8: With Special Offers

0:00:00[Music]

0:00:04Welcome back to another episode of Upgrade on Relay FM.

0:00:09This episode of Upgrade is brought to you by Hover, who simply are the very best place to buy and register domain names.

0:00:17And our new friends, Jason, our new friends.

0:00:19Oh, that they're friends.

0:00:20Our new friends at Clubhouse, who I'm really excited to tell you about.

0:00:23They make awesome communities for people, private and awesome communities.

0:00:27My name is Myke Hurley and you've already heard him by now.

0:00:29It's Mr. Jason Snell.

0:00:30- Hi Myke. - He's online.

0:00:31- How's it going? - Hi Jason.

0:00:32Very well sir, how are you?

0:00:33- I'm doing very well.

0:00:34I have almost written my Kindle voyage review

0:00:37and in fact, to ensure, this is insurance.

0:00:42To make sure we actually talk about the Kindle today,

0:00:46I have invited a special guest,

0:00:48our first special upgrade guest.

0:00:50And the reason we invited this gentleman

0:00:52is because he is an expert when it comes to the Kindle.

0:00:56It's Scott McNulty.

0:00:59Hi, Scott.

0:01:00- I'm very tempted to say something about Siri,

0:01:03but I'm not going to.

0:01:04(laughing)

0:01:05- Don't do it.

0:01:06- I was going to say it, but I didn't.

0:01:08I'm not going to.

0:01:09- Ahoy, Scott McNulty.

0:01:10- Thank you for having me on.

0:01:14- It's good to have you here.

0:01:16So before we get started with the main topic of the show,

0:01:19which indeed is Kindles and things and such,

0:01:24perhaps it's time for some follow-up.

0:01:26We don't have a sound effect for follow up though, Myke.

0:01:28- Follow up.

0:01:29- Thank you.

0:01:30- No problem.

0:01:31- That's scary.

0:01:32We might get in trouble.

0:01:33Five by five, is five by five gonna get mad

0:01:36if you even say follow up in that tone ever?

0:01:39I don't know.

0:01:40- I don't know, I think Steven might get mad.

0:01:41- Ah, that's fair.

0:01:44We talked about, in I think our last episode,

0:01:48we talked about test flight and getting approval

0:01:53for betas using Apple's new test flight system.

0:01:57And I wanted to point out, first off,

0:02:01Myke, you put this in the show notes, but it's great.

0:02:02It's Marco Arment on Twitter said that his beta

0:02:06was approved in test flight for external testing in one day.

0:02:09And then we also heard from listener Glenn,

0:02:12who said his first time review was less than 24 hours.

0:02:16And then with each initial no significant changes update,

0:02:21those were processed in about half an hour.

0:02:23it seemed to just be a kind of a server automated thing.

0:02:26So it sounds like the TestFlight stuff

0:02:28is happening much faster than we were kind of anticipating

0:02:31for a traditional app review.

0:02:32So that's good news, I think.

0:02:34We were worried that they were,

0:02:36Apple was gonna get in people's way.

0:02:38- Just on that subject,

0:02:41have you had many betas come to you via TestFlight yet?

0:02:45- I think I have three in there right now.

0:02:47And it's funny, one of the things that it does

0:02:50is it sends you a push notification when there's a new beta,

0:02:53which is actually pretty awesome.

0:02:55- Well, I get push notifications and emails,

0:02:58which is awesome. - Yes, yes.

0:02:59- So I need to try and find a way

0:03:00to stop both of those things happening.

0:03:02- Right, and then there was one app,

0:03:04and I don't wanna mention who it was,

0:03:05and I don't know whether they were having a problem

0:03:06with the system, but I got like five push notifications

0:03:09saying that there was a new beta.

0:03:10I think maybe they just kept uploading new versions

0:03:12and finding bugs, but it was like within an hour,

0:03:15there were like four notifications.

0:03:17- I have also had that with someone too.

0:03:20So that was why I was very annoyed

0:03:21to continue receiving new emails.

0:03:23It felt like every time I deleted an email,

0:03:24I had another email.

0:03:25- Yeah.

0:03:26- Shut up.

0:03:27Please stop now.

0:03:29Anytime you wanna stop.

0:03:30I like the system.

0:03:31I like going in and having a little list

0:03:33and just downloading it.

0:03:34I like that I can access them on my iPad and my iPhone

0:03:38very easily.

0:03:39I don't have to do the provisioning profiles thing,

0:03:41which just seemed to always randomly break for me

0:03:43with hockey and with previous TestFlight.

0:03:48I always found that it just broke constantly.

0:03:51And one other thing that frustrates me

0:03:53is the little yellow dot, which won't go away.

0:03:56So when you have a beta, you know when you update

0:03:59an application, dear listeners, you will see

0:04:03that little blue dot which appears next to the app.

0:04:06- That's, hey, you haven't opened this app yet.

0:04:08We should know about this, right.

0:04:09- And then it goes away.

0:04:11But however, I now have little yellow dots

0:04:13sprinkled about the place which do not go away for betas.

0:04:16- No. - They will not go away

0:04:17and I don't like that.

0:04:18- I agree with you, it bugs me.

0:04:20But in general, it seems like a pretty good thing.

0:04:23So I'll deal with the bugged part of it.

0:04:28And it's good to know that the turnaround for approval

0:04:32is not so bad.

0:04:33But it's all right.

0:04:34TestFlight is not new, but this Apple TestFlight version

0:04:37is new, so I guess they'll learn and adapt, hopefully.

0:04:41I don't need five push notifications, though.

0:04:44That's not--

0:04:45- Here's one interesting tweet that I did see

0:04:47that I haven't put in follow-up,

0:04:49I'm going to mention it to you now.

0:04:52- Surprise follow-up.

0:04:53- Yeah, Martin Herring, who is the developer of Instacast,

0:04:58he was having trouble.

0:05:00Apple were rejecting his TestFlight app review

0:05:05because of a bug in iOS 8.1.

0:05:08So iOS 8.1 has an issue with iCloud,

0:05:13and it's crashing apps when you open them.

0:05:16and Apple were rejecting his app

0:05:19because it was crashing at launch.

0:05:21There's literally nothing you can do about it.

0:05:23I think he's ended up fixing it though for another version,

0:05:25but it's just interesting to think that

0:05:27there are sometimes now going to be

0:05:29things outside of your control

0:05:31that you expect to be fixed by the time you release, I guess,

0:05:33but Apple haven't been able to fix it.

0:05:35So this raises the question,

0:05:37what happens when people are testing against betas

0:05:41later in the year?

0:05:42How's that gonna work?

0:05:44I wonder if there'll be something different in that time.

0:05:46- Right. - So when iOS 9 is in beta,

0:05:49how will people be distributing tests?

0:05:51Like, will they still be testing for them,

0:05:52and will Apple allow that, and that kind of stuff.

0:05:54So it'd be interesting to see what happens there.

0:05:56- Yikes. - But I hope that

0:05:58all the kinks have worked out and that people adopt it,

0:06:00because I think it feels like a much better system,

0:06:04at least for testers.

0:06:05I assume it's pretty good for the developers too,

0:06:09the people starting to use it.

0:06:10- Well, just not having to maintain that list of UDIDs

0:06:12just being able to get a list of people with their iCloud IDs and using those.

0:06:17And you know, because I know they dreaded like new devices coming out because it completely

0:06:23screwed up all the beta testing because their beta testers would upgrade their devices and

0:06:26then those lists would be no good and it was this endless maintenance of UDIDs which is

0:06:31stupid.

0:06:32So just for that it'll be a big win for lots of developers I think.

0:06:36And I guess if you want it, you can have much larger testing pools now.

0:06:41Yeah, it can be beneficial. Yeah, exactly and every one of your people just by being on your list contested on all their devices

0:06:48Which is really nice. Yeah

0:06:50I've got some very silly follow-up, but I liked it. This is a listener

0:06:54Unai, Unai, I don't know how to pronounce it, but he's in Spain and he wants us to do a

0:07:01vertical on cheese and he wants to sponsor it and

0:07:05sponsor it via by sending Manchego cheese to you

0:07:09Because you're close closer to him than me because he's in Spain just to let him know the good cheeses

0:07:14We produce in Spain. So I've never had manchego cheese. You should it's very good

0:07:19What's what's different about manchego cheese to regular cheese? Oh, I don't know Scott. Have you had manchego? I

0:07:24Enjoy manchego on a regular basis. See Scott. Can you explain the difference between manchego cheese and regular cheese?

0:07:31I believe and I could be wrong and I probably am is manchego a sheep

0:07:37It is it is a sheet cheese. I believe yeah well there go so it's so you know most cheeses

0:07:44Perhaps 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

0:07:52crazy

0:07:53Thing to turn manjago cheese. I assume it's a Basque product. It could not be yeah

0:07:57I think I think I think it may be and it's it's a um it's certainly from that that area

0:08:02I think up by the French border and

0:08:06Whether it's is it just basque or is it also in Catalonia?

0:08:08I don't know, but I do know a little bit about Spanish geography a tiny bit but

0:08:13It'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

0:08:19It's just tasty. I enjoy it actually

0:08:21Most when I put a little tomato jam on it

0:08:25With the recipe from the book the cookbook that Scott's wife wrote

0:08:29So there's a double endorsement that manchego with the tomato jam so tasty

0:08:35So I guess when you asked Scott the question if he has manchego cheese you were really hoping that you had considering his wife

0:08:41well, no because so so Scott's wife Marisa has has written

0:08:47cookbooks now about canning and putting food in jars her website is food and jars calm and with the

0:08:54Untold 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

0:09:01So he doesn't need any of these things that she cooks for her cookbooks

0:09:04Yeah, I don't like jam or pickles and that's a large portion of what she does

0:09:09It'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?

0:09:16Well, if I didn't like jars, I would be in the wrong apartment

0:09:20I was for laying on the floor of our living room for some reason and I

0:09:25Put my hand under our couch and I hit a box of jars

0:09:30There are jars under our bed. There are jars everywhere. So it's mostly what's in them that I don't like

0:09:35I know they're delicious to other people. I just don't like fruit really real-time cheese follow-up

0:09:39Real-time cheese follow-up manchego is from the La Mancha region in central Spain

0:09:46So it's not up by the border man of La Mancha as much La Mancha manchego there. That's

0:09:52See and it is uh, yeah, it's a it's a sheep cheese

0:09:57It's my age. It's mild tasty aged sheep's cheese. So thank you chat room

0:10:02For our cheese well literally, where would we be without the chaperone?

