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Mark Wilson, Reviews
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Chris Jacob
The most natural position your hand can be while resting on a table is sideways... just try it. Like with your thumbs up.
Problem with that is precision. Because you have a smaller area, fewer muscles and fingers won't help much to control mouse movement.
Otherwise I'd try one of those vertical mouse solutions... there are some very crappy ones out there. The best ones is those who looks nothing like a mouse, and more like a joystick.
I don't know how you managed to review a product while drawing such detailed parallels to your own relationship but for some reason I couldn't stop reading even though I don't care much about this product.
Though, I am pretty sure this sentence means the opposite of what was intended: "I was left with a brown lump of stuff that was indistinguishable from its original form—a good sign. "
I bought a green plastic rubbermaid compost bin, put it in the sunny corner of the garden, and it makes excellent compost, but it's hard to turn without straining the back. Now I have a 2-stage system, where I start my compost in a bio-orb (very easy to roll around without back strain) when it needs more turning, then move the chunk-ified half-decomposed matter to the rubbermaid bin, where just sitting and cooking in the sun will do the trick. I make about twice as much compost as I need... about a garbage can full every year. Oh, if you plan on composting your grass clippings, don't use chemical weed killers -- it's bad for compost, and may kill whatever you put the compost on. The device being reviewed seems like overkill, and far too small to be really good at anything.
Joel, I saw this device at the "Better Living Show" up here in PDX this spring.
At first, I was intrigued, but a closer inspection of the bread machines-sized gadget turned me off. It's just too small for a household of more than 1-2 people, and they better not be vegetarians with lots of scrap! It's also far too expensive, but I think it's aimed at people who want to feel "green" with very little effort, despite the fact it draws electricity nearly continually.
No thanks. For $39, I bought the 10.5 cu. ft."Earth Machine" compost bin from our local govt.
@shawn_dude: Yep, it's part green wanna-be, part lazy, and part greenwashing. Also, anyone who doesn't have one square yard for a real composter probably has no use for the compost produced anyway.
Right now, my nearly-full Earth Machine is practically frozen solid from the unusual 10-12 degree nights here in Portland, OR. Nature's not so good a breaking-down anything until it warms-up.
Dedicated GPS's are on the way out, the same is true for eBooks, a mere transistional form. Buy one if you want one, but tablets with better screens will kill the dedicated eBook.
The biggest problem for e-readers now is book pricing.
In many cases the ebooks cost just pennies less than physical copies, with all of the restricted use that goes with the digital download. Ereaders are not purchased at their premium price to save pennies per purchase, and the companies have no right charging even 80% of full price for a digital restricted copy of a book.
Great review Wilson, and thanks for the unboxing pix, but I'm still on the fence about which e-reader to indulge in... I'll wait for some more competitors to enter the frey...
How does the glare on the Nook's screens, i.e. outside in bright daylight, compare to the Kindle's screen? The eInk screen is probably similar to the Kindle, but I can see that touchscreen being completely washed out outdoors, where it's most useful.
So to paraphrase the beginning, "these are the two devices to look at if you plan on buying all your books, and if you plan on not buying a lot of books (because FSM knows that Gizmodo readers aren't torrenters and hackers) then get a Sony"
Bah, B&N's store stinks, or at least their website does. I like comparing prices between amazon and sony's store, so I went looking on B&N for Bill Simmon's The Book of Basketball.
I typed in Bill Simmons, and it gave me 3 pages of results, A LOT of which were duplicates, and NONE were for any of the Bill Simmons I was looking for.
Now if I search on Amazon, the book I'm looking for is the first thing it showed.
I might look at a Nook in say 2 years, after they shake themselves out. For now, I'm perfectly happy with my Sony.
@Jolim: Odd, not to think I'm paranoid or something, but I checked it again after the last post thinking maybe I typoed his name, but still didn't get it. I just tried it now, and it works. I note their price is higher than Amazons and Sony's. (but prices always vary between books, I can find another one that's more expensive at Sony compared to the other 2 stores)
They must have fixed it, because the 3 pages of things it finds are the same things it found in my first 2 searches.
Watching the video of the interface on Engadget... this thing barely qualifies as a PROTOTYPE.
Seriously, B&N, fire your engineers and find better ones, there's plenty of good talent out there. I can't believe anyone would pass off the Nook's slow-ass interface as their best, polished work. It's disgusting. Why buy eBooks when I could (sarcasm here -) fill the time needed to open a book by reading - and finishing - a paper book?
Those of you who wonder why Apple doesn't have an eReader yet - the Nook is exactly why. Honestly, take the Nook in your hands at a B&N when you get the chance, and ask - is this something that Apple would make? Is this something that had designers with half a brain trying to actually make FUNCTIONAL products and not just salaries? Does this instill that sense of childhood wonder of simplicity and speed?
No - it doesn't. Because this is an engineering prototype sent to market. It seems like hardware companies are starting to adopt the practice of software companies to treat their customers as free beta testers. If you have any independent thinking you will REJECT devices like the Nook, regardless of apologetic and defeatist reviews at the major tech blogs.
