How the Apple iPhone and the Amazon Kindle have dramatically changed the way we view the mobile web and electronic e-books
Contact Info Mike Qaissaunee Co-PI, National Center for Information and Communications Technologies [email_address] Gordon F. Snyder Executive Director, National Center for Information and Communications Technologies [email_address] Website – ictcenter.org Thanks to Kelly Parr for the Kindle and Kindle-related images
Blogs/Podcast and other Read our blogs at: Mike Qaissaunee - q-ontech.blogspot.com Gordon F. Snyder - ictcenter.blogspot.com Listen to our podcast @ gsnyder.libsyn.com/ or subscribe in iTunes Join us on twitter – mqaissaunee and gsnyder Join us in Facebook Watch our YouTube Channel
E-books And The Amazon Kindle
Industry Eco-Footprint Stats
From Business Week:
8.9 pounds of emissions per book.
30 million trees consumed per year by the industry.
Recycled paper is now used for 13% of book pages.
An Industry in Transition
From Yahoo News:
New annual releases keep increasing (more than 276,000, according to researchers R.R. Bowker)
While the number of books purchased is expected to drop, according to a report by the Book Industry Study Group, an industry-supported organization.
In addition, core American Booksellers Association (ABA) membership dropped to 1,524 as of this spring, 56 fewer than the year before, and booksellers filled less than half of the roughly 500 chairs set up for a meeting at the Expo.
Concerns: Kids and Books
The Amazon Kindle
6" diagonal, 4-level grayscale electrophoretic display (E Ink material) with a resolution of 600×800 pixels (167 ppi), although the largest graphic image that can be displayed without being resized in a publication is 450x550 pixels.
It measures 5.3 inches × 7.5 inches × 0.7 inches (134.5 mm × 190 mm × 19 mm) and weighs 10.3 ounces (295 grams).
The Kindle has 256 MB of internal storage, of which 180 MB is available on a new device.
External storage, battery life, ports and connectors
An SD memory card expansion slot is present, officially supporting cards up to 4 GB in size.
It has 64 MB of RAM. The battery lasts roughly two days with wireless on, and one week with wireless off.
The battery charges in about two hours.
A USB 2.0 port (mini-B connector) is available for connecting to a computer (where it acts as a USB flash drive).
The device runs on a modified version of Linux based on the 2.6.10 kernel.
The Kindle features a headphone jack and one-year warranty.
headphone jack USB AC
How do you use it?
On startup you go to the Home menu. The Home menu lists all the books, magazines, and newspapers you've bought or transferred to your Kindle.
To read a book, use the select wheel to move the silver selection next to the book's name, and press the select wheel. You can return to your Home menu at any time by pressing the Home key.
Use the Next Page and Previous Page on the sides of the Kindle.
Navigation
If you want to move forward (or backward) in larger steps than a page, hold down the Alt key while you press the Next Page or Previous Page buttons to move 5% of the way forward or back in the book.
On the bottom of the screen, just below the last line of text, is a line of dots. This is the ruler, which shows you how far along you are in the book.
You can bookmark a page (to return to it quickly later) by scrolling up to the top of the page and pressing the select wheel (or by pressing Alt B). You can also do this using the menu.
Whispernet
Whispernet is the Kindles wireless network, which uses the Sprint EVDO cellular network. This means that the Kindle can be used as a stand alone without a computer. Whispernet is accessible through Kindle without any fee.
Content on the Kindle
The easiest way to get books onto your Kindle is to buy them directly from Amazon.com and have them transferred wirelessly. New content is being added each day.
You can also get books from one of the many websites that offer ebooks.
Some Other Places to Get Books
Some of the most popular among Kindle owners are:
http://www.manybooks.net
http://www.feedbooks.com/
http://www.wowio.com/
http://www.gutenberg.org/
Example: Feedbooks offers a book catalog that you can put directly onto your Kindle, from which you can immediately download books.
You can also transfer books using the USB cable.
Find your book files and drag them to the “documents” folder.
This will work for .azw, .txt, .prc, and .mobi files.
DOCs and PDFs
If you want to read .doc or .pdf files, you can email them as attachments to
<your Kindle name>@free.kindle.com and you'll get a reply with the document file converted into .azw format. The .azw format is proprietary from Amazon.
If you want the converted file sent directly to your Kindle, email it as an attachment to
<your Kindle name>@kindle.com (note the absence of “free”).
Your Amazon account will be charged 10 cents and the converted file will be sent wirelessly to your Kindle.
What else can you do?
