Cheap-O Tablets and e-book readers showing up at Big Boxers--is the era of the e-book finally here?

Today I saw that fellow-gadgethound Mike Lee had posted a pic taken of a K-Mart weekly circular that featured, on sale for $149, an Android-powered 7 inch tablet.  The circular described it thusly:

“SALE Augen 7” tablet. Google Android OS. Read ebook. Watch a video and listen to music. Browse web. Wi-fi built in.

Sounds basic, but what’s interesting is that it’s available at K-Mart at all AND that it’s not a real name-brand tablet.  I was curious about the specs, so I tried finding it on K-Mart’s website.  Alas, I couldn’t find it, but did find this:



Yeah, that’s not the $149 Android-powered tablet mentioned in the K-Mart circular, but it is a cheaper Kindle clone.  It comes with 2GB storage and an SD slot, however.  If it weren’t for the lack of the e-Ink display and the color LCD that replaces it, I’d be curious if it would have better battery life.  However, the fact that this is an e-book reader available at K-Mart says something to me.

In the “also viewed” section I found a link to the ”Mach Speed Trio 8GB 4.3 in. Touchscreen Display Video MP3 Player” which isn’t a full-sized tablet, but does mention that it can read e-books. I also found the “Aluratek Libre eBook Reader PRO” which looks more like a Sony e-book reader clone.  The site lists no specs for it aside from the fact that it’s got an “e-paper” display (e-paper is the generic term for non-back-lit displays and has no direct connection to the proprietary “e-Ink” name).  The Aluratek Libre is available at K-Mart for $129.

The point here is that you’ve probably never heard of “Aluratek,” “Mach Speed” or “Augen” as brands, yet, here they are, listed on K-Mart’s website.  What I’m getting at here is that I think, now that we’re seeing low-end companies get onboard the e-book train, the e-Book Era has finally arrived.  Nope, it’s not about Apple or Amazon—the sure sign is when everyone can make a buck.

ThePeteHacks: Kindle 2 Handmade Book Cover

So, after a few months of owning a Kindle 2, I noticed that it was getting a little scuffed up, even though I was wrapping it in a bandanna whenever I’d toss it into my bag to bring it somewhere.  So, I decided it needed a cover.  I did some browsing on Amazon and quickly discovered that every K2 cover seemed overpriced to me.  So, I did what any self-respecting hacker/customizer/DIYer would do and that’s hack together a perfectly reasonable cover from stuff I had laying around.

I also loved the idea of making my Kindle 2 look more like a high school text book than a high tech e-book reader, so I decided it should be made, mostly, from a grocery bag.  However, that brown paper feels pretty abrasive to me, so I used a couple of thin sheets of foam I had left over from an unboxing of another cool gadget and added them to the mix.

Have a look at the pics:



Obviously, I added some stickers to dress it up a bit.  I had planned to make it look even more high-schooly by drawing on it.  But since I’ve decided to give my Kindle 2 to my mom thanks to never using it, myself, (I have too many paperbacks I have yet to read and they take precedence), I’ll be leaving it up to my mom to take the design further if she wants to.



Yep that’s a paperclip that is slipped through a slit in the brown paper cover, itself, so it is never loose (or loseable).  The “rope” (paper strand) is just a long, thick strip of brown paper folded in half and then held that way with celo tape (I think I used the glossy Scotch tape because it sticks to the paper better than the transparent kind). The “DISOBEY” sticker comes from fellow-Flickrer Andres Musta. He’s a great artist. Check his stuff out.

Here’s a close up of the edge flap:



And here’s with the edge flap folded back after untying the paper strand:



Here’s the cover open with the Kindle 2’s screen, nav buttons and keyboard exposed:



You can see the foam sheet I folded over and cut so that the screen and keyboard would not have bare grocery-bag-paper rubbing against them when the Kindle 2 was in my bag.  I think I folded the foam over twice. Here’s a closer shot of the foam:



Here you can see another type of foam sheeting I used to wrap the Kindle 2 in before slipping it into the brown paper cover:



Here’s the area of the thin foam sheet that I cut away to allow the power switch and the headphone jack to be accessible. It’s a little ghetto looking, but it’s tough foam to cut neatly (or maybe my X-acto blade is finally getting dull?):



And here’s a shot of the exact opposite edge of the Kindle 2—the port for the USB cable and the tiny LED indicator that lights up when the K2 is plugged in:



And here is a shot of the empty brown-paper-case.  You can see that I used a Trader Joe’s grocery bag for the project :) and you can see where the paper strand is attached to the cover:



Finally, here’s a close up of the paper strand—I cut two slits, slipped the strand through and then taped it up.