0:10:07Not eating cheese. That's for sure

0:10:10So what other follow-up do we have Myke you something yeah, yeah something I saw on your site

0:10:18Your lovely website six colors calm. It's NaNoWriMo time. It is in September so

0:10:26For anybody that doesn't know I'm gonna do a terrible job explaining it

0:10:29Nana Raimo is during the month of November where lots of clever people try and write a novel, right?

0:10:35Right. This is this is almost as good as me explaining what Scott's wife does while Scott is on the line

0:10:40Let's just go all the way around and then Scott will explain how relay FM works and we'll be done

0:10:46Yeah, it's Nana Raimo is short for national novel writing month because it started as a joke

0:10:53a bunch of friends actually in the Bay Area. And then they set up a website and people

0:10:58were able to sign up. And what it is now is it's an international, it's all over the

0:11:01world, international community of people who are writing fiction. And for the month of

0:11:06November everybody signs up and it's free. You go to nanowrimo.org, you sign up and you

0:11:12can write a, the goal is 50,000 words by the end of November, which is roughly 1,700 words

0:11:18a day, and I've done it six times, and succeeded all six times at breaking 50,000 words, and

0:11:25now I'm actually on the board of directors.

0:11:27It's a nonprofit that runs it and has the people who develop the software that runs

0:11:30on the server and keeps the servers live, and there are a bunch of staff.

0:11:35There's a little staff in Berkeley, California that does stuff like there's a young writers

0:11:38program that works on building educational materials so that teachers have materials

0:11:44to use to teach writing to their kids in class.

0:11:49And yeah, it's a great--and there are volunteers all over the world who are in different regions

0:11:53doing meetups and what they call "write-ins" where people come and meet somewhere and they

0:11:57hang out with the other writers and they write.

0:12:00So it's a great organization.

0:12:02I encourage people to go to the site and consider doing it.

0:12:05My first NaNoWriMo I didn't start until like the sixth or seventh of the month, so even

0:12:09now it's not too late.

0:12:10And if not this year, consider it for next year.

0:12:13And if you do try it and think it's a good idea, I would say donate, because I know now

0:12:18the details of how harrowing non-profits' finances can be, and they could use some donations.

0:12:24Donations are good.

0:12:25And if people are out there listening who know somebody who you think would be really

0:12:30awesome as, like if you know an author or something like that, who you think would be

0:12:33awesome for us to know at NaNoWriMo, you should let me know.

0:12:37Drop me a line, because we're always looking for—we've had support of some great writers

0:12:41over the years who've written things for NaNoWriMo for newsletters or whatever. But I love it.

0:12:46I've written three novels which are like in draft form in a drawer somewhere. And that

0:12:51would never happen. I would never have written the first one without NaNoWriMo just about

0:12:56making that commitment and saying, "Yeah, I'm going to do this." And you know, 79 words

0:12:59a day, it's a lot, but it's only for a month and then you can stop. And it's actually a

0:13:07lot of fun. So I recommend it. I think it's a really awesome, creative... I keep likening

0:13:13it to climbing a mountain or running a marathon, neither of which I'm ever going to do. But

0:13:17like that, writing a novel was always something that I said I thought I would do someday and

0:13:21I was never going to do it. And then the first NaNoWriMo was like, "I'm going to do this,"

0:13:25and I did it. So sometimes that's all it takes.

0:13:28Now that you're gainfully fun-employed, are you going to do NaNoWriMo this time around?

0:13:35I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this time around, mostly because, like I said, I've got those

0:13:39three novels already written and I would really like to rewrite them and get them out there.

0:13:45Even if it's self-publishing them, I'd like to get them out in the world.

0:13:48So I'm trying not to write more new stuff and instead spend some time.

0:13:53So I'm hoping to revise one of those this month and get it out in the world.

0:13:59So we'll see.

0:14:00Cool.

0:14:01Yeah.

0:14:02It's fun.

0:14:03I've started many files on the Purse of November. Nice! The idea that I would do it and then about,

0:14:11oh, the second of November I stop. Well, that's efficient. You're not throwing away work that way.

0:14:17That's good. I get a solid thousand words and then I'm done. I don't know what it was. It was

0:14:23something about that first time that I did it and I thought this is--I don't know, a lot of writers

0:14:27are so motivated by deadlines and that's the case for me. If I set myself a deadline, I'm gonna

0:14:32meet it.

0:14:33And for NaNoWriMo, I essentially was saying, "By the end of this month, you're going

0:14:36to have 50,000 words," and I managed to do it.

0:14:39But I think it takes that kind of mentality of like, "I'm going to do this.

0:14:43I'm going to commit to this," and then dealing with those deadlines.

0:14:47Because it is essentially a 1667-word deadline every single day, and if you get behind, you

0:14:53got to make it up.

0:14:55You can't skate by, so you end up with a Saturday where you write 8,000 words to get

0:14:59back on pace.

0:15:00It's fun, but it is a lot of work.

0:15:07Just because we say it fast and it's a weird word.

0:15:13>> It's a great word.

0:15:15I like the way it sounds.

0:15:16>> NaNoWriMo.

0:15:17Yeah, it's good.

0:15:18The nonprofit used to be called something else and we realized that National Novel Writing

0:15:21Month, NaNoWriMo, that's what it is.

0:15:23That's how people know it.

0:15:24So that's the name of the organization.

0:15:28We got a little more feedback.

0:15:29I got a really nice email from somebody who wishes to remain anonymous who works in Apple

0:15:33retail.

0:15:34And this was a plea to us and to our listeners.

0:15:40Please God, don't come in and say, "Ahoy, telephone."

0:15:44It's the modern equivalent of setting alarms, apparently, which people still do and it's

0:15:48still just as annoying.

0:15:49They set alarms on all the phones in the Apple Store.

0:15:52That's really bad.

0:15:53We've also recently had to deal with folks coming in and literally trying to bend the

0:15:57iPhone 6 Plus because they heard it was bendable on the news. So a plea from Apple retail,

0:16:01do not go in there and as a prank, shout Ahoy telephone.

0:16:05>> Or bend the phones. Don't bend the phones.

0:16:07>> Don't bend the phones. Actually that would be funny if you set an alarm using Ahoy telephone

0:16:13while attempting to bend the phones just because they could just take a dart and just take

0:16:18you out right there. That's enough of you. So I thought that was good and I appreciate

0:16:23getting that letter from a listener in Apple retail. We definitely do not encourage that,

0:16:27although it was funny to see that video of one of our listeners very quietly trying to

0:16:33say it because he didn't want to get thrown out of the store. And in fact, listener Shep,

0:16:37who we've heard around before, sent us a picture or maybe it was a video, it was from one of

0:16:42the Apple stores in New York City and he tried to do an Ahoy telephone and they had turned

0:16:48it off. So they're getting wise. The Apple Store is getting wise to the Ahoy telephone

0:16:54problem. Hooray. And we have one last piece of feedback, Myke. This is about you and your

0:17:00desire to buy a Mac Mini. Are you tired of this one yet? Have you bought anything yet?

0:17:07I haven't bought anything yet.

0:17:08All right. Listener Brian says to listen to listenership, who said get something, get

0:17:14the old four core Mac Mini from, while you can from someone.

0:17:19He endorsed PowerMax.com as a real company, by the way.

0:17:23I actually heard, there's actually a guy I talk with a lot

0:17:26on Twitter and I met at XOXO this year who actually works

0:17:30at PowerMax.com, he said, "Yeah, we're real."

0:17:32I was like, "Sorry, sorry."

0:17:34I mean, just, you know. - Sounds fishy still.

0:17:36- Yeah, well, it is that Homer Simpson alias.

0:17:39But he also said, obviously, look at the refurbishing

0:17:43clearance on the Apple online store.

0:17:46- Yeah, I've been checking that, nothing.

0:17:48- And mentioned that Mac Mini Cola will sometimes

0:17:50sell used minis too, but his fear, and I fear this is

0:17:54gonna be the case too, is that those quad core minis

0:17:56are gonna now go up in value because they don't make 'em

0:17:59anymore and so they might be harder to find,

0:18:01but it's worth looking around.

0:18:03I don't know.

0:18:05- Thank you Brian and Shep for your advice.

0:18:07- They care, Myke, they care.

0:18:08- They do care.

0:18:09- They're worried about you.

0:18:11- I like that about them.

0:18:13- Yeah.

0:18:14- I wanna take a quick moment, Jason,

0:18:16before we start talking about Kindles and Amazon and such.

0:18:19- I hope this is related to friends.

0:18:21- Of course, of course.

0:18:23This is a-- - We wanna hear

0:18:24from our friends. - We wanna hear

0:18:24from our friends. - All right, good.

0:18:26- These are our new friends at Clubhouse.

0:18:28Clubhouse is something that's completely brand new,

0:18:30and I wanna tell you all about it.

0:18:31Clubhouse is a platform that allows you

0:18:33to create private communities where people can be themselves

0:18:36without ever having to worry about

0:18:38a whole larger social network leering in

0:18:41and joining the conversation unwanted.

0:18:43Everyone on Clubhouse is part of a defined community

0:18:47that they choose to join.

0:18:49With Clubhouse, as a community owner,

0:18:51so if you wanna sign up and you start a new community

0:18:54on Clubhouse, you're able to do all of the things

0:18:56that you'd wanna do, like change colors,

0:18:58you can add logos, and you can create the brand

0:19:01that sits around the community that you have.

0:19:03Let's say, for example, you run a, you run NaNoWriMo

0:19:08and you want a NaNoWriMo community in Clubhouse,

0:19:11for example, you can do that.

0:19:13So you can have community members

0:19:15that will sign up to Clubhouse,

0:19:16and they're able to go in on their phones or on the web,

0:19:19and they're able to take part in the communities.

0:19:21People can chat for free within there.

0:19:23They have great activity streams

0:19:25that let people in your community easily chat,

0:19:26post comments, they can post photos as well.

0:19:29And you're able to integrate with external sources

0:19:31like Twitter, Instagram, to pull in relevant content.

0:19:35You can have just hashtags appear, for example.

0:19:38but say you're in Instagram and you just want all of the hashtag

0:19:42Manchago to pop up into your community, you can do that.

0:19:45So you can have all that stuff come in.

0:19:47The members of each clubhouse as well can earn points

0:19:50for interacting within the community.

0:19:51So these points can then add up to a whole ranking system

0:19:54so you can see who's contributing the most within a community.

0:19:56You're able to set up missions for people to complete as well.

0:19:59So like post a picture of yourself whilst at Whole Foods using Apple Pay.

0:20:05And anybody that does that, you can award them points

0:20:07and then you can rank all of your members together,

0:20:09and it's like a way to build more fun within the community.

