ABC7 /Consumer Report look at 9 readers for bookworm mothers. Collections for Kindle 1 maybe?

Now that things are quieter on the Apple front except for the Gizmodo Lost iPhone prototype story (the latest stories in chron order:  Cnet analysis;  Daring Fireball's John Gruber look at the laws;  Dilbert's take; Wired's team finds "finder";  and CNet finds helpers) with dramatic night visitations apparently encouraged by Apple, reporters are now writing about the Kindle again, without relating it to the multi-function iPad except to remember that the Kindle is a smaller, less expensive, dedicated e-reader for those who like that kind of thing.

Click on the picture at top left or here to see ABC7's videoclip of their news report in which they discuss what they and Consumer Reports found when teaming up to look at 9 different e-book readers, including the Nook, Kindle, Sony, and iRex readers, in order to make recommendations for Mother's Day.

The accompanying story by Ric Romero at KABC, Los Angeles, notes there's "a lot of misinformation" out there.  That's for sure.

They interviewed some people for the story and said that one person, Kate Lombardi, will be adding fewer books to her shelves, but she's reading more books than ever now that she has a Kindle. "It's made me look at books in a different way, and buy them in a different way, so I'm buying more," said Kate.

They found that while the iPad is backlit and people can continue reading in the dark, it weighs twice as much as most e-book readers.  And they noted that it's not easily readable in bright sunlight.  While it gets points for versatility and doing "most things pretty well,"  they found it "not the best choice just for reading e-books" per Paul Reynolds of Consumer Reports.

Rich Fisco of Consumer Reports, one of several testing the Nook, found the interface problematical in that the bottom LCD screen is "little" and is "all you get for navigating around, picking books, moving though pages, and typing in titles for searches and such."

Yes. ABC7 and Consumer Reports recommended the Kindle, a fact I'm putting in for the Kindle-edition readers as it takes longer to follow links on some image-heavy sites when reading blogs via the Kindle.

Much has been made recently of the idea that the iPad can cause insomnia.  Many of us thought this was almost surely not true.   A researcher at the UCLA Sleep Disorder Center told Eyewitness News that no study or research has been done that proves iPads cause sleeplessness.

HOPE FOR KINDLE-1 USERS FOR KINDLE ORGANIZATION/COLLECTIONS?
At the Amazon Kindle forums, 4greatscotts posted a response said to be from Amazon Customer support to the plea that Kindle-1 users also get some type of organization for their first-generaion devices, though the programming and instructions won't be the same because the cursor cannot go to places on the screen as the later model does, due to a slower screen and navigation through rows instead of individual words or alpha characters.
  Here's the posting by about this (no confirmation from Customer Support Team yet).

'Posted on Apr. 29, 2010 4:55 PM PDT
4greatscotts says:

Here is the response I received from customer service today when I asked if they were going to do an update for K1 owners.

We have heard from many of our Kindle 1st generation customers that you would
like to have a better way to organize your growing Kindle libraries.  We are
currently working on a solution that will allow you to organize your Kindle
libraries.

At this time we aren't able to provide you the exact time of when this update
will release, but I'd suggest you to continue checking back our website
regularly.

Thanks for using Kindle!

Best regards,

Prakash T
Amazon.com
We're Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company '

---

 See the ongoing Guide to finding Free or Low-Cost Kindle books and Sources
  Check often: Latest free non-classics, shortcut http://bit.ly/latestfreenonclassics.) Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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How to save on college textbooks

An AP article carried by Cleveland Ohio Business News suggests "3 ways to save on college textbooks"

The article points out that publishers are now offering to rent books or are providing electronic versions at what AP says is a fraction of the cost and that, next summer, colleges will be required by federal law to "list the cost of required materials in online course schedules.  Publishers will also need to disclose book prices in marketing sent to professors who may not realize the costs"

Until then they suggest
1. Renting.  They give Chegg.com as an example - that site is renting Introductory Chemistry for a semester for $44 while the list price of the book is $140.  They have a catalog of 1.6 million titles and say they will try to track down books requested that are not in the catalog.  While the student pays for shipping, returns at the end of the semester are done with prepaid envelopes.
  BookRenter.com works similarly and there is an option to buy at the end of the rental period, with credit for the rental price.  Both places offer refunds if a class is dropped - within 30 days at Chegg.com and within 10 at BookRenter.

