My Wife’s Take After a Week With an eReader [Impressions]
My Wife’s Take After a Week With an eReader [Impressions]
I gave my wife a Sony Reader for Christmas after she’d talked about them for some time (she deemed the Kindle “ugly” btw, which is important as anything else for a gadget that’s designed to be looked at for hours on end, I guess). Her verdict on the experience? Good, but there’s one thing she’s surprised to miss most from real books:
It’s not just the smell, the texture, the page turning or the better contrast ratios of a real hardcover that you’d expect. She feels disoriented without the constant, tactile feedback of the book’s thickness—that unconscious reminder of just how much of the story is left to go (are there really enough pages remaining for Mr. Darcy and Lizzie to work things out??). Sure, there are page numbers on the screen, but it’s not the same.
I found her reaction simple and somewhat profound. While this small detail is far from a deal breaker for the Reader (or any other similar device), it’s not the sort of issue E Ink will ever be able to address. Of course, if/when our generations make way for children who never know paper, the industry will have solved its problem of a homesick readership.
Gizmodo’s 20 Most Commented Articles and Top 5 Commenters of 2007 [Reader Participation]
Gizmodo would be a sad lonely place without you, the readers. Sure, we would keep drinking cocktails and having wild beach parties in the South Pacific, but it just wouldn’t be the same. No, really. So here they are, without further ado, the Top 20 Most Commented Articles and the Top 5 Commenters of 2007. Check them out and vote for your favorite after the jump:
Top 20 Most commented articles of 2007
1. Halo: Halo 3 Swag Rebagging (Plus Apology) - 415
2. iPhone Revisited (Verdict: Don’t Buy) - 344
3. Contest: Win a Free iPhone Software Unlock - 336
4. How to Comment: Win a Free iPhone Software Unlock - 286
5. Apple: 8GB iPhone Price Cut by $200, 4GB iPhone Gone - 279
6. Homophobia: Shareholder Takeover Planned to Stop Microsoft’s ‘Homosexual Agenda’ - 273
7. Gizmodo iPhone Hands-On: I Called My Mommy - 237
8. Vote Giz: Vote for Giz! - 225
9. Apple: Apple’s Beat Keynote Liveblog Here - 221
10. Exclusive: iPhone Free Software Unlock Confirmed (Death Star Explodes) - 215
11. Unicorn Chaser: We’re Not Backing Out of Halo - 213
12. Top: Apple WWDC 2007 Liveblog - Steve Jobs Keynote - 211
13. Question Of The Day: Zune or iPod? - 209
15. Whiners: Bitching About Too Much iPhone Coverage? Listen Up - 197
16. High Schooler Gets Detention for Using Firefox? UPDATE: Nope - 187
17. Announcements: Which Gizmodo Commenters Suck? - 184
18. Advertising: Intel Ad Might be Racist, but Boy Does It Make Me Want a Core 2 Duo 183
19. Oh, Food! I’ll Just - Wahhhhhh!!: Squirrel Catapult is Awful, Yet We Can’t Look Away 180
20. How to Comment: How Much Storage Do You Have? - 170
Top 5 Commenters of 2007
1. strider_mt2k’s Activity - 4,151
2. Kaiser-Machead’s Activity - 1,986
3. nutbastard’s Activity - 1,356
4. ANoel’s Activity 1,327
5. omg-ponies’s Activity - 1,245
If you have another favorite comments or commenters, tell us in the comments and then other people can comment to your comments until a time-space warp is generated and gets all of us sucked into the next year or a new dimension.
What products or software are you looking forward to in 2008? [Ask The Readers]
Looking back on 2007, you can’t say there was a shortage of new products and services. While the word “beta” became a synonym for “new and free,” there were a few projects launched this year—including TV-watching site Hulu, Pownce, GrandCentral, and Joost, to name a few—that remain invite-only, and others, like Google’s to-do list, the full Windows Live suite, and third-party iPhone apps, set to drop after the new year.
What productivity tools, web apps, or software are you most looking forward to seeing unveiled or made fully public in 2008? Which products have you gotten in on the ground floor of and are eager to have your friends start using? Give us your predictions, thoughts, and user experiences in the comments.
If the hectic holidays have left you with an overdose of Lifehacker, fear not! You can always subscribe to our Top Stories feed to receive each day’s best posts, our Feature stories feed if you only want our feature content, or our Highlights feed for an index of each weeks’ best posts every Friday. This week’s best posts include:
- How to Set Up Your New Computer
“If you’re spending the holiday setting up a new Mac or PC, it’s time to get filled with free software cheer.” - How to Install Third-Party Apps on Your New iPhone or iPod Touch
“Today we’re jailbreaking that brand new iPhone or iTouch of yours to open it up to the wonderful world of third-party software.” - Take Your Best Driver’s License Photo Ever
“There’s a trick to a good driver’s license photo, and today I will detail the steps I take to get a good pic every time.” - Automatically Load and Update Your Windows Systems
“One of the best parts of getting a new computer for the holidays–other than that new computer smell—is setting up a fresh, clean system exactly how you want it.” - Free Bundle of GTD Articles Written By David Allen
“David Allen has a zipped archive of 17 articles available to download for free at the David Allen Company online store.” - The Rules of Photography Composition
“If you’ve just scored a brand-new camera for the holidays and want to take some brilliant shots, Videojug has an excellent five-step walk-through of the important elements of photography composition.” - Use a Disposable Razor to Remove Sweater Pills
“Lifehacker Reader Michael K. tried rollers, tape, and all the usual methods to de-pill a fleece, but it wasn’t until a friend recommended buying cheap, disposable safety razors that he found his solution.” - Set Up Instant Working Environments with Batch Files
“Create a quick working environment–launching every document and application you need to get straight to work–using a Windows stalwart, the batch script.” - Make Windows Look Like a Mac with FlyakiteOSX
“Freeware application FlyakiteOSX transforms the look of Windows so even though you’re still running Windows, it looks convincingly like OS X.” - Speed Up the Firefox Download Process
“Instead of right-clicking on a download link, choosing save to target and pressing enter, just drag the download link to the downloads icon…”
Manipulate Windows Quick-Like with WinMover [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Freeware application WinMover resizes, moves, maximizes, restores, closes, and performs other windows manipulation tasks with ease using a combination of your mouse and the Alt key. For example, if you want to resize a window, rather than pushing your mouse to find the few pixels around the window that switch your mouse to the resize cursor, just press and hold your Alt key, click the right mouse button anywhere on the window you’re resizing, and drag it around to the proper size. To move a window, hold Alt, left-click anywhere on the window, and drag away. Close? Alt-double-left-click. The shortcuts are fully configurable and very useful for manipulating your windows, especially if you don’t mouse with sniper precision. WinMover is freeware, Windows only, and Download Squad’s demo (above) gives a great overview.
Feature: Engineer Builds LEGO Car That Parks Itself, Doesn’t Crash (Video)
[…] Blog Surfer - Just another web surfer blog wrote an interesting post today on My Wifeâs Take After a Week With an eReader [Impressions]Here’s a quick excerpt My Wife’s Take After a Week With an eReader [Impressions] I gave my wife a Sony Reader for Christmas after she’d talked about them for some time (she deemed the Kindle “ugly” btw, which is important as anything else for a gadget that’s designed to be looked at for hours on end, I guess). Her verdict on the experience? Good, but there’s one thing she’s surprised to miss most from real books: It’s not just the smell, the texture, the page turning or the better contrast ratios of a real hardcov […]