Guess what came in the mail yesterday?  An Amazon Kindle courtesy of Salado Press (I’m currently working on a project that involves converting their books over to a digital format for all major e-Reading devices).  Only $79.00 for an ad supported model or $109 ad-free version.  The advertisements show as a screen saver and do not interrupt reading.  This 6” E Ink Display reader with built in Wi-Fi is simply impressive!  Weighing less than 6 ounces and beautifully designed for functionality, this little unit is incredible.  Let’s look at it more in detail….

This is how I received the package from UPS.  A simple very small and lightweight box that could pass for a thin paperback book with a strip in the front to tear to open the box….

Which when opens reveals the Kindle!  Of course, when I first opened it I was a bit shocked as it showed an instruction screen (and not my Dallas Sushi offer in the photo above) telling me to plug it into the USB port of my computer.  Initially I thought that was a sticker overlay and I tried peeling that off…until it dawned on me that after removing the sticky plastic screen protector, why would they put another sticker on?  It turns out the Kindle comes to you charged and already on.  In addition, it is pre-registered to your Amazon.com account.

Taking out the Kindle reveals the micro USB cord used for charging.  Just like an Apple iPod, it does not come with an AC adapter.  But that’s a simple fix by going to a local retailer like Micro Center and getting one.  After using the Kindle for several hours, my initial thoughts are:

• Even without a touch screen, the Kindle’s buttons are well positioned and it was intuitive to use.  Simple on screen prompts to press the keyboard button and using the directional pad got me quickly connected to Wi-Fi.
• It was easy to buy and get books for the Kindle. 
• The unit syncs very quickly even when using the Kindle email to deliver books directly to the device.  I still haven’t found out how often it checks but it feels like push email but with books being pushed out and synchronized.
• The page turn buttons on both sides are a welcome.  It makes it very easy to navigate even with one hand (depends of course on your hand size)!  My mom which has slightly smaller hands can still operate the device with one hand although not comfortably.
• I wish they would have synchronized the time and setup time zones during the initial setup.
• Incredibly fast startup times!  If you press the power button it will switch from your book to Amazon showing you local ads.  However when you hold down the power button the  for about 7 seconds, the unit does go off.  Pressing the power button again powers the device up virtually instantaneously.  This is a vast improvement to the Sony Reader that I have been using.
• I wish they added a button for bookmarks.  Without a button it takes 5 key presses to add one.  Not too bad, but that was one thing I really like about my old Sony E Ink Reader.
• The unit has many options for font sizes which is simply WONDERFUL!
• When plugged into the computer, it has a little over 1GB of usable storage – that’s plenty of space for a lot of books!

I am very impressed with this entry model Kindle.  The ads shown so far are semi relevant to me.  I find it to be a nice touch wonder why anyone would pay the additional $30 for an ad-free version.

I’m  very happy with the Kindle so far.  This pencil thin eBook device is lightweight and easy to use.  Stay tuned as we’ll soon talk more about e-Readers and how to make the most of them.

Coming from a retail background, there was one thing I do miss – my employee discount.  Always being the bargain hunter, I search for news ways to stretch my dollar.  Considering all the app purchases I make these days on both my Mac as well as my iOS devices, I always try to keep a stock of iTunes credit readily available.  Buying iTunes gift cards  at a whopping 20% off is like an employee discount off the entire iTunes store.  You can now get a  $15 to $100 from BestBuy.  These cards are delivered electronically so you’ll have them ready for use rather quickly.  Coming from Best Buy, be sure to use eBates or FatWallet including Best Buy’s Reward Zone program and a rewards credit card to maximize the deal to the extreme.

Enjoy!

Welcome to 2012 fellow JAMMers!  2012 brings in a slew of new technology such as Ultra Books, 3D video recording and photography, and much much more.  This year we are looking forward to showing you DXG’s latest 3D camcorder, numerous app reviews such as Proloquo2Go text to speech, and much much more!  Happy new year everyone – and yes, we were a bit late to return from the partying as it’s already 7 days into the year.

Asphalt 6: Adrenaline is a racing game with excellent visuals.  I am currently downloading it and have not had the chance to try it out myself yet.  The average rating is 5 stars out of 7,782 in the app store –impressive!  Grab is while it’s free!  It’s available for the iPhone as well as the iPad.

