Tablets are still the hot topic and, being a geek, I have of course lusted after one since the iPad came out. However, the price, battery life and weight of it put me off a bit – especially as 90% of the time it would be a glorified book. But I finally caved in and treated myself to a Kindle.

And you know what? It’s probably my favourite piece of tech kit ever…

I’m a bookaholic. I don’t deny it. I’ve got about 1400 titles in various shelves and boxes (and I’ve thrown out twice that many books). The first thing I do in anyone’s house is look at what books they read. It’s my thing. Sadly, I am well past the point of having space for books so if I was to continue to indulge in my habit, I needed to either start throwing more books out (gasp! No!) or find a Plan B. Plan B came digitally…

Why iBooks isn’t that great

When Apple announced iBooks I figured it was only going to be a matter of time before an iPad turned up in my hands. However, their bookstore selection (and prices at launch) were awful – it just wasn’t a good choice at all. But it had whetted my appetite. The I

saw Amazon had Kindle software for the iPhone, so I tried that.

Where it worked well for me was in darkened rooms and in the wee small hours, when one of the kids had woken up and needed cuddles to get back to sleep. It was easy enough to sit and read while the little one drifted back off.

The only downside to the screen on a phone was that it was very small and, if being perfectly honest, it felt like you weren’t taking a lot in. It was a decent way of reading but you couldn’t help feel that it could be better – especially for reading longer works.

iPad v Kindle

So I thought about a Kindle and then thought against it – especially as it’s not a colour screen. And then thought about it again. Then the iPad 2 came out and it still wasn’t cheap inexpensive – especially compared to the US price (I can’t believe we still have to moan about that in this day and age). It was also a bit big for just reading books (which would have been the primary function of it).

The iPad 2 pricing

wasn’t what pushed me into Amazon’s arms though. Alongside the price difference was the suggestion that the Kindle could be kicked off the iOS platform. That was what pushed me over the edge for a few reasons:

• When Apple acts OTT in demands with others, that’s what Apple normally starts to decline,
• The book choice on the Kindle was far, far superior so if I was going to be stuck with a platform, better to be one with a lot of books
• Amazon are a good company to deal with – I’ve never had any hassles with them at all.

But what Kindle to get? There’s a wifi one and a wifi/3G one. The 3G one comes in at £40 dearer but the 3G is free – and there’s a web browser…

3G for me

Being quite blunt about it, I knew that whatever I bought, the odds were that would be me – in terms of a tablet – for a while. An iPad would have to wait until other computer kit in the house was upgraded, the next kid has come along and a few other things (I also think Apple were miserable not putting Facetime HD in the iPad 2). So if I was buying something, I wanted it to be as functional as possible, so I went for the 3G option, effectively making it the poor man’s iPad.

Kindle usage

There’s not actually too much you can say about the usage. You take it out (the massively oversized) box, turn it on, set up an account and away you go. It’s as idiotproof as anything Apple ever made. It’s nice and light – yet solidly built – it drops nicely from 30 feet onto grass and still works, you can hold it one-handed for long periods of time, you can get really stuck into a book – and the claim is that it can hold 3,500 means it should do for a while, especially as the Kindle store is quite varied and seems to moving past the crime, horror and SF roots that it started with.

Having said that, it’s turned me into a right sad git. Not only am I going on spending sprees for new books and using the cheap prices to discover new authors like Gordon Ferris (The Hanging Shed is really good and probably the best spend of £1 ever – I liked it so much I’ve bought the hardback as a gift for someone) but I’m actually going and buying digital copies of books I already own.

It also plays MP3s but I haven’t given that a go yet.

Also, the battery life is good but not ’30 days without a charge’ as some people state. You’ll get a week or two out of it no problems though.

The 3G is really good – it gets a signal in parts of the country where few of the mobile operators do.

Newspapers on the Kindle

Newspapers look as good on it as books do – when someone takes the time to format them correctly – and the whole process is just nice and simple. Having said that, it is tragic that there’s no Scottish newspapers on here, but this device could easily become my primary news outlet so that’s more money for The Indy, The Times and Daily Telegraph – papers I wouldn’t normally buy but if that’s all I can get, I’ll take it – the convenience over-rides everything else. (The Kindle also gets round the NY Times paywall).

The newspaper aspect also makes the 3G very handy. Wherever I am, it just updates every morning for me without the need to hook up to a PC/mac.

