How to be smart about buying an ebook reader, digital camera, or HDTV

This week, my CBC Radio tech column focused on holiday gadget-buying. I looked at three gadget categories: ebook readers, digital cameras, and HDTVs. The focus wasn’t on what to buy, but rather, how to be smart about buying it.

I do my columns eighteen times every Tuesday (on most CBC Radio One afternoon shows). Here’s an MP3 from one of my hits, with Peter Brown of CBC Edmonton’s Radio Active: [audio:http://blip.tv/file/get/Dmisener-20101214_misener_holidaygadgets554.mp3]

[Click here to download the MP3]

Ebook readers

There’s certainly a lot of choice out there: The Sony Reader. The Amazon Kindle. The Kobo, which is Canadian technology. Plus, a number of tablet computers (iPad, Samsung Tab) can be used as e-readers.

Personally, I think one of the most important questions you need to ask yourself when considering an e-reader for someone else is, “Where will they get their ebooks from?” If they want to read older stuff (Alice in Wonderland, or Little Dorrit), there are several places to download free, public domain books that’ll work on pretty much any e-reader. But it becomes more complicated if they plan to buy or borrow books.

Most e-readers on the market have an ebook store that goes along with them. For instance, Apple has the iBook store. But here’s the thing: the selection of books isn’t the same in every store. So, I really suggest you check out the different ebook stores. See if they have the kinds of books that appeal to the person you’re buying for.

Also, I know that many Canadian public libraries have started to offer digital downloads, so if you’re buying for a library user, make sure the device works with the system their local library uses.

Also, “where does this person do most of their reading?” Some ereaders are better suited to reading outdoors in direct sunlight, and others are better suited to reading in low light.

HDTVs

First thing to ask is: “how far away from the TV will I be when I’m watching?” That will help you calculate what they call the “optimum TV viewing distance.” There are several online tools that you can use to calculate this. You type in, say, the distance from your couch to your TV stand, and it’ll tell you the ideal TV size. Or, you can type in the size of the TV you want, and it’ll calculate how far away from it you should sit. And I know it’s hard to believe, but yes, it is possible to buy a TV that’s too big.

If you go HDTV shopping, you’ll hear a lot of tech specs. People will talk about 1080i versus 720p. They’ll talk about refresh rate: 60Hz, 120Hz, 240Hz, and on and on. These are the sorts of things that really matter to videophiles, but for most people, the biggest factors are the size of your TV, and how close you sit to it.

Another choice you’ll be faced with is going with an LCD versus a Plasma TV. Historically, a big part of the debate has been about which is better for fast moving proogramming like sports or video games. Historically, plasmas have been better for that, but these days LCD technology has improved significantly.

My advice: set a budget, figure out the optimal TV size for your room, and get the best you can for the size and price you’ve set.

Digital cameras

When it comes to choosing a camera, there are a lot of factors. And people have very different priorities: for some people, size and portability are really important. For others, it’s all about how easy it is to use. For others, it’s about expandability – can I add new lenses or accessories? Everyone has their own set of preferences. Which can make buying a camera as a gift quite difficult.

And, like with TVs, there are a lot of tech specs you can get caught up with. Most notoriously: megapixels. My advice: don’t get caught up in the megapixel game. At this point, it’s a marketing thing, and the biggest factors that’ll affect the photos you take are the lens and the sensor size. NOT the number of megapixels — anything on the market right now is more than what the average consumer needs.

I want to tell you about a website that I have found incredibly useful for choosing a camera. It’s called Measy.com. Basically, you go to this site, and it asks you a bunch of questions: what’s your budget? How important is size? Do you prefer a certain brand? That kind of thing. Then it gives you a list of cameras that it thinks will be good. And the best part of this is that you can answer these questions as though you’re the person you’re buying for. I tried this with my mother-in-law, and the camera that Measy recommended was an updated version of the one she already owned.

A word on extended warranties

I can’t go without mentioning extended warranties. Stores push these warranties so hard because they make huge profits from them. But Consumer Reports (the non-profit, independent consumer rights organization) calls them “notoriously bad deals,” and generally advises against them.

Their research has found that, products usually don’t break within the extended-warranty window, and when they do break, the repairs, on average, cost about the same as an extended warranty. They say the only possible exceptions are laptops, netbooks, or tablets. Personally, I’ve only every bought one extended warranty, and it was on a laptop. Other than that, I avoid them like the plague.

