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Amazon just updated Kindle 4 PC

This tweet just came across the wire. The new version of K4PC is out, and it adds quite a few interesting new features:

  • Use the built-in dictionary to seamlessly look up the definitions of English words without interrupting your reading.
  • Read in the standard one-column mode or take advantage of a larger screen with a multi-column view, which will automatically adjust according to your screen size.
  • Choose whether you’d like to browse your library in a tile view or in a list view.

Now that it has the multi-columns and library list view, it’s finally worth using. But it still doesn’t hold a candle to NookStudy when it comes to  annotation features.

Amazon

How to hack your (black) Pandigital Novel

A few days ago I posted an updated version of  a guide to hacking the white Novel Android tablet. Since then I’ve been working on hacking the black Novel, and I’m ready to explain how to hack it.  TBH, I don’t think you should.

The black Novel runs Android v1.5., which is a rather old version that isn’t supported by very many apps. It’s also not going to be supported by any new apps, so I think you’re better off with some other Android tablet.

Update: If you’re looking for the latest firmware update for this tablet, read this post. Much of this post is outdated.

But if you have a black Novel, I’ll go ahead and walk you through the steps to hack it.

You have 4 options for the black Novel. There are the 2 official firmwares, the barebones Android firmware, and a hacked firmware under development by a couple members of SlateDroid. If you go with the hacked firmware or the barebones firmware you will void your warranty. But your warranty is fine with the official firmwares.

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Sidenote: There’s actually a fifth option; you can hack your Novel the hard way. But it’s complicated and requires a higher level of technical skill so I won’t mention it here.

The black Novel has 2 official firmwares because it is being sold in 2 countries (US and Canada). The original firmware was tied into the B&N ebookstore, and since (for the most part) that store is US only, Pandigital had to work with Kobo for the Canadian release.

Update: Pandigital has released a new US firmware for the black Novel. The new firmware turns the Novel into a regular Android tablet. There’s no need to hack it anymore.

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The firmwares are very different. The US firmware is locked down like the white Novel, and it’s rather slow. I don’t like it, and I said so in my review.

The Canadian firmware, on the other hand, is not locked down. It ships with the standard Android home screen and you have all the basic Android features. This means that you don’t have to hack the black Novel, and that’s why I recommend this firmware.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Switching between the 2 official firmwares is easy. I did it 4 times in one evening and each one went just fine.

Here are the links to the 4 firmwares I mentioned in this  post:

US firmware

Canadian firmware

barebones firmware

Slatedroid

P.S. The Canadian firmware deserves its own review, so I will be posting it elsewhere.

Some (meta) thoughts on piracy

I don’t post much on piracy on TDR. It’s still a sore topic and it’s been done to death. But last night I had an epiphany and I think I might have something original to add to the topic.

There’s a certain type of anti-pirate advocate that I’ve always found annoying. I finally figured out why I find them annoying, and it’s actually very simple. It turns out that this isn’t a philosophical disagreement, it’s not a matter of principle, and I’m not having an emotional reaction to doubts about my position on piracy.

I simply don’t like listening to people who whine about things beyond their control.

This led me to examine why they complain about it and why I don’t care, and I noticed a difference in mindset that I found interesting and wanted to share.

Richard Curtis penned a post yesterday that inspired this little soliloquy. The tone of his post is expressed in the opening paragraph:

Tim O’Reilly famously said, “Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.”  That’s very witty, but anyone who’s had their property hijacked by pirates will fail to see the humor. Take Colleen Doran, a cartoonist and illustrator with hundreds of major credits. She would gladly opt for obscurity if it meant getting compensated for the 3000 hours of work stolen from her.

So here’s the thing about the piracy debate: there are 3 parties involved, not 2. The third party is neither pro nor anti piracy; we’re simply ambivalent. Piracy simply is, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

That’s the mindset of a certain part of the digital generation, though I suspect few have realized it. And I’m not just talking about pirates here; there are some content creators who have faced facts, accepted that they can’t do anything about piracy, and moved on. I’m saying that as a not just as a content consumer, but also as a content creator. I’ve been pirated before and while I do make minimal efforts to get the content taken down, I don’t get upset over it.

