W♥M

Ten Reasons to avoid the Kindle Colorsoft

Kindle Colorsoft Read More Amazon Kindle As you may have heard, Amazon is releasing its first color Kindle called the Kindle Colorsoft on October 30, 2024. The device is a 7-inch tablet that use Kaleido 3 does not appear to be competing with Remarkable Paper Pro ....

The reviews for the Kindle Colorsoft are in, and it’s not good. As you know, I was considering buying it before it was released, but now reading all the negative reviews, I’m definitely avoiding it.

Colorsoft Customer Reviews (02 Nov 2024)

It’s funny how none of the reviews that got free review units points out or were critical of the Colorsoft’s flaws. Can you really trust all those YouTubers or review websites? It takes getting the units in the hands of regular consumers will you see a true review of the product.

Reading through all the recent reviews, they all mention one thing: there is a yellow bar at the bottom of the Colorsoft.

I’m assuming this is just a simple software fix, perhaps something a full refresh of the screen will remove the yellow tint? If it’s a software thing, Amazon really need to push out an update now, if not yesterday!

Reasons to not buy a Kindle Colorsoft:

#1 Yellow tint at the bottom of the Kindle Colorsoft
It sounds like this can be fixed with a software update… but, as of this moment, it’s unwanted and it’s distracting.

#2 No System-Wide Dark Mode
Everybody’s favorite system-wide dark mode (useful when you read in the dark) is no longer available. You can invert each book, but system menus are still bright white.

#3 Non-Kindle Content
You can sideload your personal PDF and ePub, but Amazon won’t display their covers or have all the features like Glideview. At first, I thought this was a bug, but as time goes on, I realize that this was a deliberate choice by Amazon. They are giving you an inferior experience on purpose so you’ll want to buy their books to get all the features.

#4 No pen support
You can’t write or take notes on the Colorsoft. If you want to write and take notes, you’ll have to spend more money on the Kindle Scribe.

#5 No physical buttons
For those who wants physical page turn buttons, there are none on the Colorsoft. Its competitors in the 7” color e-ink market have buttons, including Kobo Colour and Boox Go Color.

#6 Kaleido 3
The problem with all current color e-ink screens (with the exception of the Remarkable Paper Pro), is that it is only 150dpi with only 4,000 colors and it casts a grey overlay over the black and white pixels. As a result, the black and white is more like black and grey and the text are not crisp, but slightly hazy. Some people describe this as a “screen door effect” (like you’re look at the world with a screen door in front of it). Having own a Kaleido 3 device, I will agree with all the negative items of this technology.

#7 Power Button
A lot of people are complaining about the placement of the power button being at the bottom of the device. That means if you set it down to a stand or a wireless charger that you can accidentally turn it off. Or if you hold it at the bottom, you can accidentally turn it off. Most devices have the power button on top (like the Remarkable Paper Pro) or the right side (like the Boox devices) or in the back (like the Kobo).

#8 Kindle Software
You can praise the Kindle for its simplicity… but it’s also a problem. Do you want to fine-tune the color saturation? Do you want to full refresh every page? Do you turn the whole page to black and white? Sorry, these options aren’t available to you.

#9 No Kobo, no Google
To be fair, this is a Kindle and there are no expectations that Kindle will allow other book stores. Still, wouldn’t it be nice to access your Kobo or Google Books on the same device? With my iPad and my Boox Note Air 3 C, I can access all my books (including the Kindle) with no issues.

#10 Price
There’s no way around this, at $279, it is expensive for its size. With a cover, this thing will be well over $300. The Colorsoft is more expensive than its competitors like the Kobo Colour for $219 (you can also buy a pen and take notes) or Boox Go Color at $249.

Yours,

Weekend Gamer

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vu ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

reMarkable Paper Pro Review

Remarkable Paper Pro Read More reMarkable Paper Pro Now enter the reMarkable Paper Pro, which was just announced. This large 11.8” color display uses Gallery 3. As I previously mentioned, Gallery 3 is the superior color e-Ink display, but unfortunately, it’s very slow to refresh ....

When I first saw the Remarkable Paper Pro online in early September 2024, I dismissed this because of how expensive it was. It’s about $600, and part of that price includes the required pen. Plus, I was massively disappointed in Boox Note Air 3 C due to the poor color representation of Kaleido 3.

After watching some comic book pages on the RPP, I was definitely interested buying this as my digital comic book reader! Unfortunately, as an e-reader, it absolutely sucks. The Remarkable only supports PDF and ePub, with no support for Kindle Books or CBR (the popular comic book archive format).

There are some workarounds to removing the DRM and converting CBR to PDF using Calibre (which I laid out the details here).

