Everyone’s going on about the new Kindle 3 and how you can annotate the book you’re reading, download Audiobooks, mp3s and play Sudoko … Meh! Too “try hard” IMHO. Also too many moving parts – more to go wrong. Here’s why I like the Kobo v2 and the iPad v1 …

All my Kobo (ver 1) does is read ePub formatted files – and it does that pretty well. I have since purchased a Kobo v2. which has wi-fi functionality and more robust software. I don’t use the wi-fi.

Unlike the Kindle, on a Kobo, I can load up books from anywhere. It’s not tied to the one store. They have one available via wi-fi, but you are not obligated to use it. Prices are getting better and are comparable with the very cheap Amazon store. Rarely is a book over about $10. Newest releases can be more. But the Kobo store NOW has fairly reasonable prices. And it reads ePub files.

The Kindle. You can convert Kindle books using special software, but until they sort out DRM (digital rights management), you’re likely to bump into trouble. Kindle uses .azm file type, but will also read .mobi. It won’t read the non-DRM ePub format (ePub is an open source format based on html (like this page)). However, you can now go to Guternberg.org and download free Kindle-optimised books. Because html is text and .ePub = the text of a book + a book cover image (.jpg file) zipped into the one .zip file, You can store hundreds of books on a 1Gb Kobo. For the geeks out there, try renaming “twilight.epub” to “twilight.zip” and check out what’s inside the zip file. It’s mostly text. This means that ePub files can be compressed to make them really small. Really tiny!

I had to take my Kobo 1 back to the shop after about a month of really hitting it hard. I read 3 novels back to back before the screen froze. One year on, a charge lasts about one day or 5hrs of use. Tech issues aside, for $99 I still think it’s the best value e-reader on the market. Why? Well for one thing, it’s not locked to any provider. I can transfer any old eBook or PDF file onto the Kobo. There’s no syncing with proprietary software or downloading from a special store (you can do that but it’s really not necessary). Apple and Kindle products can also read open source, but they don’t make it particularly easy. The Kobo 1 shows up as an external drive and I drag stuff onto it. That’s it. Like any digital device, it starts to slow down the more you put on there. If there’s an SD Card in the slot (it can read up to 2Gb) then that shows up as a separate drive when you plug the Kobo into your computer (via a non-proprietary mini USB to USB cable). A full SD card slows the Kobo down considerably. I like to transfer ePubs to the Kobo itself and PDF formatted eBooks onto the SD card. But the emptier you leave the device, the quicker it runs. The Kobo 2 seems to run smoother, but the build is basically the same.

Which brings me to PDFs. PDF isn’t so good to read on small readers. I wouldn’t like to read a PDF on the smaller Samsung Galaxy because I’ve already been frustrated trying to read on the small-screen Kobo.

The iPad excels at displaying PDF files. In fact, that’s all the reason I needed to purchase one. It’s about the right size for US Letter and A4 pages and PDFs looks great – especially those with colourful diagrams, photos and graphics. On the Kobo, you have to scroll with the big blue “up / down / left / right” button which is a Royal pain. Similarly so with the small-screen Kindle. And because Kobo and Kindle are e-ink (as opposed to fast-reacting back-lit LED pixels) page scrolling is sloooow. On the iPad, it’s very easy to move a PDF page about and the 132 pixel-per-inch resolution is pretty glorious (a basic computer monitor is about 72dpi-100dpi).

The iPad has its faults. It HAS to synchronize with stupid iTunes in order for it to work! Everything runs, updates and loads via iTunes. Plus many apps can still crash the iPad. So, with a lot of apps, the iPad crashes as often as a PC IMHO.

I had to take my iPad 1 back to the Apple store after a week. I’m suspicious of over-wrought customer care policy in all its forms. Especially when products are presented as being a part of the new “family” – Urgh! Within a week my screen dropped down to 256 colours and became fuzzy – like a badly tuned TV. What annoyed me most was that I had to “make an appointment with an Apple Genius.” The Apple Genius Bar is basically a row of about 5 or 6 early 20s male nerds at the back of the Apple store. To give credit where credit is due, my Genius admitted there was nothing he could do and handed me a new iPad. Interestingly, the exchange invoice I signed was for half the cost of what I paid, which to me, reveals their profit margin at around 100% markup. I have since purchased an iPad2 which freezes all too regularly. A friend of mine also had to take his iPad2 back because the button was a bit dicky. So I’m liking the robustness and better build quality of my iPad 1.

