AllThingsD » monochrome

Using Laptops in Direct Sunlight

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:22:19 +0000

With summer coming, I will be outside a lot but still need to get some work done. Is there a laptop that you can read in direct sunlight?

To my knowledge, most consumer and business models use LCD screens with backlighting, which makes them wash out and become harder to read in direct sunlight. Adding to the problem, most laptop screens have a glossy finish these days, which produces glare in strong light. But some companies still offer matte screens on certain models. You might look for one of those, though they won’t entirely solve the problem. Another option is a stick-on, anti-glare shield. And, if you don’t mind extra bulk and some clumsiness, there are even hoods you can buy to shield laptop screens from the sunlight. There is another approach: Some “rugged” laptops meant for outdoor workers have screens specially designed to be legible in sunlight.

Does the iPad have any drawbacks as a reading device when compared to the Kindle? Does it have access to all the same book downloads as Kindle?

Yes. It weighs 1.5 pounds—more than twice what the smaller, standard Kindle weighs. And even its impressive 11.5 hour battery life is much less than the Kindle’s battery life, which is a week, because of that device’s low-power monochrome screen. Also, Apple’s iBooks store has many fewer titles available than Amazon.com’s Kindle store.

However, you don’t necessarily have to choose. Amazon (AMZN) has released a free Kindle app for the iPad that allows you to buy and read Amazon’s larger catalog of e-books on the Apple (AAPL) device’s bigger, brighter, color screen. Like other Kindle software—for the PC, Mac, iPhone and BlackBerry—this new iPad app obviates the need for Kindle hardware to access the Amazon e-book collection.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, why does Apple recommend you use iTunes to back up data like calendar, contacts, bookmarks and apps to your computer, when iTunes is a player for music and video?

Yes, iTunes used alone is meant to organize and play music and videos. But Apple has also built into it the ability to manage the backing up and synchronizing of other sorts of data between its portable devices and the computer. It’s also the method by which users upgrade the operating systems on iPhones and iPads and can be used to buy apps for those devices and transfer them over.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns, free of charge, online at the All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Irex's E-Reader Poses No Threat to the Kindle

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:03:37 +0000

The tech industry and media are focused on Apple’s (AAPL) forthcoming iPad tablet computer, a multifunction device that includes an e-book reader. Meanwhile, with much less fanfare, other companies are pressing ahead with conventional, dedicated e-readers aimed at the leader in the category: Amazon’s Kindle.

[ See post to watch video ]

These more focused, monochrome devices aren’t as flashy or as versatile as the iPad, which handles everything from email to games. But they cost less and are aimed wholly at people who seek to read books and periodicals in digital form.

I’ve been testing one such new e-reader from a company that has been in the business for years, but is mainly known in Europe. It is called the Irex DR800SG and costs $400 at bestbuy.com (BBY)—about $140 more than the Kindle. While the DR800SG uses the same electronic ink screen technology as the Kindle, it has some major differences: in screen size, in user interface, and in the way it wirelessly downloads books and newspapers.

The Irex is shorter but wider than the Kindle, and has an 8.1-inch screen, versus the Kindle’s 6-inch screen. It’s slightly thicker than the Kindle, but about 25% heavier. It has a single, thin page-turning and menu button on the left side, while the Kindle has larger, multiple buttons on both sides. Both devices claim to hold about 1,500 books.

Irex, a Los Angeles-based company whose products are engineered in the Netherlands, produced its first e-reader in 2004, but this new model is its first aimed specifically at the American market and its first to use the cellular 3G network for downloading content.

The Irex DR800SG

The new Irex has some advantages over the Kindle. Its larger screen makes for a better reading experience, allowing many more words to show on the page, at similar font sizes. The screen also seems slightly sharper.

The Irex looks sleeker than the Kindle, because it has a much thinner bezel around the screen, due mainly to the lack of a physical keyboard. It also does a better job of organizing your reading material, grouping items into separate folders for books, newspapers, and personal documents.

And, instead of being linked to a single online store, like Amazon (AMZN), it uses a “mall” concept, designed to allow users to choose from many different online stores, though only two are available now. The principal merchant in the mall so far is the Barnes & Noble e-book store—the same one used on the Barnes & Noble (BKS) Nook e-reader—which claims about a million titles. The other store is called NewspaperDirect, which claims over 1,000 newspapers.

However, in my tests, I found the Irex much clumsier to use than the Kindle and, because of that, I still prefer the Amazon device. For instance, the Irex requires a stylus—an ancient and fading navigation device—for some operations. Yet it lacks a holder for this pointer except in the leather cover, so the stylus is easy to lose. The Irex also lacks a Home button, a note-taking function, any way to highlight text and a built-in dictionary.

