Via World of Apple

As if I haven’t wasted enough bytes on the iPad, my reasons for not being one of the million:

• No accounts: I can’t set up my email and stuff and leave it on the coffee table
• $500

Those are about it. I would have been a sucker for the rest. That thing is pretty.

I’m strongly considering a netbook to take that place on the coffee table.

Amazon has announced Kindle Apps for Tablet Computers (including Kindle for iPad), a rather polished e-reader application that both makes the Kindle itself look rather old-fashioned and explains why last week’s Mac version was so unfinished: The Amazon developers have clearly been spending all their time on this instead.

The app offers all the usual Kindle features: Whispersync to keep your bookmarks and notes in sync between devices and the ability to load up any books you have previously bought. It also adds a lot of visual polish, from the obligatory page-turn animation (you can switch it off) to a fetching, full-color grid view of your library. You can adjust “paper” color, and change screen brightness from within the app.

Still, the Ipad won’t replace my Kindle – I don’t think… I’m pretty attached to the Kindle for dedicated, hard core, long term, sit-until-my-butt-goes-numb reading. Nothing beats the Kindle as far as I’m concerned.

But just like I’ll sit and read the Iphone Kindle app at lunch, the Ipad opens up other possibilities too. All about possibilities right?

Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/amazon-shows-off-kindle-for-ipad/#ixzz0kBJYwGYO

Mac version

via Amazon Shows Off Kindle for iPad | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

Looks great. Its all about timing now…

I also appreciate the engineering and design of the Ipad. What a lovely toy or gadget or whatever. I just don’t plan on having one right now.

If they sold them for $100 I might buy one. That will not happen any time soon.

There’s nothing I don’t like about it. My reason for not wanting one is I don’t need one. Apple has done a great job of making everything I do need.

I have a 13″ unibody Macbook. I take this thing everywhere – literally. I have a computer everywhere I go. And when even the Macbook is too big, I have my Iphone – web, email, programs, web apps, etc.

I watched the big speech. I see things opposite the way he does. Ipad takes the best things about Macbooks and Iphones and gets rid of it and leaves a gizmo with nothing but the limitations and a portion of the pros.

I need to be able to type easily on nearly all the pages I visit. If I need small and portable, I need small and portable. If I want to read books I want something designed for reading books. (That would be my Kindle.)

Orange is used here to give a friendly and inviting impression

via Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color – Smashing Magazine.

Digg is set to debut a new iPhone app, according to an interview with the news site’s founder, Kevin Rose.

The revelation was somewhat unintentional: video podcasters Arnt Eriksen and Thomas Moen were interviewing Rose during the FOWA conference in London and spotted him playing with the new app. When the pair inquired about the application, Rose replied: “You’re not even supposed to know about that…nobody knows about that”. He was, however, happy for the pair to leave the revelation in their podcast. 

Separately, Digg is planning to expand to the “long tail” of content, Rose explains, serving up home pages for many different subject areas. The change could mean that Digg becomes a more reliable traffic source for publishers: currently it’s an all or nothing scenario.

Digg To Launch iPhone App [Video]

• Save pages to a reading list to read when you have time
• Click to Save Mode – Quickly batch a reading list just by clicking on interesting links
• Offline Reading Mode – Read the items you’ve saved for later on the plane, train, or anywhere
• Access Anywhere – Manage your list in any browser, on any device
• Sync Between Computers – Sync your reading list with any number of computers, work or home
• After reading, bookmark pages on your preferred bookmarking service

This fantastic add-on has revolutionized the way I use the web. How many times has one interesting link distracted me from the page I’d already decided was worth the read? I have a new “work flow” when it comes to perusing the web: I read what I came to read and when I see a link there to something else I don’t want to miss, one click has it saved and ready to read later and immediately off my mind for now. Its the same concept of the GTD inbox.

Speaking of in boxes, you know that your RSS reader is your “inbox for the internet” right? On Google Reader, there is a built-in check mark next to each link headline you can click. I used to open up Google Reader in headline view and scan each headline and starring what I wanted to go back and read and ignoring the rest. Read It Later removes a lot of clicking out of that process and puts the to-read links in a better place.

Not only does this save a lot of time, but the time is better spent. No more losing focus. Those sections of down time where I might usually begin random surfing now have meaningful reading waiting for them. I miss less – things I may have stopped reading to read something else are finished instead, and links I would have otherwise skipped over are added to the que. I have the same reading list available on my Windows desktop, my Macbook, and my Iphone. I haven’t even played with the offline features yet.

That’s my sales pitch for this perfectly free add-on. At the moment I’d probably have to name this my favorite Firefox addon for its usefulness and ease of use. It is easily worth the two minutes to download it and try it out for yourself.

All-in-One Sidebar – this one is nice for my widescreen monitor – shifting realestate from the top to the side.

Tree Style Tabs – same as the sidebar – much more orderly now that I’m used to it and keeps the shape of my actual browsing space taller.

Xmarks – this is another must – keeps all my bookmarks synced between my laptop and desktop

TwitterBar – easy twitter posts right from the FF address bar.

Zementa – I have this but don’t really use it much. Yet.

SmarterFox – this one is actually sort of useful, but I haven’t gotten in the habit of making the most of it.

Personas for Firefox – quick way to keep Firefox looking good

Cooliris – very nice image viewer but this one is on the chopping block. Get it and use it if you like looking at pictures. A lot. And you don’t mind it being big, clunky, and not really integrated well with the browser.

Read it Later – I just began experiementing with this one. Lets you easily add links or pages to a list available for later viewing. Online or offline. List is synced with your other computers and mobile device.

Speed Dial – Every time you open a tab you see nine links with big thumbnails of your favorite sites.

That’s about it.