The Inimitable Have Tex Blog

EditThere’s a lot of buzz this holiday season about eReaders. Having researched them all, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Nook Color best suits my needs:

Pros

• Smaller than an iPad at 7″,  hold it in one hand like a book.
• Backlit LCD, works in low light. (Kindle and the first Nook, better outdoors.)
• Gorgeous 1024*600 screen, the same as a netbook, but more portable.
• Responsive, load books quickly, immediate page turns. Full color magazines.
• Full web browser, except flash, you can see full pages, and they load quickly.
• Plays most eBook formats, you don’t have to buy from Barnes and Noble.
• Lend books to Nook users, and borrow them. Borrow from libraries.
• Plays music, and supports 32GB Micro SD card, so you can store all of it!
• It’s been rooted, you can load Android on it if you’re a tech savvy risk taker.
• Because it’s been rooted, lots of pressure on Barnes and Noble to roll out more apps to its own store.

Cons

• No Flash video, yet! An Android update is expected to fix that in January.
• No 3G support, so you have to get to a wifi network to download books or browse the web.
• $100 more than a monochrome eReader (I think it’s worth it, you may not).
• Video quality is poor, I expect that to improve with the Android update also.
• Very limited apps, no calendar, contacts, email. No access to the Android market.
• There is a Nook appstore, but there’s almost nothing in it as yet.
• Check out at Barnes and Noble

Most people are honest, trustworthy and hard-working. Perhaps I’m naive, but treat people as you would like them to be, and as you would like to be treated, and you get their best efforts.

Things aren’t always as they seem. A couple of years ago I ended a relationship, because the other party wasn’t living up to its side of the agreement, and it threatened my whole business. I talked to the other party, then, reluctantly, used the courts when that failed. I didn’t just walk away, I tried to make it work, and then ended it in a professional, legal manner.

When one of my vendors’ employees quit, he implied I should do business with his new firm. It would have violated my contract with his employer. Even though my day to day relationship was with him, I had no doubt the correct response was to honor my contract and contact his employer.

I’m confident the owner will work hard to keep my business, if he doesn’t I’ll renegotiate the agreement. Worst case, I won’t renew.

Most importantly, I can look myself in the eye. To me that’s integrity.

In November 2009 Android phones got a shot in the arm from Verizon, the best US provider, and I got my Droid. Now Android is everywhere, and all major US carriers each have several Android phones.

No single phone dethroned the iPhone as the smartphone of choice, or the Blackerry as the corporate go to phone, but the Android army has taken the mobile world by storm.

My smartphone journey was from Palm Treos, via a Blackberry Curve after I just couldn’t stand Palm’s crashes and lack of any real improvements, to the first generation Droid. We are an Android family, my wife has a Droid Eris, not the most capable of all phones, but fine for her needs, and my son has an LG Ally, great value and he’s thrilled with it.

Motorola did a great job with the first Droid, would I like to upgrade, sure, but it still works well, thanks to frequent upgrades and great free/low-cost apps.

Speaking of Apps, now over 100K, found a few more good ones:

• Launcher Pro, on the whole I like Froyo (Android 2.2), but it bogs down sometimes, not with Launcher Pro replacing the standard launcher. The only downside is that it doesn’t bring your home screens over, so you have to rebuild them.
• PdaNet, discovered this on an AmTrak train. Turns out free wifi is only on Acela trains, so I needed to tether my phone to my laptop. Verizon wanted $20 a month, PdaNet does it for free. Great app, allowed me to support customers while riding the rails to Newark.
• Big Killer, great task killer, more thorough than Advanced Task Killer. Gets back memory from apps you aren’t using, speeds phone up.
• Nook reader. Love the page turning feature and the font control. Nook Color is now on my Christmas list. Kindle app OK, but lame.
• Google Maps/Navigation. Still great app, use it daily and don’t need a separate GPS.
• Useful switches, replaces Settings, but quicker to use.