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Upgrade

8: With Special Offers

 

00:00:00   [Music]

00:00:04   Welcome back to another episode of Upgrade on Relay FM.

00:00:09   This episode of Upgrade is brought to you by Hover, who simply are the very best place to buy and register domain names.

00:00:17   And our new friends, Jason, our new friends.

00:00:19   Oh, that they're friends.

00:00:20   Our new friends at Clubhouse, who I'm really excited to tell you about.

00:00:23   They make awesome communities for people, private and awesome communities.

00:00:27   My name is Myke Hurley and you've already heard him by now.

00:00:29   It's Mr. Jason Snell.

00:00:30   - Hi Myke. - He's online.

00:00:31   - How's it going? - Hi Jason.

00:00:32   Very well sir, how are you?

00:00:33   - I'm doing very well.

00:00:34   I have almost written my Kindle voyage review

00:00:37   and in fact, to ensure, this is insurance.

00:00:42   To make sure we actually talk about the Kindle today,

00:00:46   I have invited a special guest,

00:00:48   our first special upgrade guest.

00:00:50   And the reason we invited this gentleman

00:00:52   is because he is an expert when it comes to the Kindle.

00:00:56   It's Scott McNulty.

00:00:59   Hi, Scott.

00:01:00   - I'm very tempted to say something about Siri,

00:01:03   but I'm not going to.

00:01:04   (laughing)

00:01:05   - Don't do it.

00:01:06   - I was going to say it, but I didn't.

00:01:08   I'm not going to.

00:01:09   - Ahoy, Scott McNulty.

00:01:10   - Thank you for having me on.

00:01:14   - It's good to have you here.

00:01:16   So before we get started with the main topic of the show,

00:01:19   which indeed is Kindles and things and such,

00:01:24   perhaps it's time for some follow-up.

00:01:26   We don't have a sound effect for follow up though, Myke.

00:01:28   - Follow up.

00:01:29   - Thank you.

00:01:30   - No problem.

00:01:31   - That's scary.

00:01:32   We might get in trouble.

00:01:33   Five by five, is five by five gonna get mad

00:01:36   if you even say follow up in that tone ever?

00:01:39   I don't know.

00:01:40   - I don't know, I think Steven might get mad.

00:01:41   - Ah, that's fair.

00:01:44   We talked about, in I think our last episode,

00:01:48   we talked about test flight and getting approval

00:01:53   for betas using Apple's new test flight system.

00:01:57   And I wanted to point out, first off,

00:02:01   Myke, you put this in the show notes, but it's great.

00:02:02   It's Marco Arment on Twitter said that his beta

00:02:06   was approved in test flight for external testing in one day.

00:02:09   And then we also heard from listener Glenn,

00:02:12   who said his first time review was less than 24 hours.

00:02:16   And then with each initial no significant changes update,

00:02:21   those were processed in about half an hour.

00:02:23   it seemed to just be a kind of a server automated thing.

00:02:26   So it sounds like the TestFlight stuff

00:02:28   is happening much faster than we were kind of anticipating

00:02:31   for a traditional app review.

00:02:32   So that's good news, I think.

00:02:34   We were worried that they were,

00:02:36   Apple was gonna get in people's way.

00:02:38   - Just on that subject,

00:02:41   have you had many betas come to you via TestFlight yet?

00:02:45   - I think I have three in there right now.

00:02:47   And it's funny, one of the things that it does

00:02:50   is it sends you a push notification when there's a new beta,

00:02:53   which is actually pretty awesome.

00:02:55   - Well, I get push notifications and emails,

00:02:58   which is awesome. - Yes, yes.

00:02:59   - So I need to try and find a way

00:03:00   to stop both of those things happening.

00:03:02   - Right, and then there was one app,

00:03:04   and I don't wanna mention who it was,

00:03:05   and I don't know whether they were having a problem

00:03:06   with the system, but I got like five push notifications

00:03:09   saying that there was a new beta.

00:03:10   I think maybe they just kept uploading new versions

00:03:12   and finding bugs, but it was like within an hour,

00:03:15   there were like four notifications.

00:03:17   - I have also had that with someone too.

00:03:20   So that was why I was very annoyed

00:03:21   to continue receiving new emails.

00:03:23   It felt like every time I deleted an email,

00:03:24   I had another email.

00:03:25   - Yeah.

00:03:26   - Shut up.

00:03:27   Please stop now.

00:03:29   Anytime you wanna stop.

00:03:30   I like the system.

00:03:31   I like going in and having a little list

00:03:33   and just downloading it.

00:03:34   I like that I can access them on my iPad and my iPhone

00:03:38   very easily.

00:03:39   I don't have to do the provisioning profiles thing,

00:03:41   which just seemed to always randomly break for me

00:03:43   with hockey and with previous TestFlight.

00:03:48   I always found that it just broke constantly.

00:03:51   And one other thing that frustrates me

00:03:53   is the little yellow dot, which won't go away.

00:03:56   So when you have a beta, you know when you update

00:03:59   an application, dear listeners, you will see

00:04:03   that little blue dot which appears next to the app.

00:04:06   - That's, hey, you haven't opened this app yet.

00:04:08   We should know about this, right.

00:04:09   - And then it goes away.

00:04:11   But however, I now have little yellow dots

00:04:13   sprinkled about the place which do not go away for betas.

00:04:16   - No. - They will not go away

00:04:17   and I don't like that.

00:04:18   - I agree with you, it bugs me.

00:04:20   But in general, it seems like a pretty good thing.

00:04:23   So I'll deal with the bugged part of it.

00:04:28   And it's good to know that the turnaround for approval

00:04:32   is not so bad.

00:04:33   But it's all right.

00:04:34   TestFlight is not new, but this Apple TestFlight version

00:04:37   is new, so I guess they'll learn and adapt, hopefully.

00:04:41   I don't need five push notifications, though.

00:04:44   That's not--

00:04:45   - Here's one interesting tweet that I did see

00:04:47   that I haven't put in follow-up,

00:04:49   I'm going to mention it to you now.

00:04:52   - Surprise follow-up.

00:04:53   - Yeah, Martin Herring, who is the developer of Instacast,

00:04:58   he was having trouble.

00:05:00   Apple were rejecting his TestFlight app review

00:05:05   because of a bug in iOS 8.1.

00:05:08   So iOS 8.1 has an issue with iCloud,

00:05:13   and it's crashing apps when you open them.

00:05:16   and Apple were rejecting his app

00:05:19   because it was crashing at launch.

00:05:21   There's literally nothing you can do about it.

00:05:23   I think he's ended up fixing it though for another version,

00:05:25   but it's just interesting to think that

00:05:27   there are sometimes now going to be

00:05:29   things outside of your control

00:05:31   that you expect to be fixed by the time you release, I guess,

00:05:33   but Apple haven't been able to fix it.

00:05:35   So this raises the question,

00:05:37   what happens when people are testing against betas

00:05:41   later in the year?

00:05:42   How's that gonna work?

00:05:44   I wonder if there'll be something different in that time.

00:05:46   - Right. - So when iOS 9 is in beta,

00:05:49   how will people be distributing tests?

00:05:51   Like, will they still be testing for them,

00:05:52   and will Apple allow that, and that kind of stuff.

00:05:54   So it'd be interesting to see what happens there.

00:05:56   - Yikes. - But I hope that

00:05:58   all the kinks have worked out and that people adopt it,

00:06:00   because I think it feels like a much better system,

00:06:04   at least for testers.

00:06:05   I assume it's pretty good for the developers too,

00:06:09   the people starting to use it.

00:06:10   - Well, just not having to maintain that list of UDIDs

00:06:12   just being able to get a list of people with their iCloud IDs and using those.

00:06:17   And you know, because I know they dreaded like new devices coming out because it completely

00:06:23   screwed up all the beta testing because their beta testers would upgrade their devices and

00:06:26   then those lists would be no good and it was this endless maintenance of UDIDs which is

00:06:31   stupid.

00:06:32   So just for that it'll be a big win for lots of developers I think.

00:06:36   And I guess if you want it, you can have much larger testing pools now.

00:06:41   Yeah, it can be beneficial. Yeah, exactly and every one of your people just by being on your list contested on all their devices

00:06:48   Which is really nice. Yeah

00:06:50   I've got some very silly follow-up, but I liked it. This is a listener

00:06:54   Unai, Unai, I don't know how to pronounce it, but he's in Spain and he wants us to do a

00:07:01   vertical on cheese and he wants to sponsor it and

00:07:05   sponsor it via by sending Manchego cheese to you

00:07:09   Because you're close closer to him than me because he's in Spain just to let him know the good cheeses

00:07:14   We produce in Spain. So I've never had manchego cheese. You should it's very good

00:07:19   What's what's different about manchego cheese to regular cheese? Oh, I don't know Scott. Have you had manchego? I

00:07:24   Enjoy manchego on a regular basis. See Scott. Can you explain the difference between manchego cheese and regular cheese?

00:07:31   I believe and I could be wrong and I probably am is manchego a sheep

00:07:37   It is it is a sheet cheese. I believe yeah well there go so it's so you know most cheeses

00:07:44   Perhaps not most but many cheeses are cows milk so sheep milk has a different taste and the I'm sure the Spaniards do some kind of

00:07:52   crazy

00:07:53   Thing to turn manjago cheese. I assume it's a Basque product. It could not be yeah

00:07:57   I think I think I think it may be and it's it's a um it's certainly from that that area

00:08:02   I think up by the French border and

00:08:06   Whether it's is it just basque or is it also in Catalonia?

00:08:08   I don't know, but I do know a little bit about Spanish geography a tiny bit but

00:08:13   It's a hard cheese. It's not a like a like a gooey kind of cheese. It's a hard cheese, and it's uh yeah

00:08:19   It's just tasty. I enjoy it actually

00:08:21   Most when I put a little tomato jam on it

00:08:25   With the recipe from the book the cookbook that Scott's wife wrote

00:08:29   So there's a double endorsement that manchego with the tomato jam so tasty

00:08:35   So I guess when you asked Scott the question if he has manchego cheese you were really hoping that you had considering his wife

00:08:41   well, no because so so Scott's wife Marisa has has written

00:08:47   cookbooks now about canning and putting food in jars her website is food and jars calm and with the

00:08:54   Untold story there or like okay. It's been told Scott's told it is he doesn't need anything that comes out of jars basically

00:09:01   So he doesn't need any of these things that she cooks for her cookbooks

00:09:04   Yeah, I don't like jam or pickles and that's a large portion of what she does

00:09:09   It's she makes a corn salsa. That's very tasty. It's the things inside the jars. That's the problem. Or do you just not like jars?

00:09:16   Well, if I didn't like jars, I would be in the wrong apartment

00:09:20   I was for laying on the floor of our living room for some reason and I

00:09:25   Put my hand under our couch and I hit a box of jars

00:09:30   There are jars under our bed. There are jars everywhere. So it's mostly what's in them that I don't like

00:09:35   I know they're delicious to other people. I just don't like fruit really real-time cheese follow-up

00:09:39   Real-time cheese follow-up manchego is from the La Mancha region in central Spain

00:09:46   So it's not up by the border man of La Mancha as much La Mancha manchego there. That's

00:09:52   See and it is uh, yeah, it's a it's a sheep cheese

00:09:57   It's my age. It's mild tasty aged sheep's cheese. So thank you chat room

00:10:02   For our cheese well literally, where would we be without the chaperone?

