Fourth Generation Ipod Touch -- Disappointments

We felt the need for speed and decided to upgrade to the new Ipod Touch on the announcement day a couple of weeks ago. The clincher was the fact that it would do Text to Speech [TTS] on the Kindle app and would take High Dynamic Range [HDR] photos in the camera without post-processing.

Needless to say, both promises remain undelivered in my opinion. The TTS will not read the page content on the kindle for ipod app, only the page control buttons, and even if it did read the contents there is no way to turn the page with TTS active. The HDR seems to need a third party app which just turns up the contrast producing a thoroughly awful photo from one that was jsut mediocre -- even their propaganda shows horrible results.

So, let this be fair warning. Apple's promises and those of its fan-boys should be taken with healthy doses of salt grains. If it didn't have redeeming value in the screen resolution, music and multitasking arenas, it would be going back.

New Look

Some new colors and layouts to keep things fresh. Topics and content about the same.

Morty is resting comfortably in the drive while I work on an occasional project for him and we enjoy the fine summer weather we are having. The current project is extra mattress padding via two dozen swim noodles laced together. Lynne doubts that it will work, so support is welcome.

The next trip is taking shape and it will leave Morty home while we cruise from Boston to Quebec and back. Surely there will be more posting from that adventure and all that Morty will be missing.

Kindle Overcomes My Attention Deficit

There are more than enough reviews of the Kindle, both old and new. But there is one aspect that has not been covered yet: using the Text to Speech [TTS] for the attention-challenged among us. I became attracted to eReaders because they helped me read a lot more than I was previously just by virtue of their usefulness on exercise machines. I could read even regular books in that environment but the ebooks were much easier to handle in active mode. And, that was just using the kindle program on the iPod. This is how I discovered Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and many other authors that I was never able to finish before.

Then I got the Kindle 3 with TTS -- something that was lacking in the iPad implementations. While I have a couple of issues with how the TTS voice handles paragraph breaks [usually speeding up instead of pausing], I now find that I can sit and read without losing attention by having the voice on. Now, minor distractions that previously might have caused a stop in my reading are handled easily while the voice continues on and my attention returns. Voila, not falling asleep or putting the book down for some other triviality.

If you want to read more than you have been able to, this is something you must look into.

Incidently, since the Kindle can automatically post my highlights and comments to Facebook and Twitter, you can find a little more of me there now.

Kindle -- Hardware 3rd Edition

A new Kindle electronic book reader arrived yesterday, now in its third edition. It was eagerly awaited since its announcement a month ago. I've been using software versions on my iPod Touch, and PC, but was looking forward to fewer compromises and the text-to-speach (TTS) audio voice in the real thing, with a significant price reduction.






It is striking in how much the screen resembles ink on paper. The shape and weight have been reduced to the size of a paperback, but the storage increased to hold 3,500 books. The voice that provides the TTS audio output is labelled as experimental, but does a good job in all respects but one: instead of pausing between paragraphs, the voice speeds up completely misinterpreting most dialog. But it is still a great asset while reading on an aerobic machine at the Y: it keeps going, if you momentarily get distracted.

Another super neat feature is the ability to automatically post your highlights and notes to facebook and twitter. A great way to keep your friends informed about your daily encounters, without the complete triviality normal to such media.

Those who recommend waiting until the third iteration of electronic innovation, were completely right in this instance. This is the only way you will want to read books from now on. If you are the least bit unfamiliar with this wonderful tool, buy one from Amazon. You won't regret it.

Airventure 2010 -- Complete with Crash

Morty is in Oshkosh for the annual air show. Rain last week put the kibosh on many camping areas,  but we are close to where we were last year, just in a little more mud. The pictures at the end of this slide show depict a jet that crashed on landing right in front of us. Talk about freezing in the headlights, I was 200 feet from the plane with my camera ready to take pictures, but I could only think about which way to run as this guy was coming right for us and out of control. There are some published airborne and crashing pictures here.

Stratham Longhorns Take Tournament

The Longhorns from Stratham today won decisively two games and the tournament from the Oyster River team that beat them earlier in the week.