After using the RPP for about a month, I have come to the conclusion that it is not (and never) an iPad replacement. Instead, what the RPP really is: a paper replacement. The hardware and software are really about note taking and handwriting. As a side bonus, the RPP can read PDF and ePub books. You just need to understand its limitations.

Pros and Cons

Of the note-taking devices I own, I think the RPP is the best. Compare the notes writing on the RPP to the Kindle Scribe, it’s night and day. For example, with the Scribe, you can’t just write anywhere. You have to write on a post-it. That’s because I’m assuming you are not allowed to write and modify your purchased digital books. On the RPP, since it’s just open PDF or ePub, you can just start writing anywhere on the screen. It’s intuitive and it is a million times better than the Scribe.

Also, compared to the Scribe, the RPP can also write in color with different multiple pen options… giving the RPP a leg up over the Scribe.

You can also use the RPP to draw, but due to the limited brushes and pens and the nine colors in their app, I wouldn’t recommend using it to produce artwork. I would rather draw on the iPad, using the ProCreate software.

I can go on about all the negative aspect of the Remarkable, for example, it’s just a very expensive device, no matter how you look at it. For that amount, you just expect more, but, in fact, you get less. Instead of the negative, I want to talk about the positives:

1. This is the first mainstream device to use Gallery 3, the superior color e-ink technology capable of producing 50,000 colors. Bigme tried to release a Gallery 3 device that failed, and other makers (PocketBook, Readmoo, or iReader) have not gotten the technology to a usable state. Using software and programming, Remarkable is the only company to make use of the Gallery 3 technology.

2. The Remarkable Paper Pro’s very large 11.8 size color e-ink is amazing for reading full page comic book and magazines. Previous color e-ink (using the inferior Kaleido 3 technology) can only produce a 10-inch display. As you can see from the comparison photo, the nearly 12” inch device definitely looks much, much bigger than 10-inch display of the Kindle Scribe and Boox Note.

3. The Gallery 3 display can be used without the front light. To be honest, the Remarkable’s light is very poor, even at the maximum level. I prefer to read without the front light, so I don’t mind the poor lights of the Remarkable. The other two devices, particularly the Boox Note, needs to have the frontlight on at all times (it’s not possible to read the screen without lights).

4. The RPP is a very beautiful device. It looks so good. It feels good. It has a great symmetrical design. The magnets work great with the pen. You can just tell that this is a high-quality device. You can just tell it’s an expensive device (and it is!) just by looking at it.

5. The Remarkable App and software are very easy to use. Everything syncs and will work across all your Remarkable devices.

Again, if you have about $600 to spend on a tablet for reading comics, I’m going to recommend buying the iPad all day. The Remarkable is just very limited in what it can do. The Remarkable people will try to spin the limitations of their tablet by saying that it’s “distraction free”. In other words, you cannot use it for web browsing, read or write emails, watch YouTube, or do anything with it, other than reading PDF/ePub or taking notes. That’s it.

Evolution of e-Ink: Kindle Scribe (256 grayscale), Boox Note Air 3 C (4,096 colors), Remarkable Paper Pro (50,000 colors), and Printed Paper (104,060,401 colors) Top Row: No front lights Bottom Row: Auto-Brightness turned on.

Yours,

Weekend Gamer

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vu ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

How to read your Kindle books on the Remarkable Paper Pro

Calibre Read More reMarkable Paper Pro Now enter the reMarkable Paper Pro, which was just announced. This large 11.8” color display uses Gallery 3. As I previously mentioned, Gallery 3 is the superior color e-Ink display, but unfortunately, it’s very slow to refresh ....

If you want to read your digital Amazon books on the Remarkable Paper Pro, you are going to have to jump through some hoops, due to the Amazon’s DRM (Digital Rights Management).

I don’t have problems accessing my Amazon books through the BOOX Note Air3 C or my iPad 12.9 Pro (both devices you can install the Kindle App). Unfortunately, as you may be aware, the Remarkable Paper Pro’s restrictive software does not allow access to Kindle or Amazon.

To get started, you’re going to need a few things: Calibre Software (calibre-ebook.com), DeDRM Plugin (github.com), and a Kindle. It doesn’t matter what Kindle it is, as long as it has a Kindle serial number.

Step 1: Download your purchased Amazon books (under Content Library: More Action: Download and transfer via USB)
Step 2: Pick your Kindle device
Step 3: Copy the serial number from your Kindle you are sending (under your Amazon account: Devices).
Step 4: Install Calibre
Step 5: Install the DeDRM plugin (under Preference: Plugins)
Step 6: Add the serial number to the DeDRM plugin (under Plugins)
Step 7: Add the Kindle Book to Calibre
Step 8: Convert the book to ePub or PDF.