00:10:07   Not eating cheese. That's for sure

00:10:10   So what other follow-up do we have Myke you something yeah, yeah something I saw on your site

00:10:18   Your lovely website six colors calm. It's NaNoWriMo time. It is in September so

00:10:26   For anybody that doesn't know I'm gonna do a terrible job explaining it

00:10:29   Nana Raimo is during the month of November where lots of clever people try and write a novel, right?

00:10:35   Right. This is this is almost as good as me explaining what Scott's wife does while Scott is on the line

00:10:40   Let's just go all the way around and then Scott will explain how relay FM works and we'll be done

00:10:46   Yeah, it's Nana Raimo is short for national novel writing month because it started as a joke

00:10:53   a bunch of friends actually in the Bay Area. And then they set up a website and people

00:10:58   were able to sign up. And what it is now is it's an international, it's all over the

00:11:01   world, international community of people who are writing fiction. And for the month of

00:11:06   November everybody signs up and it's free. You go to nanowrimo.org, you sign up and you

00:11:12   can write a, the goal is 50,000 words by the end of November, which is roughly 1,700 words

00:11:18   a day, and I've done it six times, and succeeded all six times at breaking 50,000 words, and

00:11:25   now I'm actually on the board of directors.

00:11:27   It's a nonprofit that runs it and has the people who develop the software that runs

00:11:30   on the server and keeps the servers live, and there are a bunch of staff.

00:11:35   There's a little staff in Berkeley, California that does stuff like there's a young writers

00:11:38   program that works on building educational materials so that teachers have materials

00:11:44   to use to teach writing to their kids in class.

00:11:49   And yeah, it's a great--and there are volunteers all over the world who are in different regions

00:11:53   doing meetups and what they call "write-ins" where people come and meet somewhere and they

00:11:57   hang out with the other writers and they write.

00:12:00   So it's a great organization.

00:12:02   I encourage people to go to the site and consider doing it.

00:12:05   My first NaNoWriMo I didn't start until like the sixth or seventh of the month, so even

00:12:09   now it's not too late.

00:12:10   And if not this year, consider it for next year.

00:12:13   And if you do try it and think it's a good idea, I would say donate, because I know now

00:12:18   the details of how harrowing non-profits' finances can be, and they could use some donations.

00:12:24   Donations are good.

00:12:25   And if people are out there listening who know somebody who you think would be really

00:12:30   awesome as, like if you know an author or something like that, who you think would be

00:12:33   awesome for us to know at NaNoWriMo, you should let me know.

00:12:37   Drop me a line, because we're always looking for—we've had support of some great writers

00:12:41   over the years who've written things for NaNoWriMo for newsletters or whatever. But I love it.

00:12:46   I've written three novels which are like in draft form in a drawer somewhere. And that

00:12:51   would never happen. I would never have written the first one without NaNoWriMo just about

00:12:56   making that commitment and saying, "Yeah, I'm going to do this." And you know, 79 words

00:12:59   a day, it's a lot, but it's only for a month and then you can stop. And it's actually a

00:13:07   lot of fun. So I recommend it. I think it's a really awesome, creative... I keep likening

00:13:13   it to climbing a mountain or running a marathon, neither of which I'm ever going to do. But

00:13:17   like that, writing a novel was always something that I said I thought I would do someday and

00:13:21   I was never going to do it. And then the first NaNoWriMo was like, "I'm going to do this,"

00:13:25   and I did it. So sometimes that's all it takes.

00:13:28   Now that you're gainfully fun-employed, are you going to do NaNoWriMo this time around?

00:13:35   I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this time around, mostly because, like I said, I've got those

00:13:39   three novels already written and I would really like to rewrite them and get them out there.

00:13:45   Even if it's self-publishing them, I'd like to get them out in the world.

00:13:48   So I'm trying not to write more new stuff and instead spend some time.

00:13:53   So I'm hoping to revise one of those this month and get it out in the world.

00:13:59   So we'll see.

00:14:00   Cool.

00:14:01   Yeah.

00:14:02   It's fun.

00:14:03   I've started many files on the Purse of November. Nice! The idea that I would do it and then about,

00:14:11   oh, the second of November I stop. Well, that's efficient. You're not throwing away work that way.

00:14:17   That's good. I get a solid thousand words and then I'm done. I don't know what it was. It was

00:14:23   something about that first time that I did it and I thought this is--I don't know, a lot of writers

00:14:27   are so motivated by deadlines and that's the case for me. If I set myself a deadline, I'm gonna

00:14:32   meet it.

00:14:33   And for NaNoWriMo, I essentially was saying, "By the end of this month, you're going

00:14:36   to have 50,000 words," and I managed to do it.

00:14:39   But I think it takes that kind of mentality of like, "I'm going to do this.

00:14:43   I'm going to commit to this," and then dealing with those deadlines.

00:14:47   Because it is essentially a 1667-word deadline every single day, and if you get behind, you

00:14:53   got to make it up.

00:14:55   You can't skate by, so you end up with a Saturday where you write 8,000 words to get

00:14:59   back on pace.

00:15:00   It's fun, but it is a lot of work.

00:15:07   Just because we say it fast and it's a weird word.

00:15:13   >> It's a great word.

00:15:15   I like the way it sounds.

00:15:16   >> NaNoWriMo.

00:15:17   Yeah, it's good.

00:15:18   The nonprofit used to be called something else and we realized that National Novel Writing

00:15:21   Month, NaNoWriMo, that's what it is.

00:15:23   That's how people know it.

00:15:24   So that's the name of the organization.

00:15:28   We got a little more feedback.

00:15:29   I got a really nice email from somebody who wishes to remain anonymous who works in Apple

00:15:33   retail.

00:15:34   And this was a plea to us and to our listeners.

00:15:40   Please God, don't come in and say, "Ahoy, telephone."

00:15:44   It's the modern equivalent of setting alarms, apparently, which people still do and it's

00:15:48   still just as annoying.

00:15:49   They set alarms on all the phones in the Apple Store.

00:15:52   That's really bad.

00:15:53   We've also recently had to deal with folks coming in and literally trying to bend the

00:15:57   iPhone 6 Plus because they heard it was bendable on the news. So a plea from Apple retail,

00:16:01   do not go in there and as a prank, shout Ahoy telephone.

00:16:05   >> Or bend the phones. Don't bend the phones.

00:16:07   >> Don't bend the phones. Actually that would be funny if you set an alarm using Ahoy telephone

00:16:13   while attempting to bend the phones just because they could just take a dart and just take

00:16:18   you out right there. That's enough of you. So I thought that was good and I appreciate

00:16:23   getting that letter from a listener in Apple retail. We definitely do not encourage that,

00:16:27   although it was funny to see that video of one of our listeners very quietly trying to

00:16:33   say it because he didn't want to get thrown out of the store. And in fact, listener Shep,

00:16:37   who we've heard around before, sent us a picture or maybe it was a video, it was from one of

00:16:42   the Apple stores in New York City and he tried to do an Ahoy telephone and they had turned

00:16:48   it off. So they're getting wise. The Apple Store is getting wise to the Ahoy telephone

00:16:54   problem. Hooray. And we have one last piece of feedback, Myke. This is about you and your

00:17:00   desire to buy a Mac Mini. Are you tired of this one yet? Have you bought anything yet?

00:17:07   I haven't bought anything yet.

00:17:08   All right. Listener Brian says to listen to listenership, who said get something, get

00:17:14   the old four core Mac Mini from, while you can from someone.

00:17:19   He endorsed PowerMax.com as a real company, by the way.

00:17:23   I actually heard, there's actually a guy I talk with a lot

00:17:26   on Twitter and I met at XOXO this year who actually works

00:17:30   at PowerMax.com, he said, "Yeah, we're real."

00:17:32   I was like, "Sorry, sorry."

00:17:34   I mean, just, you know. - Sounds fishy still.

00:17:36   - Yeah, well, it is that Homer Simpson alias.

00:17:39   But he also said, obviously, look at the refurbishing

00:17:43   clearance on the Apple online store.

00:17:46   - Yeah, I've been checking that, nothing.

00:17:48   - And mentioned that Mac Mini Cola will sometimes

00:17:50   sell used minis too, but his fear, and I fear this is

00:17:54   gonna be the case too, is that those quad core minis

00:17:56   are gonna now go up in value because they don't make 'em

00:17:59   anymore and so they might be harder to find,

00:18:01   but it's worth looking around.

00:18:03   I don't know.

00:18:05   - Thank you Brian and Shep for your advice.

00:18:07   - They care, Myke, they care.

00:18:08   - They do care.

00:18:09   - They're worried about you.

00:18:11   - I like that about them.

00:18:13   - Yeah.

00:18:14   - I wanna take a quick moment, Jason,

00:18:16   before we start talking about Kindles and Amazon and such.

00:18:19   - I hope this is related to friends.

00:18:21   - Of course, of course.

00:18:23   This is a-- - We wanna hear

00:18:24   from our friends. - We wanna hear

00:18:24   from our friends. - All right, good.

00:18:26   - These are our new friends at Clubhouse.

00:18:28   Clubhouse is something that's completely brand new,

00:18:30   and I wanna tell you all about it.

00:18:31   Clubhouse is a platform that allows you

00:18:33   to create private communities where people can be themselves

00:18:36   without ever having to worry about

00:18:38   a whole larger social network leering in

00:18:41   and joining the conversation unwanted.

00:18:43   Everyone on Clubhouse is part of a defined community

00:18:47   that they choose to join.

00:18:49   With Clubhouse, as a community owner,

00:18:51   so if you wanna sign up and you start a new community

00:18:54   on Clubhouse, you're able to do all of the things

00:18:56   that you'd wanna do, like change colors,

00:18:58   you can add logos, and you can create the brand

00:19:01   that sits around the community that you have.

00:19:03   Let's say, for example, you run a, you run NaNoWriMo

00:19:08   and you want a NaNoWriMo community in Clubhouse,

00:19:11   for example, you can do that.

00:19:13   So you can have community members

00:19:15   that will sign up to Clubhouse,

00:19:16   and they're able to go in on their phones or on the web,

00:19:19   and they're able to take part in the communities.

00:19:21   People can chat for free within there.

00:19:23   They have great activity streams

00:19:25   that let people in your community easily chat,

00:19:26   post comments, they can post photos as well.

00:19:29   And you're able to integrate with external sources

00:19:31   like Twitter, Instagram, to pull in relevant content.

00:19:35   You can have just hashtags appear, for example.

00:19:38   but say you're in Instagram and you just want all of the hashtag

00:19:42   Manchago to pop up into your community, you can do that.

00:19:45   So you can have all that stuff come in.

00:19:47   The members of each clubhouse as well can earn points

00:19:50   for interacting within the community.