Three months after purchasing a Kindle 3, the very fragile screen cracked. Because it feels much more delicate than the Kobo, I kept my Kindle in a gel-cover embedded in a leather holder. That was inside a padded bag and yet the screen still cracked. Kindle were quick to send me a replacement, but the fragility of the device – along with its very sticky on / off button (the first button became sticky very quickly and now this replacement has also turned sticky). The Kindle feels like it wants to be jack of all trades, so I’m starting to admire the Kobo for its simplicity.

The Kobo has no “loyalty.”

Kobo does have its own “store” (and all the same world domination aspirations as Apple I’m sure). They’ve basically released a generic 1Gb Hard Drive onto the market that just happens to have a pretty cool 6″ e-ink screen attached to it. Unlike my iPad, I can manhandle the Kobo. I can, literally, chuck it in my backpack without a cover and not worry about the screen cracking. It’s not quite the Princess that is an iPad. “She” gets wrapped in a t-shirt or tea towel and then into a deep inner-pocket if I’m cycling somewhere. The Kobo is right up the back – on the fall side. I’ve dropped it onto hard floors several times and my cousin – who has a Kobo 2 (with w-fi) – confirms that it’s pretty robust. One day my Kobo 1 will break my fall and I’ll prolly still be able to read novels of it.

Reading on an eReader

As a reader, the Kobo 1 & 2 are great. It hangs a bit, battery life is crap after a year and page turn is not as good as the Kindle 3, but the Kobo is not pretending to be a multimedia device. IMHO that’s admirable. The Kobo 2 is … just a A$100 reader. I haven’t tried the touch-screen version. It doesn’t do PDFs very well but you can read them. Sony and a whole bunch of other eReader companies seem to have out-priced themselves in this market.

The iPad isn’t the greatest thing to read a novel on, but unlike the Kindle and Kobo, it lights up at night – which is when I get my reading done. Up until recently, copyright issues wouldn’t allow me to read my Kindle books on my iPad Kindle app. But now that Asimov SF magazine and Philosophy Now are wirelessly delivered to my Kindle app, there’s almost no reason to use the Kindle. My iPad 1 is a bit heavy and the screen’s a bit bright and computery – and if you fell asleep and dropped it, the beautiful glass may crack – but he iPad is a solid multimedia all-rounder and unlike the Kindle or Kobo, I find myself using it daily.

The Kobo’s size and light-weight makes it okay to chuck around and it would easily survive hitting the pavement. If you want to read plain, black and white novels – definitely buy an e-ink reader. Because the Kobo 2 will now be cheap (now that the touch-screen version is out) maybe get that. You could probably fit the entire works of Harry Potter onto it and it would slip easily into a handbag or largish pocket.

The iPad is ultimately as good as its apps, but it’s also great to read at night. You can get the Kindle and Kobo apps on it anyway, so I find myself reading the iPad. The iPad 1 is a bit heavy in bed but suits the couch fine for surfing the web, faffing around with music apps and reading in the dark. For games, music, videos and artwork – the iPad is possibly the best multimedia player on the market. I originally wrote this review on my (replacement) iPad. The keyboard is a lot more responsive than I thought it would ever be and I’ve always loved the beauty and silence of Apple’s products. No glaring fans or hot knees. Having said that, a laptop’s clunky keyboard is probably more practical to write on than the virtual touch-screen type.

Here, in order of what I’d get first knowing what I know now…

1. iPad v1.
2. Kobo v2.
3. iPad v2
4. Kindle 3
5. something else.

I pretty much don’t use the Kindle, but I DO use the Kindle app on the iPad a LOT! Now that Apple has stopped Kindle linking to their own store in app, I find myself using the Kindle app even more (perhaps out of spite). I buy neither books or music from the price-inflated Apple store. I also use the Kobo app as it comes with a free version of Darwin’s “Voyage of the Beagle” which I got half way through a couple of years back. I’d also be interested to see how Kobo’s reading community idea evolves over time. You can see the functionality in the Apple Kobo App.