Note: The Paper Pro does a weird thing and duplicate page on comic books. I fixed this by converting the DRM-free ePub to PDF.

This isn’t a perfect solution - it just seems like a lot of work just to get books you purchased on the device of your choice. Ideally, either Amazon offers the Kindle to Paper Pro or Remarkable needs to work on getting the Kindle App on their platform. I place the blame on Remarkable, as it just seems like they have absolutely no interests in working with Amazon or Kobo or other book sellers on their Remarkable devices.

If you have CBR files, you can convert them to PDF using Calibre, so the Remarkable Paper Pro can read them. This is pretty much the best way to get documents to your Paper Pro. I have purchased a ton of comics from Dark Horse Comics, which actually sells them in native PDF, so there was literally no conversion necessary.

Yours,

Weekend Gamer

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vu ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Ber at Minnesota State Fair (25 August 2024)

25 August 2024 Minnesota State Fair at Minnesota State Fairground Ber Setlist Better Man Feels So Easy I'm Not in Love Superspreader Halfway Boys Who Kiss You in Their Car Somebody That I Used to Know (Gotye cover) Same Effect Middle of Nowhere Your Internet Sucks Whatever Forever with Eric on tambourine Read More Minnesota State Fair The annual Minnesota State Fair is kicking off August 24 and will continue until Labor Day, September 4th. The two week-ish event will feature over 900 Shows with … … Ber Before being terrorized by a killer shark off the coast of Cape Cod, south Minneapolis was treated to the songs of local musicians Ber and Anni XO right off the shore of Lake Harriet. ...

“I’ve never sang in front of pork chops smoke before,” Ber said on her first set at the MPR stage, at the great get-together, the Minnesota State Fair, on a hot Sunday.

Ber at First Avenue (06 Oct 2022)

Unlike her previous appearances, such as her first show at First Avenue, with Sigrid, in Oct 2022, this Minnesota State Fair show is all acoustic. Not great, as the acoustic music, mostly handled by Brian, does not drown out all the excitement of the spin-the-wheel next door.

We previously mentioned that Ber (originally from Minnesota) moved to London and was ‘discovered’ by Zane Lowe and Travis Mills of Beats 1 and BBC Radio One. When we saw her in 2022, we mentioned that she was working on her debut EP. That EP was called And I’m Still Thinking About That, and since then, she’s released Halfway and Room For You (her latest).

Highlight of her set was her cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.” The original song was somewhat of a duet, the boy parts sung by Goyte, while the girl part was by Kimbra. The first part of the song, you only hear the perspective of Goyte… it isn’t until Kimbra comes in, do you hear the story from her perspective. It’s really a sad and emotional song, and was faithfully covered by Ber… except she sings both parts.

We also got the secret story behind “Your Internet Sucks”, which I’ve always thought was about a British boy that she dated for a year. She tells us one time she was making homemade potato gnocchi for his visit. She said it would take a good three hours to get it ready, and he showed up after driving an hour. He wanted to rest, so she left him alone for a few hours. When she finally came to get him, the whole time he was playing Fortnite on his iPad. Anyway, the song wishes that he has all the inconvenience of life… including the curse of bad internet. That’s cold, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

She ended her set with “Whatever Forever”, with Eric on tambourine.

Of course, this was the great Minnesota State Fair, one of the largest, if not the largest?, in the country, and draws in thousands of Minnesotans. There are plenty of entertainment, fun for the whole family!

If music isn’t your cup of tea, there are corn art, live farm animals, all the food-on-a-stick that you can afford to eat, etc. We saw the Timberworks Lumberjack Show at North Woods Stage, and nearby caught The Chipper Experience, a bit of comedy and magic, at the Family Fair Stage. We previously saw the amazing yo-yo skills of Mark Hayward at the same stage. He jokingly called one of his yo-yo “skullcrusher”, as he demonstrated the “deadly” eye of the hurricane trick to a mother and her daughter.

Dan Patch Park & Stage celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day with a variety of guests like the Aztec Dance Group and Buffalo Weavers. Over at MPR, they also had Social Dance with Native News, doing demonstrating and teaching a two-step traditional dance to the audience.

Of course, we were there for the music. The biggest free stage is the Leinie Lodge Bandshell Stage, who brought in Rochester, New York’s McKinley James, a 22 year old bluesman.

Kazual was a vocals/a cappella-esque family band of three brothers and a cousin, from Atlanta, Georgia. They mostly covered songs, such as the Temptations, DeBarge, and Justin Timberlake.

Tennessee’s The Dryes (Derek and Katelyn) are big Dolly Parton fans, with their single “Dolly Would”. They also covered “9 to 5” with “Island in the Stream”.

