eric135

My review of the Kindle Fire...

Ah, yet another Christmas in the can for the year. It was, once again, a retail orgy opening presents on Christmas morning, but the gift-giving was definitely more reseved this year. Some of it was due to financial circumstances (I haven't worked very many extra shifts this year) but there are so many reasons to be thankful and grateful this year. The hospital where I work was doing well enough financially that they offered a last-minute Christmas bonus. We haven't had one in about 3-4 years, and the surprise was even more so because I personally thought the hospital system (two hospitals) was going under or would be bought out. So pleasant surprises all around.

I worked Christmas Eve as usual. It's one of the main drags of being a nurse in a hospital -- we never close, and someone has to be there. Thankfully, the night was a relatively quiet one, with fewer admissions than usual. We'll pay for that over the next few days. It just seems many folks are "just barely hanging on," trying to "make it through the holidays" putting off visits to their physicians. All of the food and drink won't help much. This week, we'll be seeing a lot of peripheral edema, blood pressure problems, aches and pains put off too long, and other sorts of human deferred maintenance come in through the ER. If I'm talkin' to you, consider lightening up on all the salt, drink, spicy food and oxycontin for the holidays :-)

My big gift this year was the Kindle Fire:

 I have the Kindle Keyboard (previously known as the Kindle3) and I'm very happy with it, but wanted something to more fully web surf with without having to crank up my netbook. My thoughts about the Kindle Fire:

• I personally like the form factor. I can hold it easily with one hand. I like the smaller 7" screen (as much as others apparently hate the smaller screen). 
• I also have no problems having the power button on the bottom of the unit. I don't even know why this is an issue because, if it were a problem, one could just turn the screen upside down and everything would work fine. 
• I don't mind not having external volume buttons. To change the volume, I just hit the Settings button. But some are saying it can be a problem if a program/app "takes over" the screen and doesn't give you access to the settings without exiting the program/app. I have not yet run into this situation.
• I don't mind the Carousel function. I had heard there were problems with "fat finger syndrome" having problems, but I guess I have greater than average manual dexterity. 
• So far, browsing has been a good experience. I personally can't distinguish any advantage or disadvantage to the Silk browswer, it seems to work fine either way. I personally have set the Fire to "Optimize each web site" for readibility. I like using the pinch-to-zoom and the smaller print, when viewing a full page on Desktop view, doesn't bother me.
• My Netflix experience isn't as good as I want it to be. There is a noticeable lag (maybe 1/2 - 1 second) in the audio of my Netflix shows/movies. I have read this is a widespread problem with Netflix, and everyone is waiting for an updated app. Watching video's on YouTube is very clear and sync'd, so I don't think it is a probem inherent in the Fire. I plan to try watching videos purchased from Amazon but, man, I really want the Netflix thing to get worked out.
• Listening to podcasts is, for the most part, a smooth experience. When on my computer, I listen to podcasts using Google Reader, but the Google Reader app for Kindle doesn't play any podcasts. So I am using Stitcher for most of my podcasts, and the few that aren't included in Stitcher's wide selection I use MyPod to download podcasts via their direct feed. MyPod isn't very user friendly and seemless as Stitcher, but between the two, I can listen to pretty much to anything I want. 
• The Kindle Fire speakers have been a hit and miss sort of thing. When playing Netflix shows, the sound is too faint without the use of earbuds, unless you hold the unit in your hands and thus the speakers are close to your head. Setting the Fire on the coffee table and having 2 or more people watch wouldn't be possible. However, my podcasts are very loud. When listening to my Magnatune podcasts, I can easily walk around the room and do other things without having to wear earbuds. I also notice YouTube video's are loud, so it might just be a Netflix thing.
• Reading books has been a good experience, which is good considering it is, in fact, a Kindle. I have been reading several books and find the Fire to be easy to navigate. However, after lengthy periods of time, my eyes do get fatigued looking into a back lit device. For hard core (multi-hour) reading sessions, I'd still use my Kindle Keyboard. I haven't had any probems with the brightness being too low. For indoor use with the usual levels of light through the window, I have to turn the brightness to the lowest level or eye strain is a definite problem. Books sync perfectly between all of my devices (the Kindle fire, Kindle Keyboard, iPhone 4S, netbook and laptop) which is nice.
• I've been able to do all of the activities I wanted to do on the Kindle Fire: read/write gmail, work outlook mail, Evernote, Facebook, podcasts, Twitter, etc. The only activity that my Kindle can't do is communicating, since it has neither camera nor microphone, but I have lots of other options for communicating. 