You can highlight text on your Kindle—which really just draws a box around it.
Select a line that you want to use as the beginning or end of your highlighted section.
On the menu, select Add Highlight. Select any other line on the page, and a box will be drawn around the text starting at the first line you selected.
Selecting the same line will just draw a box around that line.
To delete a highlight, just select any line in the box, then from the menu, select Delete Highlight.
Adding Notes
You can also add your own notes to any book, creating your own personal footnotes and information scribbled in the margins.
Using the select wheel, select a line, then from the menu, select Add Note. Type in your note, and select Done.
A small note icon will appear to the right of that line. If you select that line again, you can Edit the Note (thus seeing what you wrote), or Delete it.
You can also see your notes by selecting the Menu on a page, then selecting My Notes & Marks.
Saving Text
You can also save a piece of text to use it outside the Kindle.
On any page, select Menu, then select Save Page as Clipping at the end.
This will save a plain-text document called My Clippings in your Home menu.
The next time you connect your Kindle to your computer with the USB cable, check out the clippings folder and you'll see text files with the pages you saved. Unfortunately, you can only save one page at a time.
Searching
You can also search through your Kindles library.
Just press the SEARCH button at the bottom of the keyboard, type anything, and select Go.
You'll be presented with a list of every document on your Kindle that contains the exact phrase you typed in.
If you select a document, your Kindle will display all the places in that document where the phrase shows up; selecting any of the matches will jump to that place in the document.
Dictionary
The Kindle comes with the New Oxford American Dictionary and you can buy others.
While reading, select a line of text. In the menu that appears, select Lookup.
Each uncommon word on that line will be displayed with a brief definition.
Select a brief definition, and a full definition will be displayed.
Experimental Extras
The Kindle comes with several bonus experimental features - the experimental menu has three items in the current edition of the Kindle:
Basic Web provides you with a simple web browser (NetFront 3.3, which is designed for mobile devices like phones and PDAs).
You can use Basic Web to browse the world wide web as long as wireless is switched on and you have a signal.
Ask Kindle NowNow
Question ask and answer feature
With Ask Kindle NowNow, you type in a question, and it's sent to a network of people who compete to answer your questions.
You'll get up to three answers, usually within ten minutes. You can ask them anything.
Playing Music/Podcasts
If you've loaded music files onto your Kindle (using the USB cable), Play Music will play your music.
You can also hold the ALT key and press the P key to play or pause the music no matter what you're doing on the Kindle. Press ALT F to skip to the next song.
Other Goodies
The Kindle has GPS
Google Maps, show current location (Alt-1 while in the browser)
Alt-2 find gas station nearby
Alt-3 find restaurants nearby
Alt-5 find custom keyword nearby
Play Minesweeper (Alt-M)
Make a screenshot (Alt-Shift-G)
show time from the home screen (Alt-T)
Using With Other Devices
Using With Other Devices
The Sony Reader
Reference:
The Kindle Fan Guide - An unofficial handbook for Amazon's awesome e-book reader
by Brent P. Newhall under a Creative Commons Attribution (by) license.
Reference:
YouTube - The Amazon Kindle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKUKQ7QqOHw
YouTube - Amazon Kindle Video Review Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJLKNc254vw
YouTube - Amazon Kindle Video Review Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU09qViljhs&feature=related
YouTube - Amazon Kindle Video Review Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU09qViljhs&feature=related
YouTube - Amazon Kindle Video Review Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syzxiyQbfb0&feature=related
The iPhone and the SDK
What is the iPhone?
Apple’s Smartphone
More than a Phone?