0:20:13Clubhouse works as well as something called modules.

0:20:16Now, these modules allow you to add in different types

0:20:19of functionality into your Clubhouse.

0:20:21So they have things that allow you to add events.

0:20:24You can have SoundCloud and RSS feed integration.

0:20:27They even have their own ticketing system,

0:20:29which has QR code generation,

0:20:31so you can charge the tickets to an event

0:20:33or set up tickets to an event

0:20:34and let people in on the door.

0:20:36This is one of the ways that Clubhouse got started,

0:20:39doing this type of thing, and then they expanded it out

0:20:41to be this whole community platform.

0:20:43And these are the things that you pay for.

0:20:45So Clubhouse have a real defined business model,

0:20:47which is really important, especially for anything

0:20:49that's social related these days.

0:20:51Everything like chat related and stuff like that is free,

0:20:55but then you can add in different things

0:20:57like the ticketing system or event creation,

0:20:59and you as a community owner pay every month

0:21:02for that functionality.

0:21:04But the people that join your community,

0:21:06they join for free and they don't have to pay.

0:21:08But so it's up to you as a community owner

0:21:09and you can maybe sell tickets to things

0:21:12and it's a way you can make money, for example.

0:21:14Even with Clubhouse it's possible to break your Clubhouse

0:21:17into its own standalone app so that you can do that.

0:21:19You can get the tier that you can pay for

0:21:23and you can basically build out your own app.

0:21:25They manage all of the App Store stuff for you,

0:21:27all of the bits and bobs, all the admin

0:21:30that go into App Store, like processes and approvals

0:21:34and all that.

0:21:34take care of all of that so you don't have to worry about it.

0:21:37So you can try out Clubhouse for free right now as a community creator by going to

0:21:42clubhouse.cc/relay.

0:21:45Now doing this will get you something really awesome and they're doing something

0:21:48which is really super cool.

0:21:50So they're doing a really heavily discounted premium plan.

0:21:53So basically if you sign up at clubhouse.cc/relay and start your community there,

0:22:00you'll see when you go to add a module, when you go into your Clubhouse you want to add

0:22:04modules so it adds like the event stuff or stuff you will see a special Relay Unlimited.

0:22:09This unlocks all of the premium modules so you have access to everything for just $50

0:22:13a month or $500 a year and that's an incredible deal.

0:22:17When you start to look through you literally will be saving hundreds of dollars because

0:22:21you'll be able to access everything that Clubhouse can do for you.

0:22:25So go to clubhouse.cc/relay go and check them out and just see you can sign up for free

0:22:30and start a community for free you don't have to pay anything but then if you want to go

0:22:33to the premium stuff if you sign up via that URL you'll get access to the whole thing.

0:22:38Thank you so much to Clubhouse for their support of Relay FM and Upgrade.

0:22:42Look for us in #Manchego.

0:22:45You should do that.

0:22:47So Myke, back in episode 1 I think we talked about that we were going to talk about Kindle

0:22:53sometime.

0:22:55Yep and we're now up to episode 8 today.

0:23:01So should we talk about Kindles?

0:23:02I definitely think we should.

0:23:03Let's change the subject, Scott. What do you say? Let's not talk about kittens.

0:23:06Manchego it is.

0:23:07Canning and food and jars. So, yeah, I was really excited when the week that this show started was

0:23:19the week that Apple--or Apple, geez. Amazon. Apple's the one with charts with numbers on them.

0:23:24Amazon announced the new Kindle Voyage, which shipped last week, I want to say.

0:23:31say. And it's out and I've got it and I know Scott's got it. Scott, you have every Kindle

0:23:39ever, right? Is that accurate?

0:23:41>> SCOTT - Well, if you're being pedantic, I don't.

0:23:45>> MATT - Are you missing one of the DXs or something?

0:23:48>> SCOTT - No, I have both DXs. I don't have - Amazon started offering the models where

0:23:56you could get the 3G or just the Wi-Fi, so I switched to just Wi-Fi.

0:24:01So I don't have every variant, but I have every major model of Kindle.

0:24:05Wow.

0:24:06Now, what motivated you to purchase every generation of Kindle?

0:24:11Insanity, I suppose, is probably the biggest one.

0:24:18There were two times in my life where I saw a technology that really entranced me.

0:24:25One was when I saw the iPhone for the first time, and the second, which happened actually

0:24:31before I saw the iPhone, is when I heard about e-ink for the first time, because I just thought

0:24:35that technology was so amazing, and I'm a huge reader, and I thought it had the power

0:24:40to change the world.

0:24:41I don't know if it has that power to change the world, but I was really excited about

0:24:44it, and so I ran out, and actually I didn't, but when I had enough disposable income, I

0:24:50I bought a Sony reader who were kind of first on the market with e-ink readers.

0:24:56And then maybe three weeks after I did that, Amazon announced the Kindle.

0:24:59And I was very sad and I just bought a Kindle.

0:25:03And I've been buying them ever since.

0:25:05>> But why did you continue to buy all of them though?

0:25:09Because there's a difference between just buying one and then buying another one in

0:25:13like a few years' time to buying all of them.

0:25:16>> Well, that is a good question.

0:25:19I don't know if I have a good answer.

0:25:20I just like them a lot.

0:25:22I bought the first one, and then it was kind of,

0:25:26I actually like the first Kindle,

0:25:27except for the weird, silvery interface thing,

0:25:32because they couldn't get the touchscreen right, so.

0:25:35And then the second Kindle came out,

0:25:37and I wrote a book about the second generation

0:25:39of the Kindle, so that was my excuse for that,

0:25:41which was available only on the Kindle,

0:25:43and nobody bought it.

0:25:44And then I just kept buying them,

0:25:47and now I have like, and I've also,

0:25:49for a time I was buying all the nooks as well,

0:25:52I stopped doing that.

0:25:54- Has it become like I've started buying them now,

0:25:56so now I just have to buy them all type thing?

0:25:59- Well I-- - Like a collection?

0:26:01- Well yes, and I tell myself,

0:26:02well my wife will get my cast off Kindle,

0:26:05so it's not really a waste of money.

0:26:07- Does your wife need every cast off?

0:26:10(laughing)

0:26:12- I will tell you, so every time I get the new Kindle,

0:26:15I order it immediately as soon as it's available

0:26:17and then I get it the first day it's available.

0:26:19And I show it to my wife and she's like,

0:26:20"Oh, that's nice, give me your old Kindle."

0:26:23This time I showed my wife the Voyage

0:26:25and she said, "Oh, order me one of those."

0:26:27- Huh. - Hmm.

0:26:28- So, which I thought was interesting.

0:26:29So it's the first time she's actually wanted

0:26:32the latest generation Kindle.

0:26:34- But it's not, does it really seem that different

0:26:37from the Kindle Paperwhite to her?

0:26:39Because that's the thing that struck me about the Voyage,

0:26:41is it's not that different from the Kindle Paperwhite,

0:26:43really, is it?

0:26:46It's not hugely different, but I think it's a matter of refinements, and I think adding

0:26:51the page press areas is a really big improvement to the Paperwhite, because I always disliked

0:26:58having to move my thumb and tap the screen to turn the page.

0:27:02I try to explain that to people, and every time I try to explain that or I'm writing

0:27:06about it, it makes me feel like the lamest person in the world to say, "I have to slightly

0:27:12move my finger if I want to turn the page and therefore this is not as good.

0:27:17But it's so true that on the old button kindles there was a physical button on the bezel to

0:27:21turn the page and you could literally just hold the Kindle in your hand and never move

0:27:25your hand other than to just squeeze the button down and you could just go next page, next

0:27:28page, next page, next page and it was a really great reading experience.

0:27:32And when they went to the paperwhite they took the buttons away and so every time you

0:27:35wanted to turn the page if you're holding it in your right hand you could just sort

0:27:38of like migrate your thumb or finger over and tap and then move it back.

0:27:42You're holding it in your left hand, you had to like stretch out and do like a really weird

0:27:46awkward swipe so that it went forward instead of backward, and it was really stupid.

0:27:53And I'm really glad that they added, they're not really buttons, right?

0:27:56They're these special areas that are pressure sensitive.

0:28:00Pressure areas.

0:28:01But it's basically a button.

0:28:03It is, and it has a little haptic feedback kind of dealy to it that you can set the vibration

0:28:08which is nice. And I think the screen, if you look at a

0:28:12paperwhite, a second generation paperwhite and a voyage and put them next to each

0:28:16other, the screen does look better. It doesn't

0:28:20look, like if you, I wouldn't suggest you just

0:28:23throw your second generation paperwhite out the window. It's not like

0:28:26comparing a first generation Kindle screen to the voyage. That's a clear,

0:28:30gigantic difference. But it is better. Yeah, well I

0:28:34held my first generation paperwhite up right next to it today I was doing that,

0:28:38and it's definitely better. The lighting is way better, although I know that they

0:28:42fixed a lot of that in the second generation Paperwhite. The lighting is

0:28:45better, the text is crisper, all of these things. It is a better all-around product, no

0:28:49doubt. Right, and I think it's easier when you have a first generation Paperwhite

0:28:54to--unless you're me--to convince yourself that you need to upgrade. I just

0:28:58buy the new one, whatever. Because when you look at side-by-side, the first

0:29:02generation Paperwhite was nice, but I always thought they didn't quite get

0:29:06the light right I didn't think the the distribution the second generation fixed

0:29:11that but if you skip the second generation the voyage is a great upgrade

0:29:15yeah yeah it's the first generation paper white had like the kind of bluish

0:29:18light and it was a little spotty and yeah uneven at the bottom you could see

0:29:22the kind of the arcs of the LEDs lighting it up right right exactly and

0:29:27this is much nicer all these are nitpicks of course but they are they

0:29:31are because I think that's a big thing about the Kindle and why moving your

0:29:35thumb is so annoying is because you know a Kindle is a purpose-built device right

0:29:40it's just built to read books generally but you can read other stuff on it so

0:29:44you're spending a lot of time holding this thing and you don't want to have to

0:29:48think or move too much because you're reading and you want to be part you know

0:29:52in hand entranced by the story you don't want to have to think about and this is

0:29:55why I like Kindles I don't want to have the the the temptation to check Twitter

0:29:59as I'm reading I just want to read and I don't want to move my thumb what I'm

0:30:02reading. Is that so much to ask? I think we've touched on a lot of stuff that I want to get

0:30:07back to, but the point you just made is actually at the core of why when people, when I tell people

0:30:13that I buy Kindles and they look at me like I'm crazy, they're like, "You've got an iPad.

