Black Friday - Got a Nook!

You will all be glad to know I did not have to fight anyone make my way to the sale e-readers at Best Buy on Black Friday. Out of the hundreds of shoppers I may have been the only person there for the $80 deal for the Nook Simple Touch. Regardless, after just one day of using it I can say I highly recommend this e-reader! It took about one minute to set up, it's light weight, has a two month battery and even though it's Wi-Fi only I think that will suffice.

I never thought I'd buy an e-reader but after trying out the ones in class I got curious and saw the appeal more and more. In fact, within the first 15 minutes of using my Nook I bought one $4 book and downloaded 3 samples of books (that I am fairly certain I will be buying as well). Now that I own an e-reader I see how this is just another avenue of book purchase. There are some books I still want in print and others I just want on my e-reader and I can already see that I will be buying more books this year than last.

We all have seen ads for e-readers saying the same things about e-ink screens, battery life and how many books they hold, however, there are other features and issues that I think are worth noting...

1. The Nook Simple Touch has an open book icon that, when not reading, always sits at the top lefthand side of the screen. Touching this icon automatically brings you back to the page you were last reading.

2. The touch screen is super fast, the keyboard lags just a little bit but not terribly.

3. I'm not totally sure, but it seems like the B&N store search saves all of my searches. It's not as if I'm searching for anything horrible but nonetheless, I would like the option of erasing the search cache.

4. Not a huge deal but there's no way to listen to books with this reader! Granted it was $80 so I still think it's worth keeping but there's no audiojack at all.

5. There are some instances where the previous screen doesn't fade away entirely and I can faintly see some lines. I haven't experienced this when reading books, only when performing actions such as going from the B&N shop to a book.

6. The shape/shell of the reader is very comfortable.

Extra tip- I went back and forth a lot in my choice between the new Kindle Touch 3G and the Nook Touch. If you have a smartphone, just tether your internet access and you'll have a hot spot to download books anytime. Afterall, how often are without our phones anyway? It will save you a lot of money and works just as well.

NEWS

BREAKING NEWS:

On December 5, I intend to submit my last Kodansha Files entry.

Please look out for it b/c I'm trying to make it special (perhaps a Calvin Reid interview?). Also look out for an all new An Unconventional Publisher Confessions entry.

Question.Debate.Be Unconventional.

Latesha Goodman
http://www.lateshagoodman.wordpress.com/

Nixon testimony unsealed

I thought this was interesting news in light of our Great Coverup project.

President Nixon's grand jury testimony (from June 1975) has been made public on the National Archives wiki page. Documents also are available for viewing through the Scribd social publishing site.

The Los Angeles Times notes that the Obama administration had opposed making the testimony public for privacy reasons.

PLoS ONE: scientific wiki?

Last class, we talked briefly about PLoS (Public Library of Science) as an open access publisher. PLoS also has a journal, PLoS ONE, that is a midpoint of sorts between a subject-specific open access journal and a true wiki. It's not editable, but anyone in any discipline can contribute as long as the science is sound.

Here is a link to the "About" page: http://www.plosone.org/static/information.action

Their mission states: "PLoS ONE will rigorously peer-review your submissions and publish all papers that are judged to be technically sound. Judgments about the importance of any particular paper are then made after publication by the readership (who are the most qualified to determine what is of interest to them)."

PLoS also has two more interesting initiatives: PLoS Currents (written/reviewed/published on Google Knol) and PLoS Hubs (aggregators of open access research).

The Magical iPad

Picture this: a student is given a choice to sample either an iPad or a Kindle.

Who wins? The iPad of course. After all, Steve Jobs did say it was “magical” in his original three minute pitch of the product in 2010.

Initially, I was intrigued by its screen and the myriad of applications already present. I admired its sleek design, curious as to how it was made—as if it were some previously obscured work of art.

After the initial glow wore off, I ventured to iTunes to listen to my favorite songs like a true Apple consumer. Promptly turning up the volume, I sampled some songs and sang along, but it didn’t take long for me to migrate towards books. Afterwards, I listened to actress Ruby Dee read one of my favorite novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. This eventually led to the download of a sample which was nicely placed on my virtual bookshelf. From there, I continued to read an updated intro to the work by well known Haitian writer, Edwidge Dandicat. In a matter of minutes, a legendary book was made immediately accessible.

Despite my curiosity, a question was forming in my mind: how is this different from Amazon’s Kindle? Or the Nook from B&N?

Attempting to find the source of the iPad’s selling points, I ventured to that online resource which is currently taking up 82% of the market share—you know, Google. Surprisingly (or maybe not), I found that the key phrase “what is the iPad good for” showed up as a typed, as if many, perhaps even hundreds had wondered the very same thing. At the beginning of the page, a link to an article on Techcrunch.com appeared to answer my questions. (Techcrunch is a reputable source because 350,550 people “like” it according to Facebook—and we know that Facebook never lies!) The list of plusses and minuses were written by John Biggs who suggests that iPad is good for reading, photography, games, and movies. That’s fine, I rationalized, but so are physical books, printed photos and the TV.

So, back to the iPad I went.

I read news stories, watched an animated storytelling adventure, and investigated personalized settings, but as I did this another question found its way to the surface. Is the iPad simply an expensive way to pass the time?  I wonder if this iPad craze is just that—a craze. People have been known to want whatever anyone else has. Does all of this go back to the mention of that well known hypothetical family called “The Joneses” who inspire a continuous upgrade in lifestyle some people feel the need to achieve? With technological progress, comes the need to either maintain or pass it. It seems as if every other person I know owns an iPad, plans to, or received it as a gift. What promotes this feeling in us? Is it that sense of inclusion we want to feel? Do we like shiny new products? Do we want to purchase things simply because we can? Or could it be that the iPad legitimately brings a little technological magic into our lives?

Links: (http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/19/10-things-the-ipad-is-good-for-and-5-it-isnt/)

 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/01/steve-jobs-ipad-keynote-i_n_444801.html)

Wikipedia raised $16M in 50 days

I thought this was an interesting follow-up to our recent discussion in Professor Grossblatt's class.

You might remember that last year, Wikipedia had an ad from its founder along the top of its page asking readers to donate money.

According to The Economist, Wikipedia raised $16 million in 50 days to help sustain its "free" content.

The article notes that Wikipedia has 78 full-time staff, and it also discusses some things Wikipedia must deal with moving forward.

iPad Adventure

Sorry this has taken me a bit longer to put up than anticipated. The iPad was very fun, I loved the crazy picture sharing, sharing videos and browsing Kodansha's manga app. The manga is beautifully displayed on the device. Someday I hope to purchase this device and have even more fun with it.

Again, I know this entry is brief, but I have a blog that details my experience.

On November 20, I intend to submit my last Kodansha Files entry.

Please look out for it b/c I'm trying to make it special (perhaps a Calvin Reid interview?). The only reason I was excited for the iPad was to explore the Kodansha app. It was pleasantly surprising!

If you want to know more about that experience, visit my site on November 20.

http://www.lateshagoodman.wordpress.com/