Shack Attack

Why I'm Not Getting a Paperwhite

No page-turning buttons. Really, Amazon? I love my 4th-generation Kindle, and now it looks like I might have gotten the last version before they took the buttons away for good.

Completely agree with John Gruber here:

It’s good that you can use the touchscreen to turn pages, but why not include dedicated page-turning buttons as well? The e-ink Kindles are designed to do one thing really well: display long-form text. Page-turning is at the heart of the Kindle reading experience. An active Kindle reader is going to go to the next page hundreds — in some cases, I’m sure, even thousands — of times every week. There should not just be buttons for page-turning, but great buttons. Buttons exquisitely designed and engineered to be perfectly placed and delightfully clickable. The problem with using the touchscreen to turn pages is that you have to move your thumb, from the bezel to the display and then back to the bezel after tapping, each time. With page-turning buttons on the bezel, like on the old pre-touchscreen Kindles, you never had to move your thumbs while reading. Not having to move your thumbs is one way a dedicated e-reader could hold an advantage over tablets like the iPad and Kindle Fire — a missed opportunity here. It’s a little thing, but as always, it’s the details that matter.

Bummer decision on Amazon's part- the new screen is pretty exciting, and they're so cheap you don't feel guilty about buying the new one a year after the last one came out.

Braun Series 7 Review

Braun kindly sent me their top of the line Series 7 razor to review a few months ago.  I'm still a fan of traditional blade razors, but this is certainly the best electric I've tried.

 

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You can find my full review at TrulyNet. Get it here from Amazon.

Kindle Touch Reviewed by Ars

Ars Technica:

If you plan on taking a lot of notes or doing anything else that requires typing, the extra cost of the Touch will be money very well spent. But if your focus is on reading, I would actually recommend the bottom of the line model. It's lighter and more comfortable to hold in one hand, and the touch screen doesn't really make the page turning experience that much better.

My thoughts exactly. If I want to type something, I have my phone or my laptop. I read on my Kindle, and I don't need the extra weight, size, price, or fingerprints. I stick by my recommendation of the lowest-end Kindle ($109) as the best present you can give this holiday season (I know it starts at $79, but giving someone an ad-supported device as a gift seems a little tacky).

iPhone 4S Mini Review

Context: I've had an iPhone 3GS for about two years now. I love it, but the design is dated, it's slow, and the camera sucks. Besides your usual new gadget envy, I was excited about the fact that the 4S supposedly solves all my gripes with my last iPhone. 

Design:

It's really pretty. I've been envious of friends' iPhone 4's ever since they came out, and this has the exact same body. Fit and finish is top-class, and the glass-sandwich construction pretty much never scratches or wears down like polycarbonate or aluminum. On the flip side, don't drop it.

The screen is magic. It looks like the pixels are painted onto the glass, not displayed behind it. Movies, pictures, and text look great. It's not as good for long-term reading as a Kindle, but it's smaller, and beats out the Kindle in low light (and with multimedia, obviously). I wish it was a little bigger (closer to 4"), but until iOS 5 is resolution-independent, I think there would be too many compromises to hit that size.

Performance:

It never lags, doing anything, ever. Not much to say about performance except that the machine disappears behinds its interface. You don't care about how much RAM it has or how fast the processor is, because it finishes what you ask it to do before you're ready to ask it something else. Cell reception, Wifi speed, and GPS is also way better than the 3GS- no more awkward figure-8 waving to help it get a lock.

The camera:

The images look fine, kind of like a basic point and shoot from the last few years. It won't go head-to-head with a DSLR or even a fancy compact, but in adequate light, the pictures don't look half bad.

The picture quality on the camera isn't the killer feature, though: it's the speed. I can have the phone out of my pocket and snapping a photo in about two seconds, and take 1-2 pictures a second after that. If you've ever tried to use a cameraphone before, you know how big this is.

Siri:

I talk to her like a normal person. She's good at alarms, timers, reminders, unit conversions, Algebra, and basic maps searches. If I drove more, I'd probably get more out of her, but I've had her text people for me while I'm on my bike (via a bluetooth headset) a few times. 

Yeah, I could live without Siri. You could, too. But using it is fun, and magical, and why the heck not?

Conclusion:

iPhones are awesome. This is the best iPhone. It makes me smile frequently. Want a lengthier take on it? There are plenty out there.

 

Kindle 4 Review

The Kindle isn't a device- it's a book. Its functions are limited to choosing something to read, displaying text, and turning pages, and that's exactly what I want. I love the fact that I can't check my email, facebook-stalk, or waste time on hundreds of pithy, short-form Google Reader feeds.

There is no mail client, no apps, no crashes, no running out of battery (it lasts weeks on a charge). With the awkward keyboard of the previous generation gone, it weighs next to nothing, reads one-handed for hours on end, and easily fits in a coat pocket. You can loan books to friends or check them out of the library, too.

Buy this for your mom. The screen looks and reads like real paper, there's no learning curve to use it, and it fits in a purse better than most paperbacks. Buy it for your kid- it's half the price of a videogame console or iPod touch, and they'll spend their time reading instead of playing Angry Birds. Buy it for your grandparents- there are no fancy bells or whistles to freak them out, and they'll love the high-contrast print and adjustable text size.

Get the Kindle for $79 on Amazon.com- I can't think of a better holiday gift. The $79 includes "sponsored" screensaver ads than run only when you're not reading, but if that irks you, spend the extra $30 on the ad-free version. Skip the more-expensive Kindle Touch- you won't use the web browser much, 3G is limited to downloading books and browsing Wikipedia, and you don't want to get fingerprints on the screen. The Fire is interesting, but it's a tablet, not a book.

 

E-ink. Note the perfect readability even at off-center viewing angles. Cuts glare pretty well, too.

Reading on an iPad vs. a Kindle. 

iPad vs. Kindle size comparison. The kindle weighs about a third as much, and is easy to hold in one hand.