0:30:16Like, why would you want a Kindle if you have an iPad?" Number one reason is my Kindle doesn't do

0:30:22push notifications. My Kindle isn't two taps away from being email or Twitter or a good web browser.

0:30:31There is a web browser.

0:30:32It's still experimental, like 10 years later.

0:30:34The experiment is how quickly can it drive people crazy who use it.

0:30:38>> The experiment is will anybody find it?

0:30:41>> Yeah.

0:30:42You know, it's only there so you can log into like a hotel Wi-Fi.

0:30:45I really believe that's the only reason that web browser is there.

0:30:48>> That makes sense.

0:30:49>> But that's why I use it is because it's purpose-built for this.

0:30:52It doesn't--it--like you said, Scott, purpose-built, it's made for reading.

0:30:56It's really good with text.

0:30:57Yeah, it's got, you know, you read it outside in a way that a smartphone or a tablet, you

0:31:03just can't.

0:31:04But the number one reason is, it's, when I'm reading on my Kindle, I'm reading.

0:31:08I'm not multitasking, I'm not going to get distracted.

0:31:11If I want to go get my phone or my iPad and look at Twitter, I can, but, you know, I focus

0:31:16on what I'm reading and it really makes a difference.

0:31:19And so for me, yeah, I've got other devices, but I don't use them to read novels or actually

0:31:25get a newspaper on it, or the newspaper.

0:31:27I use the Kindle for that because it's, you know, when I'm reading on the Kindle, I'm

0:31:32really focused on just reading and not ten other things that are one click away.

0:31:39You guys both have Kindles, right?

0:31:41Why do you have Kindles?

0:31:44My answer is a lot worse, really.

0:31:47I like to think that I read more than I actually read.

0:31:53So I bought a Kindle too, because I was fascinated by the original Kindle, but they weren't

0:32:02available in the UK.

0:32:05You dodged a bullet.

0:32:06Scott says he likes it.

0:32:07I actually bought one and then returned it.

0:32:08It's one of the few times I've ever done that with an electronic product on Amazon.

0:32:12I was like, "No, uh-uh," because it was so weird.

0:32:15And I really wanted to like it and it was too weird and I went a year without a Kindle.

0:32:19What didn't you like about it?

0:32:21- Well, like Scott said, that metal,

0:32:24the screen wasn't very good,

0:32:25and that metal strip that you had to use to like,

0:32:28it was this weird silvery strip,

0:32:30and you slid a little black dot up and down it

0:32:32in order to select.

0:32:34It was really weird.

0:32:35And it was kinda ugly, it was weird shaped,

0:32:39and weird colored.

0:32:40- Yeah, the crazy keyboard layout, right?

0:32:42- Yeah.

0:32:43- So it's kinda like jagged for no real reason.

0:32:45- Right, exactly.

0:32:46And then the second generation was a much more,

0:32:47it felt like a real, like not a prototype.

0:32:49So that one I kept.

0:32:51- So it was really strange, like when the,

0:32:54I mean I bought it because I was interested in it,

0:32:56it was new technology.

0:32:57Like it was brand new, right?

0:32:59It was like U-ink and all this kind of stuff.

0:33:01And you had to get it in like a really weird way.

0:33:04Like you could buy it, but you had to buy it

0:33:07through Amazon.com to ship to the UK.

0:33:10Like they would ship it to you,

0:33:13but you had to do this weird thing,

0:33:15like I had to sign into Amazon.com

0:33:18and had to forcibly tell it to stop redirecting me.

0:33:23And it was possible to do,

0:33:24like Amazon allowed you to do it.

0:33:25They only did it for a couple of countries

0:33:26and you could buy it so I bought it and it shipped.

0:33:29And I had to buy a separate plug for it

0:33:32because it shipped with an American adapter,

0:33:35which is very peculiar.

0:33:37And I really enjoyed it and I used it quite a bit

0:33:41and I used it every day on my commute.

0:33:45But then kind of my love affair with podcasts

0:33:47took over and I listened to this sort of stuff.

0:33:51So I didn't have, I didn't replace that Kindle,

0:33:53I recently gave it away,

0:33:55but then I was going on holiday recently

0:33:56and thought, I wanna relax and read.

0:34:00So I bought a Kindle Paperwhite,

0:34:02and then about six days later they announced the voyage.

0:34:06So, you know, such is life.

0:34:12So I have a second edition paperweight now.

0:34:17It kind of frustrates me, the tapping on the screen.

0:34:23I really don't like it.

0:34:25I loved the buttons on my second edition Kindle.

0:34:29Like I loved them and I really don't like the tapping.

0:34:33Because it's like, do I tap it or do I swipe it?

0:34:35Neither of them feel like they do anything immediately

0:34:38sometimes or like I feel like I'm about to do the wrong one

0:34:41and then nothing happens or it just doesn't feel,

0:34:44it feels awkward because the bezel's quite thick

0:34:47compared to like an iPad or an iPhone, you know?

0:34:50Where so if I'm swiping or tapping,

0:34:51it's like well I'm used to just like right at the very edge

0:34:54but I'm like covering up the content here with my big thumb.

0:34:57Yeah, it's weird but it looks great

0:35:00and the light really does make a difference

0:35:03like I was reading on the beach

0:35:04and it was really, really nice.

0:35:06I actually spent most of my time on my vacation

0:35:09'cause I was on vacation during the iOS 8 launch and stuff.

0:35:12I was just reading people's reviews via Instapaper,

0:35:15which I love still works,

0:35:17so I just had a bunch of things in Instapaper,

0:35:19and then I just sent them to reviews for me

0:35:20'cause a lot of them are like books.

0:35:22So I sent them all to my Kindle and read them,

0:35:26and unfortunately I've not used it since that holiday,

0:35:29which I was worried would happen.

0:35:32'Cause I'm kind of, I struggle to keep focus when reading.

0:35:37when reading. So even if I'm not using something like an iPhone or iPad where

0:35:42all of the world is there, you know, I just then just seek out the world. I'm like

0:35:46reading on my Kindle, I'm like "where's my iPhone?" Things are happening on my...

0:35:50Yeah, I kind of just struggle to keep my attention. It's like when I'm

0:35:54listening to podcasts and stuff I play games, like video games on my phone, stuff

0:35:57like that, and weirdly that helps me focus on the podcast, but

0:36:02when I'm reading, like I'm like "oh what else is going on?" So I actually haven't

0:36:06read a full book in many years I think which I know probably

0:36:11it horrifies you both. It does. It makes me sad for you. Yeah. I don't read fiction and when I do

0:36:18read I never read fiction. That's valid. The voyage is available today in the UK

0:36:25though so you should buy one. I did see that it made me smile I was like okay so

0:36:29today it's gonna happen great so maybe I'll have to buy one because oh I

0:36:33Basically, I had the Kindle for a couple of days on my holiday and the screen is all scratched

0:36:39up.

0:36:40Oh.

0:36:41Obviously, I had to put it in my beach bag and there must have been something in there.

0:36:45Rubbing it on the sand.

0:36:46Obviously, I rubbed it in the sand and I buried it and I don't know what the problem is.

0:36:49Yeah, I assume there must have been a coin or something in there, but one corner of the

0:36:53screen is all kind of scratched and it's frustrating.

0:36:56So, the Kindle, I have a little Kindle case.

0:36:59It's not actually like a ... It's just a carrying case.

0:37:02It's like a sock.

0:37:03It's like a fancy sock, Kindle sock.

0:37:06But that keeps it in pretty good shape usually.

0:37:08And you mentioned the beach, it's funny.

0:37:09I mean, I think beaches are, that's when I go to someplace like a beach or a swimming

0:37:15pool or something, that's when I see all the Kindles.

0:37:17All the Kindles are out because it's so much better to use in those situations, where

0:37:24there's bright light.

0:37:26And also, quite honestly, I feel less worried about the Kindle being destroyed or stolen

0:37:31or something than my smartphone or my tablet for some reason, even a more expensive Kindle.

0:37:35I think I would feel this way.

0:37:38I don't take baths very often, but when I have, I have a couple of times done the Jeff

0:37:43Bezos trick where you put it in a Ziploc bag and you just read your Kindle in the bathtub.

0:37:48Billionaire, by the way, uses a Ziploc bag on his Kindle.

0:37:52But you can do that too.

0:37:53I mean, they're so versatile.

0:37:54You think they would just build a special waterproof case because he can kind of just

0:37:58ask them to do that?

0:37:59Oh, there probably is one.

0:38:00There probably is one now.

0:38:01He's probably had space age like science material scientists built him a a kindle aquarium of some kind, but I

0:38:08Don't know Scott Scott do you uh?

0:38:12Your choice of a kindle over over like an iPad or an iPhone for reading. Why why do you prefer it?

0:38:19Well, I do a lot of reading on my commute. I don't have a much of a commute

0:38:23I have more of a commute than both of you probably but it's like 15 to 20 minutes

0:38:29And I feel like you were saying I feel very self-conscious looking at an iPad on the trolley here in Philadelphia

0:38:37I don't know why I just do I feel like everybody is looking at me

0:38:41In fact the woman this morning a woman was sitting in front of me

0:38:45And she was playing like Candy Crush on her iPad

0:38:47And I was in fact looking at her play so I suppose that that could have something to do with it

0:38:51And it just feels like Kindle feels

0:38:53less obnoxious

0:38:55Than having a giant iPad and swipe me through unless it's a Kindle DX

0:38:59I did feel a little obnoxious when I had my Kindle DX on the trolley

0:39:02Yeah, and it's just it's lighter

0:39:05It's easier to see I'm you can yeah, I feel like they disappear that they're just yeah

0:39:10it's not it's not that big a deal to be sitting there with it with a Kindle and and

0:39:14Yeah, so

0:39:17So that's why we use Kindles some of us more than others Myke's Kindle is more aspirational

0:39:23And that's valid.

0:39:24That's fine.

0:39:25Aspirational Kindle.

0:39:26Although the Instapaper thing, that was something that I, when I was a regular bus commuter,

0:39:33I did that a lot too, where I would just, my Instapaper queue would dump into my Kindle

0:39:38every day.

0:39:39And that was kind of great, because I could choose to read like the newspaper or a novel,

0:39:44or I could read my Instapaper stories.

0:39:47And that was pretty cool.

0:39:48So it's versatile.

0:39:50But it's for reading.

0:39:51I mean, it's a black and white device.

0:39:52This is one of those things that I actually realized with the Voyage release, and I'm

0:39:55wondering what you guys think of this, where I felt like over the years, Scott, as we watched

0:39:59these new Kindles coming out, that they were always like, "Well, they're priced a little

0:40:03bit less."

