Category: Amazon

Categories
Amazon Apple Chrome Firefox Google Internet Internet Explorer Microsoft Mozilla Safari Silk

Amazon Silk

First lets start with the browsers I’ve used so far. I’ll list any issues I may have had with the browser. I’ll list which OS’s I’ve used the browser on without giving specific versions as I don’t remember which versions I’ve used them on.

  • Netscape Navigator; I stopped using because it wasn’t being updated frequently enough. (Windows)
  • Internet Explorer; for a while I used this because it came with Windows & eventually I only used it when I had no other choice or to download a different browser. Also with IE 8 & 9 I have been forced to add code to my site to them to use the IE7 rendering engine. (Windows)
  • Safari; I only used it because I didn’t want to wait for Firefox to open & it was already open. (Mac OS X)
  • Firefox; It only launches one process for all windows & tabs that are open, as well as poor memory management as the only way I know to have it release the memory used by closed tabs is to close all of the Firefox windows. (Windows, Mac OS X, & Linux)
  • Chrome; If you have a bunch of tabs opened it will eat up memory fast, but every tab is its own process so if one tab dies it doesn’t kill everything. (Windows, Mac OS X, & Linux)

With what I’ve read & watched recently about Amazon Silk on the Kindle Fire I have decided that I want them to make Amazon Silk as a browser for Windows, Mac, & Linux. I think it would have the possibility to make the other browsers to become better as they would have another competitor.

Categories
Amazon Android Apache Apple BlackBerry Google Internet iPad iPhone iPod iPod touch Kindle Networking Open source Hardware plugin Research In Motion TCPIP Windows Phone 7 Wired Wireless WordPress

Ultimate alarm clock

I’m thinking about making an alarm clock as none of models I see in stores have all the features I want. I was thinking some of the features could be upgrades that you connect while the clock is off.

Here are some features I’ve thought of so far in no particular order.

  • Auto-snooze (If you don’t hit the snooze button in x seconds it will assume you want it to snooze.)
  • Color selection for display. (Could also include fine level brightness controls. RGB LEDs or LCD screen. I have a friend that wants his alarm clock to have a purple display.)
  • Multiple alarm sounds (Also allow custom alarm sounds.)
  • Battery powered (Some features might need to be disabled on battery power.)
  • Auto time set (Either through the Internet or at least in the lower 48 states use the Colorado nuclear time clock.)
  • Web interface to program alarms, & upload alarm sounds & make changes to device settings. (Password protected)
  • Version for hotels when guest requests a wake-up call to have a recording play to wake them up. (The alarm clock could call the worker to remind them that the room X wanted a wake-up call.)
  • For hotels in the lower 48 a device that will pickup the time from the Denver Colorado Nuclear time clock to broadcast over hotels network. (Some buildings construction could block the signal from the individual alarm clocks.)
  • Line in for speakers to play from any audio device.
  • Multiple USB ports for charging devices with a 5 volt & 2 Amps per port & configured to work with devices like the iPhone.
  • HD radio.
  • Internet radio apps, Pandora, Last.fm, etc…
  • Day of the week & date on display. (Could be just a button to display it.)
  • Can tell the temperature. (With a local & a remote sensor.)
  • Ability to tell time verbally.
  • Option to have display dot matrix or the more traditional digital display format.
  • Ability to have a custom enclosure made.
  • When powered on upgrade door(s) are auto closed until power is lost.

Some questions about options to do a feature.

  • For time zone should it be set by a switch or stored on SD card & also if DST is used. Which way should it be done?
  • Would you want a solar panel on a battery only version?
  • Should the web interface WordPress with a plugin be used for the interface or something else?

Are there any ideas you want to add?

I’m also thinking about making the hardware open source & using as much open source hardware as possible, unless a closed source chip is cheaper I might use that instead.

Categories
Amazon Google Internet

Advertising a necessary evil

Well I’ve had advertising on my site for several years now. I have tried it with several different companies. Some have worked better than others. One common trend is that if you get paid per click they don’t want me clicking on it. I also can’t tell you that I will give you anything for clicking on an ad. Besides I don’t know how I would know that you clicked on an ad to leave my site.

I’m not going to tell you not to click on an ad as that would be bad for business. I only get paid for clicks on the Google ads as the ones from Amazon.com only give me a percentage of what you spend after following the link.

Categories
Amazon Kindle Library Overdrive

Kindle Fire and other Kindle updates

From what I’ve read so far it seems that Amazon.com has been very busy. I say this because of the following announcements I’m listing in random order.

  • You can now download library books your Kindle. (I haven’t tried this out yet & at this time is USA only. Also it needs to be downloaded via Wi-Fi or USB to the Kindle, I’m assuming because Amazon didn’t want to pay for the downloads of library books that I doubt they make much if any money off of the service.)
  • They are releasing the much rumored Kindle Fire. (It sounds like competition for the iPad & Nook Color to me.)
  • Also you can now buy a Kindle for as little as $79.
  • Two of the Kindles now have a 2 month charge with the wireless off.

