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 on the dev version of google chrome since 2.x. I don’t mind a few bugs here and there, and for the most part I get to contribute. Since Chrome has finally released extension support there have been a few great ones that I need, and some that just don’t exist yet. I’m gonna go over a few of them here.

1)  
LastPass; Multi browser, multi platform, and the last pass you’ll ever need. This simple to use extension works on nearly every browser, syncs between them all, cloud based so it works on multiple computers, and best of all is free. There is a subscription model for $1 a day. It includes extra features like, iPhone and Android applications, Ad free, and Yubikey support. I hear a Palm WebOS version is in the making. FYI, you should always build secure passwords.

2)
Xmarks; Now that you’re passwords are sync’d you you probably want your bookmarks sync’d across browsers too. Xmarks is your program. Also based on a cloud platform, it allows you to keep your bookmarks sync’d across computers and browsers. As with Lastpass it has a web interface and sharing with friends.

3)

Web of Trust or WOT; is a great extension for finding those shady sites. Now Chrome is great at detecting phishing sites, but WOT extension adds little colored icons next to each link on your search page and gmail. It gives you a better view of sites to just outright avoid. You can also read what others had to say about it.

4)

Adblock; If you’re a Firefox user then you probably know what Adblock is. If not, then it does exactly what its named. Blocks Ads. I however do not use it. I”m sure its a great extension but I like a more system wide approach. I use Privoxy. Its a small application that is basically a pass through proxy, it listens on local host, and you just point your browsers to it. It then filters out anything that passes through it.

5)

Google Quick Scroll; Have you ever been searching for something and you get to a page, but you can’t seem to find it on the page? Here comes Google Quick Scroll to save the day. Basically the way it works is when you click on a link from a Google search page, if relevant enough it dumps to you the right place on the page and shows you a box. Its a great simple little addon, that in my opinion should just be built into the browser. However since there people who use chrome, but don’t use Google search, I could see how this might be a conflict. Anyway back to this plugin, it uses Google’s Magic to decide when the quick box should be shown.  Somehow it does seem to be there when I’m looking for it, and not when I don’t need it.

Misc Extensions:
There are tons of plugins out there, and more every day, The few others I use are;

• Quick Calendar
• Stumble Upon
• Cooliris
• KeyboardNavigation

Call for Development:

So I’ve been thinking about how I’d use the web more and more, I know Chrome is a baby in the Browser war, but its already its approaching its terrible twos and going to wreak havoc all over your virtual house.  I’m sure there is already a plugin for Firefox, but what I’m looking for is an extension that can be a notepad per sites. I already use Chromepad, but its one pad for everything. I would love to be able to put notes per site I’ve visted.

In a previous post I discussed my Media Center setup. After some time with my Logitech Harmony 880 Remote Control, I’ve been frustrated, annoyed, and ultimately happy with my remote. I’ve had this remote for about 2 months now. I picked it up at Costco for about $119.00, and was very excited to rip it open and play. Since I got it mid day, and I’m an instant gratification kind of person I ripped the box open and wanted to play with it. I held back, especially since I was at work, Its not like I was going to control anything in my office. So I put it on the charger. Great choice so I could play with it at home without having that hidden concern of breaking the manuals rules of a full charge before using.

When I first set it up, I thought I’d have it configured, and done. Never having to touch it again. I spent some time thinking I knew exactly how I wanted the remote and what activities I want where. Boy was I wrong. Here is my advice to using this remote.

Think about all the devices you have, TV, Stereo, Game Consoles, Computers, DVD players, whatever you have that you may want to do with a touch of a button. for me, I have TV, TV w/ Stereo for surround sound, Media Center, DVDs, and XBox. I setup all my devices to turn on each component that was dependent on the other.

For Media Center I had to turn on the TV, and the Stereo. After about 2 months of this setup I started to realize the fustrations I had with this remote. First I enjoy switching between tv and the media center all the time, mainly because sometimes I like to check on a download, or search a webpage. Using an activity for this was not really acceptable. My media PC Is always on, and having the activity turn everything off to turn other things on was just kind of time consuming. So on every single activity I modified the display screens left side buttons. They were the devices attached to the TV. HDMI1 HDMI2 and so on, but labeled a little smarter like TV, XBOX, PC, and well thats it. This way no matter which activity I was in, I could switch between inputs. I also didn’t like the fact that the remote turned off my PC. So I modified the Media center activity and Device options and set it never turn off this device. That has made things much much better.

The software is great. Its a mesh of an application and web based. You can tell it uses a lot of syncing with the web, which is good so you never loose your settings, however if the site fails or goes away I’m not sure how this will affect the remote in the long run. Being such a technology whore however, I’ll probably have replaced it by then.

Pros: Great battery life, syncs with PC, has a help button for GF’s who offer to make you some water for breakfast. Rechargeable, and is backlit based on movement.

Cons: I wish the Display was an OLED, and it had RF. Audio feedback would be nice. I would love to have a row of hardware device buttons, like TV, PC, and Stereo that change the soft buttons at the top, instead of having to hit devices.

Bottom line? I love the device, its a perfect fit for my technology driven home. I recommend it.