I know Calibre gives you options for adding newsfeeds to the Kindle but for the love of me I cannot get it to work. I will at some point though. (Same with Instapaper…)

Browsing the web on the Kindle

This is weird. Who knew the web came in monochrome? It’s like watching a B&W telly and remembering how things used to be – except the web was always colour. As a browser it’s not perfect but it does in a pinch. You can access webmail and Twitter – didn’t try Facebook – and general pages. There’s not much more you can say – it works for a basic browser.

Kindle quirks

That’s not to say it’s perfect though. In fact, there’s a few places it could be improved:

• What’s with the wacky screensaver pics? Let me add my own, pick one that I like or at least get rid of the John Steinbeck pic where he looks like Kevin Costner with a ‘tache.
• Organising. If you buy a Kindle and set up collections – as you will because if you fill this thing you’ll have 350 pages to scroll through – do it from the start. The file organising structure on this thing is terrible, slow and clumsy.
• I can play MP3s but not view pics? What gives. I can view comics.
• Reading in darkness is impossible. Why it doesn’t give you the option to do white text on a black background I do not know. Would probably be useful for those with sight impairments too. The odds are this was to sell the over-priced cover with light but WOB would have been a great feature.
• The more popular this gets – along with the iPad – will we see a rise in book piracy? It’s already fairly rife…
• You don’t see the covers of the books – just a list of titles – which is a shame

Suggestions for Kindle 4

• You could lose the keyboard and probably have it as a basic on-screen touchscreen keyboard, making this device even smaller. But that may push the price up.
• It lacks a lot of the ability to personalise

Overall

This is the best gadget I have. Yes, it doesn’t have the same relaxing feel as reading a paperback but all that means to me is that when I pick up a paperback or hardback now it needs to be for a special reason or a book I really want. Everything that’s a casual purchase can be Kindled – especially when the Kindle prices are better than the paperbacks.

But it’s not sexy. While it’s nice, don’t think ever whipping this out somewhere will get you laid. But that’s a good thing because if you whip this out, you’ve probably got a good book you want to read anyway…

Highs

1. If you are into reusable nappies you are in for a treat as there’s about five companies selling them
2. There’s some really interesting and unique items on sale
3. Mothercare have a great discount on – but combine the show discount with the baby and me club voucher booklet to save even more
4. If you join Costco, it’s cheaper for the Bio-oil than the Bio-oil stand
5. Emma’s Diary is worth looking out for and signing up
6. There’s a mini-creche and also a play area for kids
7. There’s quite a lot to look at
8. Stokke have a nice layout and friendly/informative staff on hand. Go see their large, oversized furniture
9. Lots of buggies on display
10. More4Mums are there – go support the internet retailers!
11. Good-sized baby changing area

Lows

1. Entry is £8 (you get a free showguide worth £4 though) and parking is £6 on top of that
2. NPower are absolute swines at the place. They’ll pounce on you constantly
3. It could be very busy. The Friday was
4. Lots of people talking about reusable nappies
5. Some of the stuff will have you saying WTF
6. Did I mention the NPower ambush squads?
7. There’s not a lot of stuff on show-special discounts compared to previous years
8. Not a lot of larger, practical parenting items like sterilisers on sale
9. NPower are probably preparing bear traps as we speak to trap you in order to speak to you

Is it worth going to? I have to say I thought so and had a great time. There’s some quirky things there and it seemed like less of a chore than when I went in previous years but the wife thought it was better in the past, each to their own I suppose.

Oh and one last thing: when did Glasgow become iCandy capital of Europe? Seriously, every second pushchair seemed to be one of them.

I ordered the Zi8 in black (but it’s also available in raspberry and aqua blue, though I would imagine the black is the most popular) and I’ll spare you the usual unboxing nonsense – you get the cables for hooking up to HDMI (HD) and normal TVs, a little strap, a manual that’s straight from the Apple book of minimal decent content and that’s pretty much it, which is what you want to be honest – packaging out the road, jump in and play!

The phone itself is about the size and width of a Blackberry or thicker/wee bit shorter than an iPhone 3GS.

(The main reason for getting a Zi8 was that I was impressed by it having an external mike socket. Having played with Flips, I thought the sound was the weak issue, so the Zi8 lets that be addressed.)

But you won’t get to play for long – the battery’s pretty run down, so it needs a charge, so add two hours to the “I just wanna play with it” moment. And then make sure you have a SD card for it as the internal memory is good for about 5 seconds of footage (get Class 4 or higher for best video recording). Oh and then, you might notice that your machine doesn’t have the latest version of the firmware installed (way to go Kodak!) as they appear to have shipped 10 billion models with the 1.03 firmware (1.06 is the latest and, judging by online reaction, is considerably better).

