Don’t get me wrong. I still think the Kindle is a better device for reading eBooks. Also, I won’t be buying one. I’m just saying I want one. The turning point for me occurred last night. I was getting into bed and thought of something I wanted to look up on the internet before I forgot. I didn’t want to boot up my laptop just to google something for 5 minutes, so I used the browser on my iPhone. It wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences. 2 minutes later, an email arrived in my inbox that I wanted to reply to. Like I said in my rant, it’s easy enough to do a quick reply – my emails aren’t that long. Still, a bigger screen would have been nice.

In the end, it’s a luxury I’d like to have…but I won’t be buying. If they add Flash support and allow 3rd party apps to run in the background, I’ll think about it.

So shiny!! Want Shiny!!

I am selling a 32″ RCA HD TV/DVD combo with a Series 2 HD TiVo. I’ve also got the wireless network adapter for the TiVo unit.

I am only selling these items together – I will not separate them. Both items are in terrific condition and work as if they were brand new.

I went to Radio Shack and picked up a 1/8″ stereo input jack and sleeve. Then I cut the tip off of the cord that’s been hanging out of my dashboard. As luck would have it, Honda sold my particular model with an “unnecessary” removable blank plate next to the cigarette lighter. I was able to pop it out and drill a hole in it for my new jack. Once I threaded the wire through the hole, I soldered the jack to the wire and screwed the sleeve back on to create a tight fit. I popped the plate back into the dash, and viola…pretty dashboard with auxiliary input. Now I just need to clean my car!

Sorry I didn’t take any pictures of the soldering process. I completely forgot!

First of all, they have 2 completely different target audiences.

The Kindle is targeted at bookworms. Period. They aren’t looking for a bunch of shiney, fancy features. They want to read books. And the Kindle kills the iPad in every way. The Kindle uses eInk technology, which looks just like paper (seriously, it does). You can read it in sunlight without a glare, and tilting it at angles is still completely legible. Because it looks just like paper, you also don’t get any eye strain like you would on computer screen. This eInk technology also greatly reduces the amount of power needed to operate. It can be used for weeks without charging. You don’t need a WiFi network to purchase new books, either. You can access the Amazon store directly through their “Wispernet” service that runs on Sprint & AT&T’s networks, for no extra fee. I repeat: there is no monthly fee whatsoever for this device. You can buy new books any time, anywhere.

The iPad, on the other hand, is for Apple Fanboys. At least that’s the only people I can see buying one. I really just don’t get the point of this device. This device is partially an attempt to break into the eBook reader market, and that’s fine. I just don’t think this device is it. I’d rather use a Kindle. The iPad has glare and will cause some serious eye strain after a while. It also only holds a charge for 10 hours, so be prepared to plug it in at least once a day. The iPad has 2 networking options: WiFi & Cellular network. HOWEVER, that cell network is going to cost you an extra $130 for the iPad itself, plus a monthly fee for the mobile network! And how often are you in range of a free WiFi network? Oh yeah, it’s a lot heavier too. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the idea of holding heavy books.