00:19:51   So these points can then add up to a whole ranking system

00:19:54   so you can see who's contributing the most within a community.

00:19:56   You're able to set up missions for people to complete as well.

00:19:59   So like post a picture of yourself whilst at Whole Foods using Apple Pay.

00:20:05   And anybody that does that, you can award them points

00:20:07   and then you can rank all of your members together,

00:20:09   and it's like a way to build more fun within the community.

00:20:13   Clubhouse works as well as something called modules.

00:20:16   Now, these modules allow you to add in different types

00:20:19   of functionality into your Clubhouse.

00:20:21   So they have things that allow you to add events.

00:20:24   You can have SoundCloud and RSS feed integration.

00:20:27   They even have their own ticketing system,

00:20:29   which has QR code generation,

00:20:31   so you can charge the tickets to an event

00:20:33   or set up tickets to an event

00:20:34   and let people in on the door.

00:20:36   This is one of the ways that Clubhouse got started,

00:20:39   doing this type of thing, and then they expanded it out

00:20:41   to be this whole community platform.

00:20:43   And these are the things that you pay for.

00:20:45   So Clubhouse have a real defined business model,

00:20:47   which is really important, especially for anything

00:20:49   that's social related these days.

00:20:51   Everything like chat related and stuff like that is free,

00:20:55   but then you can add in different things

00:20:57   like the ticketing system or event creation,

00:20:59   and you as a community owner pay every month

00:21:02   for that functionality.

00:21:04   But the people that join your community,

00:21:06   they join for free and they don't have to pay.

00:21:08   But so it's up to you as a community owner

00:21:09   and you can maybe sell tickets to things

00:21:12   and it's a way you can make money, for example.

00:21:14   Even with Clubhouse it's possible to break your Clubhouse

00:21:17   into its own standalone app so that you can do that.

00:21:19   You can get the tier that you can pay for

00:21:23   and you can basically build out your own app.

00:21:25   They manage all of the App Store stuff for you,

00:21:27   all of the bits and bobs, all the admin

00:21:30   that go into App Store, like processes and approvals

00:21:34   and all that.

00:21:34   take care of all of that so you don't have to worry about it.

00:21:37   So you can try out Clubhouse for free right now as a community creator by going to

00:21:42   clubhouse.cc/relay.

00:21:45   Now doing this will get you something really awesome and they're doing something

00:21:48   which is really super cool.

00:21:50   So they're doing a really heavily discounted premium plan.

00:21:53   So basically if you sign up at clubhouse.cc/relay and start your community there,

00:22:00   you'll see when you go to add a module, when you go into your Clubhouse you want to add

00:22:04   modules so it adds like the event stuff or stuff you will see a special Relay Unlimited.

00:22:09   This unlocks all of the premium modules so you have access to everything for just $50

00:22:13   a month or $500 a year and that's an incredible deal.

00:22:17   When you start to look through you literally will be saving hundreds of dollars because

00:22:21   you'll be able to access everything that Clubhouse can do for you.

00:22:25   So go to clubhouse.cc/relay go and check them out and just see you can sign up for free

00:22:30   and start a community for free you don't have to pay anything but then if you want to go

00:22:33   to the premium stuff if you sign up via that URL you'll get access to the whole thing.

00:22:38   Thank you so much to Clubhouse for their support of Relay FM and Upgrade.

00:22:42   Look for us in #Manchego.

00:22:45   You should do that.

00:22:47   So Myke, back in episode 1 I think we talked about that we were going to talk about Kindle

00:22:53   sometime.

00:22:55   Yep and we're now up to episode 8 today.

00:23:01   So should we talk about Kindles?

00:23:02   I definitely think we should.

00:23:03   Let's change the subject, Scott. What do you say? Let's not talk about kittens.

00:23:06   Manchego it is.

00:23:07   Canning and food and jars. So, yeah, I was really excited when the week that this show started was

00:23:19   the week that Apple--or Apple, geez. Amazon. Apple's the one with charts with numbers on them.

00:23:24   Amazon announced the new Kindle Voyage, which shipped last week, I want to say.

00:23:31   say. And it's out and I've got it and I know Scott's got it. Scott, you have every Kindle

00:23:39   ever, right? Is that accurate?

00:23:41   >> SCOTT - Well, if you're being pedantic, I don't.

00:23:45   >> MATT - Are you missing one of the DXs or something?

00:23:48   >> SCOTT - No, I have both DXs. I don't have - Amazon started offering the models where

00:23:56   you could get the 3G or just the Wi-Fi, so I switched to just Wi-Fi.

00:24:01   So I don't have every variant, but I have every major model of Kindle.

00:24:05   Wow.

00:24:06   Now, what motivated you to purchase every generation of Kindle?

00:24:11   Insanity, I suppose, is probably the biggest one.

00:24:18   There were two times in my life where I saw a technology that really entranced me.

00:24:25   One was when I saw the iPhone for the first time, and the second, which happened actually

00:24:31   before I saw the iPhone, is when I heard about e-ink for the first time, because I just thought

00:24:35   that technology was so amazing, and I'm a huge reader, and I thought it had the power

00:24:40   to change the world.

00:24:41   I don't know if it has that power to change the world, but I was really excited about

00:24:44   it, and so I ran out, and actually I didn't, but when I had enough disposable income, I

00:24:50   I bought a Sony reader who were kind of first on the market with e-ink readers.

00:24:56   And then maybe three weeks after I did that, Amazon announced the Kindle.

00:24:59   And I was very sad and I just bought a Kindle.

00:25:03   And I've been buying them ever since.

00:25:05   >> But why did you continue to buy all of them though?

00:25:09   Because there's a difference between just buying one and then buying another one in

00:25:13   like a few years' time to buying all of them.

00:25:16   >> Well, that is a good question.

00:25:19   I don't know if I have a good answer.

00:25:20   I just like them a lot.

00:25:22   I bought the first one, and then it was kind of,

00:25:26   I actually like the first Kindle,

00:25:27   except for the weird, silvery interface thing,

00:25:32   because they couldn't get the touchscreen right, so.

00:25:35   And then the second Kindle came out,

00:25:37   and I wrote a book about the second generation

00:25:39   of the Kindle, so that was my excuse for that,

00:25:41   which was available only on the Kindle,

00:25:43   and nobody bought it.

00:25:44   And then I just kept buying them,

00:25:47   and now I have like, and I've also,

00:25:49   for a time I was buying all the nooks as well,

00:25:52   I stopped doing that.

00:25:54   - Has it become like I've started buying them now,

00:25:56   so now I just have to buy them all type thing?

00:25:59   - Well I-- - Like a collection?

00:26:01   - Well yes, and I tell myself,

00:26:02   well my wife will get my cast off Kindle,

00:26:05   so it's not really a waste of money.

00:26:07   - Does your wife need every cast off?

00:26:10   (laughing)

00:26:12   - I will tell you, so every time I get the new Kindle,

00:26:15   I order it immediately as soon as it's available

00:26:17   and then I get it the first day it's available.

00:26:19   And I show it to my wife and she's like,

00:26:20   "Oh, that's nice, give me your old Kindle."

00:26:23   This time I showed my wife the Voyage

00:26:25   and she said, "Oh, order me one of those."

00:26:27   - Huh. - Hmm.

00:26:28   - So, which I thought was interesting.

00:26:29   So it's the first time she's actually wanted

00:26:32   the latest generation Kindle.

00:26:34   - But it's not, does it really seem that different

00:26:37   from the Kindle Paperwhite to her?

00:26:39   Because that's the thing that struck me about the Voyage,

00:26:41   is it's not that different from the Kindle Paperwhite,

00:26:43   really, is it?

00:26:46   It's not hugely different, but I think it's a matter of refinements, and I think adding

00:26:51   the page press areas is a really big improvement to the Paperwhite, because I always disliked

00:26:58   having to move my thumb and tap the screen to turn the page.

00:27:02   I try to explain that to people, and every time I try to explain that or I'm writing

00:27:06   about it, it makes me feel like the lamest person in the world to say, "I have to slightly

00:27:12   move my finger if I want to turn the page and therefore this is not as good.

00:27:17   But it's so true that on the old button kindles there was a physical button on the bezel to

00:27:21   turn the page and you could literally just hold the Kindle in your hand and never move

00:27:25   your hand other than to just squeeze the button down and you could just go next page, next

00:27:28   page, next page, next page and it was a really great reading experience.

00:27:32   And when they went to the paperwhite they took the buttons away and so every time you

00:27:35   wanted to turn the page if you're holding it in your right hand you could just sort

00:27:38   of like migrate your thumb or finger over and tap and then move it back.

00:27:42   You're holding it in your left hand, you had to like stretch out and do like a really weird

00:27:46   awkward swipe so that it went forward instead of backward, and it was really stupid.

00:27:53   And I'm really glad that they added, they're not really buttons, right?

00:27:56   They're these special areas that are pressure sensitive.

00:28:00   Pressure areas.

00:28:01   But it's basically a button.

00:28:03   It is, and it has a little haptic feedback kind of dealy to it that you can set the vibration

00:28:08   which is nice. And I think the screen, if you look at a

00:28:12   paperwhite, a second generation paperwhite and a voyage and put them next to each

00:28:16   other, the screen does look better. It doesn't

00:28:20   look, like if you, I wouldn't suggest you just

00:28:23   throw your second generation paperwhite out the window. It's not like

00:28:26   comparing a first generation Kindle screen to the voyage. That's a clear,

00:28:30   gigantic difference. But it is better. Yeah, well I

00:28:34   held my first generation paperwhite up right next to it today I was doing that,

00:28:38   and it's definitely better. The lighting is way better, although I know that they

00:28:42   fixed a lot of that in the second generation Paperwhite. The lighting is

00:28:45   better, the text is crisper, all of these things. It is a better all-around product, no

00:28:49   doubt. Right, and I think it's easier when you have a first generation Paperwhite

00:28:54   to--unless you're me--to convince yourself that you need to upgrade. I just

00:28:58   buy the new one, whatever. Because when you look at side-by-side, the first

00:29:02   generation Paperwhite was nice, but I always thought they didn't quite get

00:29:06   the light right I didn't think the the distribution the second generation fixed

00:29:11   that but if you skip the second generation the voyage is a great upgrade

00:29:15   yeah yeah it's the first generation paper white had like the kind of bluish

00:29:18   light and it was a little spotty and yeah uneven at the bottom you could see

00:29:22   the kind of the arcs of the LEDs lighting it up right right exactly and

00:29:27   this is much nicer all these are nitpicks of course but they are they

00:29:31   are because I think that's a big thing about the Kindle and why moving your

00:29:35   thumb is so annoying is because you know a Kindle is a purpose-built device right

00:29:40   it's just built to read books generally but you can read other stuff on it so

00:29:44   you're spending a lot of time holding this thing and you don't want to have to

00:29:48   think or move too much because you're reading and you want to be part you know

00:29:52   in hand entranced by the story you don't want to have to think about and this is

00:29:55   why I like Kindles I don't want to have the the the temptation to check Twitter

00:29:59   as I'm reading I just want to read and I don't want to move my thumb what I'm

00:30:02   reading. Is that so much to ask? I think we've touched on a lot of stuff that I want to get

00:30:07   back to, but the point you just made is actually at the core of why when people, when I tell people

00:30:13   that I buy Kindles and they look at me like I'm crazy, they're like, "You've got an iPad.

