Relentless drivel

2011-11-19T20:29:00.000-08:00

Kindle Touch 3G (with "Special Offers") Lightning Review

Likes:

- Very thin

- Grippy back

- Screen is easy on the eyes

- Additional features available to Amazon Prime subscribers such as lending and one book per month for free.

- 3G data does not require a subscription and allows for "on the go" access to the Kindle store

- Special offers can be disabled with a purchase

Dislike:

- Power adapter sold separately

- Ads so far aren't for books so much as mobile phone service and soap.

- Some concepts such as swiping to move around the interface may not come organically to users that haven't used an iPad before.

- Screen may be a bit cramped for some technical or reference books.

Design:

It is thin and grey with a grippy rubberized back. Fitting easily in one hand, the touch screen is inset (?) from the frame so that you don't accidentally bump it, but can still operate it pretty much with one hand. The keyboard and page turn buttons are gone leaving only two buttons, a home type button that gets you back to your home screen, and a power button located on the bottom of the device. All other interaction with the Kindle happens on the screen.

Interface:

Surprisingly, the Kindle Touch operates similarly to a tablet in respect to scrolling through items in a list in that you swipe across the screen to move to the next page, and then tap the item you want to select. Reading mode looks to be geared for right handed operation where 75% of the screen is dedicated to page flipping, the top for accessing the menu and a sliver of the left portion of the screen is reserved for paging back.

Screen:

The screen is crisp as would be expected with e-ink. Pages change quickly and only have to do a full refresh every 6 pages or so. Overall there is less of the flashing the screen to black in order to go to the next page. Since this is e-ink it means that you will require an outside light source in order to view the screen. Just saying.

The touch response of the screen works very nice, and requires very little pressure to operate. Response lagged slightly but was consistent so you get used to it.

Overall:

I like the Kindle Touch, and think that I could sit down to get some reading done with it. At $149, it is priced right and I'm not opposed to having ads if they relate to my interests or introduce me to some new authors. The size is great, and it gets rid of all the distractions so that all there is left to do is read something. Another great upgrade to the Kindle reader that is flying under the radar with all the hoopla over the Kindle Fire.

2011-03-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

iPad 2 is front and center on the Verizon site, but is no where to be found at AT&T. Curious.

2010-10-07T18:49:00.000-07:00

This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of how-to posts on random things you can do with phones and other gadgets...

I'm always fascinated by all the different things that phones do, but one thing that I always thought was that there should be a 'do-not-disturb' mode that sends calls directly to voicemail, but leaves your data service alone so that you can still use the Internet. While searching through some of the feature codes for GSM phones (I know, I know), you can combine some of them to accomplish this task.

Get the number for your voice mailbox.
This may sound odd, but your voicemail actually has a number assigned to it. You can find this out with the following code. *#67# and then hit the 'call' button. You should see a screen like the following. Write down the number next to "Forwards to". You won't need the +1 part.
Create a new contact 'ZZZ Forward to VM' with the command to forward your calls.
To forward the calls, we use a different feature code plus the number we want to forward to, in this case the number of our voice mailbox. *#21*[voicemailboxnumber]# The contact I created starts with ZZZ so that it goes to the end of my list, and all the commands are right there together.
When you call this contact you should see the following screen. Then you'll notice a small handset and arrow to show that the setting worked correctly.
Finally create a contact 'ZZZ Reset VM Forward' to reset your phone back to its original settings.
In order to receive calls again, you can dial ##002#. Save this number to your address book. The handset icon should go away now and your calls should go back to normal.

Other Notes:

While the phone is in 'do-not-disturb' mode you can still make outgoing calls, and receive voicemail and TXT notifications. However, you will not be notified of any incoming calls.
You can also use this to forward calls to another number entirely in case you were in an area with poor service.
If anyone has the codes to do the same on CDMA networks chime in and I'll add it to the post.

Disclaimer:
To the best of my knowledge, there is no charge for forwarding to another number, and I am not aware that the calls that are forwarded charge minutes against your plans. Talk to your friendly service representative if you are unsure. Finally, I have observed no ill effects from running these codes, but don't blame me if something weird happens.