Like I said, though, the iPad is only a partial attempt to break into the eBook market. The device has many more features. I don’t understand why you’d buy one, but it’s definitely pretty. Here’s my breakdown:
Web browsing: this looks awesome. I think it’s really cool. You’ve got a large device that you can hold in your hand and surf without having a big laptop or going and sitting down at a desk. I give Apple an A+ for web browsing.
Calendar: another well done application. It’s been redesigned so that it’s easier to use than the desktop version, without losing any of the features. Easy to read and much better than the desktop in my opinion. Another A+ for the calendar.
Email: This is where we begin our descent. It’s not even really Apple’s fault. It’s the nature of the device. Since the only keyboard on this device is a virtual one, it’s not exactly easy to type out a long email. I need tactile sensation to type efficiently, and I need a full size keyboard at that. The virtual keyboard is slightly smaller than a laptop keyboard, and I noticed in the keynote that a few of the keys (like “;”) have been moved to make room. Still, I’d say that only 25% of my emails are long enough to be a problem, and the software does include autocomplete/autocorrection, so it’s not really that bad. However, for the other 75%, why wouldn’t I just use my phone to compose an email? I do it all the time. It’s fine for short emails, and it’s a heck of a lot smaller of a device to carry around. I can wait until I get home to compose long emails. I’m just not that important. The iPad gets a B-.
Music: Why on earth would I carry a 1.5 pound, 9.5″x7.5″ device to listen to music when I already have an iPod (iPhone) that fits in my pocket!? Enough said: D
Photos: Boy are those photos gorgeous on an iPad. Huge, vibrant pictures. It’s simply stunning. WHY DO I WANT TO CARRY MY PHOTO ALBUM AROUND WITH ME? You can’t edit the photos on the device, and least not with any good software like Photoshop, so why am I carrying them around with me? It would be nice as a simple one-off where you’re talking to a friend about a vacation or your kids or something and want to show them a picture, but how often does that happen? Again, I can also use my phone for this – they just aren’t as bold and beautiful. So what? This grade is mixed: the iPad gets and A+ for execution and a C- for practicality. Overall: B
3rd Party Applications: The smartest thing they did was design it so that you can run your existing iPhone and iPod Touch applications on the iPad without having to make any changes. You can even make it go full-screen. It’s tough to judge this early just how new applications designed specifically for the iPad will be, but I’m guessing they’ll be pretty cool. They did a good job here, but there’s still one fatal flaw which is actually something shared with the iPhone and iPod Touch: applications cannot run in the background. If you leave an application, it’s done. Over and out. Next time you want in, the whole thing loads. The second mistake is that they are continuing with the iTunes store method of delivering applications. You can’t just find something that you like online and download it. Developers still have to go through the long and tedious application process with Apple to get it approved for use on the device. This is something that’s annoyed iPhone and iPod Touch users since the devices came out, and that’s why I’m giving it a C-
Keynote/Pages/Numbers: this is Apple’s office suite for presentations, documents, and spreadsheets. I return to the keyboard problem. There is no freaking way that I’m writing a document on this device. Ever. They put a lot of effort into getting all the features in such a small device, and they did it well, but there’s no way I’m using it. C

The iPad is clearly not a replacement for your phone (no voice plan + it’s huge and heavy), and it’s clearly not a replacement for your desktop/laptop. In fact, it’s not really a computer at all. It’s a giant iPod touch (it requires that you sync it with iTunes on your computer). So what do you do with the thing? Carry it with you when you’re “on the go”? Get a Kindle; read a book. Use it at home? Use your computer; it’s much more efficient. Take it with you to Starbucks? Seriously, how much time do you spend in coffee shops? Use it at the airport? WiFi ain’t free; while smaller, at least your phone can browse the web for no extra fee.

Overall, the iPad gets a B-.

But that’s just me :-)

Edit: my coworker just gave me a very good reason that someone might buy one. When you’ve got your kids in the car, you can just hand it to them and let them play games and watch movies instead of bugging you with “are we there yet” every 5 minutes.

This is the first post.

I live in McKinney, TX and I was looking for an antenna that would get good reception of all the over-the-air digital and HD channels in Dallas/Ft Worth. I live 46 miles from DFW’s antenna farm in Cedar Hill, so it’s quite a distance. I found a lot of antennas that were rated “up to” 50 miles, but I didn’t want to take the chance. I also wanted to put it in my attic since the roof isn’t an option for me, so I wanted something with a higher rating. I ended up buying the Clearstream 4 (CS4) Antenna, which is rated for 65 miles, from indoorhdantenna.com.

When I first hooked it up, i wasn’t getting reception on some of the channels. I read that a lot of people had problems when they used coax cables longer than 50 feet, and I was definitely over that. I only had one spare cable to run from the antenna to the splitter in the attic, and it was 50 feet right there. Then the signal had to go from the splitter down to each room, adding another 20-30 feet. I bought a 8 ft cable as a replacement and added an amplified splitter on top of that and now everything works great. I get all of the channels with perfect reception.

A few notes:

• ABC is the only channel in DFW that does not broadcast on UHF. They are VHF only. The CS4 is a UHF antenna, but it works.
• I’m in SOUTH McKinney. Look up how far your line-of-sight distance is for you before buying an antenna. You can do this at antennaweb.org (just put in your address, you don’t need to give your email or phone), then click on “Show Digital Stations Only” since they’re about to make the transition.
• Mounting the antenna is best outside, but it will work in the attic. Just make sure you get it as southwest as possible and away from any metal like air ducts.

Helpful websites:

• http://www.antennaweb.org – channel listing with frequency, distance, and compass heading.
• http://www.indoorhdantenna.com – antenna recommendations and advice. I recommend buying your antenna from them as well.