Stratham Library

Today, Julia and I biked to the library where she was helping teach knitting. On the way back a big C5A Galaxy flew over as it was taking off from Portland. In the afternoon, Lynne and I took D for some miniature golf encore. Danny's tournament baseball game was exciting as they faced a team that they had already dispatched to the losers bracket. Lots of infield hits yielded lots of runs and the occasional high fly seemed to be the only sure out. Playing right field, Danny got more than his share of those. He scored twice in one inning and again in a latter one as the Longhorns prevailed.

Portland, NH

Today, after a family miniature golf outing, we took Julia for a harbor cruise and flatbread dinner while Danny continued in the baseball tournament. As luck would have it, this was the game than Danny won nearly singlehandedly. We did enjoy the dinner and time with Julia.

Stratham, NH

Morty got his propane to the tune of 7.3 gallons at $3.30 per and were on our way for the last hour of the our drive. We saw a huge number of other RVs heading North and wondered what the occasion was. Now we are spending a couple of days imbued in Little League baseball as Danny is working his way through a week long tournament and morning training camp for the home town Longhorns. They won their game earlier this evening on the strength of his running game in scoring the game-breaking run on a routine hit. Looking forward to more Stratham Lonnghorn wins!

Henniker, NH

On Sunday, Morty takes us through the main street of Cooperstown, where we drive past the Baseball Hall of Fame. We stop at the library where there is both an art show and book sale going on -- unfortunately, only the book sale is open -- Jim was interested in seeing some of the paintings. Then we tried to find the local Belgian ale brewery, but were a little off in our navigations. Even Miss Garmina couldn't locate County Road 33. Since Google had no problem with it, we obviously need either an iPad or Android phone to provide supplemental navigation assistance.

We did have another 300 mile day ahead of us though, so we had to be putting down some rubber on the road. Lynne needed a birthday card so we stopped at a WalMart and tried to get some McDonald's value menu items in the store. Seems that in these parts the value menu only has side salad and parfait -- everything else is full-price plus. So we drove a mile further down the road to where the free-standing McD took pretty good care of our needs. Someone had mentioned that you could get a McDouble with Mac sauce and it was a tasty bargain -- so I was going to give that a try. Sure enough it was done,  but glancing at the receipt revealed that it added $0.49 for one sauce and increased the price of both sandwiches, even the regular one, by and extra $0.39. Adding in the two extra miles [$2] we drove Morty on that extension, and it pretty much wipes out the savings from not eating from the regular inflated menu in the WalMart. Seeing the USA in our Chevrolet can be very educational.

In Henniker, we checked into the Mile Away Campground and found it to be quite well run. Only a couple of negatives that are somewhat important to us: a pool that is not designed for swimming, it is only 2 to 4 feet deep, and showers that eat quarters and are short on hooks and seats. On the plus side, the WiFi is exceedingly Fi. Tomorrow we need to top off our propane tank, and then head for the family get-together.

New England

On Friday, Morty set out to take us to New England on an encore trip to visit Jim's sisters and family. The first leg was about 300 miles, to western New York where we got on the so-called Southern Tier Expressway. We stopped for the night in Seneca/ Iroquois country in a tiny travel plaza where we were shocked by a temperature drop into the 40s from the daytime 90s.



From there we drove another 300 miles or so to Cooperstown where se stayed on a campground that was part of a working farm. The surprise here was the little zoo that had many varieties of exotic fowl including peacocks. The Cooperstown Family Campground is a quaint locale, with hayrides, and some kid-oriented activities. We found it in the AAA camp guide and it cost us about $25 per night on the credit card. We approached this stop from the South and thereby missed the tiny one-stop-light town itself. We hope to get a brief tour on Sunday aas we continue with the third drive-day.

Sebastian Inlet St Pk, FL

Morty took us North up US1 through Stuart and on to Vero Beach. I well remember Stuart as a one stoplight town in the 70s. Now US1 is eight lanes through one shopping center after another. We only drove about 72 miles, but it was tiring. Might have been wiser to take the turnpike and cruise control.



I was looking forward to Sebastian Inlet because of the favorables from other blogs. It is a nice park, but probably not worth $31 per night unless you are a serious fisherman.