0:40:04And you got the sense that at some point Amazon was literally going to say, "If you're

0:40:07a Prime member, you can get a free Kindle every two years."

0:40:10We don't care.

0:40:11We just don't care.

0:40:12Just buy things.

0:40:13That's all we ask, is just keep buying things.

0:40:15And that may yet happen.

0:40:17But something funny happened this year, right?

0:40:19thing is all the Kindle fires are now just the fire tablets right they're not

0:40:23kindles anymore they change the name and so here's still a kindle Kindle fire

0:40:29htx yeah but it's like last year's model and it's gonna become the fire something

0:40:35right or get I mean like the new the new fires aren't Kindle fires right they're

0:40:39just fire tablets and the fire TV which I always call the Kindle fire TV right

0:40:44it's not the kindle so so it's like they're D branding Kindle Kindle used to

0:40:49mean like all the hardware that Amazon had and it's gone back to being for the

0:40:53reading stuff it's really it's about Kindle is about reading so I think

0:40:57that's really interesting and then the other thing that's happened is that they

0:41:00made this device the voyage which is more expensive than the paperwhite and I

0:41:04think that's really interesting because for a while I I felt like almost like

0:41:09Amazon strategy with the ink readers was like they're not as good as tablets so

0:41:14the only way they're going to succeed is if they're cheaper than tablets so let's

0:41:17just keep pushing them down in price and we'll have a $79 Kindle and we'll have a $69 or

0:41:22$59 Kindle with special offers and we're going to push that down."

0:41:25And the paperweight was nicer but still you got the sense that they were playing that

0:41:29same game.

0:41:30But with the voyage it's clear now that they're not playing that game anymore.

0:41:33Somebody at Amazon has looked at the numbers and they see the numbers.

0:41:37They don't just put up a chart with a line that's going up and say, "Look, it's going

0:41:40up."

0:41:41They know the actual numbers.

0:41:43And I feel like they're looking at that and saying, "You know, the people who are buying

0:41:46these things probably even have tablets and they don't care they want to buy these things

0:41:50so maybe we should just make a really good one for them because they just love these

0:41:53kindles and they want to buy them and like the Paperweight like I said felt a little

0:41:58bit like that but the Voyage is like crystal clear it's like this is a $200 e-reader it

0:42:03is made for people who you know they want to buy an e-reader they're not like saying

0:42:07oh I don't know I got an iPad I don't really need that's like no they want a really great

0:42:12e-reader and Amazon appears to be willing to make that now which I don't know in the

0:42:17past it felt like they weren't like they were really kind of hesitant to put too much into

0:42:20the Kindle to make a nice Kindle because above a certain point I think they kind of felt

0:42:25like you graduated to a tablet which is I think totally not true because of my experiences

0:42:30I use the Kindle all the time and I have a tablet so I don't know it feels like that

0:42:35to me that the the paperwhite it was the start of it and that the voyage is like the clincher

0:42:39that Amazon is embracing this product category and saying, "We're just going to make great

0:42:45e-readers," and they're their own thing now.

0:42:47>> Right, and they have three different versions of Kindle at the moment, so they're covering

0:42:52all the price points.

0:42:53So you can still get a Kindle for 80 bucks if you just are Kindle-curious.

0:42:59If you're devoted, you can get the $200 Fancy Pants Kindle Voyage.

0:43:04They both basically do the same thing.

0:43:06The Kindle Voyage just does it nicer and has a light up screen and some buttons that aren't

0:43:11really buttons.

0:43:12Right.

0:43:13And I think they're borrowing a little bit from Kobo's playbook.

0:43:16Of course, Kindle is much more successful than the Kobo.

0:43:20But the Kobo has a whole lineup of crazy e-readers.

0:43:23You can get a tiny little Kobo Mini, you can get an Aurora HD, which is waterproof, so

0:43:29you don't need a Ziploc bag.

0:43:31Ooh!

0:43:32Yeah, they've got a whole lineup of crazy e-ink readers that you can buy.

0:43:37I don't think anyone does buy them, but you can buy them if you want to.

0:43:43So I think Amazon's borrowing a little bit from their playbook, but of course benefiting

0:43:47from the fact that they are the major e-reader player in the market.

0:43:52Now that Sony's not selling them in the United States at least, I don't know if they're selling

0:43:55them anywhere else, and Barnes and Noble seemingly has given up.

0:43:59I assume that it's fair to say that they are the winner because they have the catalog,

0:44:05right?

0:44:06Well, Barnes & Noble has an equal catalog to Amazon.

0:44:12And this is the first time...

0:44:13I liked my first Kindle so much because I had a Sony reader.

0:44:19And the Sony reader, I'm looking at it right now, and it looks so much better than the

0:44:23first generation Kindle, but I used my Kindle so much more because it was so easy to get

0:44:28books on the thing.

0:44:29The Sony reader, Sony generally makes beautiful hardware

0:44:33and this thing is beautiful, but the software,

0:44:35I had to hook it up to a PC, which I didn't own at the time,

0:44:39so I needed to get like virtual PC on my Mac,

0:44:42so I could download the Sony app,

0:44:45so I could buy books through it

0:44:46and then hook up my reader to it,

0:44:48and then it might've worked and they were using Adobe DRM,

0:44:51so I had to sign in with my Adobe account,

0:44:53so I could authorize my book,

0:44:56And then, contrast that to Amazon on the Kindle,

0:45:00I clicked a little weird scroll button twice

0:45:04and then I had a book on my Kindle.

0:45:06And I think Amazon just has figured out

0:45:08how to get it to you so easily.

0:45:11And I wouldn't underestimate

0:45:12their recommendation engine either.

0:45:14And because I think Amazon knows how to sell you things

0:45:18and how to suggest things that you will like.

0:45:20And so I think, and plus the idea that you can,

0:45:24one of the other things I love about the Kindle

0:45:25as you go to Amazon's website,

0:45:26you can buy a book on Amazon's website

0:45:28and it shows up on your Kindle the next time you use it,

0:45:31which nobody was doing then.

0:45:32- I do wish though,

0:45:33we were talking about the purchasing process,

0:45:35that they would stop doing that thing

0:45:39where it's like send to this device

0:45:42and you end up with like 100,000 different devices.

0:45:46And it's like, so every tablet you've ever owned,

0:45:48everything that's ever had a Kindle app on it,

0:45:51any device here, and it's like,

0:45:53I went in recently and cleared them out.

0:45:55It's like, oh, my word, my iPhone 3G is in here.

0:45:58Like, what's happening?

0:45:59- Imagine how I feel.

0:46:00(laughing)

0:46:01Manage your devices.

0:46:02It breaks when Scott tries to manage his devices.

0:46:05- It just cries.

0:46:06- Yeah.

0:46:07Myke, do we have another friend?

0:46:10Should we talk about another friend now?

0:46:12- I would love to talk about another friend.

0:46:14Today's second friend is Hover.

0:46:16- Hover.

0:46:17- Oh yeah, Hover, Hover, Hover, hover.com.

0:46:21Hover is the best way to buy and manage domain names.

0:46:24It's my place of choice and it has been for years.

0:46:26Whether you pronounce it hover or hover like I do,

0:46:28it should be the place that you go to.

0:46:30Because when it comes to buying a domain name,

0:46:32there's just nowhere else that you should be going to.

0:46:35If you have an idea for a project

0:46:37or you want to just name your own site,

0:46:41as in, you know, like with your name,

0:46:42I mean you can name it anything.

0:46:44Jason did.

0:46:45He didn't go with Jason Snell.

0:46:46- Snell.Zone.

0:46:47Snellworld.com, whatever.

0:46:49You can get them all, yeah.

0:46:51- And Jason, I know that you use hover

0:46:53and I think you mentioned this before.

0:46:54you used Hover to help you get the Six Colors domain as well, didn't you?

0:46:59Well, so the main Six Colors domain I got through a weird like escrow service, but the

0:47:06way that it worked, I was able to then transfer it back to Hover.

0:47:10And then for Six Colors spelled the way you would spell it, with a U, that one was actually

0:47:16for sale and Hover was my broker basically for that one.

0:47:21I was able to buy that directly through Hover and they made the sale happen.

0:47:25So I did it sort of both ways but they all ended up at Hover.

0:47:28David Schiessly Yeah because I mean that's one thing like

0:47:30you know people you come in and buy what's available but if something isn't available

0:47:34Hover can act as the middleman to help you with facilitating the deal that needs to be

0:47:38made.

0:47:39Which is good because they're a trustworthy company and then it also remains where you

0:47:42want it to be and you don't have to deal with any of the craziness that goes into trying

0:47:45to buy a domain from someone which I can't even imagine how horrible that would be because

0:47:49Because my domain processing and my domain buying has always been so lovely because I

0:47:53use OVA.

0:47:54They have a very simple, fast, hassle-free way of buying domains.

0:47:58You just type in the words that you're after, some keywords or some different sort of...

0:48:02Maybe you just want to find a specific domain, so maybe you want SnellZone.com.

0:48:06But SnellZone.com is taken by Jason Snell, so maybe you get like, I don't know, SnellZones,

0:48:12you know, that kind of thing.

0:48:13They suggest all that sort of stuff, so they'll make suggestions to you if a domain is taken.

0:48:16They'll suggest different ways of maybe trying to find different formatting of it and things

0:48:21like that which is really cool.

0:48:22You don't have to go through a thousand, million, hundred thousand, million screens to add on

0:48:27a bunch of different craziness that you don't want.

0:48:30They're not going to force you to pay for who is privacy.

0:48:32They give you that for free.

0:48:34All of this stuff is just made simple.

0:48:35They have a really great checkout process.

0:48:37They don't spam you with emails every six weeks telling you that your domain is going

0:48:41to expire in a year.

0:48:42They just send you one when it's coming up and you can choose what you want to do.

0:48:47They have all of the top level domain suggestions that you're going to expect.

0:48:50Obviously they have like .com and they have .net, .co, .co.uk if you're like me.

0:48:57They also have .academy, .london, .nyc, .plumbing, .coffee, all of the really interesting .zone

0:49:05like Jason has.

0:49:06They have all the interesting TLDs that you can get now too.

0:49:09They have a fantastic no hold, no wait, no transfer telephone support policy, which is

0:49:13something they're famous for.

0:49:14They have great email support as well if it's something that you need.

0:49:18They have great documentation on helping you switch from a different provider.

0:49:21However, they will also do this for you for free with the Hover LA service.

0:49:25They have volume discounts for bulk domain renewal.