Hope these reviews were of use to you.

Enjoy your device!

The ASADA Synergistic Intelligence Team have just released video of their M3-Kindy a “kindergarten-age/sized humanoiod robot that emulates the movements and reactions of a toddler. At first this little tyke seems rather average. However keep watching this 2 minute vid – the ability to react to a human smile, make this a creepily impressive demonstration.  Just don’t let M3-Kindy eat the broccoli.

That’s how crazy it is. Forget the iPad – that’s old news. The Kindle? A proprietorial dinosaur. Check this puppy out . . .

The Kobo is an open-source electronic book reader that uses cheap SD cards to boost memory. It plugs into your computer via USB, so you can carry thousands of books around at once. All nice and standard. No proprietary book format (although it reads many formats). It costs A$200 and can be bought at Borders.

Writers, Get out Your Pens

Self-publishing used to be a bad word. It was frowned upon by the chosen writers. The ones chosen to have their books put into print by publishers. People who couldn’t work in a team environment with a producer and an editor were cornered into self-publishing – and nobody would talk to them. Now they are rock stars. Brad Pitt was wrong in Fight Club. We’re all going to be famous rock-stars because we’re killing off the middle men one by one! What was it that Karl Marx said about access to society’s “means of production” being in the “hands of the few?” Not so anymore.

Now you can release your own music (like I do on Bandcamp) make your own films and upload them (like we do here at Geoffrey on YouTube). And now? . . . Now you can publish your own Kindle novelette.

Do be certain to follow this very handy guide. That’s actually a brilliant link to a list of tips for any writer. Check your work before releasing your novelette to the masses (because no-one else will).

And be sure to make it completely free.

Whaaaaaaat?

I’m sorry but your first novel is FREE

You ain’t going to get anywhere without writing and releasing your first novel for nix. If the Kobo comes with Dostoevsky’s “Crime & Punishment” pre-loaded, you’d better not charge a dime, friend. Dostoevsky is King!

So – all you people who ever wanted to publish a novel (or novelette, or short story, or anthology of poems) – now there’s no excuse. Nobody’s going to reject you. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. At least you won’t owe your publisher a penny if your book flops! And most do (keep that in mind as you write).

So what’s next? . . . Books, movies, music . . . Well. There’s a slew of computer printers that can “print” out plastic parts. It’s all in its infancy, but one day maybe even wannabe toy-makers and toolmakers can start their home-based careers. Without having to go through Hasbro or . . . Black & Decker? (I think that’s where toolmakers go).

In a Nutshell

Quick! Make a run for Borders and order your $199 Kobo. Use the SD card in your digital camera if you want to store more than 1,000 books. And get in now before third world labour becomes too expensive.

The Social Media Demographic is changing. In 2008 the kids (teens) thought Twitter uncool, but they are are now part of a steadily rising demographic. Key users are of working age as these social tools are increasingly being used to attract new clients and work. I’m 42, and because in the business of making websites, I should know.

How I Use Social Media

The following is how I use the various Social Network Tools available today and how I might use them if I could afford an iPad. Click the social media title to see my social media page/s and how I use the software (because that’s what it is people – software).

Facebook

• text-chatting to friends in front of the TV
• sharing photos with friends and family
• sharing links
• keeping in contact with overseas family
• keeping in contact with people you normally wouldn’t catchup with (like ex-girlfriends etc.). Indeed keeping in contact with everyone you’ve ever met!
• keeping friends updated on what you’re doing (status report)
• letting friends know what my latest website looks like
• letting friends or family know what l look like (as I age)
• gentle business promotion?

(As a general rule, it’s probably best to keep anything that resembles advertising to 1 in 10 posts. Facebook is mostly a social catch-up arena.)

Twitter

• Like the Facebook update status I can let my friends know what I’m eating for lunch ;p
• advertise a website special for the moment to 1000 people at once.
• follow topics of interest
• quickly send out a link to something of interest to a group of people
• follow a group chat about a particular topic by inserting a #hashtag into my 140 word post
• follow musicians realeasing free albums
• follow deals on specialist equipment
• follow deals on short courses / education freebies

Delicious

• I’m so tired of losing my links with different browsers and bookmarks, that now I keep them all in one spot … online. It takes a little longer to post a link of interest, but it’s worth the convenience when you work on several computers. If you click on the word delicious above – you can see all my saved bookmarks. I don’t care that they are available publicly. And that’s part of the social network issue . . . Privacy!