More important, I found the mall concept for downloading books to be frustrating. Because the Irex isn’t seamlessly linked to its own online store, I had to establish, or sign into, four different accounts to test the device fully. Even after that, each Barnes & Noble download required multiple steps. On the Kindle, ordering books is a breeze, and they appear almost instantly after you click a single “Buy” button.

This last issue is a trade-off between greater choice and simpler, quicker functionality. Some readers will be willing to make that trade-off, especially if Irex is able to add specialized stores in the future that offer, say, a large selection of non-English-language books. But, for most Americans with typical book needs, I find the current trade-off unacceptable.

For example, books I bought from Barnes & Noble appeared slowly on the Irex. The device seemed to have to turn on its radio and establish a new connection each time. Also, until I opened each book, they appeared on the screen identified only by a geeky file name. And, after I opened each, there was a long delay while the device did something called “counting pages.”

The company says that some of these shortcomings will be fixed in a software update due as soon as next month. It promises there will be a note-taking function, speedier wireless connections and the elimination of the counting-pages delay. It also says it is working on a universal log-in system for its mall of stores. But highlighting and a dictionary are only being “considered” for a future revision.

On the bright side, I was able to easily plug the Irex into a PC and Mac, and manually drag onto it personal PDF files, pictures and even a free book I bought at a Web site.

Irex says it is working on a color model for next year. I hope it works more smoothly than the DR800SG.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free of charge, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

Amazon: There's a Crude Black-and-White App for That

John Paczkowski — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:11:20 +0000

How large is the market for crude monochrome E-Ink apps for the Kindle? We’re about to find out, because Amazon is finally opening up the e-reader to developers. The retailer unexpectedly announced the Kindle Development Kit this morning, inviting software developers to build “active content” for the device.

Active content? What the hell is that?

Short answer: Not an “app,” and it’s telling that Amazon (AMZN) refrained from using that word in its announcement. Kindle’s E-Ink display refreshes far too slowly to offer compelling video or motion graphics, so presumably, we’re talking about things like crossword puzzles, interactive books and stock tickers.

Fuuuuun!

That said, Amazon is working with EA Mobile to “bring some of the world’s most popular and fun games to Kindle and their users,” though that seems a daunting challenge given the device’s rather profound limitations. I can’t imagine Need for Speed Shift and Dragon’s Lair being much fun at all on Kindle, though they’re both a blast on the iPhone. A slow-motion version of Pong might work well, though.

So, as a defensive move against Apple (AAPL) and the tablet device it is expected to debut next Wednesday, this is a little sad, particularly if Cupertino’s latest creation is indeed geared toward the publishing and content industry. Given the breadth and success of its App ecosystem, Apple is entering the content market with a huge advantage.

Sony's E-Reader Opens New Chapter in Kindle Rivalry

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:03:18 +0000

Sony, the Japanese electronics giant, was a pioneer in the current wave of electronic book readers, introducing its first Sony Reader model back in 2006. But, it has been overtaken by Amazon.com, whose Kindle e-book reader, introduced in 2007, has become almost synonymous with the category. Now, Sony (SNE) is out with a much-improved model that could make it more competitive.

Unlike the Kindle, Sony’s readers weren’t wireless and their owners couldn’t download books or newspapers directly to the device, instead of via a computer. Now, that problem has finally been solved with Sony’s new Reader Daily Edition, a handsome $400 wireless model that I’ve been testing.

[ See post to watch video ]

The Daily Edition can be bought at Sony’s stores; at its Web site, sonystyle.com; and at Best Buy’s (BBY) site, bestbuy.com. It was sold out for the holidays, but Sony says it expects new stock soon.

The Daily Edition isn’t a mere clone of the Kindle. It has a different design philosophy and is stronger in some areas, weaker in others. In general, I enjoyed using it, once I mastered its user interface, which took several days. I especially liked the fact that it packs a larger screen into a comfortably small device, and mostly uses touch navigation instead of all physical controls. For instance, while the Sony does have a small page-turning button, you can more easily turn pages by just swiping your finger across the screen. It’s also better at navigating digital newspapers, something I’ve never found very satisfying on the Kindle.

(Full disclosure: Sony has struck a special deal with Dow Jones, which owns The Wall Street Journal and this Web site. Under the deal, a special late-day edition of the Journal, containing updated news, will be available on the Daily Edition for an extra charge starting later in January.)

On the downside, the Daily Edition has three main flaws when compared with the Kindle. First, it’s much more expensive—$400 versus just $259. Second, it has only about half of the commercial, copyrighted digital books that Amazon (AMZN) does—around 200,000 versus the Kindle’s roughly 400,000. Sony also throws in a million out-of-copyright, old books, for a total of 1.2 million.