So, overall, after 24-hours of working with the Kindle Fire, I have been very pleased with it. 

Stargate Atlantis

I've finally found a series to watch on our Netflix that ISN'T a Star Trek series.

I've given Stargate series a chance before, since I've watched the original Stargate movie several times, but I've never been able to get into them for long. I liked Stargate Universe but of course it got cancelled.

Stargate Atlantis has an excellent ensemble cast. The story lines are, I think, more compelling with action being grounded in the city of Atlantis, rather than the "alien of the week" approach of previous Stargate series. Another plus, again IMHO, is that the acting is a lot stronger. At times, Stargate SG1 was heavily over-acted.

The interactions between the leads in Atlantis are more capably executed, with well-balanced use of humor as well as suspense, without the darkness and conflict of the SG Universe series.

The good times won't last forever, I'm on episode 27 of 99. I guess when I run out of SG Atlantis episodes, I may give SG1 another try. I could always watch the Deep Space 9 episodes again...

A little bit of early Christmas... my new iPhone 4S...

We have always hated shopping on the weekend of Thanksgiving. Over the past few years we've heard of all the violence associated with Black Friday, and we don't think it's worth the risk. Every year there are a couple of horrific deaths, sometimes just a random person getting shot to death while being robbed of some item they've just purchased.  But we were out in it the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  One item that we purchased early was my new iPhone 4S.  I've been a Blackberry fan for the past couple of years but my last Blackberry (Bold 9000) was getting pretty beat up. The trackball wouldn't click, and I was tired of all the times I was having to pull the battery to force a restart after the phone froze up.  I was going to ask Santa for a new Blackberry Bold, but have decided to go with the latest version of the iPhone. There were several factors that influenced my decision:

• I don't use many phone minutes. 
• Instead of talking on the phone, I have become a heavy user of phone apps, such as Dropbox, Evernote, Twitter, Stocktwits, Google Reader, Epocrates and other applications. 
• While there are plenty of Blackberry apps, many are quirky and don't work well, or have limited functionality. 
• I really wanted more effective tools to work with the data I use, such as the ability to view videos (my blackberry couldn't play videos), pinch-to-zoom, etc.
• I don't know what the immediate future will be for Research In Motion, creators of the Blackberry devices. 

It's been a very positive experience switching to the iPhone. 

My roommate has been letting me try things out with his iPhone 3G prior to actually getting one. 

Purchasing the iPhone was quick and easy. Unlike past experience, it took only a few minutes and they were able to transfer some of my Contacts data. 

Viewing and using data on the iPhone is a much better experience. The pinch-to-zoom thing is totally cool.

Kindle syncs perfectly.

I can manage my blog much more easily with the iphone vs. the blackberry. Before, management consisted of emailing my blog entries, that's about it. The Blackberry browswer was at times cranky, and I could never zoom in enough to see what I was doing. Plus, when the trackball broke, I couldn't click into the spaces to log in as a user. Now I have a Typepad app which works ok, and I can use Safari to do everything on my phone that I can do on my laptop. 

I really love being able to watch Netflix whenever I want. We have Netflix on every TV and laptop, but sometimes I'll watch something while I'm eating dinner at work, or while on break. 

I've been using iCatcher! to listen to podcasts. My favorites are the ones from Magnatune.com, Leo Laporte's podcast This Week in Tech, and the Rachel Maddow Show. 

The iphone app for epocrates is much nicer than the one for Blackberry. The photographs of the pills are helpful for patients to remember what dose of a drug they are taking, and the pill identifyer has been helpful when the patient does remember to bring all of his/her meds, but they're in those daily pillboxes for a week at a time. 

The battery life has been good for me. I've heard a lot of complaints that the iphone doesn't even last for one day of use but I use mine without any real worries and I use mine heavily, including Netflix and gps (the usual battery-draining culprits). I still plan to ask Santa for a backup power cord to keep in my bag, and we keep a car converter in our car, but so far I haven't had any problems.

I don't use the new Siri function yet. I don't know why but she never understands what I try to ask her. Amazingly, it can't help you find/use any data stored on the iphone other than phone contact info, it's strictly to pull info from an internet server based on it's best guess of what you want. 

I've used the Face-time feature once, to call my room mate. I don't think I will use it very much. I hardly talk on the phone, I do video calls even less.