Tumblr

• basically an online scrapbook
• sound
• image
• movie snippets
• blog thoughts.
• half-baked ideas or noodles of mild interest I post here
• comments on things I see and like

Digg

• They email me daily with what’s popular on the web
• I often tweet it to my Twitter followers
• basically a run down of the most popular thing on the web

(younger Gen-Y audience – not business oriented)

Linked In

• my Business CV online
• associates can post job references.
• my work history and CV for all to see
• people “re-connect” with associates they may have worked with in the past
• 35-45 working age group

Flickr

• Hosts photos that you can share with friends / family / work colleagues
  I use this to show location stills to cast / crew for films

MySpace

• Musician / Filmmaker hub (mostly for musos)

Bands were once “discovered” here but those days (2007) are probably behind us. Youtube is more likely to show off your tap-dancing these days plus bands are increasingly cutting out the middle man by turning to self-distribution models using websites like Bandcamp. Even I have an EP on Bandcamp – The Mary Street Abduction.

RSS

• Really Simple Syndication. Clicking this link usually adds a website’s content to your reader. Or e-reader! Joining an RSS feed will have stuff (like this article) emailed to your inbox (if you like this Blog, join us here). This technology has yet to stretch its wings I feel. Readers are heading over to the couch right now. The electronic book may herald the boom of a new Blog reader. Blogs are so popular because they give search engines so much to find. Because of it, businesses also try to run blogs (like this one). You can get a basic e-reader for as little as $200 these days and some of them (the slightly more expensive ones) connect to your home wi-fi.

In Short

You can find a use for nearly all of these things. But in the world of business, people need to know that you exist. Letting them know at every turn that you are there, dilligently performaing a task for clients, is really important to me. Most of my work comes through friends and associates recommending my work. Not joining all these avenues for someone with my tiny advertising budget would be coinsidered a misdemeanor.

After all – every single one of these things is completely free!

The Old School system way back in the pre-digital era had clear cut institutions for composers, producers and other owners creators of intellectual and creative products to enforce their copyright and collect a fee.

If you wrote a song and recorded it, then there were ways for you to collect royalties when it was played on the radio. If you lived in Australia and wanted to see the latest television show or movie from the US you had to wait approximately two years before Hoyts or the broadcasters decided you could have it.

In the last decade, there has been a number of technological developments that have made it possible for the average punter to get a breathtaking amount of material at speed through the crappy copper wires that we used to shoot faxes through.

If one is prepared to ignore copyright law, often it is possible to download the latest Hollywood film before it even screens in this country. Your risks are relatively low. You might get a dubbed or annoyingly subtitled version of the movie you seek. You might get a poor camcorder version of the movie pirated in a cinema rather than further up the movie feeding chain. And you might get caught up in some kind of piracy crackdown and be made to pay a huge fine.

The sheer amount of pirated TV shows and movies I see floating around makes it clear that the threat of legal action and a fine isn’t scaring too many pirates away.

When the first episode of the new DOCTOR WHO aired in UK recently, it noted that my various Oz Twitter buddies were downloading illegally. Thanks to the clever franchise building of WHO re-creator Russel T Davies, the premiere of season five of new WHO had a massive international audience waiting to see if the reboot (new Doctor, new show runner) would help or hinder their beloved Doctor. Twitter was full of comments about Matt Smith’s portrayal of the eleventh doctor and how Karen Gillan’s character of Amy Pond was working out (image above).

Australian fans get their first legal look at the series on ABC iView at midnight Friday April 16th . The national broadcaster seems to be acknowledging the demand from Australian fans. The lag between the UK premiere and Australia being a mere three weeks. Not good enough for many, but I would suggest that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is being more realistic about illegal downloading than the commercial free-to-airs in this country.

To contrast the different attitudes a look at BBC’s zombie series survivors is instructive. According to the chat at the TV Tonight blog, the Nine Network drastically edited chunks out of the series in order to show ‘compresed episodes’. This kind of cavalier attitude virtually guarantees the geek audience will seek a properly constituted version of the series elsewhere. They might buy the boxed set of DVDs if they like what they have already seen, but aren’t they more likely to be torrenting the whole damned thing for free? They were already getting it free-to-air, but bastardised. What is their incentive to do the right thing?