This is where the Mac/PC difference comes in: there’s a bunch of software preinstalled for the PC, nothing for the Mac. Also, go here and you’ll see that the Mac upgrade installations – which include buying a memory card reader – are far more of a pain in the backside than the PC version.

However, that’s a load of nonsense, here’s the simple guide to upgrading Kodak zi8 firmware on a mac:

1. Attach camera to Mac
2. Turn it on, backup anything on your card
3. Create a folder called SYSTEM onto memory card on Zi8
4. Copy firmware download files over to SYSTEM on card
5. Turn Zi8 off, disconnect
6. Turn Zi8 on and you’ll be prompted to upgrade – basically go with the green tick each time
7. Once done, reformat your card

After all that, you can get going and it’s ACTION!

I’ll let you watch the clips (all of which are available in HD) and then I’ll post my thoughts. Each of them was filmed at 720p/60fps as that appears to be the best setting, especially for YouTube videos. Apart from the last video, the microphone used is the internal one. No tripods were used in any of these shots – it’s all handheld with Kodak’s Image Stabilisation software, EIS, turned on.

Kodak Zi8 in test at night

The first chance I had to play was at 2am in the morning. Now the Zi8 has no flash or lighting aid – either built-in or attached. Apart from the car at the end, there’s little movement. I had been told that the Zi8 – due to the small lens – would be rotten at night so this held no surprises for me.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luQHy7y2Z_4[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 in recording a panto

(oh no it doesn’t! Oh yes it… oh shut up)

Junior received a play puppet theatre kit and has been putting on ad lib shows at every opportunity, including this gathering at the inlaws on Jan 1. Now the lighting is low in this (just one corner lamp) but it gave me a chance to play with the zoom. What surprised me was how much the colour dipped when zooming in. The zoom is also a bit jittery, but as with all digital zooms, you really shouldn’t use it anyway.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdca2xD_tMY[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 in average light test

Heading kind of says it all. Average living room light (basically one halogen corner lamp about 6 foot)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHL8koIA3Gg[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 in bright light test

Heading kind of says it all again. The aforementioned light with also the main overhead living room light on.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g38rN-sVpr4[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 and motion 1

Five year old girl doing five year old things.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRNHO5oIgMw[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 and motion 2

Five year old girl doing five year old things, will be mortified when she hits 12.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ6jT9nqB84[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 tested with external mike

The start and end of the segments have the internal mike being used but from 0:50 to 2:20 a clip-on lapel mike (£25 from Maplins) was used. I thought the sound from the internal mike was decent and was disappointed by the Maplins’ external mike. However, it may well be that it will work better for one-on-one interviews (which throws it back into the realm of work related stuff) and I’ll cover that over at Contently Managed.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gB1shxE10Y[/youtube]

Kodak Zi8 as a camera

In all honesty, it’s as decent a camera as you find on the likes of the N95 and slightly better than the iPhone 3GS, both of which were trumped by the 4 megapixel Canon ixus I have from about six years ago.

Other points and notes:

1. Uploading HD to YouTube takes forever and a day. Well, longer than normal anyway. The panto clip here took 30 mins to upload (the one at the end took 40 mins). I’m dreading a longer video (I may even try and get a physical broadband connection again instead of wifi to see if that speeds stuff up)
2. This is a dinky little camera
3. Suggestions for the Zi9 would be: external earphones socket (for checking levels but also watching long videos) and some form of lighting. However both would boost the price probably. A larger lens would be a real winner, but again, that’s me being greedy (probably).
4. Raspberry and aqua blue? WTF?
5. As this just deals with .MOV files – that’s what it creates – I wonder if it could also be a movie player if you added a film in that format to it. Makes it a rather cheap movie player for trips (You could load it up with about 64-80GB of movies for the same price as an iPod Touch)
6. Getting the HDMI socket open is a nightmare, well a pain and hassle, if you don’t have nails.
7. The USB port looks well dodgy (see pic). It’s very short, rubbery and unless you have the computer and USB connector on a flat table, you’ll be paranoid that the connector is going to fall/break. If there is such a thing, an extension cable might be handy.
8. Having to upgrade the firmware out the box is ridiculous.
9. The more bright light you an give this camera, the happier it will be.