Can’t think of what to get someone during this special time of the year?  Let them choose from the iTunes store by getting them a $50 iTunes gift card for only $40 from Walmart.com – they’ll be able to choose movies, music, and apps (iOS and Mac).  Limit 2 for this great offer.  Use Fatwallet or EBates to get additional discounts of 2%!  Savings to the max – I’m stoked!

People seem to take things way too far.  Check out this rebuttal by Chris Spera:

The news of the recommended ban of all in-vehicle mobile device use really just hit me the wrong way. I’ve published a response to it on Byte (yes, as in BYTE Magazine from back in the day).  You can see it at the link, noted below.

The NTSB Recommended In-Vehicle Cell Phone Use Ban – Technology Can Solve the Problem
Most responses to the NTSB’s recommended Nation-wide ban on in-vehicle cell phone use fails to do one important thing – address the root cause of problem.

http://www.informationweek.com/byte/commentary/personal-tech/smart-phones/232300537

GoodReader, the app we just reviewed got updated with Support for the  AFP Protocol.  Support for AFP, the standard protocol which all Mac computers use to share folders on a local network, makes it easier to connect from GoodReader to a Mac for sharing files between the desktop and mobile device.  GoodReader users have already been able to exchange files between their iOS devices and their Macs using other protocols, such as WebDAV, FTP and SFTP, but supporting AFP makes the process easier than ever because it is the native protocol for Mac OS and requires practically zero set-up. Users simply turn on file-sharing and they are ready to share files between their Macs and mobile devices for viewing in GoodReader.  Not only is AFP the Mac OS standard protocol for sharing folders on a local network, it is also used by Apple Time Capsule, a 1, 2 or 3 TB standalone hard drive with WiFi access that Mac users often use to wirelessly backup their Macs, as well as by a number of other 3rd-party network-attached storage drives. GoodReader’s support for AFP now makes it easier for users to exhange files with such drives directly from GoodReader, without using a computer.

The new version of GoodReader also makes it easier to find servers on a local WiFi network for wirelessly sharing files. GoodReader’s “Local Servers (via WiFi)” section now uses Bonjour to find local AFP, SFTP, FTP, WebDAV and HTTP servers automatically. The update also includes a host of other user interface improvements, including the ability to publish several iCloud files at once, and the new “Back to reading” button, which instantly takes the reader to the last read file, saving from the hassle of finding the file in the folder hierarchy.

The Oregon Trail used to be one of my favorite games when I was in grade school.  I got to play it on the Apple ][.  Seeing this game in the App store led me heading out to the wild west to build a town starting with only a shanty house.  The game is quite fun and majorly addicting.  I’ve been playing for about a week now and I’m up to level 36.  Continue reading to find out what makes this game so good as well as some things on the darker side.  Oregon Trail – It’s time to go west!

OregonSettler (the name you’ll get on your iOS homescreen) has a cute storyline of you going west to start a new life.  Instead of traveling the trail, you’ll continue on to build your settlement.  You’ll gain levels which enable you to have more “energy” which is the time based factor to prevent people like me from going ape and playing non-stop.  There are plenty of things to build your town…starting with your first house and then planting some crops by building some farm plots.

Let’s look at the resources.  There are 5 types:

Energy:  You are limited in actions only by “energy” which you get a full bar of when you level up (complete enough actions to become promoted with greater strength and thus the ability to do more.  Energy naturally refills by 1 every 3 minutes.  Energy can also be bought by paying real U.S. dollars for various amounts.

Coins:  Coins are collected from homes and businesses.  The amount and time it takes to get coins depends on each individual building that you build.  You’ll be using these to pay for most in game stuffs.  You can also buy coins through the in-game shop with real U.S. dollars.

Dollars: These are the primary currency which you start off with a small pile up and the only two ways to get more is by watching advertisements to get 1 unit (you can only do this once per day) or to buy it by trading in real U.S. dollars for the virtual stuff.  There are a number of items in the game which can ONLY be purchased with dollars.  They can also be used to speed up production and can help get you out of a pinch in various random events.

Food:  Everybody needs to eat – and this game is no different.  This is what you’ll “pay” your workers in the various businesses.   You’ll also be using large quantities to make medicines and other in game goods which are usually prerequisites to other items used in the game.  Get food by planting crops or getting them from animals (both domestic or wild).  On an odd note, you can get food from a domesticated donkey….somehow this doesn’t sound very appetizing….

