Illusions25 picturesFeb 11, 2010

 I put together another one for the Nook, this one is entitled Illusions and features various eye tricks and some images from Escher. Some images had to be cropped to fit the size of the nook screen but I think overall it came out pretty good. There are 25 in all and its available on the nook page at Nook Project Page.

feel free to check it out, along with the first one I did entitled Quotes.

If you have an idea of a pack you’d like to see let me know and I’ll throw something together. You can use the contacts button above, or send me an email at exst...@exstatica.net. I think the next pack in a few weeks will be Movies. It will be posters of movies that are based on books.

Enjoy

*Update*: You may visit the Nook project page that has additional screensavers. Nook Projects

I decided to throw together a pack of authors and their quotes.

Nook Screensavers19 picturesJan 5, 2010

You may download the entire pack here.

To load this onto your nook, just plug it into your computer and open the drive labeled nook, then extract the folder to the my screensavers folder.

You may have to reboot your nook in order for it to detect the new folder. To reboot your nook just hold down the power button for about 5-10 seconds until the screen turns off completely. Once its powered off, go ahead and hold down the power button for a few seconds. It will take about 2 minutes to start up.

You may skip this step however if your nook does detect the files, you can check this by going to the home screen, and then to the settings folder. Once you’re there go to display and then screen savers. Choose the one called Quotes.

If you have more suggestions for additional authors you’d like to see let me know and I’ll be sure to add them to the collection, just either send me an email at m...@exstatica.net or leave a comment with the author you’d like to see. It doesn’t have to be a new one, or an old one, it could be any author.

If you have any other ideas for additional screensavers or backgrounds feel free to let me know, I’d be happy to throw some together.

Thanks.

I thought it would be a good idea to post a review of the first few days of using the Nook, that way I not only have a history of what bugs me and got fixed, but also things that I got used to.

I’m a new e-reader. I’ve never owned one, I used to read on a cell phone 4 or 5 years ago, and then just went to plain books.

I’m reading,  Makers by Cory Doctorow.

I describe as, “An industrial view of the broken culture that hackers and geeks alike rebuild from the ashes of a collapsed technology paradise.”.

I’m sure there are plenty of summaries out there, but to put it simply its about the new age dotcom bust, and the culture of hackers and gadget geeks making it on their own, taking old technology and reinventing it.

So far I’m about halfway through it. The book is seperated into parts. I’m in the middle of Part 2. Its a little weird starting part two as it has some of the same characters, and the its continuing on, but it leaves you with this sense of waiting for some characters to return.

So far though I’ve had trouble putting it down, and find it interesting to say the least. I downloaded it off his site as its free, If he had only charged for it, the book would have been sort of ironic with the content and then the commercialization. Either way I think more and more authors should do this. Not that I wouldn’t buy a book, but if he charged a few bucks for it. I’d have no problem buying it in a heart beat.

Onto the Nook, since this is the only book I’ve read so far, I’ve broken down a few issues I have with it.

Annoyances:

1. Jump to page

There is currently no way to jump to a page number, only chapters, some books do not have the chapters broken out, but there are page numbers (nook page numbers) that you can see, yet there is no way to jump to a specific page number.

2. Page turning buttons.

This whole bottom set to go right, and top set to go left is kind of stupid if you ask me. When I first held the device I thought to go back I’d just hit the other side on the bottom. Apparently I was wrong since it takes you forward a page, Its going to be the first hack I write for this thing. Just doesn’t seem very logical.

3. Cover Flow

Books you buy show up on the tiny display  when you hit Show Covers, but not books you loaded yourself, even if they have thumbnails and covers and all that.

4. Page Refresh

This one is not that bad, I’m not sure if I’ve gotten used to it, or its speading up as I get more and more in the book. But I think it could still use a little faster page refresh.

Likes:

1. Battery life

The battery life seems great, Although I’ve only had it a few days, I charged it over night. I’ve been reading a book pretty much 2-3 hours on the weekends, and during the week about 1 hour in the mornings, and an hour at night before going to bed. Its still at 86%. It hasn’t had a full charge since Saturday. Pretty good.

2. Readability

I was amazed at how easy the screen is to read. The pages are formatted correctly, the text is easy to see. Although I think I’ll need to invest in a reading light. I wish it was backlit.

3. Subscriptions

I subscribe to the Los Angeles Times, I can read the paper whenever I want. Go 3g!

4. Customization

Customizing this thing was a little fun. First I named by Nook “Breakfast”. Then I created a background for my favorite book, you can download it below. I’m still working on screensavers and I’ll get to it eventually.

Thats all for now, I’ll be sure to post another as time goes on.

I’ve been in the market for an e-reader. I love reading books, but what do you do with them when you’re done? This is pretty much the entire point of this post. Its about sharing books the huge downfall of this LendMe technology. I’ll get into it all in just a minute, but when I’m done reading a book usually I give it away to someone. The sad part is once I do, I no longer own this book. So when someone else I’ve negotiated verbal warfare with has not read a book that I have. I would love to plant said ammunition and get them to join my side. I already gave my book away. I used the word lend in the beginning of this post. No one really lends anyone a book. You usually give it away in the hopes that its going to get passed down to someone else. So onto this new reader I have preordered, the Barnes & Noble Nook.

This device looks fantastic. I’ve been scouting lots of different readers. The kindle looks like something apple made in 1981. The Sony reader looks pretty good, but I played with one in Best Buy and it just was way to big.

So Here is the Nook. Full 3G + Wifi. Not to mention its backed by B&N. Now let me make something clear. I don’t work for B&N, nor have they given me anything. ( I wish they would).

Its not too big, Its not too small. Its got a small color screen at the bottom you can use mostly for navigation. The best thing I think is it runs on android, which means they will issue over the air updates for this device. I’ll be honest I buy books. I know what a concept right? I can’t read them on my computer, nor on my phone.

Navigation seems pretty neat. Includes an onscreen keyboard. I would actually pay a premium if I could use a web browser on this device. I know its not color, in the upper part, but the lower part might be just good enough to browse some pages and read up on Google reader.

Rumor also has it that this thing will be able to get books from Google Books. Thats suppose to be a massive library. I’m not sure how realistic that is since Google wants to do its own book store. Which would directly compete with Barnes & Noble.

The nook has this fantastic feature called LendMe

With our new LendMe™ technology, you can now share from nook to nook. But it doesn’t stop there. Starting Nov. 30th, you can lend to and from any device with the Barnes & Noble eReader app, including PC, Mac OS®, BlackBerry®, iPhone™ and iPod® touch. All you need to know is your friend’s email address. You can lend many of your eBooks one time for a maximum of 14 days. When you use our LendMe™ technology, you will not be able to read your eBook while it is on loan, but you always get it back.

This is a fantastic idea, but severely limited. 14 days? Why not 30? Oh and you can only share a book once. What kind of crap is that? Here is how I think they should change the LendMe service.

1. 30 day lending period
2. Lend the book as many times as you want, with only one lend at a time
3. You can take the book back at any time.
4. If someone lends me a book, Then they take it back. I get notified that I no longer have the book and have the option to buy it right there.
5. The ability to gift a digital book to someone
6. the ability to purchase a book and have it shipped to someone.

I personally would be not only buying books for myself, but I would sometimes buy a book for someone else. I can’t see how publishers are concerned about this. I mean the book is DRM, you can’t copy it. If I lend it to someone I think its only fair that they can use the book. I mean what is the difference if I go purchase a book and give it to someone after I’m done reading it. In the end. I really really hope they change the LendMe program. I think it would be in there best interest to do so. Not to mention I think it would have the same effect that piracy has on music.