tobsch.iBlog

7-inch e-books? Nice!

tobsch — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:17:14 +0000

I have to tell you a little more about the new kindle fire. There are so many reviews about it, for example here and here. But I’d like to tell you some details about the way I use the kindle at the moment.

Because of his 7-inch size, reading of magazines is awful. I used the 14-day trial of Popular Science to test it. Everything is so small on this display and the processor (or the software yet installed) isn’t able to provide enough power to zoom in smoothly. The pictures that constitutes a magazine in combination with it’s texts don’t take effect. If you are used to an iPad, forget reading a magazine on a kindle fire, you are going to be very disappointed!
I use the kindle fire for one thing only at the moment: reading a normal e-book. It’s a pleasure to hold this device in your hands and you can read a book for a long time, much longer than you can do so on an iPad. Moreover the material of the kindle’s back is very sensitive while the front and the edges should be much improved especially in its quality. There’s too much pulpy plastic on the edges which links the front with the back, but this is another reduction in costs to have this very low price of $199.-

One last advantage of the 7-inch kindle fire: it fits in your pocket, at least in Levi’s 511′s trouser pocket.

By the way: Happy St. Nicholas Day!

A burning kindle traveling across the pond

tobsch — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:49:00 +0000

Okay, I’m really crazy about new gadgets. Actually I’m addicted to Apple products, first to the Mac, now to iPhone and iPad. But my favorite online shop is Amazon for many years now and some time ago they started to build their own products, the Amazon kindle. This eReader had been no option for me, because the kindle only had a black and white e-Ink display and I love great and saturated colors. Moreover I’m not a guy who reads that much, I haven’t finished most of my books. So why should I own a device which is especially made for reading?

It would be a waste of money. But wait.. Amazon released a new device called kindle fire a few months ago, didn’t they? Oh yes, but exclusively in the USA. I live in Germany and don’t have the money nor the time to travel to America in the next few month.

Fortunately a good friend of mine lives in San Francisco and he pre-ordered one kindle fire for me as soon as it was available on the Amazon online store. He had received a package from Amazon over a week ago and instantly sent it to my address in Germany. The package arrived on November 23 and I was really curious to hold my kindle fire – probably one of the first here in Germany – in my hands.

It’s a user-friendly and Amazon-like packaging. But here you’ll notice for the first time: it’s no Apple product and there’s no unpackaging ceremony like that of an iPad. Well okay, I knew that this product is much cheaper than Apple’s, so I didn’t care. The low price of $ 199,- is the reason why I bought this Android tablet, too.

The kindle fire is not as light as I thought. I got used to the weight of my iPad 2, but when you see how small the kindle fire is compared to the iPad, you think it has to be much lighter. When you press the power button (the only one on the whole device) at the bottom, the kindle fire starts and it takes a little time to load. When finished, there’s a short introduction to the features and next you’ll be able to finish the setup Amazon already started. You are going to see the information of your Amazon account pre-installed, but don’t worry, you can change the account and finish the setup with another one.

I’m going to tell you some more details about the new kindle fire and how fast/slow it is in my next blog post.

Past 365 days…

tobsch — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:02:56 +0000

Today’s evening is the last one I can say I’m 19 years old. The last day with a 1 at the beginning. This fact makes me think: “Wow, where have all the years gone by?” The last 365 days feeled like a few weeks, but there has happened so much.

I graduated from school, visited Rome, Florence and Venice in Italy and so much more cities in Germany. The most exciting experience was that we released our first app at Splodge. We’ve been in Florence when we received the message from Apple that Markers was approved and is now available for sale on the App Store. We were so excited about the first sales reports and I can remember: we were quiet astonished! It was really amazing. But enough, I won’t let you get any insights.

However, I’m looking forward to the future, there’s so much to come. I never had any problem with the natural phenomenom of getting older and I will never have. It’s just an increasing number and this allows you to have a greater life experience. I think this fact is a good reason to celebrate my 20th birthday tomorrow, isn’t it?

With that said let’s have some lyrics by Linkin Park respectively a text written by Martin Luther King in the end of this article:

Wisdom, Justice, and Love

“I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice… A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, ‘This way of settling differences is not just.’ This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love…” – Martin Luther King

Last but not least: What will the next 365 days bring for me and you?

The secret about (Disney and) Pixar movies

tobsch — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:47:03 +0000

Pro 7, one of the German TV networks, declared this day to “Disney day”. A lot of the broadcasted movies are from Pixar, the animation studio which Steve Jobs owned and later sold to Disney. I watched almost every Pixar movie. Every time a new film came out I was willing to go to the cinema. Many people didn’t understand why I liked all the movies so much, they said: “These films are for kids, so why do you want to watch it?” In my opinion, these movies aren’t just for kids, they are made for everyone. This explains why movies like “Toy Story”, “Ratatouille”, “Wall-E” and all the others are so popular.

What do the folks at Pixar do to produce such amazing animation films?

Although I’ve been to San Francisco and to Apple’s One Infinite Loop in 2010, I didn’t have the time and chance to visit the Pixar campus in Emeryville (they wouldn’t have let me in anyway). I heard that it’s a great place to work there and that so many people just love what they are doing. They almost live the life of the characters of their movies, of course in a more realistic way. What’s important is that for example “Toy Story” is about the life of toys trying to protect themselves by sticking together and fighting for only one purpose, to be the beloved little ones of young children. Everyone was a kid and played with toys. So a Pixar movie reflects times long past and takes its spirit from these memories. They succeeded in mirroring real situations to more childlike things, so everyone is able to understand it. Combined with beautiful graphics, great animations and such an attention to detail transformes all the movies to a goldmine.

I suggest watching “Toy Story” and all the other films to all the people who thought that watching a Pixar movie isn’t worth it. If you’re from Germany, Austria or Switzerland you have the chance to try it out on Pro7 today. If not, there are many short movies from Pixar which are really funny, too. Don’t miss it!

Always remember: This is another company Steve Jobs believed in and knew that it would be big one time. See what John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer of Pixar, and Ed Catmull, President of Pixar, think about Steve and his role to the DNA of this computer animation studio.