Piracy is a fact of life.  You might as well complain about being caught in a rain storm (for all the good it will do).

New Concept phone – hybrid AMOLED/E-ink screen

Yanko Design posted a new phone concept on their blog yesterday. Now remember, this is by no means a practical device (currently);  it’s more of a "wouldn’t it be neat of we could make this" kind of idea.

The idea behind the hybrid screen is that you’d use the E-ink for static images and as a low power mode. I’m not sure this will save battery life; the phone CPU draws so much power that I’m not sure you would notice the savings.

The Second Life Mobile Phone Concept works on the premise that we often forget about the battery life of our mobile phones, hence run out of juice, just at the wrong time. As a remedy (rather power-saver-option) the phone incorporates a double display. When in active use the AMOLED screen powers up in all glory and in standby mode the E-ink display gets active. This essentially means that the E-ink uses very little energy and the degree of transparency of the display shows how much battery is remaining. The more transparent the display, the less battery remaining.

Iriver Cover Story now in stock at Waterstone’s – £129.99

iriver’s latest ereader, the Cover Story, is now in stock at Waterstone’s . The Cover Story is based on a 6″ E-ink touch screen, and it has 2GB Flash, a SD card slot, accelerometer, stylus, and support for Adobe DE DRM. The base model is now selling for £129.99, and the model with Wifi is up for pre-order at £149.99. (It’s scheduled to be in stock in 4 days.)

Waterstone’s

P.S. Can someone tell me how long Waterstone’s have been selling ereaders? I’m asking becuase they still haven’t updated the webpage template for their site. It still says "Book Details" (and that’s not the only problem). I’m amused but also worried by their marginal technical competence. I’m not sure I’d want to do business with a chain that can’t even run a website adequately.

EA Sudoku now available on the Kindle

It’s that time again, folks.

Amazon just announced a new app for the Kindle: EA Sudoku. This would be great (if not for the fact that you already could play Sudoku on your Kindle). Here’s what Amazon had to say:

EA Sudoku contains thousands of built-in puzzles, as well as the ability to enter and play a puzzle from your favorite newspaper or magazine in “Newspaper” mode.With five difficulty levels from “Easy” to “Insane,” Sudoku offers plenty of fun for Sudoku players of all skill levels. Built-in game features let you make “Notes,” “Undo” moves, and apply “Error Checking.” If you get stuck, you can use the “Hints” feature for help or use “AutoFill” to display all notes on the game board. You can even track your game stats to see how you progress over time.

Amazon

Happy Birthday, Windows CE

Today marks the 14th anniversary of Windows CE 1.0 RTM (released to manufacturer), and I thouht it deserved a comment. That first version, aka Windows Pegasus, was developed for Mips and SH3 CPUs (neither of which are around much anymore). I can’t beleive 14 years have passed, and it’s still under development (don’t worry, they’ll get it right one of these days). Look what has happened to Newton, PalmOS, Psion in that time.

I still like WinCE over Android for the simple reason that I can’t work on Android; it’s still far too  much a phone OS. WinCE has it beat in Office apps, file management, app management, windows, keyboard support, and CPU demand.

via HPC Factor

Kindles are the hot gift for 2011

That’s not a prediction; I’m already seeing evidence that Amazon might be running out of Kindles to sell.

I came across a blog post this morning by a librarian. Her library lends out Kindles, and they’ve been buying them 5 at a time (Amazon have an order limit due to demand).  She tried to place an order Friday, and this is what happened:

On Friday afternoon, I went into our library Kindle/Amazon account to order five more Kindles; however, when I went to process the order with our corporate account, I received a message that I had exceeded my quota and that the Kindles had been removed from my shopping cart.  Now while I knew you could only order 5 at a time because of the demand on the Kindles, I truly thought this message was a technical blip, and wanting to leave work before 6PM on a Friday night, I left and decided to try again on Monday.

Today I attempted to place the order and received the exact same message.