Wood:  The stuff buildings are made out of!  You’ll  need large quantities for building.  Go chop down some trees and dig out some stumps to get wood.  Usually you’ll get only 8 or 12 units per harvest action.  If you want them to grow back, don’t chop the tree to the ground.  Trees have 7 times they can be harvested.  When it drops down to 1, you should let it grow back unless you want to clear the land…in which case you’ll be able to get one more harvest out of it by taking the stump.

As you begin your journey, you’ll be presented with many quests which guide you into building things.  You do not have to build only when they tell you to build.   Have fun and experiment – this is very free form and reminds me of Sim City or StarCraft where you get to build your base.  Only this time the enemies are in-game disease (yes, your settlers can get cholera, broken legs, and typhoid fever) and some horrible game crashes which I’ll go into more detail later.

As you’re building, you’ll find many decorations in the game.  These decorations provide various production bonuses  when placed in the vicinity of a business buildings.  You’ll be getting a lot of seasonal downloadable content (DLC) which extends the game with various wintery gear such as candy cane forests, nutcracker soldiers, and mistletoe street lamps.

Game Play Tips:

- Save your dollars!  These can be used to get you out of a pinch like when 5 of your townspeople are sick and time is not on your side.  You’ll find it easy to accidentally spend dollars by mis-tapping  thereby accidentally speeding up production.

- Be careful when hunting, as it can become a tapping frenzy.  There is a button that will allow you to hide buildings which will let you easily click on the animal you are trying to hunt.

- If you accidentally start an action, that action can be canceled by tapping on the “stop” sign on the bottom right of the screen as long as the action hasn’t been completed.

- You can queue up tasks and destinations.  This is great for harvesting and planting.

- You can move people around.  This is great for lining up your townsfolk when epidemics hit and you have to triage them making sure that those with the shortest mission timers get completed first.

- You can move buildings around.  You don’t have to sell it and rebuild.  Build once, move and rearrange as you wish.

- Buy land to expand.  You can only chop down trees and perform actions on property that you own when you are playing your own town.

- When helping a neighboring town, be greedy.  You “help” them but you also get a cut of the profits.  As such, if you need coins, pick to help out at the most expensive businesses.  If you need food, help harvest the most expensive crops or domesticated animals.  If you need wood, go chop down their trees!  You can only perform 5 actions in a neighboring town each day.

- If you are needing food, try to plant what makes sense based on when you will next be playing.  Don’t waste your time on small things like chickens as they don’t generate enough food to be worth one action energy point.  For those that prefer to play hourly, try growing corn and potatoes.  For those that need “fast food” grow pumpkins.  If you are heading to bed, grow eggplant and cabbage as those will take much more time and can “grow” while you are sleeping.

- Fishing needs worms…you can build those after you build a workshop (yes, it sounds funny to build worms).

Ultimately this game is for fun – I just happen to be one of those who enjoys micromanagement and find pleasure in being efficient and hence I try to maximize everything.  Below you’ll see a picture of my town with all the crazy production of medical supplies.  This is the last screen shot I got before the game started crashing on me to where it is now unplayable as it crashes every time I try to perform an action.

Conclusion and Tough Times: This game is excellent and does require getting used to.  I recommend playing on an iPad rather than an iPod Touch as the game can be quite sensitive to buildings.  I am currently deleting this game off of my iPad as the game has gotten to a point where I can no longer play.  The game crashes every time I try to open it.  When trying to watch advertisements for free dollars, the game also crashed a lot.  The rewards system that rewards consecutive days of play is broke as it never goes past the second day.  I have been playing a week straight even waking up in the middle of the night to play my turns.  As such, I am disappointed after putting so much effort into a game to not be able to play.  If the programmers could correct those problems, they sure have a winner on there hands.  Until then, stay away from this game as it will make you very upset when things keep crashing and burning.  If you already have it, don’t delete it as you’ll end up back to level 1 if you’d like to give the developers a chance to fix the problems.