00:30:16   Like, why would you want a Kindle if you have an iPad?" Number one reason is my Kindle doesn't do

00:30:22   push notifications. My Kindle isn't two taps away from being email or Twitter or a good web browser.

00:30:31   There is a web browser.

00:30:32   It's still experimental, like 10 years later.

00:30:34   The experiment is how quickly can it drive people crazy who use it.

00:30:38   >> The experiment is will anybody find it?

00:30:41   >> Yeah.

00:30:42   You know, it's only there so you can log into like a hotel Wi-Fi.

00:30:45   I really believe that's the only reason that web browser is there.

00:30:48   >> That makes sense.

00:30:49   >> But that's why I use it is because it's purpose-built for this.

00:30:52   It doesn't--it--like you said, Scott, purpose-built, it's made for reading.

00:30:56   It's really good with text.

00:30:57   Yeah, it's got, you know, you read it outside in a way that a smartphone or a tablet, you

00:31:03   just can't.

00:31:04   But the number one reason is, it's, when I'm reading on my Kindle, I'm reading.

00:31:08   I'm not multitasking, I'm not going to get distracted.

00:31:11   If I want to go get my phone or my iPad and look at Twitter, I can, but, you know, I focus

00:31:16   on what I'm reading and it really makes a difference.

00:31:19   And so for me, yeah, I've got other devices, but I don't use them to read novels or actually

00:31:25   get a newspaper on it, or the newspaper.

00:31:27   I use the Kindle for that because it's, you know, when I'm reading on the Kindle, I'm

00:31:32   really focused on just reading and not ten other things that are one click away.

00:31:39   You guys both have Kindles, right?

00:31:41   Why do you have Kindles?

00:31:44   My answer is a lot worse, really.

00:31:47   I like to think that I read more than I actually read.

00:31:53   So I bought a Kindle too, because I was fascinated by the original Kindle, but they weren't

00:32:02   available in the UK.

00:32:05   You dodged a bullet.

00:32:06   Scott says he likes it.

00:32:07   I actually bought one and then returned it.

00:32:08   It's one of the few times I've ever done that with an electronic product on Amazon.

00:32:12   I was like, "No, uh-uh," because it was so weird.

00:32:15   And I really wanted to like it and it was too weird and I went a year without a Kindle.

00:32:19   What didn't you like about it?

00:32:21   - Well, like Scott said, that metal,

00:32:24   the screen wasn't very good,

00:32:25   and that metal strip that you had to use to like,

00:32:28   it was this weird silvery strip,

00:32:30   and you slid a little black dot up and down it

00:32:32   in order to select.

00:32:34   It was really weird.

00:32:35   And it was kinda ugly, it was weird shaped,

00:32:39   and weird colored.

00:32:40   - Yeah, the crazy keyboard layout, right?

00:32:42   - Yeah.

00:32:43   - So it's kinda like jagged for no real reason.

00:32:45   - Right, exactly.

00:32:46   And then the second generation was a much more,

00:32:47   it felt like a real, like not a prototype.

00:32:49   So that one I kept.

00:32:51   - So it was really strange, like when the,

00:32:54   I mean I bought it because I was interested in it,

00:32:56   it was new technology.

00:32:57   Like it was brand new, right?

00:32:59   It was like U-ink and all this kind of stuff.

00:33:01   And you had to get it in like a really weird way.

00:33:04   Like you could buy it, but you had to buy it

00:33:07   through Amazon.com to ship to the UK.

00:33:10   Like they would ship it to you,

00:33:13   but you had to do this weird thing,

00:33:15   like I had to sign into Amazon.com

00:33:18   and had to forcibly tell it to stop redirecting me.

00:33:23   And it was possible to do,

00:33:24   like Amazon allowed you to do it.

00:33:25   They only did it for a couple of countries

00:33:26   and you could buy it so I bought it and it shipped.

00:33:29   And I had to buy a separate plug for it

00:33:32   because it shipped with an American adapter,

00:33:35   which is very peculiar.

00:33:37   And I really enjoyed it and I used it quite a bit

00:33:41   and I used it every day on my commute.

00:33:45   But then kind of my love affair with podcasts

00:33:47   took over and I listened to this sort of stuff.

00:33:51   So I didn't have, I didn't replace that Kindle,

00:33:53   I recently gave it away,

00:33:55   but then I was going on holiday recently

00:33:56   and thought, I wanna relax and read.

00:34:00   So I bought a Kindle Paperwhite,

00:34:02   and then about six days later they announced the voyage.

00:34:06   So, you know, such is life.

00:34:12   So I have a second edition paperweight now.

00:34:17   It kind of frustrates me, the tapping on the screen.

00:34:23   I really don't like it.

00:34:25   I loved the buttons on my second edition Kindle.

00:34:29   Like I loved them and I really don't like the tapping.

00:34:33   Because it's like, do I tap it or do I swipe it?

00:34:35   Neither of them feel like they do anything immediately

00:34:38   sometimes or like I feel like I'm about to do the wrong one

00:34:41   and then nothing happens or it just doesn't feel,

00:34:44   it feels awkward because the bezel's quite thick

00:34:47   compared to like an iPad or an iPhone, you know?

00:34:50   Where so if I'm swiping or tapping,

00:34:51   it's like well I'm used to just like right at the very edge

00:34:54   but I'm like covering up the content here with my big thumb.

00:34:57   Yeah, it's weird but it looks great

00:35:00   and the light really does make a difference

00:35:03   like I was reading on the beach

00:35:04   and it was really, really nice.

00:35:06   I actually spent most of my time on my vacation

00:35:09   'cause I was on vacation during the iOS 8 launch and stuff.

00:35:12   I was just reading people's reviews via Instapaper,

00:35:15   which I love still works,

00:35:17   so I just had a bunch of things in Instapaper,

00:35:19   and then I just sent them to reviews for me

00:35:20   'cause a lot of them are like books.

00:35:22   So I sent them all to my Kindle and read them,

00:35:26   and unfortunately I've not used it since that holiday,

00:35:29   which I was worried would happen.

00:35:32   'Cause I'm kind of, I struggle to keep focus when reading.

00:35:37   when reading. So even if I'm not using something like an iPhone or iPad where

00:35:42   all of the world is there, you know, I just then just seek out the world. I'm like

00:35:46   reading on my Kindle, I'm like "where's my iPhone?" Things are happening on my...

00:35:50   Yeah, I kind of just struggle to keep my attention. It's like when I'm

00:35:54   listening to podcasts and stuff I play games, like video games on my phone, stuff

00:35:57   like that, and weirdly that helps me focus on the podcast, but

00:36:02   when I'm reading, like I'm like "oh what else is going on?" So I actually haven't

00:36:06   read a full book in many years I think which I know probably

00:36:11   it horrifies you both. It does. It makes me sad for you. Yeah. I don't read fiction and when I do

00:36:18   read I never read fiction. That's valid. The voyage is available today in the UK

00:36:25   though so you should buy one. I did see that it made me smile I was like okay so

00:36:29   today it's gonna happen great so maybe I'll have to buy one because oh I

00:36:33   Basically, I had the Kindle for a couple of days on my holiday and the screen is all scratched

00:36:39   up.

00:36:40   Oh.

00:36:41   Obviously, I had to put it in my beach bag and there must have been something in there.

00:36:45   Rubbing it on the sand.

00:36:46   Obviously, I rubbed it in the sand and I buried it and I don't know what the problem is.

00:36:49   Yeah, I assume there must have been a coin or something in there, but one corner of the

00:36:53   screen is all kind of scratched and it's frustrating.

00:36:56   So, the Kindle, I have a little Kindle case.

00:36:59   It's not actually like a ... It's just a carrying case.

00:37:02   It's like a sock.

00:37:03   It's like a fancy sock, Kindle sock.

00:37:06   But that keeps it in pretty good shape usually.

00:37:08   And you mentioned the beach, it's funny.

00:37:09   I mean, I think beaches are, that's when I go to someplace like a beach or a swimming

00:37:15   pool or something, that's when I see all the Kindles.

00:37:17   All the Kindles are out because it's so much better to use in those situations, where

00:37:24   there's bright light.

00:37:26   And also, quite honestly, I feel less worried about the Kindle being destroyed or stolen

00:37:31   or something than my smartphone or my tablet for some reason, even a more expensive Kindle.

00:37:35   I think I would feel this way.

00:37:38   I don't take baths very often, but when I have, I have a couple of times done the Jeff

00:37:43   Bezos trick where you put it in a Ziploc bag and you just read your Kindle in the bathtub.

00:37:48   Billionaire, by the way, uses a Ziploc bag on his Kindle.

00:37:52   But you can do that too.

00:37:53   I mean, they're so versatile.

00:37:54   You think they would just build a special waterproof case because he can kind of just

00:37:58   ask them to do that?

00:37:59   Oh, there probably is one.

00:38:00   There probably is one now.

00:38:01   He's probably had space age like science material scientists built him a a kindle aquarium of some kind, but I

00:38:08   Don't know Scott Scott do you uh?

00:38:12   Your choice of a kindle over over like an iPad or an iPhone for reading. Why why do you prefer it?

00:38:19   Well, I do a lot of reading on my commute. I don't have a much of a commute

00:38:23   I have more of a commute than both of you probably but it's like 15 to 20 minutes

00:38:29   And I feel like you were saying I feel very self-conscious looking at an iPad on the trolley here in Philadelphia

00:38:37   I don't know why I just do I feel like everybody is looking at me

00:38:41   In fact the woman this morning a woman was sitting in front of me

00:38:45   And she was playing like Candy Crush on her iPad

00:38:47   And I was in fact looking at her play so I suppose that that could have something to do with it

00:38:51   And it just feels like Kindle feels

00:38:53   less obnoxious

00:38:55   Than having a giant iPad and swipe me through unless it's a Kindle DX

00:38:59   I did feel a little obnoxious when I had my Kindle DX on the trolley

00:39:02   Yeah, and it's just it's lighter

00:39:05   It's easier to see I'm you can yeah, I feel like they disappear that they're just yeah

00:39:10   it's not it's not that big a deal to be sitting there with it with a Kindle and and

00:39:14   Yeah, so

00:39:17   So that's why we use Kindles some of us more than others Myke's Kindle is more aspirational

00:39:23   And that's valid.

00:39:24   That's fine.

00:39:25   Aspirational Kindle.

00:39:26   Although the Instapaper thing, that was something that I, when I was a regular bus commuter,

00:39:33   I did that a lot too, where I would just, my Instapaper queue would dump into my Kindle

00:39:38   every day.

00:39:39   And that was kind of great, because I could choose to read like the newspaper or a novel,

00:39:44   or I could read my Instapaper stories.

00:39:47   And that was pretty cool.

00:39:48   So it's versatile.