The short story is that Amazon reduced the limit from 5 Kindles to 3 Kindles becuase demand is so high that they’re worried about running out.

That’s not my only piece of evidence.

I’ve checked with my local Staples store, and they could tell me when they’d have the Kindle back in stock. Actually, the Staples clerk said that they’d be getting a truck in today, and it might have Kindles on it. But it might not; they don’t get Kindle deliveries every week and when they do it’s usually only 1 or 2 Kindles.

I also checked with one of my local Target stores, and I was told that they got a delivery last night and that I should come soon becuase they run out fairly fast.  About half the time they don’t have any K3 in stock.

BTW, I noticed a curious detail while researching this story. The K3 is carried by Target, Staples, and Best Buy, but you can’t find it on their website. Seriously. I’ve seen the ereader in these stores, but it’s not on their website. My guess is that Amazon won’t allow it becuase Amazon are a web only presence and they don’t want the competition.

Amazon could by shorting their retail partners, but why did they reduce the order  limit? Only reason that makes sense to me is that they might be reaching the limits of their supplier.

Update: Andrys Basten over at KindleWorld discovered that Amazon have put a 2 to 3 month shipping delay on all Kindles order from outside the USA and UK. If that’s not a sign that demand exceeds supply, I don’t know whatis.

Offn Friday afternoon, I went into our library Kindle/Amazon account to order five moddre Kindles; however, when I went to process the order with our corporate account, I received a message that I had exceeded my quota and that the Kindles had been removed from my shopping cart.  Now while I knew you could only order 5 at a time because of the demand on the Kindles, I truly thought this message was a technical blip, and wanting to leave work before 6PM on a Friday night, I left and decided to try again on Monday.

Today I attempted to place the order and received the exact same message.

How to hack your (white) Novel – the easy way

So you want to hack your Novel. Greetings.

This is an updated post on how to hack the white Pandigital Novel Tablet. It’s dated 15 November, so by the end of the year it will likely be out of date. Use it at your own risk.

Update: (18 January) A lot has changed in the past couple months. At this point I don’t think you should hack your white Novel. The current firmware for the white Novel is for a standard Android tablet.

Basically if your Novel has a menu that looks kinda like the lead picture then you don’t need to hack it. I wouldn’t bother because I don’t think it’s worth the effort. You might want to read this instead.

Sidenote: If you’re wondering why I’m bothering with the new post, it’s because I’m still getting hits on the old one. I really didn’t expect it to still be getting attention at this late date, and honestly, I thought it would disappear in about a month. I don’t like giving out old instructions, and this has been bugging me since September.

 

How to Hack your Novel

Update: I’ve just found another option for hacking your Novel. If you have one of the newer models, you might be able to install the Cruz Reader firmware. You’ll have a much better tablet when you’re done.

You now have a number of options for hacking your Novel. First, Pandigital have released a bare Android install. I haven’t tried it myself yet, so I can’t comment on how it works. Second, you could follow my original instructions. There’s a fair amount of work involved, but it is an option.

The third option is actually very easy. All you have to do is download a hacked firmware and run through the update process. If you use this option, you will be able to install the necessary button hacks, Home screen, as well as several vital apps like Spare Parts and the Android Market.

Yes, you do get access to the Android Market and yes, it is unauthorized. It also voids your warranty. Use at your own risk.

Since this post is intended for a beginner, I’m going to provide as much detail as I can.

  1. Go to this page on SlateDroid, and download one of the firmware options. I would recommend that you get the one dated 9/24  (ver4). I have ver4, and aside from a few quirks it works okay.
  2. Download the ZIP file, copy it to a SD card, and insert the SD card into your white Novel.
  3. Press and hold the power switch until you have the option to turn off the Novel. Do so.
  4. When you reboot, press and hold the up volume button and the power switch (at the same time)  for 5 seconds. This should trigger the firmware update process.

At this point you should be in the middle of an update. Let it do its job while I point out a couple new features.