I was pretty happy with how it worked out. So much so that I also made a similar cover for my eee PC 4g netbook.  I’ll have to post pics of that at some point.

TheTechVlog: Kindle 2 Unboxing with ThePete and Jay (sort of)

Sorry--shot this last week when I got my Kindle 2, but got distracted with Big Night Out and then the midnight screening of Watchmen. Here it is, my Kindle 2 unboxing video:

thepete.com on My Kindle 2

thepete.com on My Kindle 2, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

Here's the very first screenshot taken on my Kindle 2. It's of my
website, thepete.com. You can take a screencap on the K2 by holding down the alt and shift keys while pressing "g". Then, the next time you connect your Kindle 2 to your computer, check it's "documents" directory. Inside will be a gif. That's your screengrab.

As you can see, web browsing on the Kindle is pretty rudimentary. However, it's almost on par (minus the color screen) to the Sidekick 3's browsing experience, so if you're in a pinch, it'll do. Now, I have an iPhone, too, but that damn touchscreen is sometimes hard to type on and since the Kindle 2 rides the Sprint network for wireless, I might find my iPhone uncovered by its network of choice (T-Mobile for me AT&T for most folks) and when that happens, I can check the old K2 to see if Sprint can let me Tweet.

So after a few hours of playing with the thing, the Kindle 2 seems just fine. There was a minor hickup while trying to buy a free copy of the Bible from the Kindle Store (it didn't like my credit card!)--after the second attempt it let me download it with no problem. I tried to open it (I assume) before it finished DLing. As a result it hung on opening. It was no big deal, I just pressed the "home" button and opened the Bible again and it worked. I also converted one PDF with meh results, but I'm learning, still. I'll post more about my experiences, soon.

Watch for the Kindle 2 unboxing video shortly at tv.thepete.com.

Amazon's Kindle 2: ThePete's Take: Better, but Wait for Kindle 3

The new Kindle 2 has been announced by Amazon.com and while I like it better than I did the original Kindle, I still think it has a seriously limited feature set for the price.

The Good News

The thing that makes me salivate for the Kindle 2 is its new design. Holeee crap is the new Kindle 2 easy on the eyes. It looks like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took a third generation iPod, a Blackberry and a first generation iPhone, mushed them all together and made a paperback-book-sized device. The damn thing actually looks like it would feel comfortable in my hand now--unlike the original Kindle which looked much to angular and sharp-edged to be comfortable after an hour of reading.

Part of this new design is the form factor. It's skinny as HELL!! This is what really makes me want to pick up the Kindle 2: it's thinner than the iPhone. Yeah, that's some serious skinniness. A .4 inch width makes Kate Moss look like one of those fat people who can't get through doors.

The Kindle 2 will actually surf the web now. It won't look pretty, but it can do it. The old Kindle could surf too, but not officially (the browser was listed under "experimental," apparently). Officially you could hit up Wikipedia, but that was about it. Kindle 2's browser is limited, but at least you can get out onto the 'net. It'll display text-centric web pages just fine but, one assumes, layouts will be screwed (browsing like a Sidekick 3?) and graphics will go undisplayed. Ironic because apparently this baby has all the right hardware under the hood for much more than it is officially sanctioned to do (shades of TheRedFruit--Apple).

According to some reports (already) it's faster at turning pages and easier to refer to the dictionary.

You can still connect to the web wirelessly with no monthly service charges--which, I have to admit, is pretty awesome. I was going to complain about the Kindle 2 still running on Sprint, but if I never have to pay too much for their services, how can I complain?

Battery life is crazy long. With it's EVDO modem powered up and running, the Kindle 2 can go four days without recharging. With wireless off, it can go two weeks without recharging. Yeah, that's pretty damn impressive. Of course, if you go heavy on the mp3 playing and heavy on the wireless usage, you're going to drop that life down a bit, but still, it beats the iPhone. I was at the NY Comic Con the other day and my iPhone didn't last the six hours I was there. Which is sad since it was just sitting in my pocket with wifi and 3G turned off the whole time.