00:39:50   But it's for reading.

00:39:51   I mean, it's a black and white device.

00:39:52   This is one of those things that I actually realized with the Voyage release, and I'm

00:39:55   wondering what you guys think of this, where I felt like over the years, Scott, as we watched

00:39:59   these new Kindles coming out, that they were always like, "Well, they're priced a little

00:40:03   bit less."

00:40:04   And you got the sense that at some point Amazon was literally going to say, "If you're

00:40:07   a Prime member, you can get a free Kindle every two years."

00:40:10   We don't care.

00:40:11   We just don't care.

00:40:12   Just buy things.

00:40:13   That's all we ask, is just keep buying things.

00:40:15   And that may yet happen.

00:40:17   But something funny happened this year, right?

00:40:19   thing is all the Kindle fires are now just the fire tablets right they're not

00:40:23   kindles anymore they change the name and so here's still a kindle Kindle fire

00:40:29   htx yeah but it's like last year's model and it's gonna become the fire something

00:40:35   right or get I mean like the new the new fires aren't Kindle fires right they're

00:40:39   just fire tablets and the fire TV which I always call the Kindle fire TV right

00:40:44   it's not the kindle so so it's like they're D branding Kindle Kindle used to

00:40:49   mean like all the hardware that Amazon had and it's gone back to being for the

00:40:53   reading stuff it's really it's about Kindle is about reading so I think

00:40:57   that's really interesting and then the other thing that's happened is that they

00:41:00   made this device the voyage which is more expensive than the paperwhite and I

00:41:04   think that's really interesting because for a while I I felt like almost like

00:41:09   Amazon strategy with the ink readers was like they're not as good as tablets so

00:41:14   the only way they're going to succeed is if they're cheaper than tablets so let's

00:41:17   just keep pushing them down in price and we'll have a $79 Kindle and we'll have a $69 or

00:41:22   $59 Kindle with special offers and we're going to push that down."

00:41:25   And the paperweight was nicer but still you got the sense that they were playing that

00:41:29   same game.

00:41:30   But with the voyage it's clear now that they're not playing that game anymore.

00:41:33   Somebody at Amazon has looked at the numbers and they see the numbers.

00:41:37   They don't just put up a chart with a line that's going up and say, "Look, it's going

00:41:40   up."

00:41:41   They know the actual numbers.

00:41:43   And I feel like they're looking at that and saying, "You know, the people who are buying

00:41:46   these things probably even have tablets and they don't care they want to buy these things

00:41:50   so maybe we should just make a really good one for them because they just love these

00:41:53   kindles and they want to buy them and like the Paperweight like I said felt a little

00:41:58   bit like that but the Voyage is like crystal clear it's like this is a $200 e-reader it

00:42:03   is made for people who you know they want to buy an e-reader they're not like saying

00:42:07   oh I don't know I got an iPad I don't really need that's like no they want a really great

00:42:12   e-reader and Amazon appears to be willing to make that now which I don't know in the

00:42:17   past it felt like they weren't like they were really kind of hesitant to put too much into

00:42:20   the Kindle to make a nice Kindle because above a certain point I think they kind of felt

00:42:25   like you graduated to a tablet which is I think totally not true because of my experiences

00:42:30   I use the Kindle all the time and I have a tablet so I don't know it feels like that

00:42:35   to me that the the paperwhite it was the start of it and that the voyage is like the clincher

00:42:39   that Amazon is embracing this product category and saying, "We're just going to make great

00:42:45   e-readers," and they're their own thing now.

00:42:47   >> Right, and they have three different versions of Kindle at the moment, so they're covering

00:42:52   all the price points.

00:42:53   So you can still get a Kindle for 80 bucks if you just are Kindle-curious.

00:42:59   If you're devoted, you can get the $200 Fancy Pants Kindle Voyage.

00:43:04   They both basically do the same thing.

00:43:06   The Kindle Voyage just does it nicer and has a light up screen and some buttons that aren't

00:43:11   really buttons.

00:43:12   Right.

00:43:13   And I think they're borrowing a little bit from Kobo's playbook.

00:43:16   Of course, Kindle is much more successful than the Kobo.

00:43:20   But the Kobo has a whole lineup of crazy e-readers.

00:43:23   You can get a tiny little Kobo Mini, you can get an Aurora HD, which is waterproof, so

00:43:29   you don't need a Ziploc bag.

00:43:31   Ooh!

00:43:32   Yeah, they've got a whole lineup of crazy e-ink readers that you can buy.

00:43:37   I don't think anyone does buy them, but you can buy them if you want to.

00:43:43   So I think Amazon's borrowing a little bit from their playbook, but of course benefiting

00:43:47   from the fact that they are the major e-reader player in the market.

00:43:52   Now that Sony's not selling them in the United States at least, I don't know if they're selling

00:43:55   them anywhere else, and Barnes and Noble seemingly has given up.

00:43:59   I assume that it's fair to say that they are the winner because they have the catalog,

00:44:05   right?

00:44:06   Well, Barnes & Noble has an equal catalog to Amazon.

00:44:12   And this is the first time...

00:44:13   I liked my first Kindle so much because I had a Sony reader.

00:44:19   And the Sony reader, I'm looking at it right now, and it looks so much better than the

00:44:23   first generation Kindle, but I used my Kindle so much more because it was so easy to get

00:44:28   books on the thing.

00:44:29   The Sony reader, Sony generally makes beautiful hardware

00:44:33   and this thing is beautiful, but the software,

00:44:35   I had to hook it up to a PC, which I didn't own at the time,

00:44:39   so I needed to get like virtual PC on my Mac,

00:44:42   so I could download the Sony app,

00:44:45   so I could buy books through it

00:44:46   and then hook up my reader to it,

00:44:48   and then it might've worked and they were using Adobe DRM,

00:44:51   so I had to sign in with my Adobe account,

00:44:53   so I could authorize my book,

00:44:56   And then, contrast that to Amazon on the Kindle,

00:45:00   I clicked a little weird scroll button twice

00:45:04   and then I had a book on my Kindle.

00:45:06   And I think Amazon just has figured out

00:45:08   how to get it to you so easily.

00:45:11   And I wouldn't underestimate

00:45:12   their recommendation engine either.

00:45:14   And because I think Amazon knows how to sell you things

00:45:18   and how to suggest things that you will like.

00:45:20   And so I think, and plus the idea that you can,

00:45:24   one of the other things I love about the Kindle

00:45:25   as you go to Amazon's website,

00:45:26   you can buy a book on Amazon's website

00:45:28   and it shows up on your Kindle the next time you use it,

00:45:31   which nobody was doing then.

00:45:32   - I do wish though,

00:45:33   we were talking about the purchasing process,

00:45:35   that they would stop doing that thing

00:45:39   where it's like send to this device

00:45:42   and you end up with like 100,000 different devices.

00:45:46   And it's like, so every tablet you've ever owned,

00:45:48   everything that's ever had a Kindle app on it,

00:45:51   any device here, and it's like,

00:45:53   I went in recently and cleared them out.

00:45:55   It's like, oh, my word, my iPhone 3G is in here.

00:45:58   Like, what's happening?

00:45:59   - Imagine how I feel.

00:46:00   (laughing)

00:46:01   Manage your devices.

00:46:02   It breaks when Scott tries to manage his devices.

00:46:05   - It just cries.

00:46:06   - Yeah.

00:46:07   Myke, do we have another friend?

00:46:10   Should we talk about another friend now?

00:46:12   - I would love to talk about another friend.

00:46:14   Today's second friend is Hover.

00:46:16   - Hover.

00:46:17   - Oh yeah, Hover, Hover, Hover, hover.com.

00:46:21   Hover is the best way to buy and manage domain names.

00:46:24   It's my place of choice and it has been for years.

00:46:26   Whether you pronounce it hover or hover like I do,

00:46:28   it should be the place that you go to.

00:46:30   Because when it comes to buying a domain name,

00:46:32   there's just nowhere else that you should be going to.

00:46:35   If you have an idea for a project

00:46:37   or you want to just name your own site,

00:46:41   as in, you know, like with your name,

00:46:42   I mean you can name it anything.

00:46:44   Jason did.

00:46:45   He didn't go with Jason Snell.

00:46:46   - Snell.Zone.

00:46:47   Snellworld.com, whatever.

00:46:49   You can get them all, yeah.

00:46:51   - And Jason, I know that you use hover

00:46:53   and I think you mentioned this before.

00:46:54   you used Hover to help you get the Six Colors domain as well, didn't you?

00:46:59   Well, so the main Six Colors domain I got through a weird like escrow service, but the

00:47:06   way that it worked, I was able to then transfer it back to Hover.

00:47:10   And then for Six Colors spelled the way you would spell it, with a U, that one was actually

00:47:16   for sale and Hover was my broker basically for that one.

00:47:21   I was able to buy that directly through Hover and they made the sale happen.

00:47:25   So I did it sort of both ways but they all ended up at Hover.

00:47:28   David Schiessly Yeah because I mean that's one thing like

00:47:30   you know people you come in and buy what's available but if something isn't available

00:47:34   Hover can act as the middleman to help you with facilitating the deal that needs to be

00:47:38   made.

00:47:39   Which is good because they're a trustworthy company and then it also remains where you

00:47:42   want it to be and you don't have to deal with any of the craziness that goes into trying

00:47:45   to buy a domain from someone which I can't even imagine how horrible that would be because

00:47:49   Because my domain processing and my domain buying has always been so lovely because I

00:47:53   use OVA.

00:47:54   They have a very simple, fast, hassle-free way of buying domains.

00:47:58   You just type in the words that you're after, some keywords or some different sort of...

00:48:02   Maybe you just want to find a specific domain, so maybe you want SnellZone.com.

00:48:06   But SnellZone.com is taken by Jason Snell, so maybe you get like, I don't know, SnellZones,

00:48:12   you know, that kind of thing.

00:48:13   They suggest all that sort of stuff, so they'll make suggestions to you if a domain is taken.

00:48:16   They'll suggest different ways of maybe trying to find different formatting of it and things

00:48:21   like that which is really cool.

00:48:22   You don't have to go through a thousand, million, hundred thousand, million screens to add on

00:48:27   a bunch of different craziness that you don't want.

00:48:30   They're not going to force you to pay for who is privacy.

00:48:32   They give you that for free.

00:48:34   All of this stuff is just made simple.

00:48:35   They have a really great checkout process.

00:48:37   They don't spam you with emails every six weeks telling you that your domain is going

00:48:41   to expire in a year.

00:48:42   They just send you one when it's coming up and you can choose what you want to do.

00:48:47   They have all of the top level domain suggestions that you're going to expect.

00:48:50   Obviously they have like .com and they have .net, .co, .co.uk if you're like me.

00:48:57   They also have .academy, .london, .nyc, .plumbing, .coffee, all of the really interesting .zone

00:49:05   like Jason has.

00:49:06   They have all the interesting TLDs that you can get now too.

00:49:09   They have a fantastic no hold, no wait, no transfer telephone support policy, which is

00:49:13   something they're famous for.