The second-best free stage is the Shell’s Stage at Schilling (in the West End Market). We like the stage, but it’s located all the way west and we didn’t make it out that way much (since most of the smaller stages are located in the center). We only caught High & Rising, a “groovy grass” band from Wisconsin.

Adam Daniel at Minnesota State Fair (06 Sep 2021)

Adam Daniel was officially listed at The Hangar, but he managed to sneak in Nici Peper, from Wisconsin, and her first time at the Fair. We previously mentioned Peper opened for Erik Koskinen in Feb 2020. We previously saw Daniel in Sep 2021.

Some restaurants’ events aren’t officially listed on the official MN State Fair’s website, but they would also bring in musicians. We kind of found out Wayne and the Boys was playing at Giggles’ Campfire Grill or that Shane Martin was playing at RC's BBQ. O’Gara mostly brough in Irish entertainment, such as Traditional Irish Piper. Cafe Caribe brought in Chris Lawrence Band, while French Créperie brought in Steve Johnson. International Bazaar Stage always has world music, we saw Pan Dimensions. The Department of Natural Resource brought in Red Rock Swing Band who played every hour or so.

Those are just some of the random bands we saw. Some were by accident; some we intentionally went to their show to check them out. There’s never a dull moment. It is a bit exhausting, walking all of the place… but where else can you get this kind of experience?

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Lindsey Stirling at Armory (24 Aug 2024)

vu ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

BOOX Note Air 3 C Review

BOOX Note Air 3 C Read More eInk I just bought the BOOX Note Air 3 C, the color eInk tablet for reading comics. The eReader arrived today, so I’m playing around with it and my first impression is that I made a terrible mistake. ....

As I previously mentioned, I bought the BOOX Note Air 3 C, the color eInk tablet, primarily for reading comic books. Even though the tablet was recently released in October, 2023, none of the reviewers actually touch on reading comics or magazines.

For comic book readers, you’re going to have to use the Kindle App. Several years ago, Amazon bought out their comic competition, ComiXology, and slowly dismantled the company and took their guided-view technology.

While the Kindle App works incredibly well on the iPad Pro, it was not usable on the Boox Note Air. The app was designed to do all sorts of animation and make transitioning page to page beautiful with its lifting pages, etc… just does not work at all on eInk. In fact, any sort of animation, moving pictures, will suffer because eInk cannot refresh fast enough, so you will constantly see the previous images (called ‘ghosting’).

I spent my first day tweaking the Kindle App, changing the refresh mode, changing saturation, changing brightness… nothing worked.

I can’t take the credit for it, as I was looking for answers on my phone and saw that someone else had figured it out. He is not a Kindle App comic reader, so he bought a 99-cent comic to test out. He was appalled by the ghosting. He was able to make it usable by going into the e-Ink center in the Control Center drop-down, and selecting Refresh Mode: Regal, and under More Settings, changing the value of Animation filter time to 300. I don’t understand why it works, but it does work! This setting saved me from going insane.

This brings me to the software that runs Boox. There is a bug in the operating system (OS) that is preventing Kindle from full refresh page every page. No matter what setting you use, it just won’t force refresh.

The OS is actually Google’s Android 12, but it has a Boox custom user overlay. They basically stripped out animation and kept it to a minimalist look of blue, black, or white. Unfortunately, some things didn’t work for me. For example, the default Onyx keyboard has the return key (the Enter key) as the lower-right key (below the right shift key), which doesn’t make any sense from someone who is trained on a US layout that the Enter key is above the Shift Key. I think it is because Onyx is from China, and we’re losing some things in the translation.

There are quite a few ways to get comics onto your device. Most people, like me, will just have Kindle re-download comics on you own on the device. It has ‘whispersync’ so it’ll remember where you were last at, if you read on a variety of devices.

If you have your own PDF or CBR files, you can ‘Booxdrop’ (air drop or wireless transfer) or plug in your Boox into your PC or you can pre-load these files on a MicroSD card. Boox is pretty flexible about allowing you to add or remove files.

Boox comes with its native reader called Onyx Reader, which works really well on the tablet, because it was design specifically for eInk. You can always download your favorite comic book reader, I can recommend CDisplayEx, which costs $5 on the Google App Store.

Having read a few comics on the Boox, I can tell you the best-looking ones are the books that uses muted, earth-toned colors, or black and white comics (such as manga). Books like V For Vendetta looks amazing on eInk, simply because David Lloyd’s artwork uses a washed-out light color that complements his art style. Same thing can be said for Batman: Year One (the current re-colored collection), as the colors looks like it was water-based and the palette is dark, muddy, and dirty, which works well with David Mazzucchelli’s inky Alex Toth-style.