Built in Accelerometer
GPS or Position Triangulation
Multi Touch Interface
Sensors
Keyboard
Safari
Mail
Calendar
Wide Screen Display
iPhone Overview
Smart Phone +
iPod (Widescreen)
Wireless Internet Communication Device
Wifi 802.11 b/g
PDA
Computer (OS X)
Camera
App Store
iPhone Development
Development done with the help of iPhone SDK ( requires an Intel MAC )
Uses Objective-C
XCODE + Other tools
Can submit your application to App Store
$99 membership
Review your application + code
Revenue model
You set your price (free, 99cents, $9.99m etc)
70% developer (you) and 30% Apple
iPhone SDK
iPhone SDK includes five powerful iPhone programming tools
XCODE
Professional text editor
Debugger
GCC compiler
Interface Builder
For creating user interface
Instruments
For optimizing application
iPhone SDK
Dash Code
For creating web applications for Safari
iPhone Simulator
iPhone OS can be viewed as set of layers
Cocoa Touch Layer
Application management
Graphics and windowing support
Event-handling support
User interface management
Objects representing the standard system views and controls
Support for text and web content
Accelerometer data
The built-in camera
The photo library
Device-specific information
the basic tools to implement graphical, event-driven applications
Media Layer
Graphics Technologies
Core Audio
OpenAL
Video Technologies
provides graphics and media technologies for creating advanced multimedia experiences
Core Services
Address Book
Core Location
CFNetwork
Security
SQLite
Provides fundamental or core system services that all applications use
Core OS
Threading (POSIX threads)
Networking (BSD sockets)
File-system access
Standard I/O
Bonjour and DNS services
Location information
Memory allocation
encompasses the kernel environment, drivers, and basic interfaces of the operating system
Provides access to low-level features of the operating system
iPhone Hardware and Software Features Available to Applications
Accelerometer
iPhone and iPod touch have 3 accelerometers to measure/detect movement along each of the primary ( x, y, and z ) axes in three-dimensional space
The system uses the accelerometers to monitor a device’s current orientation and to notify applications when that orientation changes
Applications can access accelerometer data directly
iPhone Hardware and Software Features Available to Applications
Core Location
Core Location monitors signals from cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots to triangulate the user’s current position
Accuracy of location information and threshold for reporting location changes can be specified
Use sparingly – drains battery
iPhone Hardware and Software Features Available to Applications
Contacts
The Phone, Mail, and SMS Text applications use contact list to identify contacts and to facilitate basic interactions such as starting a phone call, email, or text message
Your applications can access contacts for similar purposes or to get other information relevant to your application
iPhone Hardware and Software Features Available to Applications
The Camera and Photo Library
iPhone has a camera and photo library -- iPod Touch has no camera
iPhone OS provides access to both of these features
You can incorporate system-provided picker interfaces into your application
These interfaces provide standard system views for selecting a photo from the user’s photo library or taking a picture using the camera
App Distribution
Three methods of distribution:
App Store
Wi-Fi/EDGE/HSDPA on iPhone
Desktop syncing via iTunes
Enterprise
Proprietary in-house apps
Requires 500+ employees
Ad-hoc
Provide users with app via email/website
Requires users to register their device ID with the developer
100 device limit per app
Downloading Apps
App Store distribution method determined by size:
Apps < 10 MB can be downloaded over the cellular network
Apps > 10 MB require WiFi connectivity or side loading via iTunes
Classes of iPhone Applications
We can define three types of iPhone applications:
Productivity
Utility
Immersive
iPhone Developer University Program
a free program designed for higher education institutions looking to introduce curriculum for developing iPhone or iPod touch applications . The University Program provides a wealth of development resources, sophisticated tools for testing and debugging, and the ability to share applications within the same development team. Institutions can also submit applications for distribution in the App Store.
iPhone Developer University Program
Student Development Team
The iPhone Developer University Program allows instructors and professors to create a development team with up to 200 students.
iPhone Developer University Program
The iPhone Developer University Program includes:
iPhone SDK
iPhone Dev Center Resources
iPhone Developer University Program
Testing on iPhone and iPod touch
iPhone Developer University Program
Internal or App Store distribution
iPhone/SDK Recommendations
Optimize Web Site for Mobile Devices
Computer Science iPhone University Developer Program
Create iPhone App for Marketing
Create iPhone App for Registration/Student Services
Integrate iPhone into Classroom Activities
Also Investigate Google’s Android App Store and RIM’s Blackberry App Store
iPhone SDK Demo
Invitation and Call for Presentations
National and Mid-Pacific ICT Centers
Winter 2009
ICT Educator Conference
San Francisco
January 8-9, 2009
Presentation Tracks On:
ICT Industry Educational Programs
ICT Educator Successes
MPICT Center Efforts
Register at www.ictcenter.org
Join us Summer 2009 in Phoenix watch ate-con.org for details
Blogs/Podcast and other Read our blogs at: Mike Qaissaunee - q-ontech.blogspot.com Gordon F. Snyder - ictcenter.blogspot.com Listen to our podcast @ gsnyder.libsyn.com/ or subscribe in iTunes Join us on twitter – mqaissaunee and gsnyder Join us in Facebook Watch our YouTube Channel
Contact Info Mike Qaissaunee Co-PI, National Center for Information and Communications Technologies [email_address] Gordon F. Snyder Executive Director, National Center for Information and Communications Technologies [email_address] Website – ictcenter.org
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