0:49:29They do custom email addresses, storage and forwarding, and so much more.

0:49:32I love Hover and I think that you will too.

0:49:34So go try them out.

0:49:36Use the coid if you use that for our new pronunciations completely into this now.

0:49:43We're really expanding this.

0:49:44Are we using a coid on hoover?

0:49:46Is that how this is working?

0:49:47I think so.

0:49:48I think that's what it is.

0:49:49You want to use the code AhoyTelephone at checkout.

0:49:53That's going to get you 10% off your first purchase at Hover.com.

0:49:56Show your support for us by using the code AhoyTelephone.

0:50:00Thank you so much to Hover for sponsoring this week's episode.

0:50:05friends and a good friend. A very good friend indeed. Oh, Kindle more more actually we have

0:50:16real-time follow-up a question asked in the chat room that I wanted to answer real-time

0:50:21answers to follow up. Somebody asked in the chat room why this is tangible ghost in the

0:50:28chat room why do you have to even direct a file you're sending from to your Kindle to

0:50:35a specific device? And the answer is because of the crazy cellular Kindles, right? Scott

0:50:41mentioned this earlier that they have cellular models and Wi-Fi models. And that was one

0:50:45of the initial cool things about the Kindle was that they were on cellular networks. So

0:50:50they didn't, they initially didn't have Wi-Fi. The first what, two generations of Kindle

0:50:54didn't do Wi-Fi at all?

0:50:56Oh, so that's worth noting actually. So my second gen, it used AT&T roaming.

0:51:02Yeah.

0:51:03That was how I got my Kindles. I was using an AT&T roaming plan, which is so weird that

0:51:10that was how they decided to do it, but that was how it was done.

0:51:12Yeah, they made a deal with AT&T, and so literally you could take that Kindle anywhere in the

0:51:17world, and if there was AT&T roaming in that, you could get books on the Kindle, and they

0:51:21were paying. And this still is an issue to this day. Not only is that the reason why

0:51:26when you buy a book it doesn't just automatically push to all your Kindle devices. One, does

0:51:32Does the Kindle app on the iPad do background wake up auto downloads?

0:51:36I think it still doesn't.

0:51:39But the bigger issue is those wireless ones, that costs a lot of money for Amazon to send

0:51:44data to the cellular models.

0:51:47So they don't want to do that unless they absolutely have to.

0:51:49And as a result, you need to pick where you want to send it.

0:51:52And if you use the Send to Kindle app on the Mac, it's got a little box that's like, "Send

0:51:58using whisper link and basically it's we will charge you to send this if you send it this

0:52:03way otherwise it's only on wifi.

0:52:06It's such a weird like the charging is so weird it's so strange.

0:52:10It was a great idea though right the idea that like this it's like it was like magic

0:52:15it's like you're just on you don't have to pay for it it's all just embedded in the cost

0:52:19of the device you're just wherever you are if you can get a cellular signal you can get

0:52:23books. It was magical, but kind of ridiculous. And then I think the third generation Kindle,

0:52:31there was a Wi-Fi or a Wi-Fi cellular and they gave you a deal if you just got the Wi-Fi

0:52:35version and I never bought the cellular version again. So I still have my Kindle 2 and I was

0:52:40looking at it the other day thinking, "You know, if I ever went somewhere like where

0:52:43I knew that there was no Wi-Fi but there was a cell signal, maybe I would take this just

0:52:48because it still works.

0:52:50But it was a cool idea, right, that's a very Amazon idea,

0:52:53the idea that they would make a deal with a cellular carrier

0:52:57and just kind of embed it in the device

0:52:59as this supposedly free, but it made the device cost more.

0:53:03And just talked to John Syracuse about what he's gone

0:53:06through with doing his ebooks, and this is true

0:53:09for all ebook publishers, is they will,

0:53:11Marco dealt with this with the magazine too.

0:53:13Amazon will charge you if any of your customers

0:53:16download your book over cellular.

0:53:18they will charge you for the data.

0:53:21And so it's coming out of the pockets of the publishers

0:53:24and it's not cool.

0:53:26So--

0:53:27- There's like no way in which that seems

0:53:29like a fair thing to do.

0:53:31- I can't believe they're still making

0:53:32the cellular Kindles at all, but they are.

0:53:36I would have thought that they would have stopped

0:53:39and said, "Look, we live in a WiFi world,

0:53:41"plus people have tetherable devices,

0:53:42"the cellular Kindle thing is just not that big a deal."

0:53:45But obviously it works for them

0:53:46because they continue to do it

0:53:48and those cellular Kindles cost a lot more

0:53:50than the main, I forget what the difference is,

0:53:54but Scott, do you know the difference

0:53:56between the WiFi and the cellular Kindles?

0:53:59- Something like $70, I think.

0:54:00- That's not cheap.

0:54:02It's akin to buying a cellular iPad,

0:54:06except then you have to pay for the data.

0:54:08- I do wonder what the purpose,

0:54:10like why would you buy a cellular Kindle these days?

0:54:13I think that, I mean, I don't think people burn through books massively quickly in which

0:54:21you could be potentially in a situation where you've, "Oh no, I've run out of books."

0:54:25Like if you're going on holiday, I mean, you can kind of just load up, right?

0:54:30And so, you know, you were saying, Jason, about being somewhere, like being on vacation,

0:54:33not knowing you're gonna have Wi-Fi.

0:54:34Well, just put a bunch of books on before you leave.

0:54:36And I do, I have like 50 books in my Kindle.

0:54:39I'm doing okay.

0:54:40- Yeah, which I assume probably most Kindle owners,

0:54:43Scott, maybe you can tell me if I'm wrong,

0:54:46would have lots of books on there.

0:54:48Because, I mean, the books are quite small

0:54:50comparative to the size of the devices, right?

0:54:53- Yes, I think that most people

0:54:55probably load up their Kindles.

0:54:57I can think of one instance where I would buy,

0:55:00still in this day and age, a 3G-enabled Kindle,

0:55:04and that's if I was gonna give it to my mother.

0:55:05Because the beauty of the 3G

0:55:08is that you don't have to think about it,

0:55:09It's just on and it works.

0:55:11And she doesn't have to figure out

0:55:12where the WiFi signal's coming from.

0:55:15It'll just get her book and she'll be happy.

0:55:18- And in fact, that's where my second generation Kindle was

0:55:22for a long time was with my parents.

0:55:24I said, "You don't have to set up the WiFi, just take this."

0:55:27Now they have iPads and it's fine.

0:55:30- Another random thought I've had

0:55:32about my weird second gen Kindle experience.

0:55:34When I had to turn the cellular off all the time

0:55:38because it was roaming, it destroyed the battery.

0:55:41Like I'd get like a couple of hours out of it.

0:55:44So when I wasn't downloading something,

0:55:46I had to just turn the cellular off

0:55:47because it was really working hard, the little thing.

0:55:51- Yeah, I reflect, I just turn off,

0:55:54I put it in airplane mode all the time, my Kindle's for,

0:55:57I don't know why, I just do.

0:55:58- And they last, then they last almost forever

0:56:01if you put 'em in airplane mode.

0:56:02- Exactly, I wanna forget that I have to charge it

0:56:05and then misplace the cable

0:56:07and when it gives me that little alert,

0:56:08I have to scramble to find something to charge it with.

0:56:11- Kind of makes sense though, right?

0:56:12Because you know, to require the internet connectivity

0:56:17of a Kindle, you are making a specific choice anyway,

0:56:20because you're gonna go to the store

0:56:21to download a book or whatever.

0:56:23- So the one example I would say is,

0:56:26I told you I get a newspaper.

0:56:28I've been getting the daily,

0:56:30the San Francisco Chronicle every day on my Kindle

0:56:32for like five years, seven years,

0:56:33I mean since I got the first, the second generation Kindle.

0:56:37And what happens there is that it delivers overnight.

0:56:41So when I wake up in the morning,

0:56:42I turn it on and the newspaper's there.

0:56:44And if I would have it in my bag

0:56:45and go out the door to go to the bus,

0:56:47I get on the bus and turn on my Kindle

0:56:49and the newspaper was there.

0:56:50So that would be, I mean, that was why I always left

0:56:52the wifi on on my Kindle,

0:56:54was because the newspaper would download overnight

0:56:56in the background, which was always really cool.

0:56:58And it was something the Kindle app on the iPad

0:57:00or iPhone could not do,

0:57:02which is why I thought it was extra cool.

0:57:05but it does keep the battery that way

0:57:08scott i assume the d_x_ is really good for newspapers and magazines right that

0:57:11was one of the one of the reasons as well as textbooks that they brought it

0:57:14out right

0:57:15uh... yes and it was pretty bad with textbooks but good for uh... newspapers

0:57:20and it was actually it it kind of

0:57:22emulates the size of uh... like a hardcover page so

0:57:26it was nice to read on as well but they're the biggest pitch uh... was they

0:57:30were like oh students can use this to take notes

0:57:32uh... but

0:57:33e-ink

0:57:34especially at the screen technology at that time was not fast enough to take

0:57:38notes so you would just get super frustrated as you were trying to type

0:57:40your note in class and it wasn't a good idea.

0:57:43No. That was a bad... I did not like the DX and then they had the weird keyboard too

0:57:48which was a bad keyboard.

0:57:51Yes. But I have two.

0:57:54You can keep them. I don't want them. I will.

0:57:58Alright good. Good. Keep them away from me.

0:58:02Let's see, oh I wanted to mention special offers just because it's a very Amazon thing

0:58:07that makes me laugh, which is when we talk about prices for these things, the base price

0:58:11for these is for something called "with special offers" and I was looking up how Amazon describes

0:58:16special offers on their site and what they do is they want to use the language of cell

0:58:21phone companies so they'll say, "To buy your Kindle Voyage for $1.99, that is a subsidized

0:58:30price. The subsidy is because you will receive special offers and screen saver advertisements

0:58:39as you use your device. I'm sitting there thinking, "Subsidized by you. It's just

0:58:45you. It's your ads. It's your device. You set the price." But what they've done

0:58:50is they've said, "You know what? Here's what we're going to do. We're going to

0:58:53give people $20 off if they agree to see our ads. And because we're the makers of this,

0:58:58not going to run it as a sale, we're going to just make it out the price so we can go

0:59:01out there and say, "Look, this thing costs $1.99," instead of saying, "This thing costs

0:59:05$2.19."

0:59:06Now, they could just make it $1.99 and not have ads, but that's not what they do.

0:59:11And the funny thing is, the special offers are not that bad, because some of them are

0:59:16good offers.