2. Buying Used.  The AP article states that used books cost almost as much as new ones, at campus bookstores, so they recommend going online to Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Borders for better pricing, where the condition of a book is often described by the 3rd-party sellers (rated by users) and online coupons or special sales are offered in email by the bookstore chains.

3. Digital books.  Coursesmart.com offers about 7,000 titles and the company says that its e-textbooks are, on average, half the price of new print copies, and have the same layout so there's no confusion over what 'pages' are assigned.  Print copies are available too.  There is rather limited copy & paste allowed but students can print 10 copies "at a time" (whatever "a time" means).  Highlighting is also a feature.
  Cengage Learning makes its titles available electronically at iChapters.com.  Unlike e-books bought for the Kindle or Sony readers, the books at both companies can be kept for only the equivalent of a semester and can't be used later for referencing.  These are not bought but leased then.

 The Kindle DX and Sony Reader are also mentioned, but it's pointed out that some textbooks won't be available for them.  They add:

" Three textbook publishers -- Pearson PLC, Cengage Learning and John Wiley & Sons Inc. -- have agreed to make books available on the Kindle. But representatives for Kindle and Sony did not respond to questions about the breadth of their textbook selections or prices.

As an example, however, "An Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics" cost $45.45 on the Kindle, compared to $75.11 for a new copy from third-party vendors. "

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-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

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(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
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Sony reader screen comparisons and the Kindle

The enlarged version of the photo at the left, from the article by Simon Cohen at syncblog.com, shows the significant loss in clarity and readability with the touch screen technology used for the Sony PRS-700's e-Ink screen.

  After lamenting that the Kindle isn't available in Canada yet Cohen explains the touchscreen's effect on clarity:

'...Because Sony's engineers had to layer a capacitive membrane over the E-Ink display to enable the 700's touch-screen features, they reduced the amount of ambient light the eInk receives, and thus the amount it can reflect.  The result is (when compared to the 505) like reading through a thin layer of onion skin paper.  Contrast is reduced and some crispness at the edge of letters is lost.  Worse still, this top layer is quite reflective and depending on where your light source is located, you need to tilt the 700 slightly backward to avoid the glare...'

In this comparison of the two Sony Readers, there are also caveats that will be familiar to some Kindle users when it comes to the e-Ink screens, which most reviewers find far easier on the eyes for any length of time than reading from an LCD screen (which can do color and backlighting at a cost to battery drain in addition to eye fatigue, though with better refresh rates).

'Some people might be aware of the light gray background of the screen itself – indeed this is probably the cause of my perception that the ink could stand to be a little darker.  We're all used to seeing black ink on a white page, or at least off-white and there's no escaping the fact that the light gray doesn't provide as much contrast as a piece of paper.

The good news is: you get used to it quickly and after a few chapters you barely notice it at all.'

Then he explains the black flash between page turns:

'Turning pages on the Reader produces a momentary flash of black before the ink resolves itself into the new set of words. This happens anytime the display needs to change what it's showing.  While a little disconcerting at first, you again grow accustomed to it. The transitional effect is caused by the nature of eInk displays.  The "pixels" work more like an etch-a-sketch tablet than like a typical LCD display.  With LCDs, each pixel can change on it's own, very quickly, and go from one colour to another in an instant.  eInk on the other hand exists in more of an ON or Off state.  To switch between these states, an electrical charge is needed.  Moreover, it seems that the entire area that is to be re-drawn must be first "cleaned" by turning all of the pixels on, then off.  Only then can the final image be rendered.  Odd as it is at first, I'm so used to it now that I wonder if a transitionless page turn would be an improvement.'

Cohen goes on to detail quite thoroughly the many differences between the two Sony readers. Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
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(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
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Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!