The app store is loaded with apps – from useless to useful.  There are some apps that are just ESSENTIAL and  GoodReader falls into this category.  I have not come across anything this useful for file management and viewing documents on my iPad as GoodReader.  Let’s dig deeper and see why GoodReader is a JAMM Essential!

The name GoodReader only hints at what this powerful app can do.  It certainly is a unified place for viewing documents such as PowerPoint, PDF, TXT, photos, and it also covers audio playback.  Previewing files in the “Preview Tab”, you can already see the first page of a document.  (Please note that for all screenshots that I have wiped out the file name of the PowerPoint file for privacy reasons).  Tapping on files on the left side will open them in the reader. 

Let’s look at this reader.  Multiple files can be opened simultaneously in the reader which supports tabs.  In the way of PDF files, GoodReader is a Swiss army knife.  You can adjust brightness, extract text (this is a beta feature), rotate all pages, view 2 pages simultaneously, annotate the PDF (you can find your annotations in the bookmarks section), crop the PDF, search the PDF, jump to page, and even print the file!  (Wow, that was a mouthful of features…)  To get the toolbars to show up after they auto hide when you are reading a document, swipe down with 3 fingers.

If you have a lot of files, then it would be very quick to search for the one that you need from the “Find Files” tab.  I only have a few files, this feature is not as useful.

In the “Manage Files” section, you’ll be able to copy, move, rename, create, protect, and ZIP files.  The interface is easy to use.  Just select the files you wish to manage from the left side and select the action that you want on the right side.  The ability to ZIP and unZIP files is extremely useful as I can immediately zip and email a file through the GoodReader interface.  Unfortunately, you cannot rename  the extension of a file.  I tried renaming a HTML to TXT so that I could view the source code, but this does not seem possible.  The interface makes it easy to select and mange files by copying locally.  We’ll get to moving files to other places when we talk about the “Connect to Servers” section.   GoodReader also supports data encryption which is great to lockdown files.

The “New Download” tab allows you to browse the web and save actual HTML files.  My only wish is that they would make it where if this is done on a picture that it will allow you to save just the picture.

This is the web browser view where you can download web pages.  Popups are not supported – I was hoping to see tabbed popups and the ability to have a tabbed experience like in Safari.

You can easily add or edit various locations in the “Connect to Servers” section.  On my own device, I was able to connect my iDisk, Dropbox, SugarSync, and FTP account.  It can also connect to mail servers, google docs, box.net, WebDAV, and SFTP servers.  I hope to see SpiderOak added in the future but as to all the majors, the server connections are pretty complete.

Here I am logged into my SugarSync account.  When I get to a folder where I can upload my files, then I’ll get the upload button (shown below)…

From here by clicking upload, I am presented with my documents again where I can choose and upload multiple files quickly and easily.

The little “Wi-Fi” button (circled in the photo above) is the part that thrills me the most.  This little gem allows you to upload via a web browser as GoodReader has its own built-in webserver.  You can do this as long as you are on the same network.  To add to the power, this address can be mapped as network drive providing the ultimate power for PC and Mac users to connect and send/receive files quickly and en masse.

Let’s go back one tab and view the “Photos” button.  This button allows you to access your camera roll.  By tapping on a photo, it will create a JPG copy of the photo.  You will not be able to modify or delete photos directly, but you can do anything you want to the copy that is created.  I have found that a very fast way to transfer my photos if I didn’t want to use iTunes would be to quickly tap through all photos (yes in this case it would be 80+ photos) and then use WiFi to transfer the photos to my PC.  It would be incredible if a feature could be added that would allow direct manipulation of the photo roll.

There are tons of settings available for GoodReader – consult the manual for in depth info.  Personally I would recommend setting the “Other Settings” to ask permission first before a WiFi transfer takes place.

This is the built in manual.   It would take a long time to go through everything.  As GoodReader 3 progresses, you’ll see things like “What’s New” which talks about adding support to RAR files as well as split archives.  If something doesn’t work, be sure to check out the “Known Issues” in the “Introduction” section where it lists limitations to opening DRM protected PDFs as well as password protected MS Office files to name a few.

Conclusion: What else can I say about this fabulous must have program?  It does so much and allows me not only pleasurable reading but also file management with the local storage as well as with remote servers.  I highly recommend it!]

