Jeff Bezos on Charlie Rose

The iconic and interesting Jeff Bezos spends some time taking to Charlie Rose. Amazon has a lot of interesting projects in the works and Bezos is always looking to the future. Interesting talk…

Kindle 2 Review

I got a Kindle 2 and have been using it a couple of days. Below are my thoughts:

Design: The design is improved, with curved lines and smoother look. Still not awe-inspiring to me, but an improvement. Just making it black would improve its looks by several points. The page-turning problem is fixed.

USB: The Kindle 2 can charge via USB. This is an improvement as many gadgets are now rely on USB to charge.

Text-to-Speech: It can read text to you. Not bad but not great. The text-reading is ok and is usable. It is in no way in the ball park of a true actor reading an audio book. I had it read a few things to me and found it ok to use and mostly understandable. Speech technology is much improved than even 5 years ago. It understands abbreviations and other things that older speech recognition software struggled with years ago.

Faster: The device is faster.

Navigation Button: It has a navigation button. It works pretty well. I am not sure navigation is totally figured out on the device yet.

SD Slot: A little odd that they took the SD slot away. So, most people probably lost storage space moving from Kindle 1 to Kindle 2. Extra space on Kindle 1 was good for loading lots of extra MP3s and audio books.

Additional Random Notes

Nothing beats the Kindle for travel. It is a superior travel companion, especially in the US. I traveled several places in the world with the Kindle 1 last year. (Note: the wireless does not work outside the US, but you can read all the books you have loaded.)

It seems like they would add a big “Amazon” button to encourage more browsing of the book store. You have to navigate to the menu to choose to shop at Amazon.

Bottom line, I really like it-  this is the future.
I find I like reading it for linear (non-reference) style reading more than a regular book.

What does a Kindle Not Do Well?

1) Graphics: Better eInk price points will develop over time. Also, color eInk is in the lab. Once color and graphics get perfected, this will be interesting.

2) Reference books: If you have a book that you will use as a reference – and will keep to flip through and re-read often – then you will want to buy the actual physical book. I wonder what kind of UX design would make eBooks good for the “reference book experience”. That is something we will have to mull over. I think it is possible. This is one area that Amazon may want to think about when desiging the larger “Textbook Kindle” that is rumored for the future.

Why buy a Kindle?

Well, beyond just being an natural early adopter, below is my math:

Number of books I buy a year: at least 30 (approx)
Amount of money I save buying a Kindle book vs the physical book $10 (approx)

Total Savings: $300 (30 x 10)
Cost of Kindle $359
Net Kindle Cost: $59

So, if you buy a lot of books, you may have a “Net Kindle Cost” that makes sense to buy a Kindle.

Valuable Information is Still Valuable

The mantra of “Information wants to be free” has been pervasive in new media. It has been the clarion call of those saying that journalism is really a game that can be played by everyone. As newspapers offer their mostly commoditized information online, more people are unwilling to pay to have it printer on paper and delivered to them.

The death of print newspapers that has been evident for years – is now starting to come to fruition and is catalyzed by the overall economic downturn. But, that does not mean that there is not something valuable that newspapers can provide. It generally means that most of the news that most newspapers supply has become a commodity.

Newspapers should be asking not what their current news is worth – they should be finding what unique information and wisdom they can offer that people would be willing to pay for. I still pay for the Wall Street Journal. They offer enough unique insightful and valuable content that I am willing to pay.

Interesting quote from the WSJ on the topic:

One reason most media companies suspended normal business practices online, such as seeking subscription revenues, was a misinterpretation of one of the most powerful observations of the Information Age. When author Stewart Brand coined the expression “Information wants to be free,” he focused on how technology makes it cheap and easy to communicate and share knowledge. But the rest of his quote is rarely noticed.

This says, “Information also wants to be expensive.” The right information in today’s complex economy and society can make a huge difference in our professional and personal lives. Not having this information can also make a big difference, especially if someone else does have it. And for valuable information, online is a great new way for it to be valued.

Link: Information Wants to Be Expensive – WSJ.com

Everything is amazing and nobody is happy…

A humorous perspective on technological progress. To some degree, we are a little spoiled and need to chill a little. I love tech progress, but lets stop and smell the flowers… seriously.

Hat Tip: The Long Now Blog

The concept of "design thinking"…

“We moved from thinking of ourselves as designers to thinking of ourselves as design thinkers. We have a methodology that enables us to come up with a solution that nobody has before.” — David Kelley

If you have not checked out the Fast Company article on design thinking and David Kelley, check it out.

Link: A Designer Takes on His Biggest Challenge Ever | Fast Company

How Color Impacts Your Thinking

The NY Times posted the results of some interesting research into how color impacts cognition. The bottom line is, if you want to boost your attention to detail, surround yourself with red, and if you want to boost creativity, then blue is your color.

Red groups did better on tests of recall and attention to detail, like remembering words or checking spelling and punctuation. Blue groups did better on tests requiring imagination, like inventing creative uses for a brick or creating toys from shapes.

Link: Color Study Looks at Effects of Red and Blue – NYTimes.com

So, I suppose that creating blue rooms at work for the creatives and red for the accountants would be a good idea.

When Dr. Zhu’s subjects were asked what red or blue made them think of, most said that red represented caution, danger or mistakes, and that blue symbolized peace and openness. Subjects were quicker to unscramble anagrams of “avoidance related” words like “danger” when the anagrams were on red backgrounds, and quicker with anagrams of positive, “approach related” words like “adventure” when they were on blue backgrounds.

Thinking About Solar

Bill Gross, someone I find interesting and have followed for over 10 years now (check out the history of IdeaLab), gave a talk at TED concerning solar energy. See the video below.

I guess it should not be surprising that a really efficient solar energy collector would look like a flower.

Soar is where the planet gets its energy, and if harnessed better, we could use it for more of our energy usage. Below is a map from the presentation of where the “hot spots” are for solar within the US. The darker red spots get the most sunlight, the blue areas get the least.