Starfire (vuart)

What doesn’t look good are colorful, bright comic books, like traditional super-heroes in bright colorful costumes. It just won’t translate well on color eInk. It has potential, and I can see a future, when the technology gets better, that you can see a true representation of actual real colors. To give you an example, I’ve taken a photo of a sketch that I see on the tablet. When you export the photo and see it on a real screen, the colors aren’t even close!

If you just want a tablet for reading books only, I think the Kindle Scribe (even at the expensive $340) is your best option with the latest Carta eInk technology. I saw it with my own eyes, the black and white is true white contrast to the black eInk. For reading comic books, the best experience has been with my iPad Pro 12.9, simply because it’s speedy and on a very large beautiful display. The Boox just cannot match the iPad.

The only reason why you would even consider the Boox Note Air 3 C (the C stands for Color), is that you want color eInk. eInk is pretty amazing. The way it works is once the image is rendered, the display stays that way… like printed paper. Since it’s like paper, you need to be in a bright room or use a lamp. The Boox has a built-in glow light, which you will constantly need to use.

After all my negative experience with eInk, if you’re still interested in getting your own eInk tablet… just understand that the color tech isn’t quite ready for prime time. Go in with your expectations in check.

For me, once I got Kindle to work, I was pretty happy with it. As soon as the Gallery 3 (the 32,000-color display) is available in a larger 10-inch or larger screen, I will be first in line to purchase that. The current 7-inch screen is just too small for a full-page comic book. I can say this with confidence, as text on some comics are too small on a 10 inch (but is readable on my 12.9-inch iPad). That two or three inches makes a huge difference.

Pros Size: Modern comics are about 10x6.5 inches, so the larger the tablet, the better Portability: Bring as many books as you can as long as you have the storage Print: Standard readable print is 300dpi, and Boox’s color is 150dpi Battery: Since eInk technology uses very little electricity, you get really good battery life. Notes: You can write and draw notes and it works pretty well. Google: I believe this is one of the first eInk tablet to use the Google App store. MicroSD: Expandable storage up to 2TB.

Cons Speed: By modern tablet, eInk is very, very slow. Colors: It’s great that we have color, but it does not look good due to 150dpi and limited to 4,000 colors. Ghosting: It doesn’t bother some people, but I absolutely cannot stand it Dead Pixels: On my device, I see four dead pixels Price: eInk technology is still expensive. The latest iPad (10 inch) costs less than Boox Note Air 3 C. Software: Settings and features are not always clear in what they do. Buttons: There are no physical buttons, except for the fingerprint power button. Accessories: Lack of accessories. For example, you can only get one type of cover

Here is a break down for prices:

• $500 - BOOX Note Air 3 C
• $500 - Bigme inkNote Color Lite
• $340 - Kindle Scribe
• $560 - iPad Pro 2020 (Used)

I’m probably more excited to get Gallery 3 or some newer color eInk and get a much larger color palette to work with. Perhaps with better technology to prevent ghosting. Check out color comparison between Kaleido 3 vs Gallery 3 at YouTube.

Yours,

Weekend Gamer

Book vs Boox vs iPad

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

First Impressions of BOOX Note Air 3 C

BOOX Note Air 3 C Read More eInk I am seriously thinking of getting that color e-ink reader: BOOX Tablet Note Air 3 C E Ink Tablet 10.3 ePaper 4G 64G Paper Tablet. I’m still doing the research, but this is starting to look like the color e-ink for me. ....

I just bought the BOOX Note Air 3 C, the color eInk tablet for reading comics. The eReader arrived today, so I’m playing around with it and my first impression is that I made a terrible mistake.

This device runs Android 12, so you can download the Amazon’s Kindle App, so I had a massive comic book library (RIP Comixology) to read. Unfortunately, I quickly found out that the Kindle App is terrible on the Note Air 3. You see, Amazon built this app to run on regular computers with high refresh rate, and not take into consideration eInk displays. The result is that there are ghosting (images from the previous page still seen on the screen). No matter what I did in the settings, outside of manually full refresh the page every time, I just couldn’t get it to a reading state.

Coming from an iPad Pro 12.9, which is zippier, beautiful colorful screen, and no ghosting, it was a massive downgrade trying to read comics on the Kindle App on eInk.

On a brighter note, the built-in Onyx Reader that came with the tablet does not have the ghosting problem. Going forward, I have to use the native app to read, which is a bummer, because I cannot access my Kindle library through the Onyx Reader. I have to do some more research, but I think this is how it is going to be… unless Amazon fixes their app.

For now, I guess I’m still reading comics via Kindle on my iPad… and for the Note Air 3 C, that’ll be content that I get from Humble Bundle or other sources that doesn’t have DRM.

