I’ve had a look at the latest Waterfield cases for the Kindle and posted my thoughts at The Gadgeteer. Waterfield has three Kindle cases: a basic open-ended sleeve, a sleeve with flap and back pocket, and a travel case with room for the Kindle and a bunch of accessories. Check out my review for pictures and more details…
My Amazon Kindle arrived today — thanks Julie! — and I’m eagerly putting it through its paces for an upcoming Gadgeteer review. Earlier this year I reviewed the Sony Reader and I’m looking forward to comparing the two. (The Kindle is definitely in the lead so far.)
I don’t want to spoil my review too much by talking about the Kindle here yet, but I do have a few first impressions.
Amazon Whispernet (the Kindle’s wireless service) actually works at my home, and quite well at that. Considering that it’s supposed to be based on Sprint EVDO, this surprises me greatly. I suspect it’s roaming on Verizon, unless Sprint lit up a tower close by very recently. If it’s roaming, I have to give Amazon props for allowing that — it makes the Kindle much more useful for those of us who live a bit outside the city.
A hardware tidbit: check the system/logs directory of the Kindle’s internal storage. Mine had a boot log showing that it uses a Linux 2.6 kernel on a 400 MHz PXA255 with 64MB of RAM, and EVDO module from AnyData. The software seems to be Java based with a plugin architecture so they can add more applications later, like the ones under the “Experimental” menu. Maybe someone will figure out how to hack it for user-installed apps, though I don’t have any more hope for that than I do for it on the iPhone.
I’m also pleased by the fact that the Kindle has native support for unencrypted PalmDocs. Although the Kindle’s native format for DRMed books is something new, its format for unencrypted documents is MobiPocket, which is essentially HTML wrapped in a PalmDoc container. Plain text PalmDocs work just fine too. Just make sure the file name extension is .prc, not .pdb — just go ahead and rename it, as the file format is the same inside. Other than plain text, those are the only formats it supports directly right now, but at least Amazon offers a conversion service which is free via email, or 10 cents if you email it a document to be sent wirelessly to the Kindle. Or, on Windows, you can use Mobipocket’s own conversion tools. From where I sit, this is far easier than dealing with the Sony because all of my books are on my Mac, and many of them are already PalmDocs.
And yes, this probably means that Pyrite Publisher is about to rise from the grave. I think this incarnation will be a Kindle-supporting e-book librarian though…
My review of the HTC TyTn II is up at The Gadgeteer. In short, I like it. It’s a worthy upgrade from the original, with better performance, a solid feel, internal GPS, and many small improvements and fixes. It’s good enough to tide me over until Apple makes an iPhone I actually want, at least…
As I’ve mentioned in some of my previous posts (here and here for example) I’ve been looking for the perfect mobile device, and not finding one. At some point today UPS will be dropping off a fresh new HTC TyTn II. I already know it isn’t perfect, but it is a nice incremental upgrade to the TyTn I’ve been using since last fall.
The TyTn II upgrades the original model in a number of ways. It has a new CPU (still the same 400 MHz clock as before, but with a secondary core and acceleration for 3D and Java) and twice the internal memory, and runs Windows Mobile 6 out of the box. The screen now flips up to an angle for better viewing while you use the keyboard. The camera has been upgraded to 3 megapixels. And last but certainly not least, it has an internal GPS which works both on and off the mobile network.
I won’t say more about it here yet, because I’ll be reviewing it for The Gadgeteer — look for my review soon, perhaps next week. In the meantime, you can catch up by reading my Gadgeteer review of the TyTn from last year.
My review of the Sony Reader e-book device has been posted over at The Gadgeteer. In short, I like it but it still has room for improvement (doesn’t everything?) — for the rest you’ll have to read the full review.
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