When I went to their homepage I was greeted by the following message.

“Dear Customers,

There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp.

We are excited to announce four new products: the all-new Kindle for only $79, two new touch Kindles – Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G – for $99 and $149, and a new class of Kindle –Kindle Fire – a beautiful full color Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games, web browsing and more, for only $199.

These are high-end products – the best Kindles we’ve ever made. Kindle and Kindle Touch have the most-advanced E Ink display technology available, and the 3G Kindle Touch adds free 3G wireless – no monthly fees and no annual contracts. Kindle Fire brings everything we’ve been working on at Amazon for 15 years together into a single, fully-integrated experience for customers – instant access to Amazon’s massive selection of digital content, a vibrant color IPS touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle, a 14.6 ounce design that’s easy to hold with one hand, a state-of-the-art dual core processor, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, and an ultra-fast mobile browser – Amazon Silk – available exclusively on Kindle Fire.

We are building premium products and offering them at non-premium prices.

Thank you for being a customer,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO

p.s. – Kindle Fire has a radical new web browser called Amazon Silk. When you use Silk – without thinking about it or doing anything explicit – you’re calling on the raw computational horsepower of Amazon EC2 to accelerate your web browsing. If you’re curious, watch this short video to learn more about how it works.”

I’m now going to cover the cost of each model from lowest to highest price.

The 5-way controller Kindle has 2GB storage instead of the 4 GB that most of the other models have, with the exceptions of the fire having 8 GB. Also for the Kindle Fire they have included Whispersync for video content as well. So if you were watching content on your PC or TV & switched over to the Kindle Fire you could continue at the same point you were on the other device.

Here are the Battery Life listing with wireless turned off on the devices from shortest to longest.

  • 8 hours continuous reading or 7.5 hours video playback Kindle Fire
  • 3 weeks Kindle DX
  • 1 month Kindle 5-way controller
  • 2 months Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G, Kindle Keyboard, & Kindle Keyboard 3G

Since I saw people making some complaints at Announcement Kindle books now available at local libraries I thought I’d cover some of the issues that were mentioned that I have any knowledge of. Here they are in the order I saw them in the thread. I will follow the complaint with my response to the complaint. (When I’m quoting someone here I’m including all of their spelling mistakes as well.)

  • Every book ever written not available. {Not every copyright holder on every book ever published has said it is ok to make a digital version of their book, or if the book is out of copyright no one may have cared enough to make a digital version of it yet.}
  • Waiting list – why can’t they loan 1 license an infinite number of times. {Libraries only buy a certain number of licenses for any given book & thus are only allowed to lend that number of that book at the same time. If you want your library to have more copies of a book donate some money to the library & let them know you want some or all of the money to buy additional electronic copies of the book.}
  • Lots of complaints that certain libraries didn’t have that enabled yet on the day it launched. {I read several posts & finally saw people saying that they worked for a library & they were waiting on overdrive to enable the feature for them. So if you don’t see the option by now 7 days after it was launched, your library is in the USA, & your library offers ebooks through overdrive go talk to your library about it.}
  • “I’m done with Kindle – D-O-N-E(!) I just checked and the lending period for ebooks from my library in East Bumblefudge is ONLY ten days. One of my friends has a Nook and HER library in Cleveland allows fourteen days. I should have bought a Nook!” {It is the library that says how long you can have the book out not the hardware.}
  • I saw someone say “Wonder if anyone else is having a hard time downloading an ebook onto their K2? I worked on it for an hour and finally called Kindle Support. Since it’s brand new, the Rep had a hard time with it too so it still doesn’t work. I may be forced to buy a new Kindle with WiFi, just to read library books. There must be a simple way to download the books with the Overdrive Progam. Help! Thanks…” several pages after the answer was already posted. {since I don’t have a Kindle to test the suggested fix mentioned earlier I can’t confirm if it works.}
Categories
Amazon Bing Club Bing Internet Explorer Kindle Microsoft

Updates on the Kindle & Club Bing

I was looking at Amazon.com today & I noticed they not have added another variation of the Kindle. It is the Kindle 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 3G Works Globally, Graphite, 6″ Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology – includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers. So if you want your Kindle to have 3G you now have the option to get it for $25 less than you normally would.

I had also gone over to Club Bing to play some games when I noticed an announcement. “As of June 9, 2011, we will discontinue support for the Club Bing toolbar and Club Bing VIP program. As of this date exclusive VIP prizes and ticket discounts will be made available to all Club Bing members while supplies last. As part of this change, the Club Bing toolbar will no longer be supported and you will not be able to earn Club Bing tickets for searches from the toolbar. We recommend that you uninstall the Club Bing toolbar.”

Nothing to major but since I’d recently written about both subjects I thought I’d give an update.