Also, I knew going in with Kaleido 3 technology, that I was only getting about 4,000 colors to work with… but I was still disappointed in seeing the muted, muddy colors of eInk (compared to the iPad’s millions of colors). There is another color eInk tech called Gallery 3 that offers 32,000 colors… but it’s too expensive and there isn’t enough screen available right now.

So yeah, early impression is I’m not impressed the limited colors and I think it is too slow (even though this is probably the fastest eInk tablet we are getting!) and the ghosting is a massive problem for me.

It’s still early hands on, perhaps it’ll get better as I explorer the settings and perhaps with future updates… but for now, if you’re looking to get a tablet for reading comics, I am going to just recommend getting an iPad. It is a much better comic book reading experience… plus you can do so much more, like YouTube and browsing the web, etc.

Anyway, the retail price for the Boox Note Air 3 C is $500, which may sound expensive… but if you compare it to another eInk reader, like the Kindle Scribe at $340 (Black and White only) or BigMe InkNote at $650 … you can see it’s priced accordingly. You can get a used iPad Pro 2020 version for about $600.

Update: I've figured it out, looking online for the solution. Here is what I need to do: under the e-Ink center, set the Kindle app to "Regal" and under film animation, set it to "300". I don't know why that removes the ghosting, but it does. The user interface for the Boox OS is not very good. As of this writing, the Kindle App is now usable.

Yours,

Weekend Gamer

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

My Movies 5 Pro

Description My Movies 5 Pro is now available at half price until December 31'st, or as a rebated subscription within the non-Pro My Movies 5 version. My Movies is the #1 app for managing your Movie & TV Series collection! Just scan the barcodes of your 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVDs, and never double purchase again. The community driven My Movies online service holds detailed data for more than 1,500,000 disc based titles worldwide, across more than 125,000 movies and 100,000 TV Series, allowing you to track both your disc based collection and your collection of digital copies across any online service. Read More My Movies 4 Pro Looking online for alternatives, I came across My Movies 4 Pro for $15. There is a ‘demo’ version for you try out, if you aren’t convinced. The demo only lets you add 50 entries. So far, it’s a massive improvement …

Last year, I made the jump to My Movies 4 Pro, because my original DVD Profiler just didn’t work on the newer iPhones.

I have been pretty happy with My Movies 4, and to be honest, I didn’t really need to upgrade to My Movies 5 Pro, which dropped on December 2, 2023. The changes in the new version are more or less cosmetic with an emphasis on widgets. I’m sure there are more behind the scenes, but from what I’ve seen and how I’m using the software… it is pretty much the same as Version 4.

According to the app, these items are new to My Movies 5:

Lists

Create All Profile Types

Widgets

Updated PDF Reports

Multiple Copies of the Same Title (useful if you purchased the same movie on different services)

Person Profile Updates (actors, directors)

Find Duplicates

Unlimited Statistics

Additional Minor Functionality (boxset control, adult titles support through parental controls)

Again, nothing in Version 5 that screams out that I must upgrade. I suppose if you’re a list person, this is actually an important update.

I think the worst part of the upgrade experience is having to re-download my entire collection from their server. Even though I already have that information on My Movies 4, the new version still requires you to re-sync and re-download all the high-resolution front and back covers. It took a few days, because the server kept disconnecting me after 300 items.

My Movies on Apple TV

I was pretty happy with My Movies 4, so I’m going to suggest if you already paid for version 4, there’s no need to upgrade to version 5. However, if you want to support the developers, like I do, I think the $15 is a fair asking price for the app. Especially, if you consider that you’re also getting an iPad version for free (since the app is universal). As a bonus, if you have an Apple TV, you can also view your catalog on the big screen… but only as a viewer. Still, pretty good value for all three devices.

In this new Version 5, the Denmark software developer Binnerup Consult announced that they plan on a major version every year. Meaning Version 6 is already in the works for 2024. They encourage you to subscribe to their service to always get the new versions. It’s up to you, if you want to do the subscription method or just buying the latest version when it gets released.

I did end up downloading and installing My Movies for the PC. The software seems outdated, using Windows Media Center from 2011. The pre-release version 5.41 came out on September 9, 2022. I haven’t really explored the PC version in full… it seems confusing. For example, the Windows Media player seemed to be missing on Windows 11. When you click on it, Windows gives an error that reads missing ehshell.exe. If I can’t figure it out, I may uninstall it later.