Vital Statistics:

App Title: GoodReader
Version: 3.11.0
Publisher: Good.iWare
Publisher Website: http://www.goodreader.net
Price: $4.99
Availability: Apple App Store

What’s in the Box: You’ll find the phone, a 2GB Micro SD card, a USB A/C Adapter charger, Micro USB cable, wired hands free set (micro USB connection), some extra foam ear pieces, SIM card, and a manual.  They even included a bag for recycling your old phone! Good job, Sprint for being green!

Hardware: The Titanium has virtually the same dimensions as an iPhone 3G with the exception of a smaller 3.1 inch HVGA touch screen due to the hardware keyboard.  In comparison to the iPhone 3G, the Titanium is also a bit heavier.  Exact dimensions are 4.71×2.44×0.53 inches and it weighs 5.2 ounces. 

The Titanium has its buttons comfortably laid out.   The QWERTY keyboard clicks nicely and is responsive.  I do like the way the keyboard is laid out so that numbers and symbols can be quickly accessed.  This phone also has flash and takes decent 5MP photos.  One thing that does set this phone apart is military-certified durability.  I did not think it wise to try abusing the review unit despite the military certification.

The unit sports a slow 504 Mhz processor which limits its gaming capabilities to the point where Angry Birds will not run smoothly and is virtually unplayable as there is a major delay between the game registering your tap, pull, and release.  Sadly this unit also can only do 2G data.

OS: The Motorola Titanium uses the older Android 2.1 OS which is a significant disappointment as features such as app storage on removable storage, flash support, and voice dialing over Bluetooth.  Being my first android phone, I found some of the placements of soft buttons for email to be very poorly placed.  I ended up many a time accidently deleting an email and then trying to tap undo accidentally opening another email.  This caused me much grief and it seems to be a weakness of android and not this particular device. 

Call Clarity: Superb!  People couldn’t tell I was on a cell phone and the speaker phone is quite loud and clear.  A very notable feature that it has is the ability to mute the microphone during a conversation and make it walkie talkie style where you have to push to talk.  I found this great for Toastmaster teleconferences where it guarantees silence until you wish to talk.  On a side note, I left Sprint as a disgruntled customer back in 2002 when all I got were dropped calls to no end.  Throughout my testing of this phone on a day to day basis in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex going around Plano, Richardson, Dallas, Mesquite, and a few other areas, I have found that Sprint provides excellent service now for this region.

Battery Life: This area needs improvement.  Initially I thought I had a bad unit and Sprint sent me a second phone to test.  The Motorola Titanium is rated for 6.8 hours of talk time and 9.8 days of standby time.  In my own tests calling one Titanium to another, I was able to get 6.39 hours of talk time.  As to standby, this unit must be charged daily.  In my testing, I found out that because of my attached GMail account it was constantly using data and thus shortened the battery life to as if I was talking on the phone.  If I forgot to charge my phone overnight then I will be hosed for the next day as the battery would be drained.  One quirk I seemed to find was how fast the little meter can go down.  It almost seems as if it didn’t really refresh and keep the meter close to real time.  An example of this would be dropping from 90% all the way to 20% in a matter of a few minutes!

TeleNav GPS: This is a premium feature which I had the opportunity to try out.  It is very accurate but can also be a major pain primarily due to this phone not supporting 3G data.  If I had 3G data, this service is incredible.  To search for destinations, you can speak the destination.  I had this one address which I could not find and I had the choice of calling and talking to a human being within 30 seconds in which he helped me find the street I needed (I wrote the name of the street down incorrectly)  and forwarded the information to TeleNav on the phone.  Prompt service – very impressive!  You can also go to telenav.com and plan trips and have it sent to your phone.  All in all everything is very convenient.

Price: The Motorola Titanium is $419.99 without contract.  With a 2 year agreement, the price is $219.99.  Currently a promotion at this time of writing will bring the price down to $169.99 with a 2 year contract and a mail in rebate.  The TeleNAV service is $9.99 a month.

Conclusion: Sprint’s Motorola Titanium is a phone geared towards business.  It is rugged and provides great calling.  I would like to have seen 3G as well as a more updated version of Android, but this phone is a must to those who need push to talk.  Sprint service for my area was exceptional and has proved that Sprint’s dropped calls for me truly is a thing of the past.  For the standard consumer and non-business user, however, might I still suggest an iPhone?

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