On Microsoft OnLive Desktop

Windows and Office on an iPad from the cloud? Would you want that? Hang on, where's the Alt-Cntl-Del?

On eReadersLibrary.com. All the eBooks you can consume for just one price?

eReadersLibrary promises all you consume eBooks, newspaper and comics for an unlimited access for life with just one payment of 49 USD.

It sounds too good to be true. I tried to find out who owns the domain. All I got was that the registration was done in LA, with the rest of the information protected by WhoisGuard (something to hide?). When I tried to join, the registration page was in Chinese (probably due to the fact that I am accessing it from Singapore).

Putting it all together:


1. The eBooks are probably real (bootlegged).
2. The eBooks are definitely not legal (all the eBooks you can download for only 49 USD?)
3. The owners of the site is probably from China.

That said, it might be a 'steal' to join eReadersLibrary and just download as many eBooks as you like until someone shuts this site down for good.

Google Currents to take on Flipboard and Zite

The war of the news reader has started. First it's both Flipboard and Zite bringing their iPad news reader to iPhone. Now we have Google Current for both android and iOS.
I feel it is not as polished as the other two, although it does support offline reading. Personally, I think with all connectivity available now, offline reading is less compelling. Unless you are reading a book.

Changing my eBook reader from iBooks to the Kindle App

It is not because I have a Kindle 3 reader, which incidentally is for the wife My primary reader is the iPad, or the iPhone if I am waiting in line at the doctor's office.

iBooks was my the default reader, but I find the lack of controls in iBooks to be main reason for the change to the Kindle app.

iBooks' performance on my original iPad is not good, and the sluggish page turning animation is probably the culprit. This hampers my reading experience. At least for the Kindle App I can turn the animation off. Not so for iBooks.

Another thing is the page margins. iBooks IMHO has too much white spaces, and we are not given any options to change it.

In short, the extra step to convert an ePub book (iBooks) to Mobi (Kindle) is a a big deal considering that the reading experience counts for everything. Fancy book turning animation may look good in a demo, but for some, simplicity is the key. At the very least iBooks should provide the options, which they do not.

An evaluation of the Amazon Kindle 3 eBook reader

Amazon Kindle 3

I've just received my Kindle 3 today in Singapore.

Here's my experience with the Kindle 3 after using the iPad in the past year for reading eBooks.

1. The e-Ink device is actually better for reading. But with the low light situation in my living room, the advantage was negated. Reading outdoors, the Kindle is brillant! With my reading mostly indoors and at night, the iPad (with backlighting) may be better for me.

2. No touch sceen. The buttons took me a while to get used to, after initially trying to touch the screen to do something. The keys and buttons are actually quite ok once you get familiarized with them.

3. Battery life. I assumed that with the electronic ink, I should be getting on average at least a month's worth of reading on a single charge. I think this is one of the advantage of a e-Ink reader.

4. Reading PDFs. Some PDFs are okay but have to be read in landscape mode. Overall, the resolution of the device meant that any serious PDF reading is out.

5. eBook Format. Have to convert ePub eBooks to the Kindle's Mobi format. That's one thing that I wish Amazon will try to include in the future, i.e. the support of the ePub format.

6. Two experimental features on the Kindle 3:

• A web browser.
• An mp3 player.

Let's just leave them at that, experimental features. The kindle 3 is really best used as a dedicate eBook reader.

7. eBook store. Now we are talking about the biggest advantage of the kindle. Amazon currently still has the most eBook titles. Buying them here in Singapore still requires some workaround, but the good thing is any eBook purchase will automatically be synced not only on the Kindle and also the Kindle reader app on my iPhone/iPad.

Verdict: Very readable, a big selections of Books, very light and a great form factor. Perfect for reading eBooks with some compromise for reading PDFs. For anything else, buy a tablet.

Google - Underscores vs. dashes in URLs

 

In short, use dashes.

Google finally releases an official Blogger iPhone app

You can't view comments or add links to external sites. Hope they will add the features soon.

(via)

He's not perfect ... Bob Marley

Documentary - Bill Gates - How A Geek Changed The World

An excellent documentary video on Bill Gates just before his retirement from Microsoft.

Histamatic iPhone App - Base Comparison Chart

This app (paid) has better quality then the free Instagram so fills a niche area of photography for me.

This chart would be bigger if there is a flash on my iPhone 3GS. Still, this is good guide for me to choose what lenses to use as there is not much difference with different film types.