My Movies 5 Pro for iPad

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Techtober

iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera Details From dramatic framing flexibility to next-generation portraits, see what you can do with our most powerful iPhone camera system. The 48MP Main camera is more advanced than ever, capturing super‑high‑resolution photos with a new level of detail and color. You’ll see the improvements in your portraits. And now you no longer have to switch to Portrait mode. If your subject is a person, dog, or cat, iPhone automatically captures depth information. So you can choose to instantly see your photo as a portrait, with an artful blur effect. Or later in the Photos app. For iPhone 15 Pro Max, we designed a 5x Telephoto camera with the longest optical zoom of any iPhone ever to fit in our compact Pro camera system. Now you can take sharper close‑ups from farther away — like a phenomenal photo of your friend or a goal in your kid’s soccer match. 5x optical zoom with the 120 mm lens. Read More iPhone So in November 2021, I purchased the iPhone 13, and have been very happy with both the device and my ability to connect multiple devices. Speaking of hotspot, there is a 5 mbps cap when you tether. That’s still faster than my old DSL ....

iPhone 15 Pro Max
apple.com

You know I love my iPod (before it was replaced by the cellphone) and my iPad (own the original iPad and currently loving the new 11 inch iPad Pro), but I was never an iPhone guy. However, all that changed when I switched phone service to Visible… and because there were no restrictions on the iPhone, I decided to switch to the iPhone 10.

It worked so well with the iPhone, that I bought the new iPhone 13 in November 2021. Then I bought the iPhone 14 Plus in October 2022.

In keeping with tradition, I’ve upgraded to the new iPhone 15 Pro Max recently. I think after that hefty price tag, I am going to stop upgrading until they come out with some amazing new features.

Here are the new things in the iPhone 15 Pro:

USB-C: Finally! Thanks to the UK, Apple caved in and now their iPhones uses the universal serial bus. Now I can use the same cable that charges my iPad with my iPhone. I’m all for this new change. Also 20x faster file transfers.

Titanium: Lighter, harder, looks great. This is the same alloy that they make spacecraft out of. Lightest iPhone Pro models ever. Titanium is here to stay.

A17 Pro: Apple’s fastest chip yet, they claimed it’s 40% faster than the competition. In tests, it beats the Google’s Pixel 8, and the new iPhone can play a console game, like Resident Evil 4.

Action Button: This replaces the silent switch. You can change this to a physical camera button, so you can use your phone as a traditional camera.

Dynamic Island: A gimmick that was introduced in last year’s model, but it’s been improved thanks to the upgrade cameras.

Upgraded Camera: The new periscope has a 5x optical zoom.

I’m mostly interested in the telephoto lens in the new iPhone. According to Apple, the iPhone 15 Pro Max provides the longest optical zoom at the equivalent of 120mm. This is great for taking concert photos, or just take some “close up” photos in general.

In my own test, taking photos at the back of the venue, I found that the new 120mm camera on the iPhone is pretty impressive (considering that it’s on a tiny pocketable device). I know there’s less details on the iPhone camera, but no cellphone can beat a real camera. Still, the iPhone photo is still very usable.

Apple claims it’s their best camera ever, and from what I’ve seen, I’m a believer.

iPhone 15 Pro Max vs Sony A7IV

Read More Google a Google home, as everything is built around the Google Home Hub application. If you don’t mind giving Google your information, you can use many of their services - for free. That’s the attractive thing, it’s mostly free. …

Nest Audio
google.com

I recently purchased the Google’s Nest Audio Speaker on clearance at Target. I didn’t have a need for the speaker, but seeing as it’s normally $100, I couldn’t pass it up for 50% off.

If you stream music and subscribed to audio services (such as Spotify or Google Music), I think this is a great speaker to have in your home. It sounds great, it fills the room. It’s a very capable speaker. It is just that I do not subscribe to any music services. I own all my music on CD that I ripped myself.

You can also use it as a Google Assistant, asking it all sorts of questions. If you have a Google Nest Hub or Lenovo’s Smart Display or Smart Frame … you do not need the Nest Speaker.

I’m currently using it as a Bluetooth Speaker (you need to enable this feature on your Google Home App), and it’s fine. There is a slight delay and audio sounds out of sync compared to the video… I’m sure there must be a way to fix the syncing issue.

I do somewhat regret buying it … because I don’t really have a use for the speaker. Perhaps I will evict it to the garage. Maybe if I need to stream music in the garage from my iPhone, it would fill the room.

When am I ever spending time in the garage for anything? I guess I can throw a party and move the Nest Audio to the party room. I do not know what to do with this speaker.

Read more Technology.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Google I/O 2023

Read More Google a Google home, as everything is built around the Google Home Hub application. If you don’t mind giving Google your information, you can use many of their services - for free. That’s the attractive thing, it’s mostly free. …

Here’s all the products announced at Google’s I/O 2023.

Pixel Tablet
We’ve seen similar designs from Lenovo, but hopefully the upcoming Google Pixel Tablet will be a faster and better experience. Like that other design, the Tablet is a picture frame when you dock it to the magnetic charger and speaker. If you want to use it as a tablet, you just pick it off the stand… think of it as a tablet that is always charged.