  • One of the changes to the Novel is a new taskbar at the top of the screen. On of the new buttons looks like a house. Click on it when you want to switch between the new and original home screens.
  • You have other new icons on the taskbar including volume, back, menu. Also, the taskbar is now persistent; it won’t be covered up by apps and menus.
  • You might have trouble when waking the Novel from sleep mode.  It will look like it’s frozen, but you actually are in the screen lock mode. Press the up volume button to unlock the screen.
  • Be sure to recalibrate the screen and add your Wifi networks again. They were lost in the firmware update process.

At this point you should have an Android tablet. Enjoy.

My first $99 Crapperjack tablet – Maylong M-150

So my Maylong tablet finally arrived a few days ago from Wlagreen’s, and it’s as bad as I expected.

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This is going to be a short review because I honestly can’t find a reason anyone should buy it. It’s underpowered, slow, ugly, and poorly programmed. It feels like they took a $200 tablet and replaced all the decent components with cheap crap.

For a while there I was tempted to pitch it as "My First Tablet" so you could give it to  a 7 year old; then I realized that even though kids annoy me I don’t hate them _that_ much.

Hardware

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This tablet is based on a 7″ LCD resistive touch screen. The screen quality is okay. The CPU is 300MHz, and yes you will notice how slow it is. It has Wifi and Bluetooth (I can’t get the bluetooth to connect, and the Wifi is slow). There’s even a microphone and a camera which shoots photos at 480×320 and video at about 320×240 (15 fps). I’m not exaggerating; that’s really the image quality.

It ships with a stylus, which is good, but there’s no slot to store the stylus, which is not so good. It has 2GB Flash and a microSD card slot, but its only USB ports is on a dongle, which will probably be easy to lose. It also lacks a USB client, so you can’t plug it in to your computer to transfer files. This is a serious shortcoming; I hadn’t even thought to check for USB client. I’d assumed it was there.

For more hardware details, check out the FCC paperwork or my initial post.

Software

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It ships with the usual apps (calendar, email, browser, contacts , Youtube, etc), and it also has apps to manage the 3G, DSL, and ethernet connections.I’m glad for the ethernet app but I don’t understand why it has the other 2. The hardware isn’t present.

It doesn’t have the official Marketplace, but it does have an app store and whoever is running it keeps it stocked with at least some apps they’re not supposed to have. For example, they have the Kindle app (the M-150 also ships with Aldiko). But the app store doesn’t have other basics such as Kobo, B&N, etc.

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It’s having a lot of trouble finding and staying connected with my Wifi network, and download speeds are abysmal. I don’t think this tablet has 802.11b; I think it has 802.11a. Also, the browser chokes on basic CGI pages (like the permission page on an open hotspot).

This tablet can’t stream Youtube without having to pause, and to make matters worse it was the only device using the internet connection at the time.

Yes, it does have a video app, but I didn’t even try. It struggled with Aldiko; I didn’t want to waste my time watching ti fail to play a video.

User Experience

Did I mention it was slow? Well, it’s just barely adequate as an ereader, but I have trouble running anything else. If I close an app and then try to re-open it, most of the time the app freezes and I have to force close.

I’m also beginning to get pissed at how it keeps going to sleep in the middle of an activity (it kills the Wifi). I’ve checked, and I can’t see a way to change the sleep settings.

PASS

Some thoughts on the ebook sales figures

For the longest time now, I’ve taken a position on ebook sales that is different from virtually every one else who has cared to comment on it. I insist on considering the data month by month, and most people aggregate the monthly figures into quarterly or yearly.

TBH, one is supposed to look at the data both ways because they tell you different things. But until someone else starts considering the monthly change, I’ll just focus on the one way and leave the other to everyone else.

Here’s the thing. I want to know _why_ the market is increasing, not just how much. You can’t tell that from the yearly figures, so I have to check the month by month.

Here’s a plot of the AAP sales figures for ebooks from November 2008 to September 2010*. Do you see the plateaus? There are 2 in this graph; one starts in January 2010 and the other in July 2010.

These plateaus are symptoms of market behavior that you can’t see in yearly figures. What caused them? Why did the market go from fluctuations and incremental changes every month to irregular jumps? This is something everyone should be talking about.

