He Who Hesitates is Sometimes Better Off

I have three Android devices. I’m happy with two of them.

After getting a Samsung Captivate last fall, following up with a Motorola Xoom two months ago, I bought a Barnes & Noble Nook last week.

The Xoom was supposed to be my e-reader. While the iPad had electronic versions of all the publications I’m interested in as well as app versions of both the Nook and Amazon Kindle, I was bothered by the fuzzy-looking text. The Xoom offered sharper text and both of the e-reading apps. I hoped my publications were coming, heartened by the fact that a version of Wall Street Journal was already available for the 7-inch Galaxy Tab and Conde Nast’s announcement last winter that the New Yorker and Wired were on their way to Android tablets by this spring. As of today, none of those publications is available on 10-inch Androids.

So after years of dismissing e-ink readers as tablet wannabes, I finally bought one. I went with the Nook over the Kindle because of its smaller screen, longer batter life and more advanced screen. I’ve been pleasantly surprised. E-ink really is much easier on the eyes. And having a single-purpose device allows me to truly read the text without the distraction of knowing that e-mail, Web sites and games are a click away.

If I were to do it all over again, I would have bought the Nook now and waited for the next generation of tablets, both Android and iOS. Lesson learned.

A gift from my daughter

Elena was ecstatic to give me this when I got home from work today. Andrea says Elena tried to jump off of a picnic table at the park to grab this for me from the tree branch it was attached to.

At her age, that's more work (and risk) than I've put into any of her presents.

My first 5K!

In the midst of a winter funk this new year, I resolved to exercise at least 30 minutes, three times a week and lose weight. I settled on running – no fancy equipment, no time-consuming classes, no expensive gym membership. And with the treadmill, I can do it rain or shine.

To motivate myself, I trained toward the goal of doing a 5K. And today was my first official race. Here are my results: http://runkeeper.com/user/kenspencerbrown/activity/34558584. Not a great pace, but it was steady. And in my defense, my knee hurts like crazy.

More importantly, I completed a goal (a few, actually). I’m still a newbie, no doubt. But I haven’t been this thin since college and never this fit in my life.

I can’t wait to start training for a 10K.

Forgive the cliche...

But I'm citing T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land this month:

"APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding 
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing 
Memory and desire, stirring 
Dull roots with spring rain."

I won't claim to have mastered this classic, but man, these opening lines sure seem to fit this year.

The Tweet Escape

While I've posted "deep thoughts" and political diatribes on Facebook before, I've notice myself using the social network less and less for serious discussion and more for personal, noncontroversial content. Most of my political content now goes on Twitter, despite the microblogging service's 140-character limit on messages. And while I find political posts on Facebook annoying, I enjoy reading them on Twitter -- even the crazy ones.

Am I the only the only one doing this -- and finding it counterintuitive? Shouldn't the silly stuff be short & sweet and the complex policy arguments have lots of room to expand?

Another technology dilemma: tablet edition

About a year ago, I wrote about my difficulties in choosing a new cell phone. I ended up with the Android-powered Samsung Captivate, and with the possible exceptions of no physical keyboard and an excruciatingly long upgrade cycle to Froyo, I couldn't be happier with it.

Now I want to buy a tablet. The iPad 2 is the default choice. It has a commanding lead in the apps I care about (think online newspapers and magazines), a nice size and shape, superior battery life, and a price that's inexplicably better than similarly powered tablets.

So why not just buy one? First, rumors of a sharper-resolution model this summer makes me want to wait a few months -- the main appeal of a lightweight tablet for me is e-reading. At the same time, I want to see what Android alternatives might be available by then. One possibility is the Nook Color, which is supposed to be getting a big upgrade this month. While I don't know whether I can live with the measly 7-inch screen, the idea of a low-cost Android tablet appeals to me. I do think Android is going to dominate the mobile market in the long run, and dealing with just one interface would be easier. (I already find myself looking for Android buttons on my wife's iPad.)

