The Pareto Principle

New Kindle about to ship

Volker — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:48:55 +0000

When I bought my Kindle I loved it from day one. Very light, almost perfect display (except for the page turning and refresh flickering), very slim, free cellular data access for downloading books and browsing (some) websites, awesome battery life. For me that device was just perfect. Especially during travel or at home in the yard or in bed.

Amazon is about the ship the next generation of its Kindle. Question is, why has Amazon improved features that are already great? Why haven’t they focused on getting a bigger chunk from the slate device market?

Here’s my view on the improved and new features. Three out of eleven?

All-New, High-Contrast E-Ink Screen – 50% better contrast than any other e-reader	Ok.
Read in Bright Sunlight – No glare	What’s the difference to the current Kindle?
New and Improved Fonts – New crisper, darker fonts	Fonts are already great.
New Sleek Design – 21% smaller body while keeping the same 6" size reading area	Why even smaller? What’s the value prop. here?
17% Lighter – Only 8.5 ounces, weighs less than a paperback	Come on, the current Kindle is already a featherweight.
Battery Life of Up to One Month – A single charge lasts up to one month with wireless off	And? Robinson Crusoe would have liked this – for a while.
Double the Storage – Up to 3,500 Books	Hmm.
Built-In Wi-Fi – Shop and download books in less than 60 seconds	And?
20% Faster Page Turns – Seamless reading	Ok.
Enhanced PDF Reader – With dictionary lookup, notes, and highlights	Ok.
New WebKit-Based Browser – Browse the web over Wi-Fi (experimental)	Hmm

I sold my Kindle 2 a while back. The new features would not encourage me to buy the next generation device again.

Regardless, the Kindle is a great single purpose device for reading eBooks. Loved it as long as I had it.

iPad Wall Mount from IKEA

Volker — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:01:49 +0000

Did you know, IKEA sells iPad wall mounts? Neither did I. And in all fairness, they don’t really sell wall mounts. It is more like a mini shelf and – in the true sense of IKEA – it requires assembly.

Last Sunday I was contemplating buying a $99 wall mount from modulR with all its bells and whistles. But after shelling out a lot of money for the device itself I felt like I had to find a more affordable solution. Besides, I really don’t like the somewhat bulky looking case with its four nipples. Later in that day we went to IKEA to return a picture frame. When we walked through the kitchen section I looked at the kitchen drawer handles they sell.

It was then when it hit me.

I bought a pair of “STRECKET” handles. The longer ones (11 5/16”) for $7.99. Mounting one of these guys upside down against the wall will give me a little shelf with a raised rim allowing the iPad to lean slightly tilted against the wall without sliding off. See more images below. The handles are made from aluminum. Color and texture match the iPad housing.

Perfect solution, the handles are from the kitchen section at IKEA and the iPad was supposed to be mounted in the kitchen anyway . The wife wants the iPad for watching Netflix, browsing recipes and other fun stuff.

Here you have it, for less than $10 a wall mounted iPad. The shelf looks pretty and stylish without iPad. Parts I used:

A pair of STRECKET handles $7.99
2 drywall screws (depending on your type of wall you might need two tiny anchors)
3 little self adhesive rubber pads for $0.99 (10 pieces per sheet from your closest home improvement store) to prevent the iPad from sliding sideways off the handle aka. shelf

Assembly took less than 15 minutes from start to finish to watching the first video. YMMV.

PS: It gets even better.

The “shelf” also holds many of our cookbooks
It is very likely that it will fit Windows powered slate devices!
There’s a still a spare STRECKET

Test

Volker — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:07:50 +0000

New test