0:59:17The ads are only on the home screen and on the lock screen, so it's not like you see

0:59:21them when you're reading.

0:59:22They're not pop-up ads while you're reading a novel.

0:59:24That would be the worst thing ever.

0:59:26But you know what the thing that drives me to pay the $20 to turn off the special offers

0:59:29is it makes turning on the Kindle a two-step process because you've got to press the power

0:59:34button and then you've got to swipe to dismiss the ad and that's the thing that gets me.

0:59:38That's the thing that makes me go, "Okay, fine.

0:59:40I'm going to pay the $20."

0:59:42Yeah, you've got to because they – especially in the little magnet case where when you open

0:59:47it, it automatically unlocks.

0:59:49They want you to be able to see the ad.

0:59:51They want you to see the ad.

0:59:52You would never see the ad otherwise.

0:59:54on iPad with a smart cover, you never see the lock screen if you're always opening

0:59:58the cover because it just automatically unlocks.

1:00:01And so even though I don't use a case and so I'm actually physically pressing the

1:00:04button and staring at that ad, it still makes me swipe.

1:00:08So I have to do power on and then swipe and now I can read my book.

1:00:12And that's what makes me spend the $20 to get the special offers.

1:00:16But it's a fascinating idea, right, that they do this, that they underprice their product

1:00:23by $20 in order to show you ads.

1:00:25It's weird.

1:00:26Scott, do you do special offers?

1:00:28I always get the special offers.

1:00:30Always get the special offers.

1:00:31I buy too many Kindles not to get the special offers.

1:00:33Well that's true.

1:00:34That would add up over time.

1:00:35I have not been buying them.

1:00:37I've been buying them with special offers, but like I said, the last two I've unlocked

1:00:41after a while.

1:00:42The Paperwhite and then I actually just did it with a voyage today where I said, "Yeah,

1:00:46I'm just going to do the $20."

1:00:48So after a little while, you can go to one of those sites that has various Kindle hacking

1:00:53things.

1:00:54Do you guys know about Kindle hacking?

1:00:55>> I had no idea it was such a thing.

1:00:57>> Oh, I know about Kindle hacking.

1:00:58>> Oh, yeah.

1:00:59See, Scott knows.

1:01:00Scott knows.

1:01:01Yeah, so there's some sites out there that there is a Kindle jailbreak community, and

1:01:06you can jailbreak the Kindle.

1:01:08And the only thing I use in the jailbreak is you can--so if you don't have special offers,

1:01:16got these screensavers and they're like these really obscure like woodcuts of things themed

1:01:20around writing and reading or pictures of dead authors. Those are your choices I think.

1:01:27And they're not that great. And you can't, believe it or not, you can't like copy images

1:01:31onto the Kindle and have them used in the screensaver. It just, they won't let you do

1:01:36that. So that's the number one reason that I hacked my Paperwhite was if you jailbreak

1:01:43the Paperwhite and install this screensaver hack, you can load your own images as the

1:01:49screensaver or you can opt for it to use the cover of the book you're currently reading

1:01:54as your screensaver.

1:01:55Which I think is actually a great idea and I have no idea why Amazon doesn't offer that

1:02:00as an option for people who have turned off special offers because it's really cool to

1:02:04just see the cover art when you turn off your Kindle like it was a real book.

1:02:10Amazon is not interested they want like pictures abstract pictures of pens and

1:02:15type and the kobo just another shout out to kobo the kobo does display the cover

1:02:22of the book you're currently reading when you walk it by default look at that

1:02:25but they're no special offers the kobo special it makes no offers no every now

1:02:32and then there's a really great special offer like five dollars by by a ten

1:02:37dollar gift card for five dollars that happens every now and then you're like

1:02:40what? I just want to make sure you're paying attention. Yeah and I bought some books through

1:02:44it but but I hate the press the button and then swipe to turn it on that's really stupid.

1:02:51But I do like you should check out the others Kindle jail breaks they're out there I don't

1:02:54know I assume they haven't gotten it running yet maybe they have I haven't looked for the

1:02:59for the voyage but they definitely jail had the paperwhite jail broken not too long ago

1:03:04They did that pretty fast.

1:03:07And yeah, there's not a lot you need to do with a jailbroken Kindle.

1:03:14I mean, you can copy, convert EPUBs to MOBIs and just copy them on via USB.

1:03:21So it's not like Amazon prevents you from sideloading as much content as you want onto

1:03:25this thing.

1:03:26You could download EPUBs that are not DRMed and just, you run them through, is it, what's

1:03:34What's the app that you use to convert?

1:03:37- Calibre?

1:03:38- Yeah, Calibre or Caliber or Calibre or Hover.

1:03:42It's pronounced hover.

1:03:43Yeah, Calibre is the one that you basically can set up

1:03:49a workflow that says take these EPUBs,

1:03:50turn them into MOBIs, copy them onto my Kindle,

1:03:52and it does it and Amazon doesn't care,

1:03:54which is kind of cool.

1:03:56- And you can also use the send to Kindle

1:03:58to just send a MOBI to your Kindle

1:04:01and then it's stored in your cloud library.

1:04:04- Yeah, that's actually a feature that they added.

1:04:06They have improved some of the stuff

1:04:08with the Kindle software over time,

1:04:09like being able to add a book,

1:04:12and it stays in your library.

1:04:13It's not like a one-time load.

1:04:15It actually stays in there.

1:04:17Like your own personal books can stick around

1:04:20in the Kindle Cloud library.

1:04:21That was a nice touch.

1:04:22They let you reset your bookmark now,

1:04:27which for a while you had to like fill out several forms

1:04:29and testify in court that you didn't want.

1:04:34So I would read a book and then my wife would read the same Kindle book and every time she

1:04:37would open it, it would say, "It looks like you're at the end of this book.

1:04:40Would you like to jump to the end?"

1:04:41And she'd say, "No, I'm reading the book now."

1:04:43And there was no way to reset that feature and now you can do that.

1:04:46You can go to their, I think, the website and say, "Reset the bookmark," and it does

1:04:49that.

1:04:50It's a whisper sync.

1:04:51No, I'd say the...

1:04:52I think.

1:04:53Yeah, yeah, it's...

1:04:54Yeah, I think so.

1:04:55I think it's all good now.

1:04:57It just took them a while to get there.

1:04:59The big thing that still drives me crazy, and I'm interested, especially for you, Scott,

1:05:03since you've been using the Kindle for so long.

1:05:05John Gruber wrote about this when the Paperwhite came out,

1:05:08and I agree with him 100%.

1:05:09It's sadly still true two years later,

1:05:11is the typography on these things is not,

1:05:14I mean, it's not terrible.

1:05:15I'd say it's mediocre.

1:05:17They're like six fonts,

1:05:18and most of them are not very good book fonts.

1:05:21And they're all justified, so they're fill-justified,

1:05:25so that they're, it's a straight line down the right side,

1:05:28which means, depending on how the words break,

1:05:30You can have like variably wide spaces between words on a line instead of just letting it

1:05:36run ragged right and being properly spaced.

1:05:39And it also doesn't do hyphenation, so it's even worse than it would be if it was hyphenated.

1:05:45And so it drives me crazy because it's like the screen is really beautiful now with the

1:05:49Voyage, but the typography is still kind of crappy.

1:05:52I think the Voyage would be a much better product if they had some better typefaces

1:05:56and some better type display options that they have.

1:06:00And that's one place where something like iBooks on the iPad has it just way beyond

1:06:06Kindle because the typography in iBooks is so much better than it is in the Kindle.

1:06:10And it's a real shame.

1:06:11I mean, fonts, you would think a product devoted to reading that perhaps fonts would be a priority,

1:06:17and I apparently not.

1:06:19[laughs]

1:06:20Ben, I was going to ask you about that actually, Jason, because I have read many of these complaints

1:06:26and it doesn't bother me at all, mostly because I'm comparing it to--

1:06:30I read a lot of paperbacks, and if you look at the fonts and typography in a cheap paperback,

1:06:35they're awful, so I feel like it's an accurate representation of the paperback experience

1:06:40with the edit bonus that you can choose from six awful fonts, as opposed to the one that's

1:06:44set by the publisher.

1:06:45I don't know if they're all awful, but many of them, right?

1:06:49Like Palatino's fine, Baskerville's okay.

1:06:52I don't even know what I use, but I never change it, and it annoys me when I get a book.

1:06:56book that has the publisher default font.

1:06:58- And the publisher fonts are horrible,

1:07:01'cause whatever engine they use to embed fonts

1:07:04and then display embedded fonts,

1:07:05those fonts are almost always unreadable.

1:07:08- Yes, that's the worst.

1:07:10- And it used to be you couldn't change them.

1:07:12Now you can go away from publisher font

1:07:14to one of the six Kindle fonts

1:07:16and it'll let you do that, which is better.

1:07:18But it just drives me crazy.

1:07:20I'm looking at a page of the book that I'm reading right now

1:07:22and there's one line that happens to have

1:07:25broken in such a way that there's the equivalent of like five letters of space between every

1:07:31single word on that line because they're insisting that it be fill justified and that

1:07:37that right edge be solid, which is there's no need. I would like an option for that not

1:07:43to be the case and I would like more fonts. So, you know, this is an opportunity for somebody

1:07:48who really cares about typography to come in there and make the Kindle experience that

1:07:52much better and it's just you know I feel like they're not showing off that screen

1:07:56like that screen is now so high resolution that they and there was a story on I was looking

1:08:00it up today there's a story on TechCrunch I think that was reporting the rumors of this

1:08:04new they called it a new Paperwhite but it's very clearly the voyage and one of the things

1:08:08in their story was that there would be a new hand-tuned custom beautiful reading font made

1:08:14for the this beautiful new 300 dpi screen.

1:08:17M.I.A.

1:08:18Yeah.

1:08:19Yeah, it's not it's I have to believe that they're spending they've spent so much time on the hardware

1:08:25And I think that with the the voyage is kind of the the pinnacle of their hardware push on the Kindle side

1:08:31that they they must be I'm hoping spending the same amount of time on the software and

1:08:37Because I mean you look at a paperwhite - or even a paperwhite next to the Kindle voyage at the software level and it's identical

1:08:45nearly identical. Yeah, like they added the ability to go back from a footnote.

1:08:50Or now the footnotes like pop up. Yeah, the little hover thing is like on your website.