I wish someone could refute the iPad 3 rumor and just let me buy something already.

The more things change...

My rebuttal to anyone who says newspapers will survive because people need something to read on the toilet.

My wife’s awesome Page One illustration

Well-known graphics-design blogger Charles Apple mentions Andrea’s homage to the St. Pepper’s album cover for a San Jose Mercury News story about friendship. She also did an interactive online version (it’s near the bottom of the Web page.) This marks the second time he’s praised her work.

I’m happy to say that she included a Star Wars reference (and even a Star Trek one).

She’s been doing some great work. A page-design class I recently took with Poynter featured one of her illustrations as an example of good design. I was proud to point out to my classmates that I was married to the graphics artist –- it was sort of like being at a concert and being able to tell everyone that I’m dating the lead singer.

In an uncanny coincidence, I can also report that she’s not bad at “The Beatles: Rock Band.”

The curse of being Ken Brown

“Kenneth” is the 17th most common first name in the English language. “Brown” is the 5th most common last name. Though my family calls me “Spencer” my legal name is the oh-so-common “Ken Brown.” That’s Ken like the doll, Brown like the color.

I was one of three Ken Browns in a community Karate class. A Ken Brown works at a rival newspaper (he was even promoted to an editor position not too long after I was!). And scores of other Ken Browns roam cyberspace.

Every few days, I get e-mail meant for one of them. I used to tell senders of their mistake, but it got to be too much work. But I can’t help reading the messages, and so I’ve learned a lot about these sobriquetical doppelgangers.

Now, a few of these may tie into the same Ken:

• One is a teacher who accepts class assignments via e-mail (I still do inform the students of their mistake in these cases, but judging from the quality of their work, I doubt my good deed will help their grade much.) He also appears to be looking for a school administrator job.
• One wants to lose weight (he joined Weight Watchers). Or maybe he’s just trying to pick up people struggling with their weight.
• One is an architect or works at an architectural firm.
• One is collecting proposals for a home project. This may be the architect. If I see any good bids for a new roof, I may reply.
• One is married to a woman named Ann, and GoldPointsPlus.com is very excited to welcome them as members.
• One has a thing for Jim Carey tattoos.
• One goes by Alicia. I still haven’t figured out the backstory on that one.

That’s just from the legitimate e-mail. Who knows how much of my spam was actually meant for another Ken, or for that matter, Alicia.

What if any of these people are getting my e-mail?

A PC guy reviews the iPad

Though I’m a longtime Tablet PC user who sees the iPad as more of luxury device than a necessity, I bought one for my Mac-loving wife and got some quality time with the device. Here are my first impressions:

• It’s very slick, with a smooth, snappy interface and nice industrial design.
• Browsing the Web is enjoyable on the iPad, thanks to a big screen, awesome battery life and instant-on startup.
• Typing on the iPad’s on-screen keyboard isn’t as fast as using a real keyboard, but faster than I expected.
• The iPad is lighter than any tablet device I’ve owned (including this Vadem Clio – talk about an early adopter!), but even a 1-pound device gets heavy fast when you’re holding it up in your hand.
• Not having Flash is not as big of a deal as I thought it would be. Many sites are already working around it, and even YouTube videos embedded on other Web sites know when to switch to a non-Flash version.
• As noted by famed Web interface guru Jakob Nielsen, app interfaces are wildly inconsistent. A lot of experimentation is taking place, which is good and bad – it will lead to interface innovation but a lot of user confusion until designers begin to coalesce around some common interface conventions. Just like the early days of the Web. 
• The iPad doesn’t work on Macs running OS 10.4 or earlier. So my wife’s PowerPC-based computer is too old, even though the iPad works fine with older Windows-based PCs. Does Apple hate its most loyal customers, or do its customers meekly take whatever Steve Jobs gives?
• iTunes is a bloated POS. Truly.