But many of these added million titles are obscure and of little interest to mainstream consumers. The Reader also has just eight newspapers, versus 92 for the Kindle, though Sony says 10 more are coming soon.

Third, the technology that makes the screen touch sensitive also dims it a bit, so the Daily Edition’s screen is darker than the Kindle’s. (Both are unlit monochrome screens with gray-scale graphics.) I found the Sony screen adequate, but it’s tougher to read in lower light.

The Daily Edition is a slender device with a black metal body that contrasts sharply with the wider, white plastic body of the Kindle. While both products use the same basic screen technology, and the same screen width, the Daily Edition’s screen is longer; it measures 7 inches versus 6 inches for the Kindle. In my tests, I found this a big advantage, because, when both devices were set for roughly comparable text sizes, the Sony could hold more text on a page, cutting down on the need for page turns, which interrupt reading.

In addition, the Daily Edition is narrower than the Kindle, because the borders around the screen are thinner, since they don’t have to accommodate the Kindle’s various large buttons or physical keyboard. (You can enter text for notes or searches on the Daily Edition using a stylus for handwriting or a virtual onscreen keyboard.) This longer, narrower shape gives the new Sony a nice feel in the hand.

I also preferred the Sony’s method for presenting newspapers, which allowed more headlines to be viewed at once and required fewer steps to navigate through the paper.

Sony’s new Daily Edition Electronic Reader

The Sony also claims more battery life with wireless turned off, comes with a cover included—an extra-cost item on the Kindle—and can handle more book formats, including the free digital books offered by public libraries. Built-in memory is the same, but the Daily Edition’s can be expanded while the Kindle’s can’t.

Like the Kindle, the new Sony also allows you to drag songs, pictures and some personal documents onto the device from your computer. I did this with no problems.

The Daily Edition has companion software for buying, reading and storing books on both PCs and Macs. But it has no app for a smart phone, and doesn’t synchronize your last-read place in your book among the reader and the computer.

Also, I found the Daily Edition required a harder learning process than the Kindle. First, it takes awhile to get the hang of the touch gestures, partly because they require much more pressure than on, say, an iPhone. Second, using touch to bring up features and menus can be a mystery until you consult the manual. For instance, it took days to discover that you could set a bookmark by double-tapping on the upper right corner.

But, all in all, despite its higher price, the Daily Edition is a big leap for Sony and adds another good choice for consumers.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email mossberg@wsj.com.

How to Add Color to a Kindle: Pixel Qi's Cheap Screens

Peter Kafka — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:00:30 +0000

Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle gets many plaudits, but it also gets one consistent criticism: Why can’t it come with a color screen?

It can, say the folks at Pixel Qi, a start-up based in Silicon Valley and Taiwan: It could use the cheap, lightweight color screens that we’re going to make.

Pixel Qi is the brainchild of Mary Lou Jepsen, who was best known as the CTO at the One Laptop Per Child project that makes supercheap laptops for kids in dirt-poor nations. Her new company has a similar thrust with a different goal: Produce cheap color screens that can be used in supercheap “netbooks” or in Kindle-like devices.

Jepsen says she can pull this off and create screens that cost less than the E-Ink ones used in Kindles and other devices like Sony’s (SNE) Reader because she’s using LCD technology, which has an existing industrial infrastructure to support it.

Meanwhile, she says, E-Ink screens will struggle to incorporate color because the only way to do that is to put a color layer above the existing monochrome screen, which will end up making the screen harder to read.

Almost all of these technology claims are impossible for a knuckle-dragger like me to assess, but I will note that I’ve heard other companies working on E-Ink-based readers make the same argument about the difficulty that color poses.

I’m still not convinced that color makes a Kindle or a Kindle-like device that much more successful. I know that the publishing industry wants it, but that has as least as much to do with the business model that industry types think that color can sustain as with anything else. Perhaps readers, the kinds of readers who spring for a reading device that doesn’t make phone calls, will be fine with black and white.

Recall that audiophiles spent years complaining, accurately, that MP3 players like Apple’s (AAPL) iPod produced severely degraded sound. Turns out no one cared. Or at least not enough to outweigh the iPod’s other benefits.

But assuming that the netbook/tablet trend has legs, there should still be a market for the screen that Jepsen says she can make and get on the market early next year.

Recently I sat down with Pixel Qi chief operating officer John Ryan, who happens to be married to Jepsen and who walked me through the company’s pitch. We tried our best to show off the demo screens, but it’s the kind of thing that you really need to see in person; even if I wasn’t using a Flip camera, I think this would be difficult to capture. But Ryan was a good sport about it, and although you can’t see the screens that well, you can get a good glimpse of Central Park during a rare bit of sun.

[ See post to watch video ]