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Amazon.com’s latest version of its ebook reader, Kindle 2 has been making headlines around the world since it’s public release last month. The new version of Kindle has many improvements in its interface and design. However, there are still some usability issues with the product.

I recently read usability review of Kindle 2 by Jakob Nielsen and I agree with most of his arguments about some usability failures of the device.

It is really exciting to see how much potential this devices has in transforming the publishing industry and book readers in coming years. When I tested Kindle 2 I really liked certain aspects of the device and dissapointed with some its design & usability issues.

My suggestion for Kindle engineers is to make the screen touchable just like an iPhone, which will dramatically improve the navigation and usability of the device.

Here are some of things that I liked and disliked about Kindle 2.

The Good:

• Form: Light Weight and Thin
• Readability: Screen is readable on any angle
• Navigation: Easy to Read & Turn book pages
• Legibility: Adjust Text Size to small to large
• Ergonomics: Anti-reflective & black and white screen reduces eye strain

The Bad:

• Form: Mouse (aka four-way joystick) is very difficult to use
• Readability: Screen area is small, keyboard takes up too much space
• Navigation: Navigating links or table of contents in blogs, newspapers and magazines is not intuitive
• Form: Power On and Off button is clunky, not sure when it is on or off
• Design: The design of the device is not cutting edge

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I like dual monitors on my desktop, but I am not sure about this laptop from Lenovo with dual screens…(via)

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Really cool mini projector for your iPod, iPhone or any other mobile device. (via)

See it in action:

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It is great that Google is constantly innovating and coming out with tools and web applications that are used by millions of people around the world. However, the recent launch of Google’s own web browser Google Chrome makes me a bit worried about restarting of the Browser Wars of 1990s.

The release of this new browser could help to improve the web browsers, or it could potentially start a competition among web browsers to start creating “custom tags” or “smart tags” that render web sites in their own way. This will create even more work for web designers and developers, because Google Chrome will be another web browser that we have to test all our work on to make sure that our sites render correctly. Is Google really rocking the boat? We don’t know yet, it might take another few years to see the adoption rate of this browser by the public.

For now, dive in and try the new browser for yourself.

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Recently my computer crashed and it was quite a frustrating experience. When your computer is down, you really lose a lot of productivity. It takes a while to get all your files out of the old computer, setup a new machine or fix the old one, and re-install all the software and setup all settings etc…. One of the things I had to do was to transfer my files from the old hard to the new hardrive. In order to do this, you have to open up the compter box, yank out the the old hard drive and if you know what you are doing you will be lucky to get everything out of it without damaging the old drive. Although I backup most of my files, I still had some files I needed from the old hard drive.

I recently came across these really cool USB Hard Drive Docks that would have made all this much more easier. These USB Docks can also give a new life to your old hard drives which can be setup as an external back up drive. Pretty cool gadget!

Thermaltake USB Hard Drive Docks

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This car runs on air. Yes, Air!

The prototype is in the works, and according to the company that makes them, the Air Car gets up to 100 gas-equivalent mpg and can reach over 90 mph. It has zero to low C02 emissions and seats six people. Now, that’s cool!

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Time magazine’s “The Best Inventions Of The Year” has some some of the best creative products and services of this year. There many cool inventions that are listed on the site, such as foldable and stackable cars, a battery that runs on sugar and much more…….

Of course, The Invention of the Year is the iPhone. I couldn’t agree more.

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After playing around with an iPhone, I am really impressed with Apple’s new mobile device. However, it does not have everything, and there are still some areas that could use some updates or additions.

There are 10 things I would like to see Apple engineers add to the iPhone (or iPhone 2.0):

1. Cut & Paste button or function (there is none right now)
2. GPS plugin or IP based geolocator for Google Maps
3. Zoom feature for the Camera
4. Video shooting using the Camera
5. Flash support for Safari
6. File storage and viewer
7. Ability to record sound
8. Option to have multiple signatures for different email accounts
9. Vertical viewing for emails
10. Improve and Add a new to do list application

Update: 11/2/2007

Here are few more critical issues that needs to be also addressed on the iPhone that I forgot to include on my previous post:

• Battery Life (is not good)
• Microphone volume control (low quality)
• Better download Speed for EDGE Network

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If you have an iPhone checkout these sites below that list iPhony tools, widgets and applications that you can use on-the-go:

• – Appsafari.com
• – Getleaflets.com
• – iPhone Toolbox
• – LifeClever Bookmarklets
• – iPhoneapplicationlist.com
• – Rev2.org’s iPhone Apps List
• - iPhone Widgetlist

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I recently attended the Adobe AIR Bus Tour in Philadelphia and was quite impressed with the updated version of Apollo, which is now called AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime).

As many technology junkies predicted, line between web and desktop applications are beginning to blur. One of these technologies that bridges the gap between the web and the desktop is AIR. AIR allows you to easily develop and run web applications on the desktop in any platform or operating system as long as you have Flash Player installed. There are many AIR based applications already developed that you can download and install on your computer. For example, the Kuler Desktop, the online application for creating online color themes is pretty cool.

There are number of ways to develop AIR based applications, using Coldfusion, CSS+HTML, Ajax, Javascript and others, just make sure you have Flex Builder or the AIR SDK on your computer to test them out. Also, check out the tutorials if you are new to AIR.

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iPhone does so many cool things, but will it blend?

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NYTimes compares the latest “smart-phones” against iPhone. The striking thing about this image above is the simplicity of iPhone’s physical interface compared to other phones.

How many physical buttons does iPhone have? One vs. smart phones 35-50 different buttons. That’s all I need on my phone, just one button. Simplicity rules.

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