00:49:14   They have great email support as well if it's something that you need.

00:49:18   They have great documentation on helping you switch from a different provider.

00:49:21   However, they will also do this for you for free with the Hover LA service.

00:49:25   They have volume discounts for bulk domain renewal.

00:49:29   They do custom email addresses, storage and forwarding, and so much more.

00:49:32   I love Hover and I think that you will too.

00:49:34   So go try them out.

00:49:36   Use the coid if you use that for our new pronunciations completely into this now.

00:49:43   We're really expanding this.

00:49:44   Are we using a coid on hoover?

00:49:46   Is that how this is working?

00:49:47   I think so.

00:49:48   I think that's what it is.

00:49:49   You want to use the code AhoyTelephone at checkout.

00:49:53   That's going to get you 10% off your first purchase at Hover.com.

00:49:56   Show your support for us by using the code AhoyTelephone.

00:50:00   Thank you so much to Hover for sponsoring this week's episode.

00:50:05   friends and a good friend. A very good friend indeed. Oh, Kindle more more actually we have

00:50:16   real-time follow-up a question asked in the chat room that I wanted to answer real-time

00:50:21   answers to follow up. Somebody asked in the chat room why this is tangible ghost in the

00:50:28   chat room why do you have to even direct a file you're sending from to your Kindle to

00:50:35   a specific device? And the answer is because of the crazy cellular Kindles, right? Scott

00:50:41   mentioned this earlier that they have cellular models and Wi-Fi models. And that was one

00:50:45   of the initial cool things about the Kindle was that they were on cellular networks. So

00:50:50   they didn't, they initially didn't have Wi-Fi. The first what, two generations of Kindle

00:50:54   didn't do Wi-Fi at all?

00:50:56   Oh, so that's worth noting actually. So my second gen, it used AT&T roaming.

00:51:02   Yeah.

00:51:03   That was how I got my Kindles. I was using an AT&T roaming plan, which is so weird that

00:51:10   that was how they decided to do it, but that was how it was done.

00:51:12   Yeah, they made a deal with AT&T, and so literally you could take that Kindle anywhere in the

00:51:17   world, and if there was AT&T roaming in that, you could get books on the Kindle, and they

00:51:21   were paying. And this still is an issue to this day. Not only is that the reason why

00:51:26   when you buy a book it doesn't just automatically push to all your Kindle devices. One, does

00:51:32   Does the Kindle app on the iPad do background wake up auto downloads?

00:51:36   I think it still doesn't.

00:51:39   But the bigger issue is those wireless ones, that costs a lot of money for Amazon to send

00:51:44   data to the cellular models.

00:51:47   So they don't want to do that unless they absolutely have to.

00:51:49   And as a result, you need to pick where you want to send it.

00:51:52   And if you use the Send to Kindle app on the Mac, it's got a little box that's like, "Send

00:51:58   using whisper link and basically it's we will charge you to send this if you send it this

00:52:03   way otherwise it's only on wifi.

00:52:06   It's such a weird like the charging is so weird it's so strange.

00:52:10   It was a great idea though right the idea that like this it's like it was like magic

00:52:15   it's like you're just on you don't have to pay for it it's all just embedded in the cost

00:52:19   of the device you're just wherever you are if you can get a cellular signal you can get

00:52:23   books. It was magical, but kind of ridiculous. And then I think the third generation Kindle,

00:52:31   there was a Wi-Fi or a Wi-Fi cellular and they gave you a deal if you just got the Wi-Fi

00:52:35   version and I never bought the cellular version again. So I still have my Kindle 2 and I was

00:52:40   looking at it the other day thinking, "You know, if I ever went somewhere like where

00:52:43   I knew that there was no Wi-Fi but there was a cell signal, maybe I would take this just

00:52:48   because it still works.

00:52:50   But it was a cool idea, right, that's a very Amazon idea,

00:52:53   the idea that they would make a deal with a cellular carrier

00:52:57   and just kind of embed it in the device

00:52:59   as this supposedly free, but it made the device cost more.

00:53:03   And just talked to John Syracuse about what he's gone

00:53:06   through with doing his ebooks, and this is true

00:53:09   for all ebook publishers, is they will,

00:53:11   Marco dealt with this with the magazine too.

00:53:13   Amazon will charge you if any of your customers

00:53:16   download your book over cellular.

00:53:18   they will charge you for the data.

00:53:21   And so it's coming out of the pockets of the publishers

00:53:24   and it's not cool.

00:53:26   So--

00:53:27   - There's like no way in which that seems

00:53:29   like a fair thing to do.

00:53:31   - I can't believe they're still making

00:53:32   the cellular Kindles at all, but they are.

00:53:36   I would have thought that they would have stopped

00:53:39   and said, "Look, we live in a WiFi world,

00:53:41   "plus people have tetherable devices,

00:53:42   "the cellular Kindle thing is just not that big a deal."

00:53:45   But obviously it works for them

00:53:46   because they continue to do it

00:53:48   and those cellular Kindles cost a lot more

00:53:50   than the main, I forget what the difference is,

00:53:54   but Scott, do you know the difference

00:53:56   between the WiFi and the cellular Kindles?

00:53:59   - Something like $70, I think.

00:54:00   - That's not cheap.

00:54:02   It's akin to buying a cellular iPad,

00:54:06   except then you have to pay for the data.

00:54:08   - I do wonder what the purpose,

00:54:10   like why would you buy a cellular Kindle these days?

00:54:13   I think that, I mean, I don't think people burn through books massively quickly in which

00:54:21   you could be potentially in a situation where you've, "Oh no, I've run out of books."

00:54:25   Like if you're going on holiday, I mean, you can kind of just load up, right?

00:54:30   And so, you know, you were saying, Jason, about being somewhere, like being on vacation,

00:54:33   not knowing you're gonna have Wi-Fi.

00:54:34   Well, just put a bunch of books on before you leave.

00:54:36   And I do, I have like 50 books in my Kindle.

00:54:39   I'm doing okay.

00:54:40   - Yeah, which I assume probably most Kindle owners,

00:54:43   Scott, maybe you can tell me if I'm wrong,

00:54:46   would have lots of books on there.

00:54:48   Because, I mean, the books are quite small

00:54:50   comparative to the size of the devices, right?

00:54:53   - Yes, I think that most people

00:54:55   probably load up their Kindles.

00:54:57   I can think of one instance where I would buy,

00:55:00   still in this day and age, a 3G-enabled Kindle,

00:55:04   and that's if I was gonna give it to my mother.

00:55:05   Because the beauty of the 3G

00:55:08   is that you don't have to think about it,

00:55:09   It's just on and it works.

00:55:11   And she doesn't have to figure out

00:55:12   where the WiFi signal's coming from.

00:55:15   It'll just get her book and she'll be happy.

00:55:18   - And in fact, that's where my second generation Kindle was

00:55:22   for a long time was with my parents.

00:55:24   I said, "You don't have to set up the WiFi, just take this."

00:55:27   Now they have iPads and it's fine.

00:55:30   - Another random thought I've had

00:55:32   about my weird second gen Kindle experience.

00:55:34   When I had to turn the cellular off all the time

00:55:38   because it was roaming, it destroyed the battery.

00:55:41   Like I'd get like a couple of hours out of it.

00:55:44   So when I wasn't downloading something,

00:55:46   I had to just turn the cellular off

00:55:47   because it was really working hard, the little thing.

00:55:51   - Yeah, I reflect, I just turn off,

00:55:54   I put it in airplane mode all the time, my Kindle's for,

00:55:57   I don't know why, I just do.

00:55:58   - And they last, then they last almost forever

00:56:01   if you put 'em in airplane mode.

00:56:02   - Exactly, I wanna forget that I have to charge it

00:56:05   and then misplace the cable

00:56:07   and when it gives me that little alert,

00:56:08   I have to scramble to find something to charge it with.

00:56:11   - Kind of makes sense though, right?

00:56:12   Because you know, to require the internet connectivity

00:56:17   of a Kindle, you are making a specific choice anyway,

00:56:20   because you're gonna go to the store

00:56:21   to download a book or whatever.

00:56:23   - So the one example I would say is,

00:56:26   I told you I get a newspaper.

00:56:28   I've been getting the daily,

00:56:30   the San Francisco Chronicle every day on my Kindle

00:56:32   for like five years, seven years,

00:56:33   I mean since I got the first, the second generation Kindle.

00:56:37   And what happens there is that it delivers overnight.

00:56:41   So when I wake up in the morning,

00:56:42   I turn it on and the newspaper's there.

00:56:44   And if I would have it in my bag

00:56:45   and go out the door to go to the bus,

00:56:47   I get on the bus and turn on my Kindle

00:56:49   and the newspaper was there.

00:56:50   So that would be, I mean, that was why I always left

00:56:52   the wifi on on my Kindle,

00:56:54   was because the newspaper would download overnight

00:56:56   in the background, which was always really cool.

00:56:58   And it was something the Kindle app on the iPad

00:57:00   or iPhone could not do,

00:57:02   which is why I thought it was extra cool.

00:57:05   but it does keep the battery that way

00:57:08   scott i assume the d_x_ is really good for newspapers and magazines right that

00:57:11   was one of the one of the reasons as well as textbooks that they brought it

00:57:14   out right

00:57:15   uh... yes and it was pretty bad with textbooks but good for uh... newspapers

00:57:20   and it was actually it it kind of

00:57:22   emulates the size of uh... like a hardcover page so

00:57:26   it was nice to read on as well but they're the biggest pitch uh... was they

00:57:30   were like oh students can use this to take notes

00:57:32   uh... but

00:57:33   e-ink

00:57:34   especially at the screen technology at that time was not fast enough to take

00:57:38   notes so you would just get super frustrated as you were trying to type

00:57:40   your note in class and it wasn't a good idea.

00:57:43   No. That was a bad... I did not like the DX and then they had the weird keyboard too

00:57:48   which was a bad keyboard.

00:57:51   Yes. But I have two.

00:57:54   You can keep them. I don't want them. I will.

00:57:58   Alright good. Good. Keep them away from me.

00:58:02   Let's see, oh I wanted to mention special offers just because it's a very Amazon thing

00:58:07   that makes me laugh, which is when we talk about prices for these things, the base price

00:58:11   for these is for something called "with special offers" and I was looking up how Amazon describes

00:58:16   special offers on their site and what they do is they want to use the language of cell

00:58:21   phone companies so they'll say, "To buy your Kindle Voyage for $1.99, that is a subsidized

00:58:30   price. The subsidy is because you will receive special offers and screen saver advertisements

00:58:39   as you use your device. I'm sitting there thinking, "Subsidized by you. It's just

00:58:45   you. It's your ads. It's your device. You set the price." But what they've done

00:58:50   is they've said, "You know what? Here's what we're going to do. We're going to

00:58:53   give people $20 off if they agree to see our ads. And because we're the makers of this,

00:58:58   not going to run it as a sale, we're going to just make it out the price so we can go

00:59:01   out there and say, "Look, this thing costs $1.99," instead of saying, "This thing costs

00:59:05   $2.19."