In a nutshell, I made the right choice. I’m not watching as much TV and I don’t miss it one bit. When I do watch TV, it’s usually a free podcast downloaded from the internet. I downloaded the last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica off of iTunes (great series, btw), and switched to over-the-air for LOST. A few weeks ago my dad was in town and he helped me install an over-the-air antenna I bought online to get better reception of my local channels. I set up my TiVo to download old episodes of Frasier and Seinfeld for those times I just want to veg-out, and that seems to be enough.

We’re only 4 weeks into the MLS season, but I’m not going to miss anything. $20 bought the entire season for all the games on my computer, and they now have 800k streams which is right about standard-def TV quality. I just hook up my laptop to the TV and it looks great. For any other sports that aren’t on TV, I can just walk down the street to McKinney Tavern.

It turns out I’m saving about $80 a month.

After evaluating both Time Warner cable and AT&T U-verse, I made a decision. I’ve canceled both. I canceled AT&T last week, and Time Warner bit the dust today.

My primary reason for dumping AT&T was a technical one. The audio on all of the HD channels would cut out for about a half of a second – just long enough to be annoying – about every minute or so. It was extremely frustrating. Apart from that, I found that service was about the same as Time Warner cable…so there wasn’t really an advantage except for a slight price difference.

Once I canceled AT&T, I left my Time Warner box unplugged for a few days and never missed it. This served as confirmation of what I already suspected: I’m not really going to miss anything (except a $80 cable TV bill).

As for the internet, I didn’t really notice much of a difference between Time Warner and AT&T. Time Warner charges $50/month whereas AT&T only charges $35/mo, so I kept AT&T for the internet. I’m downgrading from 7mb/1mb to 6mb/512kb, but that’s not a significant difference for my use. Hopefully I won’t regret switching. Time Warner has always been extremely stable for me, and AT&T is a sort of unknown in that regard.

Stay tuned for Part III. I’ll post my thoughts on what life is like without cable TV in a month or so.

One of the large motivators is money. I can free up about $60-70 per month by canceling. That’s $720-840 a year!! I’m trying to buy a house, and that would help get me where I need to be sooner.

The other motivation is simply to watch less TV. Now that a few of my shows are off the air, I’ve only got a couple left that are “must see”…Lost, Battlestar Galactica (only 6 episodes left), Psych, and Heroes (which I’m about to give up on because it’s getting dumb). Everything else is channel flipping. Sure, that’s fun, but think of all the time I could save. I’d do more reading and I bet I’d go to bed earlier (No late-night Daily Show or Colbert Report)

Lost and Heroes are available over the air with an antenna. BSG and Psych are available on iTunes. BSG is about to finish the series…so that only leaves Psych. Getting back to the money factor, an entire season is only $30, a far cry from $720. I could buy roughly 20 seasons of TV shows off iTunes for what I pay in cable TV for a year.

Sounds simple enough, so why the debate? Sports. You can’t buy live TV off of iTunes. ESPN/ESPN2 doesn’t stream video unless you have Verizon, which I can’t get. Neither Fox Soccer Channel nor Fox Sports Net stream video at all. So I’m running a little experiment…

I signed up for AT&T. Right now I have Time Warner, but switching to AT&T U-verse gives me the opportunity for a couple of things. First of all, I got the “U200″ package. This is about the same price as what I have on Time Warner, but does not include Fox Soccer Channel. So I can see what life is like without it. Second, I can’t use TiVo with AT&T U-verse. I have to use their DVR. That frees up $15/month in TiVo fees right there. If I can’t live without FSC, I can upgrade to the U300 package for the amount that I’m saving on TiVo. However, if I can live without FSC then I’m one step closer to doing away with cable.

Assuming I can live without FSC, is it worth $60-70 per month to see Stars and Mavs games? I’m thinking no. If there’s a big game I want to watch, I can walk down the street to McKinney Tavern and watch it there.

Another interesting tidbit: I realized this morning that apart from Thursday night’s Stars game, I haven’t watched TV since AT&T installed on Wednesday. No, that’s not that long, but now I know that I can make it 3 days without channel flipping.

Summing it up:
As of this past Wednesday, I’ve got 2 cable TV providers: AT&T U-verse and Time Warner. In two weeks I’m going to be canceling one or both. I’m leaning toward canceling Time Warner. Actually, I’m leaning toward canceling both.

Comments are welcome