Having used my beloved eReader for close to 5 months now, I think it’s time I wrote a bit about it to share with you how I find it so far. And yes, those are indeed little hearts you see in the article title. That mean I LUVVVV IIITTTTT! =D
A while ago out of pure accident I came across one of Sony’s most ingenious little ideas, the Sony eBook Reader. I suppose you could see sparkles in my eyes when I found out what it was and what it did. I could finally be delivered from the pain of having to read all my eBooks on my monitor. I have to add here, I read a lot and I have a truly large number of eBooks. [You can see a part of my library here.] I’m not really a big fan of paper books because of obvious reasons. If I were to store the paper version of all the books that I currently have, I would need to rent the white house. In addition, I once had to leave behind my library of paper books when I was migrating from one country to the other. That was certainly not an enjoyable event. So now, for me it’s all about eBooks. I guess you can imagine what it would mean to me and what kind of freedom I would achieve by being able to load a handful of my eBooks into a tiny gadget and carry it around wherever I want, just like a simple paperback. It would also mean that I won’t have to worry about staring at the monitor for 12 hours strait and tiring the heck out of my eyes.
Obviously the first thing that I did was going through the specifications of the eReader. I noticed that there’s a main book format for the reader [BBeB aka .lrf], and it also supports most of the major formats including PDF and TXT. It also has the ability to display JPG images in gray-scale, and play mp3 files among other sound formats. That was all I needed; I was sold. But then I also started looking into the online user reviews for the gadget and that turned out to be somewhat disconcerting. I read a whole lot about how people were unhappy with the fact that the display is in gray-scale. There was also tons of rant about the loading speed for each page, and I even read comments saying that the screen would break by a touch! And that’s to mention just a few…
To my good fortune, I was too taken by it not to take the risk. Despite all the sad reviews, I decided to buy one. [Now given that the reader is only available in the USA, how I managed to get my hands on one is another story altogether..] Well, obviously I’m now more than happy I took the risk. The eReader is probably the most useful piece of electronics I paid for in the past heaven knows how many years. As it turns out, it’s indeed a splendid little gadget. The time it takes to load each page is pretty much equal the amount of time it would take the human hand to turn the page of a paper book. You can change the size of the font to your liking, and the display is just fantastic. You can read the font clearly from any given angle. It’s light, easy to carry about and the battery charge lasts for a mighty long while. The sound quality is also very nice and it can easily rid you of your mp3 player. As for the physical strength of the screen… well I have a feeling some people might have tried playing squash with it, in which case it would definitely not last. But if you know how to use an electronic gadget, you won’t have any problems. And not to forget… to my deep delight, the eReader supports both Pro Duo memory sticks and the old fashioned SD cards. The only thing that doesn’t make me very happy right now, is that since the eReader has been released for the USA, at the moment the users outside of the USA are not able to directly connect to the Sony Connect Store to buy the BeBB books for the reader. That however was not a problem for me since I already have tons of eBooks to read with the eReader, and regardless of where you get your eBook, you can read it with the eReader. Even if you want to have BBeB books, there are tons of free applications out there that would take your PDF or RTF or whatever else you have and convert it into an LRF.
At the end, it is the fact that this gadget is not for everyone, and I can see clearly where all the negative reviews are coming from. Buying the eReader, would mean that you’re paying almost twice the price of a PSP for something that does not display you colours and you can’t play games with it. This gadget is for true readers, it’s meant to make easy the lives of people like me who spend hours and hours reading books. Don’t expect from it what’s it’s not meant for, and then pour your frustration into a negative review. And yet, don’t miss it if you’re a bookworm as I am. =)
Well well, let’s see what we’ve got here….well here we’ve got me, who’s been sitting here on this couch watching “Lifeforce” on my notebook over and over and over again for so many times I’ve lost count by now, and trying really hard to figure out what I’m gonna write here about the demo and still not knowing what. I mean what can I possibly say about this demo that would really describe either the demo or how I feel about it? aMUSiC just told me that ASD has been working on this demo for 6 months… what can I write in a few lines to be a fair comment about something so beautiful that has taken so much hard work?
For the first 30 minutes all that came to my mind was “Oh My God” and even now it’s mostly that. ASD’s new Assembly winner masterpiece causes quite the movement in one’s mind. I’d been told that I was about to have a new favorite ASD demo and that’s totally the case! =) The visuals bring you this beautiful mix of amazement and astonishment, way to go Navis, AMV and Archmage. And the music… well … what else can you expect from aMUSiC and Leviathan? It’s a fascinating soundtrack which is completely perfect for the demo.
There really isn’t much more that I can say… you have to carefully watch this demo, it speaks for itself and it has a lot to say actually. Do make sure to read the “read me” info as well for some extra hints.
Thanks again ASD! =)
Yesterday evening, Genox released his new EP by the name “Slowly Fading Colors“. The EP includes 5 new tracks:
Aquarius
Proto Z
Trafficlights
Dling Dling
Resurrected Piano
Having listened to these 5 tracks over and over and over again, I believe I can say that this EP is quite a step forward for this artist, and a truly enjoyable one to listen to. The EP includes some nice surprises for the old fans, and also has a lot to offer to a wider range of new listeners. The 5 tracks are an amazing display of the artist’s ability to smoothly flow through different genres and mix elements from different styles to create something very new, and yet containing the familiar Genox atmosphere. A very special collection of colors, which in turn brings me to the title of the EP.
With all due respect to the artist’s truly interesting reasoning for choosing the title “Slowly Fading Colors”, I can’t help mentioning that the EP brings an image of a “Box of Crayons” to my mind a lot more than fading colors. To elaborate, I basically see the EP as a collection of colors, placed side by side in a so well selected order, that causes each color to stand out in their own turn.
All that being said, I believe it’s time for you to listen to the EP, and develop your own opinion! =) So, check out Genox’s
blog post to download the EP.
Update: Just in case you can’t load Genox’s blog, you can download the EP directly from here.
Happy Persian new year [Norooz] everyone! Tonight at 8:07 PM Toronto time, the year 1386 of the Persian calendar begins. Hope it will be a great year for all of us. =)
Attention attention, great news everyone! Genox just released a whole new EP called “Similarities“. The new EP includes the already well known “Transatlantic Fiberglass“, and 4 completely new tracks [YAY!]:
-Ninjagirl [Hehe ;)]
-Melobotter
-Steamtrain
-Orbit
So check’em out, and enjoy! =)
Today’s a very very very very very special day, cause it’s someone very very very very very special’s birthday. =) Happy Birthday Genox, with all the best wishes! Hope you’ll have a super kool 25th year. =D <3 <3 <3 <3
Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone! =)
Well, for me, the holidays this year are going to be pretty pretty special. I’m about to have a very very special guest, and.. well.. that’s all I can say for now! =P Hope that you’ll all have a whole load of fun as well! =D
ATTENTION ATTENTION: Genox just released a new awesome single, called “Transatlantic Fiberglass“. =) YAAAAY! A very special track with a very special theme. Check it out right now and enjoy the magical transatlantic trip it takes you on. I know it took me on quite a trip… =)
Ok I’m in such a hurry to post this log, and I’m so bloody excited right now, that I don’t even know where to being. Ummm, ok, there’s a 30 second demo competition held by Intel, and 5 of the best demo-groups out there have been invited for the challenge. One of these groups is of course our beloved ASD. Voting for the demos is done through this website, so guys and gals, GO FOR IT, ASD RUUUUUUUUUUUULEZ! 🙂
I also have to add that I sincerely wish all the best for ASD, because their demo honestly blew my mind. AGAIN! 🙂
