Trying a New eBook Reader

I recently read an article about an ePaper tablet that is a book reader and more. It is and Android device with the Google PlayStore installed so that I can add applications that I usually run on my tablet (like WordPress, which I’m using to type this post). It natively reads ePub documents, which is great since most of my books that I buy from Humble Bundle come in ePub form. Having to convert all of my purchases to mobi files was a tedious step in purchasing books from a 3rd party vendor with my old reader.

Is it a replacement for my tablet? I don’t know yet. I do like having an ePaper device with a keyboard though. As I try more things I’ll know what it can do and what it can’t. I expect that video playback would be difficult. I’ll post an update when I know more.

A Useful Radio App

One of the best apps that I’ve found for ham radio on the road is the Repeater Book App. I’ve used it for years on both Android and my iPhone. It has all of the content of the Repeater Book website but uses the GPS on your phone to tell you which repeaters are closest to you.

Once you choose a repeater that you would like to use, it has all of the pertinent information to set that repeater up on your radio: frequency, offset, PL tone, wide/narrow band, etc.

I thought all of this was great. However, what really puts it over the top is that it caches its content on my phone. I discovered this while camping at Brooks Memorial State Park, where I had no service, data nor voice. I popped open the app on my iPhone at one point, forgetting that I had no data service, and had a list of repeaters at my location. Then I saw a message that said, it was using cached data.

I find this to be the best feature of the app because the best time to find a repeater is when you don’t have cell service.

Chromebook

I’ve recently purchased a Chromebook. It hasn’t arrived yet, but I got a head start on it by installing Chromium Vanilla on a USB stick and booting it up on an old desktop at home.

Things went pretty well, with the exception that ChromeOS couldn’t recognize the and use the network card in my old HP Pavilion Slimline. Once I moved the computer to another location and connected an Ethernet cable, the system was ready to go.

There are a lot of new apps that can run on ChromeOS since the last time that I looked at it. Increasingly, there are applications that can be run when the computer is not online (which makes a Chromebook infinitely more useful). Right now, I’m testing JustWriteBlog, which allows you to type your blog while offline for posting when you connect to the internet later. This would not hurt when using spotty internet connections, like the Washington State Ferries (implemented by Boingo) which drops out somewhere towards the middle of the Puget Sound.

If you’re seeing this post, it worked.