The Kindle 3 Upgrade Question

I’d intended to upgrade to the Kindle 3 prior to my cruise, but missed out on pre-ordering when Amazon ran out of inventory. What interested me most from the e-reader refresh is the higher contrast screen and the clever lighted cover accessory. Plus, I figured I could get away with a WiFi only model ($139, versus $189).

However, now that the initial excitement (and my cruise) has passed the impulse to purchase has subsided. The fact is, I don’t read many novels in a given year — averaging less than one a month. So my current Kindle (v2) is probably sufficient. Although I may pick up a third party light of some sort and do hope some of the v3 software tweaks make their way down to my hardware.

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DC Rider App Helps You Catch the Train, More Zs

It’s a weeknight. You’re at happy hour when suddenly your internal “I’m too old to be up this late on a school night” alarm goes off. So you say your goodbyes and head to the metro to make your way home. Except you get there just in time to see the train pull away from the platform dooming you to a 20 minute wait. 19 minutes later your friends show up from the bar and get on the same train you do. It’s only 20 minutes wasted, but it’s the principle of the thing. It’s not fair they’re going to get home at the same time you are.

Apps like the Washington Post’s DC Rider are doing what they can to eliminate this minor injustice for Washingtonians. Provided you have a smartphone, of course.

The DC Rider iPhone app layout is simple enough. You’re presented with the standard DC Metro map. Touching a station brings up a webpage inside the app with the arrival times for that station updated in real time.

What the app does isn’t particularly groundbreaking – it’s pulling information directly from WMATA’s website – but it’s free and more efficient than their mobile page which isn’t very user friendly. The app also comes with a few interesting bonuses.

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TiVo Fiddles With Premiere Pricing ($0!)

I thought TiVo had moved on from variable pricing schemes, but recent visits to tivo.com suggest otherwise. Traditionally, you’d buy your TiVo hardware and subscribe to monthly service at a single rate ($12.95). Yet, in what I assume is an effort to ease the barrier of entry, TiVo is now offering multiple pricing permutations. Buy … Read more

VLC Media Player May Hit The iPad Soon

VLC is a sort of Swiss Army Knife media player for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The open source software is known for being able to handle almost any video format you can throw at it, and for having a ton of customization options. Now it looks like the iPad could get some of that VLC … Read more

Catching Up With TiVo v DISH

We’ve been covering TiVo’s patent dispute with DISH/EchoStar for, literally, years. Heck, I even trekked down to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 2007 to catch some argument/testimony. However, I’ve grown bored of the topic. And, as neither an investor in TiVo nor DISH/Echo, I’ve got no skin in the game. … Read more

Where’s the Vulkano Review?

Several of you have checked in with me, wondering if or when I’ll be taking a look at the multi-function Vulkano — a device that is something more than a Slingbox-esque placeshifter, by also incorporating recording capabilities along with local media and Internet video streaming to a television. And I can tell you my review … Read more

Stream Media from PC to iPhone with ZumoCast

Zumocast is a new app from the folks behind the ZumoDrive online storage service. While ZumoDrive is designed to let you quickly and easily upload files to the web and access them from any computer as if they were local files, Zumocast is kind of the opposite. You set up the ZumoCast server software on … Read more

Nike Plus (finally) Loses The Foot Pod

As a former runner, in the dark days before inexpensive tracking/training technologies, I find myself attracted to and motivated by powerful new tools — many of which require limited or no new hardware. In fact, dabbling with the fine RunKeeper Pro iPhone app ($10) led me to my first phone case purchase in years (giving … Read more