I don’t know why the plateaus are happening, but I suspect it’s because of spikes in media attention that ereaders get. In January we had CES, where ereaders were the hot topic. And in July we had the K3 launch.

I could be wrong, so I’m waiting to see the data from October (when the Nook color was launched). If we see another jump, then I am probably right.

But what if I’m right, and then we see a long period without the jumps? What then?

* There’s a blank spot for January because I couldn’t find the numbers.

New LCD e-reader shows up in Russia

The-eBook.org have the details on the Asistant Media AE-501, an ereader based on a 5″ LCD screen with 2GB Flash, a microSD card slot, and broad ebook format support (TXT, DOC, PDB, PDF, EPUB, FB2, HTML, RTF, LRC, CHM and Djvu). The spec page also lists quite a few video formats supported (AVI, RMVB, RM, 3GP, FLV, MP4, VOB, MPG) as well as MP3. There’s no touchscreen or Wifi, and I’m not sure if it supports a DRMed ebook format.

It’s selling now for 4550 rubles (~$148 USD), and the first 100 buyers will get a free 4GB microSD card.

Assistant501.ru

LG Display show off a new screen at FPD (video)

FPD, a screen tech trade show, is being held right now in Tokyo. LG Disiplay are there, of course, and they have 3 screens on display (at least, 3 that I’ve found).

I showed you 2 of the screens back in May from my SID Display week coverage. One is a 9.7″ color epaper and the other is a flexible 19″ grayscale. The photos I have from SID Display week are actually better (I have the spec sheets) than the current photos so I’ll use mine instead. They’re at the end of the post.

The third screen is new to me. It’s a compound display with both a color and grayscale component (much like the Nemoptic display). All I have for that is this video. You can see 2 of the 3 screens starting at about 1:10.

Update: I just found another video from FPD. This one was shot by Akihabara News

FPD 2010 LG’s Booth

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First look at Hanvon’s new color e-reader

So Hanvon announced their ereader yesterday the FBD 2010 trade show, and like almost all the tech blogs I had to work off the press release and stock photos (I hate that). But I kept an eye out, and here are some of the photos shot at the tradeshow.

You can click on all the images to see a larger size.

The lead photo is from QQ, and the rest are from Netbook News, which even got a look at the spec sheet:

  • Freescale ARM Cortex-A8 processor
  • 9.68? 800 x 600 pixels
  • 4,096 colors
  • 2GB flash memory
  • 128 / 256MB RAM
  • microSD card slot
  • USB 2.0 host
  • mini USB (charging)
  • 3.5mm audio  jack
  • built-in mic
  • 2 stereo speakers
  • 802.11b/g WiFi with optional 3G (EVO / WCDMA / TD)
  • supported formats – TXT, HTML, HTXT, PDF, DOC, XLS, PPT, EPUB, HEB, JPG, BMP, TIF, GIF, MP3, WAV and WMA.

I’m skipping most of the pictures becuase many were ruined by glare from overhead lights. But luckily for us, NN took a few minutes to get a good look at the new screen. They weren’t impressed with the colors (they looked washed out). And they also were disappointed by the screen resolution. This last is a good point; 800×600 is low on a 10″ screen.

Ebook sales remain flat in September

The AAP have release the official numbers for September ebook sales

E-book sales continue to grow, with a 158.1 percent increase over September 2009

($39.9 million); year-to-date E-book sales are up 188.4 percent.

It’s good that they’re promoting the fact that sales are up over last year, but sales have still hit a plateau. Remember, the reported figures for August and July were also around $40m. We’re not seeing the same growth as last year; it’s time everyone stopped kidding themselves.

P.S. There are 2 things you need to keep in mind with these figures. Ebook apps aren’t included (I asked), and most indies aren’t included.  This plateau in sales mainly affects the established major publishers.

P.P.S. Some time back I made a prediction that ebook sales wouldn’t track with paper book sales. This months suggests (but doesn’t prove) that I’m right. The book market is down, in general, but ebooks sales remained flat.

via Scribd