00:59:06   Now, they could just make it $1.99 and not have ads, but that's not what they do.

00:59:11   And the funny thing is, the special offers are not that bad, because some of them are

00:59:16   good offers.

00:59:17   The ads are only on the home screen and on the lock screen, so it's not like you see

00:59:21   them when you're reading.

00:59:22   They're not pop-up ads while you're reading a novel.

00:59:24   That would be the worst thing ever.

00:59:26   But you know what the thing that drives me to pay the $20 to turn off the special offers

00:59:29   is it makes turning on the Kindle a two-step process because you've got to press the power

00:59:34   button and then you've got to swipe to dismiss the ad and that's the thing that gets me.

00:59:38   That's the thing that makes me go, "Okay, fine.

00:59:40   I'm going to pay the $20."

00:59:42   Yeah, you've got to because they – especially in the little magnet case where when you open

00:59:47   it, it automatically unlocks.

00:59:49   They want you to be able to see the ad.

00:59:51   They want you to see the ad.

00:59:52   You would never see the ad otherwise.

00:59:54   on iPad with a smart cover, you never see the lock screen if you're always opening

00:59:58   the cover because it just automatically unlocks.

01:00:01   And so even though I don't use a case and so I'm actually physically pressing the

01:00:04   button and staring at that ad, it still makes me swipe.

01:00:08   So I have to do power on and then swipe and now I can read my book.

01:00:12   And that's what makes me spend the $20 to get the special offers.

01:00:16   But it's a fascinating idea, right, that they do this, that they underprice their product

01:00:23   by $20 in order to show you ads.

01:00:25   It's weird.

01:00:26   Scott, do you do special offers?

01:00:28   I always get the special offers.

01:00:30   Always get the special offers.

01:00:31   I buy too many Kindles not to get the special offers.

01:00:33   Well that's true.

01:00:34   That would add up over time.

01:00:35   I have not been buying them.

01:00:37   I've been buying them with special offers, but like I said, the last two I've unlocked

01:00:41   after a while.

01:00:42   The Paperwhite and then I actually just did it with a voyage today where I said, "Yeah,

01:00:46   I'm just going to do the $20."

01:00:48   So after a little while, you can go to one of those sites that has various Kindle hacking

01:00:53   things.

01:00:54   Do you guys know about Kindle hacking?

01:00:55   >> I had no idea it was such a thing.

01:00:57   >> Oh, I know about Kindle hacking.

01:00:58   >> Oh, yeah.

01:00:59   See, Scott knows.

01:01:00   Scott knows.

01:01:01   Yeah, so there's some sites out there that there is a Kindle jailbreak community, and

01:01:06   you can jailbreak the Kindle.

01:01:08   And the only thing I use in the jailbreak is you can--so if you don't have special offers,

01:01:16   got these screensavers and they're like these really obscure like woodcuts of things themed

01:01:20   around writing and reading or pictures of dead authors. Those are your choices I think.

01:01:27   And they're not that great. And you can't, believe it or not, you can't like copy images

01:01:31   onto the Kindle and have them used in the screensaver. It just, they won't let you do

01:01:36   that. So that's the number one reason that I hacked my Paperwhite was if you jailbreak

01:01:43   the Paperwhite and install this screensaver hack, you can load your own images as the

01:01:49   screensaver or you can opt for it to use the cover of the book you're currently reading

01:01:54   as your screensaver.

01:01:55   Which I think is actually a great idea and I have no idea why Amazon doesn't offer that

01:02:00   as an option for people who have turned off special offers because it's really cool to

01:02:04   just see the cover art when you turn off your Kindle like it was a real book.

01:02:10   Amazon is not interested they want like pictures abstract pictures of pens and

01:02:15   type and the kobo just another shout out to kobo the kobo does display the cover

01:02:22   of the book you're currently reading when you walk it by default look at that

01:02:25   but they're no special offers the kobo special it makes no offers no every now

01:02:32   and then there's a really great special offer like five dollars by by a ten

01:02:37   dollar gift card for five dollars that happens every now and then you're like

01:02:40   what? I just want to make sure you're paying attention. Yeah and I bought some books through

01:02:44   it but but I hate the press the button and then swipe to turn it on that's really stupid.

01:02:51   But I do like you should check out the others Kindle jail breaks they're out there I don't

01:02:54   know I assume they haven't gotten it running yet maybe they have I haven't looked for the

01:02:59   for the voyage but they definitely jail had the paperwhite jail broken not too long ago

01:03:04   They did that pretty fast.

01:03:07   And yeah, there's not a lot you need to do with a jailbroken Kindle.

01:03:14   I mean, you can copy, convert EPUBs to MOBIs and just copy them on via USB.

01:03:21   So it's not like Amazon prevents you from sideloading as much content as you want onto

01:03:25   this thing.

01:03:26   You could download EPUBs that are not DRMed and just, you run them through, is it, what's

01:03:34   What's the app that you use to convert?

01:03:37   - Calibre?

01:03:38   - Yeah, Calibre or Caliber or Calibre or Hover.

01:03:42   It's pronounced hover.

01:03:43   Yeah, Calibre is the one that you basically can set up

01:03:49   a workflow that says take these EPUBs,

01:03:50   turn them into MOBIs, copy them onto my Kindle,

01:03:52   and it does it and Amazon doesn't care,

01:03:54   which is kind of cool.

01:03:56   - And you can also use the send to Kindle

01:03:58   to just send a MOBI to your Kindle

01:04:01   and then it's stored in your cloud library.

01:04:04   - Yeah, that's actually a feature that they added.

01:04:06   They have improved some of the stuff

01:04:08   with the Kindle software over time,

01:04:09   like being able to add a book,

01:04:12   and it stays in your library.

01:04:13   It's not like a one-time load.

01:04:15   It actually stays in there.

01:04:17   Like your own personal books can stick around

01:04:20   in the Kindle Cloud library.

01:04:21   That was a nice touch.

01:04:22   They let you reset your bookmark now,

01:04:27   which for a while you had to like fill out several forms

01:04:29   and testify in court that you didn't want.

01:04:34   So I would read a book and then my wife would read the same Kindle book and every time she

01:04:37   would open it, it would say, "It looks like you're at the end of this book.

01:04:40   Would you like to jump to the end?"

01:04:41   And she'd say, "No, I'm reading the book now."

01:04:43   And there was no way to reset that feature and now you can do that.

01:04:46   You can go to their, I think, the website and say, "Reset the bookmark," and it does

01:04:49   that.

01:04:50   It's a whisper sync.

01:04:51   No, I'd say the...

01:04:52   I think.

01:04:53   Yeah, yeah, it's...

01:04:54   Yeah, I think so.

01:04:55   I think it's all good now.

01:04:57   It just took them a while to get there.

01:04:59   The big thing that still drives me crazy, and I'm interested, especially for you, Scott,

01:05:03   since you've been using the Kindle for so long.

01:05:05   John Gruber wrote about this when the Paperwhite came out,

01:05:08   and I agree with him 100%.

01:05:09   It's sadly still true two years later,

01:05:11   is the typography on these things is not,

01:05:14   I mean, it's not terrible.

01:05:15   I'd say it's mediocre.

01:05:17   They're like six fonts,

01:05:18   and most of them are not very good book fonts.

01:05:21   And they're all justified, so they're fill-justified,

01:05:25   so that they're, it's a straight line down the right side,

01:05:28   which means, depending on how the words break,

01:05:30   You can have like variably wide spaces between words on a line instead of just letting it

01:05:36   run ragged right and being properly spaced.

01:05:39   And it also doesn't do hyphenation, so it's even worse than it would be if it was hyphenated.

01:05:45   And so it drives me crazy because it's like the screen is really beautiful now with the

01:05:49   Voyage, but the typography is still kind of crappy.

01:05:52   I think the Voyage would be a much better product if they had some better typefaces

01:05:56   and some better type display options that they have.

01:06:00   And that's one place where something like iBooks on the iPad has it just way beyond

01:06:06   Kindle because the typography in iBooks is so much better than it is in the Kindle.

01:06:10   And it's a real shame.

01:06:11   I mean, fonts, you would think a product devoted to reading that perhaps fonts would be a priority,

01:06:17   and I apparently not.

01:06:19   [laughs]

01:06:20   Ben, I was going to ask you about that actually, Jason, because I have read many of these complaints

01:06:26   and it doesn't bother me at all, mostly because I'm comparing it to--

01:06:30   I read a lot of paperbacks, and if you look at the fonts and typography in a cheap paperback,

01:06:35   they're awful, so I feel like it's an accurate representation of the paperback experience

01:06:40   with the edit bonus that you can choose from six awful fonts, as opposed to the one that's

01:06:44   set by the publisher.

01:06:45   I don't know if they're all awful, but many of them, right?

01:06:49   Like Palatino's fine, Baskerville's okay.

01:06:52   I don't even know what I use, but I never change it, and it annoys me when I get a book.

01:06:56   book that has the publisher default font.

01:06:58   - And the publisher fonts are horrible,

01:07:01   'cause whatever engine they use to embed fonts

01:07:04   and then display embedded fonts,

01:07:05   those fonts are almost always unreadable.

01:07:08   - Yes, that's the worst.

01:07:10   - And it used to be you couldn't change them.

01:07:12   Now you can go away from publisher font

01:07:14   to one of the six Kindle fonts

01:07:16   and it'll let you do that, which is better.

01:07:18   But it just drives me crazy.

01:07:20   I'm looking at a page of the book that I'm reading right now

01:07:22   and there's one line that happens to have

01:07:25   broken in such a way that there's the equivalent of like five letters of space between every

01:07:31   single word on that line because they're insisting that it be fill justified and that

01:07:37   that right edge be solid, which is there's no need. I would like an option for that not

01:07:43   to be the case and I would like more fonts. So, you know, this is an opportunity for somebody

01:07:48   who really cares about typography to come in there and make the Kindle experience that

01:07:52   much better and it's just you know I feel like they're not showing off that screen

01:07:56   like that screen is now so high resolution that they and there was a story on I was looking

01:08:00   it up today there's a story on TechCrunch I think that was reporting the rumors of this

01:08:04   new they called it a new Paperwhite but it's very clearly the voyage and one of the things

01:08:08   in their story was that there would be a new hand-tuned custom beautiful reading font made

01:08:14   for the this beautiful new 300 dpi screen.

01:08:17   M.I.A.

01:08:18   Yeah.

01:08:19   Yeah, it's not it's I have to believe that they're spending they've spent so much time on the hardware

01:08:25   And I think that with the the voyage is kind of the the pinnacle of their hardware push on the Kindle side

01:08:31   that they they must be I'm hoping spending the same amount of time on the software and

01:08:37   Because I mean you look at a paperwhite - or even a paperwhite next to the Kindle voyage at the software level and it's identical

01:08:45   nearly identical. Yeah, like they added the ability to go back from a footnote.

01:08:50   Or now the footnotes like pop up. Yeah, the little hover thing is like on your website.