This type of short-sighted decision on the part of broadcasters is disrespectful both of the program makers and the audience. However it is entirely in line with the way the networks have always done business. And these days, when the free-to-air platform is looking increasingly shaky, it’s hard to see how this high-handed bullshit will benefit the broadcasters in the long run.

The iPad is coming to Australia. But will it live up to the hype? It has some serious issues and, to my mind, may just be Apple’s final hurrah. , you need to be really close to your wi-fi hub in order for it to work. This problem can’t get fixed with a software update because of a tiny receiver behind the screen and most people use the iPad on their laps / cushions etc. – further reducing the signal.

Whatever you think about Apple as a company, they do tend to come up with 100% usable products. I would go as far as to say that they are a company more into usability than the technology itself. The fact is, that for most Macs, you are spending nearly double what you’d spend on a PC with the same specs. I’m not writing this to add to the PC Vs. Mac debate. They are both massive companies who seem to behave like little babies. Perhaps that’s what competition at this level does to us. At the very successful release of the iPod, Bill Gates (most probably in a fit of jealousy after his Zune music player bombed) announced that Microsoft were no longer going to support Internet Explorer (IE) for Mac computers (Ne-ne-ne-ner-nerr!). And the black turtle-necked Steve Jobs comes over as an absolute tyrant when it comes to secrecy about his latest Mac products.

In short, time will be the great leveler, but the issues with the current iPad seem to be getting worse by the day. We’re in a world where products are realeased way before they are ready. It’s cheaper to get your loyal (in the case of Mac, super loyal) customers to do your testing. They’ll prolly upgrade to the later version anyway. I’m going to wait until the iPad (which should retail here for around $650) has been around for a few generations before I buy in. In the meantime, keep watching.

Steve Jobs’ Six Sneakiest Statements
Jobs: “Flash Will Murder the iPad”

Chennai is home to the international headquarters of The Theosophical Society.

The Theosophical Society (emblem pictured), founded in 1875, is a worldwide body whose primary object is Universal Brotherhood based on the realization that life, and all its diverse forms, human and non-human, is indivisibly One. The Society imposes no belief on its members, who are united by a common search for Truth and desire to learn the meaning and purpose of existence by engaging themselves in study, reflection, purity of life and loving service.

While my stuff has sold and been shortlisted internationally, I have never actually won an award (other than encouragement awards and special mentions) outside of Australia.

I’m very pleased about this particular win for two reasons:

1. After making films since I was but a wee child, I can finally replace “has sold and screend his short films internationally” with “international award-winning director” on my CV – without resorting to semantic sleight.
2. If the Theosophy Society is anything to go by, then Chennai sounds like my kind of city.

As the world is becoming more and more fundamentalist in nature, I find myself sliding from Atheist to Agnostic. I think our spiritual bent is ultimately the difference between hopelessness and hopefulness. It has to do with my survival and the way I see myself continuing on into my 40s (I turn 40 in December). I could get grumpier (like most pessimistic atheists) or I could become more hopeful (as an Agnostic).

The way I see it is that we’re all completely and utterly condemned to nuclear inferno – especially with a whole bunch idiots in charge of Australia and the US presently.

I don’t want to feel this way. It affects everything I do. So I’m trying to find god (my definition of it) in a whole bunch of reading and scientific literature. To this end, I’ve just ordered Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion – which I can’t wait to read.

Tomorrow, I will be replacing the 16mm short film, Bertolt with the flash animated ABC short, Indy Nile Investigates which I wrote for my buddy Roberto Palmonari.

Then on Thursday, Phil Jeng Kane and I will interview Gordy Hoffman – director of the world’s largest growing screenplay competition, The Bluecat Screenplay Competition for our podcast. Gordy wrote the feature film, Love Liza, starring his brother Philip Seymour Hoffman and since then he has tried his hand at directing a digital feature of his own.

So it looks like 2007 is about to go off with a bang.

New Years’ resolutions: stop biting nails, become lean, make films. What are yours?