Zek | Gear Diary

How to Speed up Your Camangi Webstation

If you have used a Camangi Webstation, you probably noticed one big issue: the default launcher is sloooooow. It’s also ugly as sin. Luckily, you are not stuck with it forever. Android supports multiple home replacement options, including my personal favorite, Home++. All you need to do is download the program file, or APK, and install it. Once it is installed, hit the home button and select Home++. If you like it, click the “set as default” option, and your homescreen will be set as Home++.

Reviews

Etre Touchy Gloves Review

It’s been a problem since the first winter post-iPhone release: How do you use your smartphone with a capacitive screen during freezing cold weather? There’s always your nose, or a quick “yank glove, interact with the phone, throw gloves back on, pray there’s no frostbite.” Etre believes they have a different solution with their Etre Touchy Gloves. I’ve been using them for a few days: do they solve the glove dilemma? Read on to find out!

eBooks, Editorials

eBook Copyrights, DRM, and Amazon Versus Macmillan

Well, it’s time for another State of the eBook. Of course, this week was under the iPad shadow, but-gasp!-there’s other news out there too! Plus, with Apple landing smack in the ebook game, plus the final “Google Books” settlement, it has led to some interesting discussion about the nature of ebook digital rights management and how we, as consumers, can either accept or challenge the status quo. Not to mention the argument between Amazon and Macmillan books! All of these really touch upon many of the issues surrounding ebooks; as their popularity increases, questions about how they should be treated…

How to Do It Yourself!

Free Your Mac Mail Into Google App’s Cloud!

(photo courtesy lifehacker) If you’re like me, you probably set up the Mail application on your Mac at first. And it’s a perfectly fine email program if you want your mail stored locally. I set mine up when I bought my iBook (the last of the G3 models…what a great little computer!), using my Comcast email address. Then GMail came along and changed everything. I had always hated web-based email, preferring to use Outlook on my PCs and Mail on my Mac. But the Gmail interface was so much better than what the desktop options offered, I immediately jumped ship…

eBooks, Editorials

Did Apple Change the eBook Market?

(photo courtesy Engadget) Weeks of rumors and fevered speculation are finally over, and the iPad has been released. You can check out Gear Diary’s liveblog, and listen in as Judie, Dan, Larry and I discuss the iPad in our podcast. Of course, there was one area of the iPad announcement that, while rumored, is still a bit shocking: Apple will be opening an iBookstore on the iPad. But what does this mean for ebooks? Should Amazon be sweating bullets? Has the whole ebook market changed with the sweep of a keynote slide? Read on to find out!

eBooks, News & Features

Txtr Brings ePUB to the iPhone

Earlier in the week, I ranted about my frustration with the lack of commercial ebookstores on Android. Chief among my frustrations was a lack of ePUB readers that could handle DRM, the one complaint that overlapped with the otherwise better stocked iPhone. Now the iPhone has gone and beaten Android on all ebook fronts, as txtr’s new app reads ePUBs with Adobe Digital Rights Management. Why does ePUB matter, specifically the kind linked to an AdobeID? Because it is fast becoming the dominant format for any non-Kindle ebooks. Barnes and Noble quietly switched to ePUB about a month ago (though…

eBooks, News & Features

Oh eBook(stores), Where Art Thou?

CES proved there’s an onslaught of Android tablets headed our way this year, from the Entourage Edge to the Dell Mini 5 to the Notion Ink Adam. And of course, Judie and Dan have been familiarizing themselves with the Camangi Web Tablet. But something’s missing from this Android tablet equation: Where are the big eBook stores on Android?

eBooks, Editorials, Events

CES eBooks News and Analysis

Welcome to the special CES Edition of State of the eBook! As everyone has reported, there was a huge onslaught of eBook reading devices this year, from dedicated e-ink devices to tablets! What does this mean for the eBook market? Let’s find out!

eBooks, Events

Skiff Reader Announced; Magazine Publishers Want to Own the World

Yet another new player hit the eBook market this week, but this one is a bit different than the “e-ink, 6in screen, supports x, y, z file types” lather rinse repeat. Skiff has announced a monstrous 11.5in screen reader, designed for reading magazines and newspapers. Not only does it have a huge screen, but it also plays back audio. This is NOT just another eBook reader!