Since Amazon admits the browser works, other browser-based applications should be usable on it. Over on BlogKindle.com, last May, they posted about using Krypton. Sure, Flash wouldn't show up on the Kindle, but an awful lot of sites are making iPhone-formatted sites available to users--how would they do on the big K?

The Bad News

It lost it's SD card slot. Yeah--unbelievable. The Kindle 2 comes with a whopping 2GB of internal storage (only 1.4 gigs of which you can actually use) and still plays mp3s (like it's predecessor) so between e-books, comics (manga), audiobooks and music, you just might fill that puppy up pretty fast (I definitely would).

Still too damned expensive. The screen is gorgeous for black and white text, but so is the XO and it only cost OLPC $200 to make it AND it's a full laptop. (Well, hardware-wise it is, anyway.) Why does the Kindle 2 still cost $359 when it actually does less than something like the XO or your average netbook? I can get an eee pc for under $300 at Target. It's about the size of some larger paperbacks and it lets me surf the web with Flash and everything.

Then again, it does come with free wireless service forever, so that may make up for the price. I'm on the fence about this.

Why I Want a Kindle 2 and Why I'm Going to Wait for Kindle 3

There are three things that make me want a Kindle 2 and one reason I am going to hold out (or at least try to hold out) for a Kindle 3:

1) Everyone who uses a Kindle seems to love it. My mom got to mess with one at her dayjob at a university library and fell in love with it.

2) My iPhone. Using my iPhone for so very much, as I do, really brings out the limitations of the wonderful little device. The damn thing puts James Bond's Q Branch to shame. GPS, media playing, file reading and a LOT more. The thing is, I'm reading a friend's screenplay on it now and while it's fine, it's missing a lot of features that it really needs--like bookmarking. Also, the iPhone's backlight needing to stay on while I read uses battery life. Plus, the screen is kind of small for so much reading. Simultaneously, I've been reading Naomi Klein's brilliant book, The Shock Doctrine and while it is a great read, it's BIG--I own one coat with pockets big enough to hold it. I'm now so used to taking everything with me on my iPhone that I've found myself wishing I had bought an e-book version of Shock Doctrine just so I could read it where ever I took my phone. Of course, my iPhone was cheaper than a Kindle 2.

Then again, the screen is smaller, too.

SIGH.

3) Hackers. The iPhone has been wonderfully hacked to bits (and bytes--ha) since it was first released--my 3G iPhone, included. I am no longer with AT&T, I can drag and drop media files to the iPhone, can shoot video, etc. So, I'm hoping the hackers will go to town on the Kindle 2 and really let software take full advantage of its hardware. The catch? The Kindle 1 has barely been looked at sideways by the hacker community--I can only find one guy who has hacked it in all the time it's been out. Igor Skochinky reverse engineered it, unlocking cell-based GPS, minesweeper, the ability to take screenshots, and a few other cool things. Check out Igor's not-updated-lately blog on hacking e-book readers here: http://igorsk.blogspot.com Sadly, he's all I could find Kindle-Hacker-wise.

I'm thinking that the reason hackers aren't flocking to the Kindle is because of the price. Right now, the Kindle seems like the laserdisc player of the gadget world. Sure, everyone knows it's cool and everyone would like to own a Kindle, but they're just too expensive. However, like I said, if you think about wireless service fees for a year or even three, the thing kinda pays for itself. Or at least, it would, if it had VoIP capabilities. Ha!

The reason I will wait for the Kindle 3 (barring a Christmas gift, an extreme price drop or a lottery win), is the that hardware really can do a lot more than Amazon will let it do. I mean, come on, guys, I can watch videos on my phat Nintendo DS. You're telling me the Kindle 2 can't handle video? Sure, the screen is e-ink and is only black and white, but what about that? Why not license the XO's display from OLPC and give us a dual-mode B&W and full color display with the ability to turn off or on the backlight?

I'm not even asking for touchscreen, here--I love that the Kindle has a tactile keyboard. It's the one thing I miss about my iPhone (especially now that I have cut and pasted now--yay!).

If Jeff Bezos has any smarts in him, the Kindle 3 will have full multimedia capabilities--it'll play video, audio and that will be on top of it's ability to read e-books, and connect wirelessly to the 'net. OH and it'll list price at UNDER $300! Come on, Jeff! It's the economy, stupid! No one can afford this thing right now!

Just my ¥2, as always!

Posted via email from thepete's posterous