I’m not entirely sure if I will use it on a daily basis, since I already love my iPad 12.9 for the big display and fast processor… the Pixel Tablet is kind of a step down.

Pixel 7A
At $500, the “A-Series” of Google’s phones are the affordable version of their Pixel phones. I’ve been unimpressed with their previous A phones. The phones are not fast or flashy, they’re basically a budget/cheap version of their regular phones… Having said all that, I think the 7A is the phone that I’m actually interested in. That’s because, for the first time, their A phones are going to include wireless charging. I have been all-in on wireless charging, it is hard for me to go back to the old way of charging my phone.

While I’m not in the market to replace my iPhone 14, I might pick up the 7A as my backup phone… mostly because for a limited time, Google is throwing in a free Pixel Buds A-Series if you buy the new 7A phone. I have a Pixel Bud Mint Color and I think it’s one of the best earbuds I own. I love that rubber nub that locks the buds in my ear.

I guess it all depends on if I can buy the Asus ROG Ally (the better and faster Steam Deck) or not. I have already devoted my budget of $800 to buy the new handheld gaming PC.

Pixel Fold
As soon as I saw the price for this upcoming Google’s folding phone, at $1,800, that’s a hard pass for me. As cool as it looks, there’s no way I’m spending that kind of cash on sometime that is unproven. I would love for the price to be sub $1,000... that is the magic number for me.

As a fan of technology, I’m always interested in seeing new products. My complaint about Google has a bad reputation about introducing something and then not supporting it. Plus, I hate to say it, but their products look boring.

Still, I love the fact that I can find any Google products in retail stores, such as my local Target or Walmart. Knowing me, I might just end up buying their Pixel Tablet on a whim, while standing in line at a Best Buy or something.

Read more Technology

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

My Movies 4 Pro

Read More DVD I usually put on one of my DVDs (see picture) and sleep mode on my television, the noise it makes gentle puts me to sleep. ...

As many of you guys know, I’m an avid collector of DVDs since 1997. I even bought my first DVD of Reservoir Dogs before I had a DVD player! I love this format, because coming from VHS and Laserdiscs, this new DVD format was smaller and more versatile and collectible.

I had a very large collection of DVD, so it made sense, at least for me, to keep track of them using an application on my computer. And since 2000, I was using DVD Profiler. When they released their software for iOS in 2010, I was one of the first people to buy it. It was great for a while… but unfortunately, the software has not been updated since 2018. There are some bugs in the iOS software that drove me nuts. For example, you couldn’t create a brand new DVD entry - it would only add DVD that exists in their catalog.

Then recently, when I bought my Lenovo Legion Gaming PC, I tried to sync my DVD Profiler on my phone to my computer and my DVD was destroyed through bad syncing. I didn’t have a DVD Profiler backup (my only backup was on my old Fallout Gaming PC). No problem, I guess I can start over. Unfortunately, scanning in the UPC of DVDs and Blurays was not great on DVD Profiler. It took forever for the camera to focus on the UPC, it would be impossible to scan in my entire collection.

The final straw happened on Friday, when nothing worked on DVD Profiler, because their servers was offline. It was time for me to move on.

Looking online for alternatives, I came across My Movies 4 Pro for $15. There is a ‘demo’ version for you try out, if you aren’t convinced. The demo only lets you add 50 entries.

So far, it’s a massive improvement over DVD Profiler. The UPC scanner is amazingly fast, and if you have a lot of films, like I do, this will save you a lot of time.

My Movies 4 is also available for the PC, but it actually works a little differently on the PC. It’s more of a movie streaming application that uses Windows Media Server… so I recommend just using the My Movies 4 app as a standalone app.

My only complaint is that My Movies 4 may take forever to “synchronize” with their servers. It takes a long time sometimes because the app takes a moment to download the high resolution front and back cover of the DVD or Bluray. Since I set my app to the highest resolution, it takes a moment for everything to sync. When it syncs, the app won’t allow you to add anything, so you’ll just have to wait until it is all downloaded.

The beautiful thing about the syncing process is that any DVD/Bluray that you add on your phone will magically appear on your iPad. This works much better than the old DVD Profiler, which requires you to manually sync to your PC (since the database is stored on your local computer).

For the most part, My Movies 4 catalog works well. Sometime I do run into a film that is not on their database. You can manually add in the UPC and photos of the cover artwork, so it works as you would expect (you couldn’t do that on DVD Profiler if you have a new iPhone).

Pro Tip: If you own a lot of discs, set the scanner to Multi-Scan and also set the Country to “All”. This is especially useful if you own a lot of movies from other countries. I wish I had known this when I started rescanning my collection!

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com