Is it worth a buy? I don’t regret it, put it that way, but I will probably end up using it more for work than personal stuff. But I will have it in my pocket when possible to catch some moments because it’s far better than the iPhone 3GS (which, to me, is a far poorer video camera than even the Nokia N95 from a few years ago). I also like the idea of carrying around a few memory cards instead of tapes for a big video recorder.

If you want to see some comparison videos, here’s some more video links:

Kodak Zi8 Review

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7qPzfjtDmI&feature=related[/youtube]

Flip Mino Killer: Kodak Zi8 Review

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ2NV463deQ&feature=related[/youtube]

Flip UltraHD vs. Kodak Zi8 – Review by HighTechDad

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oar_2atL7lo&feature=related[/youtube]

GizmoDuck Review : Kodak Zi8 vs Creative Vado HD

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX_lPBb06-o&feature=related[/youtube]

First thoughts:

In terms of weight and ease of use, there’s nothing between the two of them. If anything, the Flip is a tad lighter. It’s also a little easier to use in that you press the ‘on’ button, wait a second or two and off you go. On the N95, startup (from off) takes a good 30 seconds. If the phone is already on, going into video camera phone can take up to 10 seconds.

Both are straightforward point and shoot efforts. You point at what you want and you digital zoom in if you need to be closer. On both the digital zoom is average at best and best avoided.

The thing to bear in mind with what you see below is that how they look after YouTube is not how they look on my machine. I’ll let you judge what the YouTube codecs has done to them yourself when I talk about colour and sound on the clips, it will be as how they appeared on my machine.

On that note, the first thing worth pointing out is this:

Size of Flip image versus N95 on 15inch laptop screen

That was the first surprise -when you set them to actual size to show on your machine the Flip is quite happy to more or less take up the full screen – and looks decent too – while the N95 takes up a smaller space and still looks a little blocky (machine used was a MacBook Pro 15-inch)

Picture and Sound Quality:

This actually surprised me. I was expecting the Flip to romp this, but it wasn’t that cut and dried.

Interior, dark
I won’t bore you with the video from this as both were awful (if you insist – that was the Flip). Darkness just doesn’t work for either of them, so strap on a torch if you want to re-enact the Blair Witch Project.

Interior, average light
Here’s the shots from my living room. The child in the video when sitting was around six feet from me and when doing starshapes at the end was about two feet away from me. If you want to sync the videos up, the N95 one should be started at 1:00 while the Flip one should be at 1:57 – but you get to see some sound/audio before that if you want to watch the lot.

N95 Living Room

Flip Living Room:

I thought the Flip would romp this but the N95 actually had the better colours. Sound was equal on both.

Flip Goldfish
(Goldfish in this start at about a minute in.)

N95 Goldfish

In the Goldfish, I didn’t think there was much in it – the Flip seemed to have a slight edge, but nothing I would say was significant. (The noise in each shot is the fishtank filter)

Overall for the house shots, I was surprised on this because while the Flip seems to have the better shot and perspective, the N95 actually had better colours. The Flip’s colours appeared a little more washed out, while the N95′s were more realistic.

Exterior shots

N95 Flowers

Flip Flowers

For me, the Flip was the winner here. The colours looked just a tad more vivid and real. Sound was more or less equal on them both. However, after YouTube has done what it does, the N95 actually appears to have better colours online.

N95 Uddingston External

Flip Uddingston External

The Flip was the winner here again. There just seems to be a little bit of sharpness, contrast and better colour than the N95. The perspective also seems a little better – judge the oncoming car in both for example.

Conclusions and Notes:

For all I’m a fan of the N95, I fully expected the Flip to wipe the floor with it. It didn’t and that surprised me. Don’t get me wrong, it has a lot going for it – better perspective, better outdoor colours, HD at 720 – but I wasn’t blown away as I would have expected. They were both 50/50 when used on a Standard Definition TV – perhaps some slightly better colour on the Flip.

Where the Flip does score is in convenience – the USB plug pops out, plug it in and off you go – the software’s even built in. The N95′s file structure on the other hand is horrific – and slow if you decide to use Bluetooth.

Both machines use mp4 file format – h264 if memory serves – so they are easy enough to edit in external applications. The software that comes with the Flip is very basic in that regard – but it does the job if need be.

if I had any other phone, I think a Flip would be a no-brainer but if someone has a N95 I don’t know if there’s any great need to fork out extra cash. If you only had an iPhone, a Flip would be a great addition.

