Barnes & Noble Nook vs Apple's iPad - a review

I was in Barnes & Noble the other day and was visually accosted by a huge Nook display just inside the door. I had never had an eBook in my hands, so I walked over out of curiosity.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own an eBook nor an iPad, so this opinion is based on some out-of-curiosity online research plus about 5 minutes with an iPad and a Nook. One of my students has a kindle, and I've looked at that as well.

One of things things that struck me about the iPad was the glare from the lights overhead. Although I admire the ipad's funcionality and the elegance of the design, the glare factor on the screen makes it much less useful for reading. The frustration factor would have been exceedingly high trying to read a book on an iPad, especially in sunlight.

The Nook was a welcome contrast in this department [pun intended, of course!]. It's matte screen, although smaller in size, was much more pleasant to use in a variety of lighting situations. I was fairly impressed - plus the fact that it accepts SD cards for additional memory, has software so you can access your purchases on a variety of platforms (Macs, Windows, iPhones, Android.....), and the battery is USER-REPLACEABLE makes this reader very attractive.

According to B&N the number of titles available for the Nook is greater than for the Kindle or the iPhone by a significant factor. Granted, I have no way to check that out, but given that B&N has moved heavily into the education market (i.e. TEXTBOOKS) it's probably true.

You can also "lend" a title to another Nook user, which is pretty cool - and one model is equipped with both 802.11 [wireless] and 3g [cell phone] radios.

They come out with a color version November 19, 2010. That's one tech item the MaconMacGuy is anxious to check it out.

Spencer Katt descriptions of Windows

These are quotes from what is reportedly the last Rumor Central column by "Spencer F. Katt" from eWeek magazine (December 15, 2008 issue, pages 48 and 49).

Windows 3.0 - the first usable version of Windows

Windows 3.1 - the first of Windows to actually work

Windows 95 - the first version of Windows that anyone would actually want to use

Windows 98 - the first version of Windows that no one actually needed (soon to be followed by many more, including the ultimate unneeded OS, Vista, which would supersede.........)

Windows XP - the first version of Windows that enabled productive work to be done.

Pro Tools vs. Mackie Traktion

Some quick thoughts regarding the interface on these 2 programs. Pro Tools is probably the "industry standard", and you don't hear much about Traktion. I use both - Tracktion in my home studio, and Pro Tools LE at the college where I teach, in the piano studio.

Now, I used Pro Tools waaaaay back in the mid-90s, so I've watched it "grow up". But still, I find the Traktion way of doing things much more intuitive. Not having to switch screens to mix or edit really helps my workflow as I'm mixing, whereas Pro Tools requires a switch back and forth between editing and mixing.

To insert a plugin - in Tracktion you drag it down to the track - in Pro Tools you have to insert it into an aux bus on the mixer. This means that if you're in the middle of editing a passage and decide to add a plugin, you've got to leave editing, switch to the mixer, insert the plugin, yadda yadd yadda....

So does Pro Tool 8 still bounce tracks in real time? NO! That means that it takes 45 minutes to bounce down a 45-minute track. Tracktion's bounce speed is limited only by your computer system, not the second hand.

Still, Pro Tools is a good thing to know. I still like Tracktion better (and I get more work done faster with it).