Ifix it, has done a “ease of repair” analysis on the various tablets out there, it makes for some interesting reading, especially if you enjoy cracking a screen, it looks like, the ages of throw away computers could be upon us!
Details below
Archive for the ‘kindle’ Category
Ease of Repair
Friday, March 1st, 2013Tablets, and deal hunting
Monday, December 5th, 2011I’m looking at Android devices, as there seems to be too much “lock in” on apple and amazon devices.
Talking to Harvey Norman today Monday 5th of December I’ve came across the following:
€449
Toshiba at100 (sold as the Toshiba Thrive in the US)
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/toshiba-at100-1003950/review
The Toshiba, Has got a SDXC card, memory card and has mini USB and replaceable battery, Its also got proper USB ports and a proper HDMI port.
€399
Acer icona
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/26/acer-iconia-tab-a500-review/
3.5mm headphone jack, a mini-HDMI port.dedicated power jack (Means having to have another charger!) and a pair of USB slots: one micro-USB to transfer data to the tablet, and one full-size USB port which connects with both your storage drives and keyboards, just connect this to a usb hub and you be grand.
More reviews are here:
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/266915/the-best-android-tablets/
http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/13-best-android-tablets-in-the-world-905504
Kindle fire a users tale
Thursday, December 1st, 2011Before you rush out and buy a kindle this xmas have a read of this http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/19/kindle_fire_google_apps/ it tells of a user discovering how locked in to the amazon ecosystem he was after buying a kindle fire. you have been warned!
Amazon Kindle Fire tablet
Monday, October 3rd, 2011Amazon are getting in to the tablet game with the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, and it looks like it will be a disruptive product, that will disrupt the market at under $200 or in under €150 Euros aprox. I hope that they will have a strong UI over android. its going to have a 7-inch screen with a Gorilla Glass coating, a 1GHz TI OMAP dual-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage and will weigh 14.6 ounces. So the Speck is ok, its not going to set the world on fire, but for the person that wants a tablet, it should do the job. The worry will be how android or Amazon will it be, I dont see any mention of a USB connector, or sound out, I am prsuming that this will be as standard. It also will default to the Amazon market place, so that your app experience will be limited, This means that you can get access to the Android market. So it looks like we are seen a product with a open OS, but it will have a closed data portal. The 8GB of data will be tight if your watching video, but amazon have Amazon Cloud Storage, where the product could kill the market, is in the realm of video, where with whispernet, you can walk from watching the movie on the subway, and have it pick up where you stopped the movie on the subway to your TV in your front room, with out having to fast forward again to the point. IF it works, then it should be very cool. This could be the IPad killer!
Kindle 3 test drive
Friday, June 24th, 2011So I stumped up the €150 euros for a kindle, Why did i buy it? Well I needed to read PDF’s on the move and I didn’t want the hassle of printing them off. I bought the wireless version not the 3G version, as I didn’t think i needed to buy a book when I was out in the sticks as I won’t read books that quick! So how is it going with the kindle… Well not too bad, its ok for PDF’s but the screen is actually too small for PDF’s so a bigger screen is the way to go here. I’ve shown it to a few people and every one thinks that they need to touch it, as they think its an Ipad like device. I think it needs touch too, but at the price point, I don’t think you can get to a touch screen. the e-mail doc delevery system is really good, so I can see this working in a big way, and its a nice way to send docs to a device, no need for messy cables etc. and its free through wifi
lending an ebook versus a book
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011Well amazon, may have tried to put the kibosh on lending ebooks, they have revoked Lendle‘s access to the API, but have reinstated it. So we can all go back to sharing ebooks. I haven’t used this service myself, but it seems to be limited to 14 days and you can only lend once, unlike a traditional book which you can lend continually! I think its a nice idea, but I not sure if it will get off the ground, if there is a prospect of the main book sellers loosing money off it.
in some US liabarys HarperCollins Publishers has apparently set its e-books to expire after 26 rentals — effectively giving them around a one-year shelf life, 2 weeks * 26 giving you a year, but with a standard book, I lasts longer than 1 year normally, Why is data different, or maybe some one is trying to make money out of this!
I think the e-book story has a long way to go… My two cents anyway.