doing a series on various e-readers, with an unusual sense of fairness.


NOOK FUNCTIONING AS SHOWN IN VIDEOS
  With regard to how the Nook functions and how troubling any delays or navigational steps might be, here's a very good video for seeing what's involved for various functions posted by Matt Miller of ZDNet who does only glowing reviews of the Nook - he is enchanted by it, focusing on the positives (the glass half-full thing maybe?)  His video is 25 minutes, as he shows how various features work. The good and the bad are there for you to see, so it's helpful.

  Miller's video does show that when he opens up The Lost Symbol, it takes from 16:36 on the tape to 17:02, which is 26 seconds, and he sort of chirps through it, unfazed by the delay.  I think many other people would not be bothered by it either (though I would).
  At about 20:00, he shows how to do a search.  However, there is no result and only a blank page for "ritualistic" -- dictionaries sometimes show only the root word, 'ritual' so it's not really surprising.  Still, while the Kindle dictionary doesn't have that word either, the Kindle takes you, after listing books that have a search-result, not to a blank page, but to the dictionary page that starts with "ritualism' and has 'ritualization' and 'ritualize' also.

Consumer Reports also has a very brief video focusing on page turns.

Wired has a quite balanced video report with more real-time page-turns.

MobilitySite.com - This 11 minute video of a first look at the Nook is done by a very cheerful and thorough hobbyist reviewer.  Starting at time 2:50 Chris Leckness demos the color touchscreen at the bottom, and with unusual patience he shows us a disquietingly unresponsive touchscreen for up/down scrolling especially (that part is painful to watch), and for pressing/clicking on a selection (which can take several attempts).

BARNES & NOBLE "Getting to know your nook" web page
  Here's a very helpful page by Barnes and Noble with information on what to do when encountering oddities reported.  Example: If books downloaded don't show up, "go to My Library and tap the Check for New B&N Content.
  UPDATE 12/18/09 - 11:37 PM (The original page was removed with no forwarding link, but I found the new URL for this Nook help webpage, linked above.  (But, why must the font be a gray, faint one?  One can guess.)

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Also see
1. Follow up to David Pogue's NYT review - Q&A
        Collected feedback to the review, with David Pogue's responses
2. Combined reviews - early & newer
3. Newer reviews, and Nook gets public library books
4. Early reviews
5. Nook-Kindle comparison info
6. Nook User Guide online

Consumer Reports: Kindle beats Sony

That headline and the CR report are from the now "archived" version of the report from the July 2009 issue of Consumer Reports.

They compared the Amazon Kindle 2, $359, and the Sony Reader PRS-700BC, $349.

I listed, further below, CR's findings as itemized by Sandy Nawrot's earlier blog report on the article.  I was about to post that just now and happened to see that CR has now posted their actual report though it was available only to subscribers earlier.  Some excerpts from that:

"It took an hour or more of work to set up the Sony. But we were reading within 5 minutes of opening the Kindle box."

While they give the advantage to Sony's screen because it's a touch screen, they add:
  "The touch screen is about as sensitive as those on most cell phones we've tested; that is, you have to press down firmly as you swipe your finger across the screen to advance to the next page.  (You can also change pages by using two awkwardly tiny tabs at the bottom of the screen.)"

  And, "Bottom line"
  "The Sony is solely for reading books, but the Kindle can also read them to you in mechanical but understandable male or female voices.  It also offers (at extra cost) feeds from select blogs and wireless newspaper and magazine subscriptions. There's also a basic Web browser under an 'Experimental' tab. "

  They're among the very few reviewers who even mention that last feature that encourages Kindlers to use Wikipedia and also Google, with just about every bottom-bar action by the user and with the built-in web-browser bookmarks.

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Below is what I was going to post before I found the CR article above:
Consumer Reports staff are part of a brief video news clip of a side-by-side comparison of Kindle 2 vs Sony PRS-700 by ABC 7  Consumer News.

It's a brief and necessarily superfical news report but includes a good video of what the Kindle and Sony models look like in use, vs the usual static and often promotional still-photos we see.

The Kindle gets the nod by Consumer Reports, for ease of use, due to the wireless capability.

AND, Sandy Nawrot reports on the actual Consumer Reports article, available only to subscribers to the CR's online site in The Title Fight - Kindle versus Sony.   Read it at Nawrot's site (if only to enjoy the delightful cat that presides over the page) -- but for those reading this on the Kindle, here are some of her highlights from the report (paraphrased):
1) Convenience - The Sony takes about an hour to set up, and all files must be cabled over from the computer.
2) Screen - "Type and and images are more crisp and accurate on the Kindle, and pages turn a little more quickly."  The Sony is side-lit for night use.
3) Navigation - Sony has the edge on this, with a touch screen.
4) Titles available - Kindle has far more newer books and they average a few dollars less than Sony's.
        The Kindle has samples from all books to try first, but the Sony, only a few.  Sony has Google's 500,000 free classics, but these can be downloaded for the Kindle also, from many free sites that offer them.
5) The Kindle also has text-to-speech; the Sony is "solely for reading books."