Reviews

DXTop Home Replacement Review

I just bought my Droid a few weeks ago, and I’ve been testing various programs and getting acquainted with Android 2.0. In the stock configuration, 2.0 only has 3 “home screens” for widgets and quick app access. A few quick scans around various Android forums, and I found out about one “home replacement” program that seemed to add a lot of functionality in addition to an extra home screen: DXTop.

eBooks, Editorials

Is Text to Speech Copyright Infringement or Accessibility?

Famously, the Kindle 2 debuted with Text to Speech enabled, only to see it yanked for many books after the publishing companies complained it violated audiobook copyrights. This debate is becoming an issue all over again because of devices like Intel’s Reader for the blind, which uses a scanner and text to speech to allow a visually impaired individual to “read” a written passage.

eBooks, Editorials

Skimming through 2009 eBooks

(image courtesy of petitinvention) Welcome to the final State of the eBook for 2009! It has been a big year for eBooks, and I am going to do my best to cover a timeline of the high points, as well as a few things to look forward to in 2010. Rather than do a traditional timeline of events, I thought I’d break it down by the year in highlights per company/platform, and then a few predictions and news items to look forward to in 2010!

How to Do It Yourself!

Is a Task Killer Necessary For Android?

I was perusing Androidforums.com today for some software tips and stumbled on a few threads that maintained there was no reason to use a task killer with Android. These posters maintained that the OS was efficient enough to shut down programs that weren’t necessary and manage memory without a 3rd party intervention.

Editorials

Is Handwriting Dead?

When I started my first day at my office, a coworker asked (begged, really) if my handwriting was decent, since we deal in note-taking a fair amount. The apologetic look on my face said it all; my handwriting is awful. Years of typing have ruined any chance of something legible coming out when I put pen to paper.

Editorials

Common Grounds

I was walking down the hall in my office the other day and found two coworkers engrossed in a discussion about their iPhones. They were comparing apps and enthusiastically discussing Dragon Dictation, Google Maps, and a barcode scanner app. What was really shocking is that while one of them is a big techy, the other one was definitely not. But they both were excitedly talking about their smartphones and comparing the iPhone to the Droid, etc.

eBooks, Editorials

Basic eBook Standards

Hello and welcome to this week’s State of the eBook! We’ve got news and reviews, so let’s get started!

eBooks, News & Features

Electronic Frontier Foundation Criticizes eBook Privacy Policies

The Electronic Frontier Foundation today released a chart outlining the potential privacy issues surrounding eBooks. It’s an interesting read, but I recommend taking it with a very large grain of salt.

eBooks, Editorials

News, Debate, and the Three Letter Word-DRM!

Hello and welcome to another State of the eBook! The end of the year hasn’t slowed the eBook world down; we have news, more news, and a bit of debate! Let’s get started!

News & Features

Is GPS Becoming Information Overload?

Do you have a GPS in your car? I do, and sometimes it gets to be too much in traffic; between stop and go, lights, construction, and the sound of my GPS droning away, it can become a bit overwhelming. I’ve even been known to threaten to throw the yappy thing out the window a few times when it all becomes too much. According to a Tech.view column in the Economist, it might not be me. Apparently, we can only process so much information at once, and beyond that, the brain simply cannot take it all in clearly. So as…

eBooks, News & Features

Stephen Covey Strikes an Exclusive eBook Deal: What Does This Mean for Authors and Royalties?

Stephen Covey is proving one of the habits of highly successful people is playing hardball; he’s struck a deal with Amazon to make them the exclusive providers of his eBooks, in exchange for at least 50% of the sales revenue. Amazon will also be promoting his books heavily. What does this mean for publishers, authors, and the concept of royalties in the digital age? We convened a Gear Diary chat session to hash it all out!

News & Features

Cliffs Notes of 2009 Movies

This video is awesome. It’s a mashup of the trailers from the last year or so, stitched together to make them look like one movie. See? Gear Diary just saved you the trouble of digging your way out from underneath your overstuffed Netflix queue! via Seattleist

Articles by Zek