@zåɳzißarleɠёпȡ: We don't know when such an Apple tablet would come along, though frankly, from how people are raving about eReaders you would think reading paper books was hell. It's not. It may take quite some time for Apple to come out with a tablet but you wouldn't really lose anything by waiting.
And in response to some unapproved commenters, no I do not hold Apple shares. In fact, I think Apple has been a load of crap in recent years - no true innovation has come out of Apple since the original introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the resurgence of Steve Jobs's medical problems - and there's still a load of bull surrounding their app approval policies. But I do not deny that what products they do make are good (even if their computers are overpriced).
Thanks for the great review, I've been seriously considering a nook since I first heard about them. One quick question... You sort of touched on PDFs, so I'm assuming there's no issues with loading/importing them for access on the nook? I'm using PDFs on nearly a daily basis for work, wondering if the e-ink screen can keep up with the graphs commonly used in reports?
04:26 PM
*OUCH*
03:46 PM
Problem with that is precision. Because you have a smaller area, fewer muscles and fingers won't help much to control mouse movement.
Otherwise I'd try one of those vertical mouse solutions... there are some very crappy ones out there. The best ones is those who looks nothing like a mouse, and more like a joystick.
12/10/09
12/10/09
Having dealt with plenty of compost before, I can safely say that whatever the problem was, you were wrong and Carmela was right.
12/10/09
12/10/09
Though, I am pretty sure this sentence means the opposite of what was intended: "I was left with a brown lump of stuff that was indistinguishable from its original form—a good sign. "
12/10/09
12/10/09
12/10/09
At first, I was intrigued, but a closer inspection of the bread machines-sized gadget turned me off. It's just too small for a household of more than 1-2 people, and they better not be vegetarians with lots of scrap! It's also far too expensive, but I think it's aimed at people who want to feel "green" with very little effort, despite the fact it draws electricity nearly continually.
No thanks. For $39, I bought the 10.5 cu. ft."Earth Machine" compost bin from our local govt.
12/10/09
12/10/09
Right now, my nearly-full Earth Machine is practically frozen solid from the unusual 10-12 degree nights here in Portland, OR. Nature's not so good a breaking-down anything until it warms-up.
Maybe I need to invent a thermal solar composter!
12/08/09
12/08/09
In many cases the ebooks cost just pennies less than physical copies, with all of the restricted use that goes with the digital download. Ereaders are not purchased at their premium price to save pennies per purchase, and the companies have no right charging even 80% of full price for a digital restricted copy of a book.
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
12/07/09
I typed in Bill Simmons, and it gave me 3 pages of results, A LOT of which were duplicates, and NONE were for any of the Bill Simmons I was looking for.
Now if I search on Amazon, the book I'm looking for is the first thing it showed.
I might look at a Nook in say 2 years, after they shake themselves out. For now, I'm perfectly happy with my Sony.
12/07/09
12/07/09
They must have fixed it, because the 3 pages of things it finds are the same things it found in my first 2 searches.
12/07/09
Seriously, B&N, fire your engineers and find better ones, there's plenty of good talent out there. I can't believe anyone would pass off the Nook's slow-ass interface as their best, polished work. It's disgusting. Why buy eBooks when I could (sarcasm here -) fill the time needed to open a book by reading - and finishing - a paper book?
Those of you who wonder why Apple doesn't have an eReader yet - the Nook is exactly why. Honestly, take the Nook in your hands at a B&N when you get the chance, and ask - is this something that Apple would make? Is this something that had designers with half a brain trying to actually make FUNCTIONAL products and not just salaries? Does this instill that sense of childhood wonder of simplicity and speed?
No - it doesn't. Because this is an engineering prototype sent to market. It seems like hardware companies are starting to adopt the practice of software companies to treat their customers as free beta testers. If you have any independent thinking you will REJECT devices like the Nook, regardless of apologetic and defeatist reviews at the major tech blogs.
12/07/09
!^_^}
but seriously dude, i think that waiting for an apple tablet might be best. we can almost deduce that
-portability
-screen resolution
-ease of navigation
will prob best all these current e-book readers.
i was gonna get this for my wife, but i think your comments just made me put the safety on the wallet trigger.
thanks.
12/07/09
And in response to some unapproved commenters, no I do not hold Apple shares. In fact, I think Apple has been a load of crap in recent years - no true innovation has come out of Apple since the original introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the resurgence of Steve Jobs's medical problems - and there's still a load of bull surrounding their app approval policies. But I do not deny that what products they do make are good (even if their computers are overpriced).
12/07/09
Thanks for the great review, I've been seriously considering a nook since I first heard about them. One quick question... You sort of touched on PDFs, so I'm assuming there's no issues with loading/importing them for access on the nook? I'm using PDFs on nearly a daily basis for work, wondering if the e-ink screen can keep up with the graphs commonly used in reports?