01:08:57   They hover. They hover. Yes, that's what they do, Myke. They hover. And yeah, the software is

01:09:06   pretty primitive, and it's too bad that it isn't better. And that's why—the typography—that's

01:09:11   why I bring it up, is that, you know, this could be better. Actually, the other thing that

01:09:15   that annoys me and this might not bother you so much if you're just reading books

01:09:18   on it but as somebody who also read the newspaper so I'd have a couple different

01:09:22   things the home screen takes like a second to update and it always if it's

01:09:26   sorted by the most recent thing you've opened so invariably in the morning I

01:09:31   would turn on my Kindle it would have my novel from the night before I would

01:09:35   press the home button you know tap in the menu bar to bring up the toolbar and

01:09:40   then tap on the home button and it would bring me to the home screen and what I

01:09:44   What I would see would be the newspaper followed by my book.

01:09:48   And I would reach with my finger to press the newspaper and at the very last minute

01:09:52   it would resort knowing I had just left my book and flip the book up to the top item

01:09:57   and so then I'd tap on my book and it would be back in my book and I'd go "Noooo!"

01:10:00   And it's just because the interface is slow and, you know, it's not that different from

01:10:06   what it was like five years ago, really.

01:10:09   - They haven't improved much on the interface.

01:10:12   And I imagine one philosophy could be,

01:10:15   well they just wanna keep it simple

01:10:16   and make it disappear like you said.

01:10:18   But I think they could invest a little bit more time

01:10:20   in the interface and I'm not saying super whiz bang features

01:10:24   but improved typography definitely.

01:10:27   Even though it doesn't drive me crazy,

01:10:29   it is much room for improvement there

01:10:32   and maybe some justification options.

01:10:34   - Yeah, keep it simple.

01:10:36   Let's keep it simple.

01:10:38   But it could be, I feel at this point now the hardware

01:10:42   is really being let down by the software.

01:10:43   I gave it more of a pass when it was early days

01:10:48   and when the screens were still kinda coming up to speed.

01:10:50   But now I feel like they're selling a $200,

01:10:53   high resolution, beautiful product,

01:10:55   and the software is still kinda clunky and bad.

01:10:59   And that bothers me.

01:11:01   But you don't normally see it.

01:11:02   I mean the idea is that when you're in there,

01:11:04   you're just reading, which is why only the typography

01:11:07   really is an ongoing thing that bugs me.

01:11:09   It's just that I wish that it was a little bit better

01:11:11   because that's what I'm staring at all the time.

01:11:13   I don't know.

01:11:14   - And they have, to be fair to Amazon,

01:11:15   they did add X-ray, which is kind of a cool software feature

01:11:19   - Yeah.

01:11:20   - And real page numbers, which is hard to describe

01:11:23   as a software feature, but it is a software feature, right?

01:11:25   - It is. - So that's kinda cool.

01:11:26   - And actually the time countdown,

01:11:28   which I do use sometimes, which is--

01:11:30   - I do love that.

01:11:31   - How long am I gonna be here?

01:11:32   It's like, well, about 42 minutes and the book will be over.

01:11:34   It's like, oh, that's good.

01:11:35   how long is it until the end to the next chapter break?

01:11:37   Oh, it's only five minutes.

01:11:38   I can sit here and finish this chapter right now."

01:11:40   Those are kind of neat features, that they learn what your paging speed is and then use

01:11:44   that as the basis.

01:11:46   I like that.

01:11:47   Do you ever try and race against it?

01:11:49   I'll show you, Kendall.

01:11:51   Just press forward a bunch of times and be like, "Aha!"

01:11:54   But then it thinks you're a really fast reader.

01:11:56   I have been tempted to time it to see if it's accurate or not, but then I haven't done it,

01:12:00   so.

01:12:01   Yeah.

01:12:02   Yeah.

01:12:03   The real page numbers is…

01:12:04   Actually real page numbers I don't really care about.

01:12:06   They could be fake page numbers but I like, because they do match like the print edition

01:12:10   so if you're reading and somebody's reading in print you can say it's on page 415 and

01:12:14   it's actually page 415.

01:12:16   But I just like it because I know then that, you know, I've read 400 pages of this book.

01:12:21   It's not that, you know, it's not 200.

01:12:23   It seems like I've been reading this a long time and then I'll look at the real page

01:12:26   number and be like, "Yep, yep."

01:12:28   Instead of back in the old days where it was like, "I'm at location 20834."

01:12:31   I've read eight dots worth of this book.

01:12:34   Right. How many dots are left to go? But, you know, I wouldn't give it up. I would

01:12:42   choose to read a Kindle. Even if you gave me an old Kindle, I would probably choose

01:12:46   to read it, although I really hated when I had to clip a book light onto an electronic

01:12:50   device in order to read it in the dark. That was really stupid. But I could read novels

01:12:57   on my iPad if I wanted to and it would be fine but I would prefer not to and yeah so

01:13:01   I guess that means it is a luxury item right I mean I can read books on other even ebooks

01:13:07   on other devices that I own so I don't need a Kindle but I do prefer reading on a Kindle

01:13:13   to an iPhone or and I do read on an iPhone if I'm like somewhere in you know waiting

01:13:18   at a doctor's office or something like that I'll read a book on my iPhone and the whisper

01:13:22   sync is really nice there because I read a Kindle book it automatically knows where I

01:13:25   I am and when I go back to my Kindle it knows where I left off and that's great.

01:13:28   But if I could choose, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to choose, I choose to read on

01:13:34   the Kindle.

01:13:35   I like it better.

01:13:36   >>Scott Hanselman That's because it is better.

01:13:38   >>Joe

01:13:51   Although I really like the page turn buttons, the bezel is so narrow and they're so close

01:13:56   to the edge that I find sometimes my finger will just rotate, will just roll over a little

01:14:01   bit and it will touch the touch screen and when I'm trying to go forward, suddenly

01:14:06   I'm accidentally paging backward because it's sensing the touch on the left side

01:14:12   of the screen.

01:14:14   It strikes me that that perhaps is a software problem too and that they ought to be a little

01:14:19   less sensitive when you're touching right on the edge of the screen next to your page

01:14:23   turn buttons.

01:14:25   But that's something that I noticed.

01:14:27   >> I have had the same thing.

01:14:28   And I notice it's with when I'm using my non-dominant hand, so my left hand, I sometimes just accidentally

01:14:34   page back because I'm touching the touch screen instead of just pushing the whatever the fake

01:14:39   button.

01:14:40   >> Yeah, that's a stupid hand and it doesn't know where it's touching and it touches just

01:14:43   slightly off and suddenly and you know you're trying to go forward but you move slightly

01:14:47   off and suddenly you're going back.

01:14:48   And it feels like they ought to be smart about like that very edge of the screen on both

01:14:53   sides by those buttons should not be trusted.

01:14:56   It should be sort of like the iPad lockout thing where if you're holding it by the bezel,

01:15:02   it's intelligent enough to know that you're probably not touching the screen there.

01:15:07   This Kindle probably needs that.

01:15:10   But I'm better at it now.

01:15:11   I was, before I was picking it up when it was on already, I'd put it down for a minute

01:15:15   and then I'd pick it up and I'd advance like five pages and I'd be like, "No, I'm squeezing

01:15:18   the button too hard and now I'm better at that too.

01:15:21   It's just your phenomenal strength that's causing you problems.

01:15:24   Well fortunately you can use software to calibrate just how hard you have to squeeze the Kindle

01:15:28   for it to turn a page and how much it vibrates when you do.

01:15:32   So thanks Amazon.

01:15:33   How hard do you squeeze your Kindle Jason and how much does it vibrate?

01:15:36   I try to be gentle with my Kindle Scott and it vibrates moderately.

01:15:42   I'm gentle with it and it's gentle with me.

01:15:45   That's good.

01:15:46   live by.

01:15:47   [laughter]

01:15:48   Matthew: Mr. Scott McNulty, it has been a pleasure having you as part of this show.

01:15:54   Thank you for being a great knowledge of the Kindle world and also for forcing us to finally

01:16:00   have this discussion that we've been promising for so long.

01:16:03   [laughter]

01:16:04   I have done my duty.

01:16:05   And you will never not be our inaugural guest.

01:16:08   They can't take that away from you.

01:16:10   Unless we erase this show and pretend it never happened.

01:16:13   Which could happen.

01:16:14   Why should?

01:16:15   You were going to say, "You will never be on again."

01:16:17   [Laughter]

01:16:18   David: Maybe when the next Kindle comes out.

01:16:21   Pete: I notice my popularity gets a brief blip when the Kindle comes out.

01:16:26   And then I go back into obscurity.

01:16:28   David; And that's the reason he buys them all, folks.

01:16:31   Pete; Please, someone pay attention to me.

01:16:33   Jared; And we should say that Scott, if you enjoyed listening to Scott, you can listen

01:16:37   to him every week on Random Trek, which is a podcast on the Incomparable Podcast Network,

01:16:42   which is a podcast network that is not Relay FM, but is also very nice.

01:16:48   And so go to the incomparable dot com slash random trek or random trek dot com will take

01:16:53   you to a page completely controlled by Scott McNulty.

01:16:56   And if for some reason you can't remember either of those, there are links in the show

01:17:00   notes.

01:17:01   Show notes.

01:17:02   Relay dot FM slash upgrade slash eight.

01:17:07   There's one more thing I want to mention before we go.

01:17:09   We are still conducting our listener survey, which is a great way for us to try and understand

01:17:14   a little bit more about you and try to help us find great advertisers to talk to you about

01:17:19   great products like our great advertisers today.

01:17:22   If you go to podsurvey.com/upgrade, fill in the information there.

01:17:26   If you filled in a survey for any other show, please fill in this one too.

01:17:31   And if you use the same machine, then all your survey answers will be remembered, which

01:17:36   is awesome.

01:17:37   So you won't have to type them all in again.

01:17:38   you can type them all in again if you want to. I don't know why you would but you can.

01:17:42   So it's podsurvey.com/upgrade and you will also be in the chance to win a $100 Amazon

01:17:47   gift card if you fill out the survey so please do that for us.

01:17:50   That's a lot of Kindle books. Lots of Kindle books you can buy with that $100 gift card.

01:17:54   You can buy a whole Kindle. You can buy that Kindle Touch with that gift card and have

01:17:58   money left over for books. Look at that. Look at that. Synergy. Synergy. I am @imicontwitter.

01:18:05   I am YK e mr. Jason's now is at J Snell J s and e double L

01:18:10   He writes the at the fantastic six colors calm and if you'd like to follow mr

01:18:14   Scott McNulty on Twitter you can to ease at blank baby on Twitter, which will save that story for another day

01:18:21   Maybe I don't know if there is a story but it sounds interesting

01:18:23   Thank you all for listening to this week's episode of upgrade

01:18:28   Thank you again to our sponsors clubhouse and hover and we'll be back next time. Say goodbye Jason. Ahoy friend

01:18:35   I think that's the start.

01:18:37   But we'll go there anyway.

01:18:38   Ahoy is like aloha, Myke.

01:18:40   It means hello and goodbye.

01:18:41   Bye.

01:18:42   [LAUGHS]

01:18:42   [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:18:45   [Music]

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