I see Flip have updated their range to include a two-hour HD camera that appears a little bulkier but also a little cheaper, which may be an acceptable trade-off for some.

For a person caught needing quick web-ready video, either of these would do. If I suddenly needed a video quote off someone and only had the N95 with me, I wouldn’t panic as I know it would do the job. Similarly if I’m a reporter running about with space for only one bit of kit, the phone wins it as it does more than just be a camera. Both are capable and competent for the job of YouTube-sized web video. It just so happens that one can also do audio, calls and a million other things – and is cheaper.

There are other cameras that some consider including the Creative Vado HD and Kodak Zi6. Here’s some links to other reviews of them – Flip Mino HD (vs Creative Vado HD and Kodak Zi6) and Flip Mino HD, Kodak Zi6, Griffin Clarifi. Those are both video reviews but a fantastic text review (with screengrabs) can be found here.

Anyway, if anyone has decent examples of what these pieces of kit can do, feel free to post examples in the comments section.

Graeme Rose sent me a tweet yesterday

The Dundee Contemporary Arts is inviting people in with under-18 month old kids to see Kick Ass on May 6. (That TBA at the end isn’t for the certificate BTW, I think it’s telling you that the words t*t, bas**rd and ass probably feature lots in the movie.) (Yes, that was a gag.)

For those who don’t know, Kick Ass tells the tale of a teen who decides to become a superhero – but without the powers – he gets beat up, tries again, gets filmed on YouTube, becomes a celebrity and then discovers there are other vigilantes in town, including a foul-mouthed, ultra-violent little girl. I did a review here.

Now I know it’s great that parents get a chance to see films in the cinema. I appreciate that. I would just find a babysitter, but not everyone is that fortunate that they can find at least one person in this world to watch their child for two hours or so.

But this is not a film to take kids to for a few reasons:

1) Under-18 months or not, kids still pick up on stuff. And if this is anything like the comic, there will be some very choice language.
2) It’s violent and if you have a kid watching the screen, do you really want that going into your kid’s head?
3) What are you doing letting someone so young watch a screen anyway? (this one, I’ll admit is just me. Many people have no issue with young kids and TV)

Now it’s nice that the DCA is helping to promote a film created by a Scot, I applaud the idea of cinema for parents, but the concept’s a bit weak here. I accept that it might be cost-prohibitive to build a softplay for the kids so adults can go and watch the movie for a while without the cries of a child.

But this is not a movie for wee ones.

(I still remember the kids aged 6-10 going into see The Dark Knight. Not many lasted past the scene with the pencil. And again, what were the parents thinking…)

Now Graeme thinks someone at the DCA just went ‘oh it’s based on a comic, it will be OK’ but they haven’t. The text for the event states:

It has everything you’d want from a traditional comicbook adaptation but it also has a wicked foul-mouthed sense of humour.

Whoever picked this, knows exactly what the film is. Now this might just be a PR stunt – shame on me then – but if not, it’s incredulous. No doubt some people will say I’m being over-protective and so on, but I don’t think so. This is a very violent/strongly-worded film. You let a kid watch this, you might as well let them watch anything. Good luck with the psychiatry bills.

*As you may have guessed – here’s my review of the movie script from back in 2008 – I didn’t like Kick Ass as a comic or a script. It’s nothing against Mark Millar, he’s a very nice guy, has written some really good stuff and I wish him all the best. Kick Ass though, just didn’t appeal to me. Even worse, I can already see some of the stunts that will happen around this film, the inevitable Daily Mail outrage and so on.

Back in the days when I didn’t drive, the good lady would take me many places and it would have been interesting to see what the cost of that would have been in total, but for kids this could be a good little way of showing them the value of things – and why, sometimes it is better to plan ahead and be ready (so you can take the normally cheaper and more envornmentally friendly bus or train) than leave everything to the last minute and do a taxi or car dash.

It could also be handy amongst mates and a way of making sure everyone does their fair bit of being a designated driver type. Or if you do genuinely have a taxi mate and you want to keep a tab of what you owe him (you could even extend it and – if it could match the real taxi meter fares in each city – use it when in a cab to make sure you aren’t being ripped off by an overclocked taxi meter).

Having said that, it does appear to be a tad sexist in that you can’t change it to Mum’s Cab but it’s still a bit of fun for those who like that sort of thing.

(And yes, it’s technically only half a review as I don’t have a Nokia to hand, but it caught my eye and seemed quirky)