Sunday, April 4, 2010

Two videos

I had to share these two. The first video is just a fun glimpse of every day life in the Franklin house - bup....GOOO - and the second is a video the kids and I made together one morning (thanks to Grandma and Grandpa's GeoTrax).




Friday, April 2, 2010

Kindle vs. iPad - Why I like my Kindle and don't need an iPad


With all the hype surrounding the release of the iPad this weekend I thought I'd throw a defense out there for the Kindle. People are erroneously (I hope) calling the iPad the Kindle killer. I disagree since I believe they are devices with different goals and audiences. And, as far as I'm concerned, there are some considerable advantages to the Kindle including e-ink, a literature focus, and free 3G.

The e-ink is wonderful! Truly wonderful. I can't believe I used to read books on my Palm. My eyes thank me every time I choose to read a book instead of work on my laptop now. The iPad will have an LED display which is softer (and longer lasting) than LCD but it still has the high contrast digital appearance. Great for watching videos and surfing the web, not ideal for reading novels. Which is the second main reason I like the idea of the Kindle over the iPad. It is meant to be a reading device.

I have heard and read several complaints about the Kindle's inability to present rich media content like Flash, Javascript, etc. Why? We keep looking for a device that does it all - and the iPad will - but that's not why you buy a Kindle. You buy it to read. And, while I'd love to be able to surf the web, watch my favorite videos and remote into my work computer on it, that is not why I pick up the Kindle. I pick up the Kindle because I want to read. If the Kindle was able to do everything the iPad does I doubt I'd get much reading done. Being the kind of person who likes to hack every last drop out of my 'toys' the Kindle limits me A LOT while still offering plenty of 'tinkering' options and all of those options are literature focused including converting my own ebooks, finding free (project guttenberg) ebooks, and changing the default screen saver images, etc.

Finally, you get free 3G on the Kindle. This sounds REALLY amazing and somewhat unbelievable which it is...to a point. The combination of the 3G with the e-ink reigns in the possibilities of wirelessly exploring the web all day while still keeping you connected to your preferred reading material. It makes it so you always have something to read as well as allowing you to explore new reading material. The 3G wireless on the Kindle makes me feel like I am essentially holding a bottomless portable library without distracting me from the purpose of the device.

So, am I an iPad hater and just painting the Kindle all kinds of rosy? Not hardly! I salivate with the rest over the upcoming installment of the iPod family. They are fantastic devices with tons of potential. So much so that I expect they'll replace a lot of user's laptops/netbooks. On top of all that, they are just so dang cool! And, the Kindle has plenty of limitations (most notably the inability to backlight your books). But, bottom line, stop this preposterous debate about the iPad killing the Kindle - they are two totally different products with totally different goals. I sure hope the Kindle doesn't go away since there are few things which make reading more important or more fun.