1:08:57They hover. They hover. Yes, that's what they do, Myke. They hover. And yeah, the software is

1:09:06pretty primitive, and it's too bad that it isn't better. And that's why—the typography—that's

1:09:11why I bring it up, is that, you know, this could be better. Actually, the other thing that

1:09:15that annoys me and this might not bother you so much if you're just reading books

1:09:18on it but as somebody who also read the newspaper so I'd have a couple different

1:09:22things the home screen takes like a second to update and it always if it's

1:09:26sorted by the most recent thing you've opened so invariably in the morning I

1:09:31would turn on my Kindle it would have my novel from the night before I would

1:09:35press the home button you know tap in the menu bar to bring up the toolbar and

1:09:40then tap on the home button and it would bring me to the home screen and what I

1:09:44What I would see would be the newspaper followed by my book.

1:09:48And I would reach with my finger to press the newspaper and at the very last minute

1:09:52it would resort knowing I had just left my book and flip the book up to the top item

1:09:57and so then I'd tap on my book and it would be back in my book and I'd go "Noooo!"

1:10:00And it's just because the interface is slow and, you know, it's not that different from

1:10:06what it was like five years ago, really.

1:10:09- They haven't improved much on the interface.

1:10:12And I imagine one philosophy could be,

1:10:15well they just wanna keep it simple

1:10:16and make it disappear like you said.

1:10:18But I think they could invest a little bit more time

1:10:20in the interface and I'm not saying super whiz bang features

1:10:24but improved typography definitely.

1:10:27Even though it doesn't drive me crazy,

1:10:29it is much room for improvement there

1:10:32and maybe some justification options.

1:10:34- Yeah, keep it simple.

1:10:36Let's keep it simple.

1:10:38But it could be, I feel at this point now the hardware

1:10:42is really being let down by the software.

1:10:43I gave it more of a pass when it was early days

1:10:48and when the screens were still kinda coming up to speed.

1:10:50But now I feel like they're selling a $200,

1:10:53high resolution, beautiful product,

1:10:55and the software is still kinda clunky and bad.

1:10:59And that bothers me.

1:11:01But you don't normally see it.

1:11:02I mean the idea is that when you're in there,

1:11:04you're just reading, which is why only the typography

1:11:07really is an ongoing thing that bugs me.

1:11:09It's just that I wish that it was a little bit better

1:11:11because that's what I'm staring at all the time.

1:11:13I don't know.

1:11:14- And they have, to be fair to Amazon,

1:11:15they did add X-ray, which is kind of a cool software feature

1:11:19- Yeah.

1:11:20- And real page numbers, which is hard to describe

1:11:23as a software feature, but it is a software feature, right?

1:11:25- It is. - So that's kinda cool.

1:11:26- And actually the time countdown,

1:11:28which I do use sometimes, which is--

1:11:30- I do love that.

1:11:31- How long am I gonna be here?

1:11:32It's like, well, about 42 minutes and the book will be over.

1:11:34It's like, oh, that's good.

1:11:35how long is it until the end to the next chapter break?

1:11:37Oh, it's only five minutes.

1:11:38I can sit here and finish this chapter right now."

1:11:40Those are kind of neat features, that they learn what your paging speed is and then use

1:11:44that as the basis.

1:11:46I like that.

1:11:47Do you ever try and race against it?

1:11:49I'll show you, Kendall.

1:11:51Just press forward a bunch of times and be like, "Aha!"

1:11:54But then it thinks you're a really fast reader.

1:11:56I have been tempted to time it to see if it's accurate or not, but then I haven't done it,

1:12:00so.

1:12:01Yeah.

1:12:02Yeah.

1:12:03The real page numbers is…

1:12:04Actually real page numbers I don't really care about.

1:12:06They could be fake page numbers but I like, because they do match like the print edition

1:12:10so if you're reading and somebody's reading in print you can say it's on page 415 and

1:12:14it's actually page 415.

1:12:16But I just like it because I know then that, you know, I've read 400 pages of this book.

1:12:21It's not that, you know, it's not 200.

1:12:23It seems like I've been reading this a long time and then I'll look at the real page

1:12:26number and be like, "Yep, yep."

1:12:28Instead of back in the old days where it was like, "I'm at location 20834."

1:12:31I've read eight dots worth of this book.

1:12:34Right. How many dots are left to go? But, you know, I wouldn't give it up. I would

1:12:42choose to read a Kindle. Even if you gave me an old Kindle, I would probably choose

1:12:46to read it, although I really hated when I had to clip a book light onto an electronic

1:12:50device in order to read it in the dark. That was really stupid. But I could read novels

1:12:57on my iPad if I wanted to and it would be fine but I would prefer not to and yeah so

1:13:01I guess that means it is a luxury item right I mean I can read books on other even ebooks

1:13:07on other devices that I own so I don't need a Kindle but I do prefer reading on a Kindle

1:13:13to an iPhone or and I do read on an iPhone if I'm like somewhere in you know waiting

1:13:18at a doctor's office or something like that I'll read a book on my iPhone and the whisper

1:13:22sync is really nice there because I read a Kindle book it automatically knows where I

1:13:25I am and when I go back to my Kindle it knows where I left off and that's great.

1:13:28But if I could choose, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to choose, I choose to read on

1:13:34the Kindle.

1:13:35I like it better.

1:13:36>>Scott Hanselman That's because it is better.

1:13:38>>Joe

1:13:51Although I really like the page turn buttons, the bezel is so narrow and they're so close

1:13:56to the edge that I find sometimes my finger will just rotate, will just roll over a little

1:14:01bit and it will touch the touch screen and when I'm trying to go forward, suddenly

1:14:06I'm accidentally paging backward because it's sensing the touch on the left side

1:14:12of the screen.

1:14:14It strikes me that that perhaps is a software problem too and that they ought to be a little

1:14:19less sensitive when you're touching right on the edge of the screen next to your page

1:14:23turn buttons.

1:14:25But that's something that I noticed.

1:14:27>> I have had the same thing.

1:14:28And I notice it's with when I'm using my non-dominant hand, so my left hand, I sometimes just accidentally

1:14:34page back because I'm touching the touch screen instead of just pushing the whatever the fake

1:14:39button.

1:14:40>> Yeah, that's a stupid hand and it doesn't know where it's touching and it touches just

1:14:43slightly off and suddenly and you know you're trying to go forward but you move slightly

1:14:47off and suddenly you're going back.

1:14:48And it feels like they ought to be smart about like that very edge of the screen on both

1:14:53sides by those buttons should not be trusted.

1:14:56It should be sort of like the iPad lockout thing where if you're holding it by the bezel,

1:15:02it's intelligent enough to know that you're probably not touching the screen there.

1:15:07This Kindle probably needs that.

1:15:10But I'm better at it now.

1:15:11I was, before I was picking it up when it was on already, I'd put it down for a minute

1:15:15and then I'd pick it up and I'd advance like five pages and I'd be like, "No, I'm squeezing

1:15:18the button too hard and now I'm better at that too.

1:15:21It's just your phenomenal strength that's causing you problems.

1:15:24Well fortunately you can use software to calibrate just how hard you have to squeeze the Kindle

1:15:28for it to turn a page and how much it vibrates when you do.

1:15:32So thanks Amazon.

1:15:33How hard do you squeeze your Kindle Jason and how much does it vibrate?

1:15:36I try to be gentle with my Kindle Scott and it vibrates moderately.

1:15:42I'm gentle with it and it's gentle with me.

1:15:45That's good.

1:15:46live by.

1:15:47[laughter]

1:15:48Matthew: Mr. Scott McNulty, it has been a pleasure having you as part of this show.

1:15:54Thank you for being a great knowledge of the Kindle world and also for forcing us to finally

1:16:00have this discussion that we've been promising for so long.

1:16:03[laughter]

1:16:04I have done my duty.

1:16:05And you will never not be our inaugural guest.

1:16:08They can't take that away from you.

1:16:10Unless we erase this show and pretend it never happened.

1:16:13Which could happen.

1:16:14Why should?

1:16:15You were going to say, "You will never be on again."

1:16:17[Laughter]

1:16:18David: Maybe when the next Kindle comes out.

1:16:21Pete: I notice my popularity gets a brief blip when the Kindle comes out.

1:16:26And then I go back into obscurity.

1:16:28David; And that's the reason he buys them all, folks.

1:16:31Pete; Please, someone pay attention to me.

1:16:33Jared; And we should say that Scott, if you enjoyed listening to Scott, you can listen

1:16:37to him every week on Random Trek, which is a podcast on the Incomparable Podcast Network,

1:16:42which is a podcast network that is not Relay FM, but is also very nice.

1:16:48And so go to the incomparable dot com slash random trek or random trek dot com will take

1:16:53you to a page completely controlled by Scott McNulty.

1:16:56And if for some reason you can't remember either of those, there are links in the show

1:17:00notes.

1:17:01Show notes.

1:17:02Relay dot FM slash upgrade slash eight.

1:17:07There's one more thing I want to mention before we go.

1:17:09We are still conducting our listener survey, which is a great way for us to try and understand

1:17:14a little bit more about you and try to help us find great advertisers to talk to you about

1:17:19great products like our great advertisers today.

1:17:22If you go to podsurvey.com/upgrade, fill in the information there.

1:17:26If you filled in a survey for any other show, please fill in this one too.

1:17:31And if you use the same machine, then all your survey answers will be remembered, which

1:17:36is awesome.

1:17:37So you won't have to type them all in again.

1:17:38you can type them all in again if you want to. I don't know why you would but you can.

1:17:42So it's podsurvey.com/upgrade and you will also be in the chance to win a $100 Amazon

1:17:47gift card if you fill out the survey so please do that for us.

1:17:50That's a lot of Kindle books. Lots of Kindle books you can buy with that $100 gift card.

1:17:54You can buy a whole Kindle. You can buy that Kindle Touch with that gift card and have

1:17:58money left over for books. Look at that. Look at that. Synergy. Synergy. I am @imicontwitter.

1:18:05I am YK e mr. Jason's now is at J Snell J s and e double L

1:18:10He writes the at the fantastic six colors calm and if you'd like to follow mr

1:18:14Scott McNulty on Twitter you can to ease at blank baby on Twitter, which will save that story for another day

1:18:21Maybe I don't know if there is a story but it sounds interesting

1:18:23Thank you all for listening to this week's episode of upgrade

1:18:28Thank you again to our sponsors clubhouse and hover and we'll be back next time. Say goodbye Jason. Ahoy friend

1:18:35I think that's the start.

1:18:37But we'll go there anyway.

1:18:38Ahoy is like aloha, Myke.

1:18:40It means hello and goodbye.

1:18:41Bye.

1:18:42[LAUGHS]

1:18:42[MUSIC PLAYING]

1:18:45[Music]

1:18:47[MUSIC PLAYING]