RSSKindle 2 and the unintentional acquisition of knowledge
By Tim Conneally | Published April 29, 2009, 9:08 PM
Amazon's Kindle 2 has received a great deal of acclaim for improving upon many of the shortcomings of its predecessor: shrinking its size, improving its usability, and adding a handful of new features such as rudimentary web browsing and the contentious text to speech function.
What's difficult to quantify is the effect it has on the user; that is, the degree to which it simplifies or improves one's life. Since I've had mine, my reading has gone from two books a month to eight, but because the majority of the books I read would best be classified as "light reading," I feel like the impact it has had on my personal improvement is negligible.
As it turns out, I've gained the most from one of the Kindle's most unlikely educators: the screensaver. Each time the device is put into sleep mode, a full-screen image of comes up, most frequently of famous authors and playwrights. Thanks to my daily use of the Kindle, my visual recognition of at least a dozen great writers has inadvertently gelled.
While someone's appearance is not exactly an important thing to remember, especially for writers, I cannot help but think of it as an accidental educational perk to an already highly regarded device.
I would love a vertically oriented device like this but with a color screen and it stores magazine subscriptions you could download to an SD card or something similar. No ads, just the cover and regular pages as if I was holding the actual magazine.
I read Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Discover, Motor Trend, Electronic House, and a bunch of others. Having them all on one device I could take into the s***ter would rock.
Score: 0
|waste my money and time on a piece of junk? i think not.
seems there is plenty of room for improvement, like incorporating g3 connectivity, mp3 player and the lite weight thingy described in the article:
"Scientists Fabricate Pliable Electronic Display
By Sarah Graham"
Score: 0
|Aren't you simply referring to "convergence"? And isn't such functionality already in many devices such as the iPhone (and others)?
This entire technology is a value added FEATURE to be incorporated into almost any electronic device, be it a computer or phone - and buying an additional standalone device to carry around and which duplicates much of the capabilities you already have in other devices is absurd.
But then, while I already have a vehicle I find very useful, I think I am going to buy a second car as it also has a DVD player in it. Don't need the car, but that DVD player feature sure is useful... Yeah...
Score: -12
|actually, i've had a change of heart simply because i support self-publishers and amazon does too.
so the kindle can be a valuable tool that helps perpetuate freedom of expression, creatiity and speech.
however, i think "everyone" can't really appreciate that the only method to upgrade, is to toss out the "old/outdate" and re-pay for a costlier "new".
wonder how these machines get through airport security, especially if a muslim carries one on board and it appears to simply have the koran downloaded to it?
Score: 0
|funny,
the above comment stalled as it was being posted.
wonder if i inadverdently used those keywords that the nsa is phising for?
Score: 0
|My main complaint with any digital book format is that serendipity is gone.
Say you're thumbing through a manual/encyclopedia for something. You stop on a page that has interesting info. You'll likely come back to that later. Or at least know that subject/info is there.
With digital books, you'll search for your topic and go there directly. No chance to see that interesting tidbit along the way.
Paper, gimme paper!
Score: 0
|Not to mention that you can get most for just a few bucks.
And if you misplace the copy, you can replace it for a few bucks...
Score: -12
|I've gone to wikipedia for a particular subject, and left hours later linked to an entirely different subject. I don't think this is all too uncommon.
Score: 1
|Great...
Now, for a valid comparison, try downloading Wikipedia in book form.
Score: 0
|Yup.
Sorta like the news coverage of kids spending 8 hours a day to learn to play guitar hero and after 4 years of practice on the game, they still can't really play guitar.
Time and money well spent.
But then, actual guitar lessons take too much time.
Let's see. A paperback from Half Priced Books in which I can bookmark, highlight, and reference several pages simultaneously in easy fashion, versus an absurdly priced additional (non-converged) gadget with electronic books costing $12-$25 each.
But you say we can inadvertently learn other useful things akin to kids learning every commercial on TV but still not being able to find Chicago on a map by the time they are 18?
What a deal.
Score: -13
|"Sorta like the news coverage of kids spending 8 hours a day to learn to play guitar hero and after 4 years of practice on the game, they still can't really play guitar.
Time and money well spent.
But then, actual guitar lessons take too much time."
What's REALLY tragic and ironic about your scenario is that if you actually practiced the regular guitar 8 hours a day every day for four years, you'd be able to play like Eric Clapton (or Andres Segovia, depending upon your tastes.)
But unfortunately, that also requires hours of pains-taking concentration and hours alone shut up in the practice room. ("Sorry guys, I don't have time to play video games this afternoon. I have to go home and practice.")
But of course in our media-driven, reality-tv-based world of instant fame, that's a course which is becoming less and less appealing to our youth with the advent of each new gadget.
Now you no longer have to sit in your dorm room or the school library with a pile of textbooks as you study for that exam...you can now sit in a trendy coffee bar being hip and cool with your Kindle.
I'm flashing back to a commercial made in the 1980's for Cannon cameras with Andre Agassi, the tennis player, telling us that "Image Is Everything".
Score: 0
|Maybe they could make a version of Guitar Hero that works with a real Guitar? Make it worth a little more.
Score: 0
|Absolutely they could!
Keyboards, guitar, etc...
And turn it into a game - connected with the playing of real songs, exercises, whatever for the nexus of the audible as well as the tactile and the technique - depending upon the sophistication of the input sensors...
This can be done with MOST things, be they instruments or other skills, where proper technique is incorporated into the performance of what becomes a game, and where, if folks aren't careful, they may come dangerously close to learning something.
After all, that is what most simulators are, except they begin with the premise that you want to learn something rather than simply beginning with the premise that you want to have fun and simply learn as a secondary 'bonus'.
Score: 0
|Allegedly there are systems coming out ...
http://hardware.slashdot....pl?sid=09/03/06/229239
Or, you can do it yourself ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0DHSk7SF2A
Score: 0
|