Information Week has also learned that a similar program, paid by the government, is being launched in Armenia.

I honestly can’t believe how our tax dollars are being spent to help other countries compete with our own people.

Owning a Sony PRS-505, I took the time to review the original Amazon Kindle, and paid close attention to the release of the DX.  Personally, I was dismayed by two features of the Kindle, and I was disheartened by the fact that the larger model didn’t move to correct these problems.

Perhaps the main theme of Mr. Somogyi’s critique was the price of the new Kindle DX (close to $500!).  The Sony PRS-505 sells for under $270, which at the time was $100 less than the same sized Kindle original.  This was a material amount, IMO, as the Kindle’s screen was identical in every way (same manufacturer) to the Sony.  The Kindle original lacked native Adobe Acrobat PDF support as well, and after having collected literally thousands of documents and ebooks in PDF format, I went for the Sony.

I should point out that the Amazon Kindle business model literally hard-wires a revenue stream to the Amazon book business.  The Kindle has a built in facility for buying books through Amazon.  While, as a customer, I think Amazon is a good company, I often buy things at Amazon, I think there’s something fishy about making the Kindle a Amazon store buying tool, and then making you pay a premium for it.

I saw one report which took apart the Kindle (original) and estimated the manufacturing costs to be about $185.  Isn’t it enough to sell it at cost and then enjoy the future revenue of the book sales?  Apparently not.  I should point out that, in general, electronics enjoys a very small markup, but the Kindle original was about DOUBLE the cost.  That would be a good profit if it had open support for any kind of eBook store and all kinds of eBooks.

In releasing the larger Kindle DX, there were hopes that it would be the same price of the original Kindle, indeed, the smaller one would actually be preferred to the larger by some.  But Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, however, has gone the “Apple” route of keeping the price high and the Kindle, while now supporting PDF’s, is more expensive than ever.

BUT THE BIG PROBLEM IS THE SCREEN CONTRAST

While Dealnews’ Jeff Somogyi’s main criticism of the Kindle is the price, and he has some pretty good points, my general eBook reader criticism is the contrast of the screen.  It’s NOT like reading a book or even a magazine.  It’s more like reading dirty news print.  The text is black enough, but the “paper” is a medium GRAY, not WHITE.  It’s nice you can read this in full daylight.  The PROBLEM, however, is that it’s not so nice to read it without full daylight.

Until they can get the contrast ratio of these displays higher than the 7:1 than they have now, I honestly can’t recommend these things at any price for most people.  If you really want one, however, and you’ve got your iPhone, then maybe it’s a buy.

Kworld Media Player - Shown here not much smaller than life sized

I just received my KWorld Media Player which I paid less than $55.00 including shipping and I’m going to have to give it FOUR out of FIVE STARS.

This is a fantastic value for a small device which supports both USB drives and SD Media cards.  I’ve only used it with a thumbdrive so far, but it has played MPEG 2 and Xvid videos perfectly.  The MPEG quality was DVD, so I don’t know what more you’d want.  The Xvids played with less quality, but that’s what you’d expect.

I was pleased with the remote as it ranked well with other digital video players I’ve used.  It doesn’t have the kitchen sink, but it’s responsive and allows for pausing, fast forwarding, etc.

Given the ability of playing videos using something with no moving parts makes this an great device for many display possibilities.  Think continuous gallery, kiosk, in-store and in-office displays using an inexpensive LCD Monitor.

I should point out that while I played videos from both SD cards and USB Thumbdrives, the KWorld Media Player also supports USB based hard drives such as the Western Digital Passport Series.  This opens up some very exciting possibilities.

Lastly, I was surprised that it includes the ability to copy and delete files on / off the devices.  This may allow one to copy images/videos off of an SD card from your digital camera onto either a USB Thumbdrive or a portable hard drive, all without a PC.  (you’d still need a display device like a TV or VGA montor, both of which the KWorld supports!)

The included software is yet another bonus as are the cables.

The menuing system is primitive at best.

Navigating a directory of videos is slow as it wants to preview the videos as you scroll past.  Furthermore, I was out and out surprised that the “preview” in the little preview window goes on and on, for the length of the video!  (sans audio)

It uses some kind of proprietary plug for the video, a 1-in and 5-out affair.  I wouldn’t want to lose this plug!  I’d be afraid to find out how much a replacement would cost!

SOME BELLS AND WHISTLES GO MISSING

There is no slow motion playback.  The common DVD options of skipping to a given point in a video and looping given selected A/B points are missing. At this price, however, its understandable.  Furthermore, other such portable media readers lack these advanced features.

While it supports WMAudio, it does NOT support MS Window Media Video (WMV) format.  It’s wide support outside of that, however, makes up for the absence.  It also does not playback hi-def Xvid videos.

The audio support seems to be thin as well, not supporting OGG or WAV.

Music and picture files were not tested, but it promises to play music at the same time while playing a show of pictures in a given directory.  Going back to the kiosk display suggestion above, this unit can find itself used in many ways.

Excerpts from the Kworld website:

Playback in Multi-Format (Video: Mpeg 1/2, AVI, DIVX, XVID, RMVB, RM, DAT, VOB; Audio: MP3, WMA; Photo: JPEG, BMP, PNG)

Supports YPbPr Output at 720p (VGA 1024 x 768)

For the price and the features, this is solid purchase and I would recommend it for easy viewing of downloaded content.

FOUR OUT OF FIVE STARS.

Easy Image Modifier by InspireSoft

This little program lets you change the size of your images, easily making easy-to-email copies of those megapixel sized pictures you’ve been taking.

It offers many options.  You can change the dimension of your pictures (by pixel or percentage), rename it and also choose to convert the format to JPG, PNG or BMP.

It includes several more features but doesn’t get complicated.  These other features include optional removal of image metadata which is stored in your pictures, customizable JPG compression levels, and more.

I LOVE the fact that Easy Image Modifier is a standalone application and does not require “installation”.

IT’S FREE, not some limited trial version, but totally FREE!

TwinSeas Rating: 85/100

Consider how ironic this is.

Back in the days of Windows 2000, one needed just a simple serial number to install Windows and you were good to go.  When XP was introduced, however, the serial number was still required, but it was also required to either register online in 30 days or get an authorization code on the phone or Windows would stop working.

This added precaution prevented people from having multiple computers, buying one copy of Windows and installing the same copy on all the PC.  This new scheme was well known for its problems however.  If one didn’t register, then found themselves outside the reach of a phone, their computer would become useless.  Many people, who happened to use multiple computers by themselves (like me!), were forced to buy additional copies of Windows.  I use and recommend Linux for PCs for many people which only need that free operating system  Windows XP also required re-registration if one changed certain types of hardware, such a upgrading their CPU.

The very technology that Microsoft used to inconvenience millions of paying customers was STOLEN!

So far this is all a civil matter and not a criminal one. The law does provide for criminal penalties in addition to any civil judgement that this case may render.

We have had a very good experience with using WordPress for our last two websites.  We look forward to the wealth of plug-ins and other things which the WordPress community has to offer.

We still recommend and support Drupal for more advanced needs.

Welcome!