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Is the KindleFire really that great? Has anyone used one yet?

I haven't played with the Fire yet, but I'm always very dubious of the "tech analyst". Let's face it, dominating the Android tablet market isn't all that difficult right now, as there is a dearth of poorly built, poorly performing Android tablets on the market today. My own personal opinion is that the OS offers a lot of promise, but ironically the real value of the Fire is its connection to Amazon's own "walled garden" of products and services, which flys directly in the face of Android's selling characteristic of "openness".

Randomly, my friend won a Kindle Fire at an office holiday function and I got to play around with it last night. Here are my impressions: First, it's very simple to use though it has that same noticeable lag that all Android tablets seem to have, though I will say not as pronounced as others. It has a rubber-like backing in the same style that the NOOK Simple Touch employs, so it feels good in your hands and won't slide around. Here's one thing that I was surprised about; it's a bit of a brick, meaning it's a lot heavier than I expected. For an eReader, weight seems like a big deal, so I would definitely take one for a test-spin before buying if you can, especially if you're going to use it for long reads. My friend only had one copy of a book, and I thumbed through pretty quickly, and the Fire seemed to handle it well. It had a lot less lag page turning than it did starting apps. On the web, the Fire did pretty well, it downloaded and ran pages smoothly for the most part. Though I will say I went to one of my favorite sites (arsenal.com) to watch some video highlights of yesterday's game, and even though it has a 7 inch screen, the video "wasn't optimized" for the Fire, so the playback size was smaller than it would have been on my iPhone (postage stamp size). On ESPN.com though it seemed to handle video there much better. My other complaint was that the Fire didn't seem to recognize page widths very well, so you have to do a lot of pinching to get the right view of a page in portrait view. So, I'll put down my pocket-protector, ease off the dork-pedal a bit, and just say for the price it's a solid tablet that runs pretty well.

Beginners Guide On PHP Programming: Quick And Easy Guide To Learn PHP With My-SQL [James P. Long] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Book - Beginners Guide On PHP Programming is written by James P. Long. This book includes all the basics of PHP

A blender that makes smoothies based on fruits trending on Twitter. I think things like this could help publishers think outside the box.Similar to authors who write chapter by chapter and then based on reader comments, continue and develop the story. Digital influence in realtime.

The always interesting and worthwhile Cory Doctorow on what limits on Net Neutrality could mean for writers and publishers. \n

Questia Library Plus iPhone app. Credit: Questia We'll spare you the obvious "there's an app for that" joke. But you can get a library's worth of books on your phone. Questia, an online research portal for students, announced its application today for reading books, articles and periodicals on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The app costs 99 cents for 5,000 public-domain books and a week of unlimited access. After that, users can buy a two-week subscription for $9.99. There are so many things wrong with this we don't know where to start. For one, students don't like to buy things....

The world is going digital today with the advent of modern technologies. One can see this phenomenon on the books too that are now being downloaded from the internet. The publishers therefore are making all possible efforts to make books that can be read on all formats.

Experimenting with new business models in epubs: "For the first time, customers can subscribe to unlimited reading of as many as 32 titles from five different publishers through one app, with one user interface, at one price."

"Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall." 2. They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of "electronic narcotics." 5. If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube. 18. Their folks have never gazed with pride on a new set of bound encyclopedias on the bookshelf. 27. Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for "save," a telephone for "phone," and a snail mail envelope for "mail" have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone screens. 35. Probably the most tribal generation in history, they despise being separated from contact with their similar-aged friends. 47. Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book. 56. They have always enjoyed school and summer camp memories with a digital yearbook. 71. Despite being preferred urban gathering places, two-thirds of the independent bookstores in the United States have closed for good during their lifetimes.

Cohort 7: a new book on Watergate written by a GW professor. "Professor Thomas Mallon's new book on Watergate focuses on seven figures who played a key part in President Nixon's life and downfall."

One editor's take what endures and what changes for publishers and editors in the digital world.

Argues that newspapers will need to get smaller and more focused on establishing trust-based influence. Interesting.

EReaders are becoming increasingly popular, but one of the major drawbacks is the current limitation on the amount of digital content available. Plastic Logic plans to amass one of the largest collections of content available for an eReader.

This article was referenced in the one I just bookmarked on the newspaper industry. This one talks about a better online reading experience.

Last one on the newspaper industry. But this one offers up some advice for papers to stay afloat in the digital age, instead of just tolling the death knell.

There's a heated turf war going on inside the New York Times over the iPad, pitting print die-hards against people focused on the Times' digital future. The outcome will determine pricing for some marquee content on Apple's tablet.

Hmm. This is British and talks about a primarily British (that I can tell) service marrying itself to Facebook, but it has interesting implications should others decide to adopt the same thing. "'There's been a big barrier to sign-up, we wanted to remove that and make it a seamless experience,' [Daniel Ek, Spotify co-founder] said in one tweet, apparently indifferent to the criticism that Spotify had just erected a barrier where there wasn't one before." "'We want to remove barrier to sign-up and create a more seamless experience...' he confirmed in a follow-up." Yep, it'll be completely seamless for the advertisers who want to target Spotify users, they can get all sorts of other info on them besides just that they downloaded Rebecca Black's "Friday"...Zuckerberg must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Possible generation-gap-type issues for digital educational publishing for colleges: "Today, the college assumes all students not only have computer skills but a plethora of high-tech devices and services. The class schedule and registration procedure is entirely online-even if you're in the registrar's office....In the first class, the professor handed out her e-mail address and the URL where the syllabus could be found--instead of her office phone number and a copy of the syllabus. Unfortunately, the college sites are full of graphics and animations and download very slowly on my dial-up connection. (Even if I could afford a broadband connection, my ISP doesn't provide it in my area.)" "At least one exercise in each chapter requires accessing the publisher's textbook Web site. Many of these exercises could just as easily be put on the computer disk also sold-at an increased profit (I used to work for a textbook-preparation company)-with the text....Again, a dial-up connection won't download the videos. The audio files are .mp3; I can't open them, don't have the skill to know what program I need, and have no access to free technical support....So once every chapter I head for either the heavily used public library or the equally heavily used computer lab in the college's suburban learning center (branch campus)--and hope that a computer is available."

The SAGE Connection blog has a lot of useful info on publishing and associations. This one touches on social media and using QR codes.