Go Fish: Apple sells 1 million iPads

I have to admit that part of me felt toward Apple and the iPad like former Disney CEO Michael Eisner felt toward for Pixar and “Finding Nemo” – that a less-than-stellar reception would serve as a wake up call for the company.

But after 1 million units sold, maybe the device has legs after all.

My cell-phone dilemma

As pleased as I’ve been with my 2.5-year-old HTC Kaiser cell phone (also known as the AT&T Tilt), it’s time to start planning my next phone purchase, which I expect to happen sometime this fall. For now, it’s a close race between the 4th-generation iPhone, the best Android phone with a keyboard available at the time and the best Windows 7 phone with a keyboard.

First, a history: I bought the phone in November 2007 in a $150 sale. This was just a few months after the iPhone launch and was clearly the right choice. Let’s remember that unlike the Tilt, the original iPhone lacked third-party apps (let alone multitasking), GPS, voice dialing and 3G data (with laptop tethering). Neither Android nor WebOS existed. Windows Mobile is still among the most open and hackable platforms around. I can download applications from anywhere, and developers don’t need approval from anyone. For me, the pros outweigh the clunky Windows Mobile 6.1 interface.

I believe in holding on to purchases as long as I can, so despite an explosion of innovation in mobile phones, I still use the Tilt. Even the AT&T support people are shocked. If Microsoft hadn’t made clear with Windows Phone 7 that my handset is officially a dead-end technology, I’d keep it another year. But I have a feeling that Google’s recently updated Maps app will be the last software update this phone ever sees.

So now the dilemma. I love the Windows Phone 7 interface, but I fear that Microsoft is trying to out-Apple Apple with a closed app store. If I have to choose between two closed ecosystems, I’ll go with the one that features the vastly larger ecosystem of apps and accessories. Apple is the safe choice, but I really, really want need a physical keyboard. Android looks promising, but the platform appears increasingly fractured, even worse than Windows Mobile was with two different OS flavors and multiple screen/keyboard configurations. WebOS looks increasingly like a dead-end, and nothing about the BlackBerry interface excites me.

On top of that, what’s with everyone producing phones with no removable battery or add-in storage? Apple might get away with it, but they’re cons, not pros in any iPhone evaluation.

UPDATE: It appears I may have dismissed Palm’s WebOS prematurely. HP is buying the company, which may give it a fighting chance. I’m just glad I don’t have to buy a phone right now.

I remember playing this game when it was called “Tribes.”

Halo, the seriously overrated Xbox franchise, is getting jet packs, making it strikingly similar to one of my all-time favorite games, “Starsiege: Tribes.”

Not that it’s a bad thing.

Things my 2-year-old daughter will probably never do

• Rent a movie from a video-rental store
• Purchase a compact disc
• Dial a phone number (in the original sense of the word)
• Use a non-VoIP landline phone
• Deal with a utility’s meter-reader

Am I missing anything?

Elena as a flower girl

Courier: Microsoft's dual-screen tablet "book"

This looks seriously awesome.

in reference to: Courier: First Details of Microsoft's Secret Tablet - Microsoft courier tablet - Gizmodo (view on Google Sidewiki)

Why all the hate on the Google Toolbar?

But maybe SideWiki should be a standalone Firefox extension.

in reference to: Google Sidewiki Is a Universal Commenting System for the Web - Google Sidewiki - Lifehacker (view on Google Sidewiki)

I’ll bet you didn’t know I wrote a book about Tango dancing

Open publication - Free publishing - More tango

 

It's true. As part of a technical writing program I’m close to finishing, I had to write a user manual, and the instructor assigned us topics she thought the students would know nothing about.

And she was right.

For the record, I don’t recommend producing long, carefully formatted documents in Microsoft Word.

Elena wakes up at midnight to make a phone call

This “conversation” was going on for 5-8 minutes before we started recording.

Proof that the Wiggles make kids go insane