[Quick Post] Wired's iPod touch Moleskine

I found an interesting article over at Wired on how modding a Moleskine into an eBook reader [link]. The process requires an iPod touch with jailbreak, making a hole inside the Moleskine to hide the iPod touch, and, of course, eBooks. I've been half-lusting over the Amazon Kindle since it's release. While this has an overall cost of slightly less than an Amazon Kindle, it has just over half the screen size. It might not be as simple to get the books, or as easy to read as the Kindle, but I imagine it being infinitely more useful. An iPod touch (even without jailbreak) can play music and video, as well as surf the internet over WiFi, all without sacrificing anything. This might even be made easier later by the App Store that will be added to iPhones and iPod touches soon.

Subnotebook obsession

It seems like nearly everyone wants to get into the small-laptop market lately. Since October of last year when the Asus Eee Pc was released a lot of competitive, ultra small notebooks came to light. The size of these laptops seem to center around a screen of about 8.9", though there are also those with screens of 13.3" (those are about the size of a small laptop, just incredibly thin and light).

The newest two entries seem to be the upcoming Dell E, and the Voodoo Envy 133 (pictured above from Tech Specs PDF). The main concept of these, as well as all the others is simple: portability. All of these devices are aimed to be something between a smart-phone and a laptop, a second laptop if you will. None of them are exceptionally fast, and most completely forgo the idea of having a disc drive in order to save space and battery life.

Personally, I think it's great that all these companies are getting into the small market. Granted, I'm a Mac user at heart, and only use Windows for gaming, but I like to see many companies trying to outdo one another in niche markets. It means the Intel Atom processor (the "next-gen" laptop processor, it's supposedly quite fast while using minimal energy) and other tech will have a reason to get better, and cheaper. I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years one of these things will sell for less than an iPod or iPhone does now. Plus, the Linux option is always cheapest.

The reasons I'm so enamored with these laptops are the same reasons they seem to have been created. I love the idea of a lightweight computer that can do simple word processing and internet access while in a hot spot, as well as other simple functions like video playback. Most have Solid State Drives (flash memory, like the one in flash or "thumb" drives), which makes the data secure if it's dropped, and it's fast to boot because there are no moving parts.

These things can have several uses for almost anyone. They could provide a quick means of checking email if don't have a smart-phone and are in a hot spot. They could play videos while on a flight. Students could use them for taking notes during class (or browsing Facebook during class, which is more likely for a lot of them). I personally think it would be great for writers to start writing whenever the inspiration has them (if they prefer typing to pen and paper, that is). It's great for bloggers if they like to blog about stuff right when they see it, or if they are live-blogging something (say, a keynote speech). Or, there's always the chance for a journalist to quickly get a story out from the scene, or possibly record some audio/video for the story with built-in microphone and webcam (however, they will probably be of somewhat poor quality).

I can only imagine showing up to class and taking notes on such a small laptop that won't get in anyone's way. Or perhaps, showing up to a gaming session with the PDF versions of the rulebooks on an Eee PC or similar, instead of a 15.4" or 17" Mac/Dell/Toshiba/etc., allowing for easy reference and little barrier between people. Or, perhaps, I am simply too much of a nerd and want to get my hands on every cool, somewhat useful piece of tech I can see.

Join me on Download Day!

A few weeks ago, Mozilla announced their plan to set a Guinness World Record for most software downloads in a single day. The software is none other than Mozilla's excellent web browser, Firefox 3. The date of Download Day (as Mozilla is calling it) has finally been set as June 17th, this coming Tuesday.

Along with the announcement came a new version of Firefox 3, Release Candidate 3, which fixed a bug for Macs. I've been checking out Firefox 3 since the Gran Paradiso alpha, though I haven't really started using it too much since beta 3. When beta 4 and 5 launched, I had switched from my native Safari over to Firefox 3. I never really liked Firefox on a Mac before, but I just can't resist it now, though it will take a bit more getting used to.

Firefox 3, aside from the obvious number increase, holds a lot of new stuff that should make everyone at least consider using it if they hadn't already. For me, one huge difference is the new look. The back button is not larger than the forward button, making it much easier to click, as well as making navigation toolbar look less bland. The look of Firefox 3 has also been upgraded. Whether you use XP, Vista, Linux, or Mac OS X, Firefox will look more unified with the rest of your OS.

Aside from the graphical differences, Firefox 3 also has a better URL bar, that learns as you use it. In Safari, I could start typing a URL into the URL bar, and it would complete it for me. In Firefox 3, I could type anything from the URL, or the page's name, and it will detect that. For example, I could type in "du" and the drop-down box will first recommend DuelingAnalogs.com, or the second option will be the D&D website. It's almost like using Quicksilver or Launchy to surf the web.

The URL bar also features a little star on the right-most end of it. This is used to easy bookmarks. Find a site you wanna read, but don't have time? Just star the page, and be done with it until you want to check it later. If you want to get really fancy, you can use the star button to bring up a small window that allows you to sort the bookmark, and even apply tags to it. Though I have yet to use it, bookmarks can be sorted or searched for by the tags you give them, adding more use for the smart URL bar. Also, say you deleted a bookmark that you wanted to visit again, but forgot the address. Firefox 3 automatically backs up your bookmarks, so you can restore them to a previous state, so you can find that page again.

Other features that should help you decide to download Firefox 3 include: improved malware/phishing detection, a smart folder that tells you what sites you visit most, better performance (less taxing on computer's resources), improved downloads manager, less intrusive "remember password" handling (shows in small toolbar at top of page, as in Safari), and it already works with most extensions, while rendering some other obsolete.

Start with Apple stuff

Okay. I'm fairly new to blogging in general, so bear with me if I forget to update for a while... Yeah, I'm sure that's a great line to start out with.

Anyway, I'm going to use this blog for my thoughts on random things that I see or hear about. Things ranging from music, to movies, to video games, role-playing games and just tech in general. I know it's a pretty broad range of things, but whatever. it's my blog, and I'll run it how I wanna.

So, the first thing that I wanna talk about is Today's (or yesterday's, rather, by the time this gets up) Steve Jobs keynote at World Wide Developers Conference. If you've heard anything about the new 3G iPhone, then you know at least a bit about it. Apparently news about the iPhone travels fast.

However, what really got me excited was the apps that were shown that are being developed for the iPhone. The first one that made me actually say to my computer screen while watching it was the Associated Press. The app will allow you to view stories in any category or market. What's really amazing to me, though, is the idea that it will find your current location, and give you local news stories from the area. Now, it's no real secret that I think local news is quite boring most of the time, but I think that's a pretty cool idea. Imagine driving cross-country and being able to find stories from about the area your hotel is in without having to search for it, that's pretty nifty. It also has a feature to submit a photo, or news tip straight to AP, which is cool to journalists like myself (note: I am a journalism major, not just a simple "citizen journalist").

Moving away from the iPhone (I'm sure it gets plenty of press elsewhere, and I don't wanna bore you with my fanboy-ish ranting for a device I cannot afford, even with an extremely lowered price), Jobs also announced the rumored revamping of .Mac. As a .Mac subscriber, it intrigued me especially. I've taken to recently adding things I need to do (class deadlines and such) to my Google Calendar simply because it was viewable on any computer. Now, that's not necessary. With the new MobileMe, I can use iCal, and view it on the web on any computer I need to. It will be especially helpful at school, when I work on so many computers in classrooms and whatnot. It'll also make it easier to share anything with anybody, be it a document, or a photo album.

I can't wait for MobileMe to be released so I can actually get something useful out of my .Mac. I also await the day I can actually afford to have an iPhone, even with lower price, I can't really afford my own cell phone plan.