Poking your eye out with a pencil

From WYNC’s On The Media, Bob Garfield on online advertising, behavioural targeting, and the danger of surveillance:

The threat, while looming, is like poking your eye out with a pencil. Enabling conditions do not guarantee the worst outcome.

Amen.

Google Latitude on iOS

A week after launching, then pulling its Latitude client from the app store, Google has officially released an iOS mobile location tracking/sharing app. Personally, I’m quite excited about this.

Previously, I’d been using a clunky combination of a friendless Foursquare account + Mayor Maker as a “tell my wife where I am” system.

App stores jump out of your pocket, onto your desktop

Updated: Download MP3 or listen below. [audio:http://blip.tv/file/get/Dmisener-20101207_misener_appstores474.mp3]

This week’s CBC Radio tech column is all about app stores.

They’ve been incredibly successful on mobile devices, and now, both Apple and Google are set to launch app stores for desktop computers. It’s widely anticipated that the Google Chrome Web Store will launch today, and there are rumours that Apple’s Mac App Store will launch on December 13. But will these desktop app stores enjoy the same success as the mobile versions?

The current state of app stores

I think there are two things worth mentioning when we talk about app stores:

First: this market is huge.

Second: At least right now, app stores are almost exclusively focused on mobile devices: smartphones and tablets. It seems everybody has an app store these days. Blackberry has their App World. Android Phones have the Android Market. Windows Phones have the App Marketplace. Nokia has the Ovi Store. Apple devices have the App Store. If you own a smartphone, chances are there’s an app store for it.

And this is a multi-billion dollar business (last year, Gartner predicted $6.2 billion for 2010). I asked Apple for their latest numbers, and they told me that their customers have downloaded more than 7 billion apps since their store launched. Not all of those are paid, but many of them are. Again, this market is absolutely huge.

Even though the focus thus far has been on smartphones, that’s about to change. The big news is that Apple is set to expand its app store onto the desktop with its Mac App Store. Google is planning a similar move with its Chrome Web Store. To be clear, this isn’t about running phone apps on your computer. Apple wants to sell you full-fledged desktop apps to run on your computer (think word processors, spreadsheets, photo editors, games). A big part of what they’re trying to do here is take some of the hassle out of downloading installing software.

The move to the desktop

Once upon a time, if you wanted a new program for your computer, you had to go to a store and buy a shrink-wrapped box with a disk inside of it. You’d bring it home, put the disk in, and run an installer program. Sometimes there’d be a little slip of paper with some crazy-long license key, and you’d have to type that in to prove that you actually bought the software. Even now, when a lot of people download new software from the internet, you end up with some kind of .zip file, or a .dmg file, and you have to figure out what to do with that. It’s hardly the most elegant way to get a new program, and I think for a lot of people, it can be intimidating.

Compare that to the experience of buying an app on a smartphone like an iPhone. You go to the store, tap “Buy” and the thing downloads and installs. No disks, no funny filenames, no installers. In a lot of ways, it’s taken a lot of the work (and intimidation) out of downloading new programs.

Who wins?

If you’re a consumer, you arguably get a better experience when you buy and download new software. It’s certainly simpler.

Software developers stand to benefit from this as well. Right now, if you’re a software company, you don’t just have to write the software. You also have to promote it, and try and get people to talk about it, and market it. Plus, you have to handle all the back-end stuff that goes along with selling software: generating license keys, and processing credit card payments. With Apple’s Mac App Store model, you write the software, and Apple handles all that back-end stuff.

The other big advantage is scale. As a software developer, you theoretically have access to a very, very large audience of people who’ll be looking at the App Store for the latest thing to download.

But, it’s also important to remember that whoever runs the app store stands to benefit for this. For instance, Apple says it will take 30% of all sales through its Mac App Store.

Censorship concerns

Ever since Apple announced that they were going to open up this new Mac App Store, there have been many concerns.

First and foremost, people are concerned about Apple’s review process. Ultimately, Apple is the gatekeeper for everything that ends up on their store. In the past, they’ve rejected certain apps that include “adult content.” They rejected a political cartoon app because it “ridiculed public figures.” So obviously, some censorship concerns there. That said, you don’t have to use the App Store, and you can get software elsewhere. But people do worry about that “walled garden” effect.

There are also some logistical challenges when it comes to things like upgrades. For instance, what if I already own a piece of software because I bought it in a box from a store? Can I get an upgrade from the App Store? Or do I have to buy it all over again?

Apple not the only player

There are also smaller, independent app stores out there. For instance, there’s one called Bodega that’s been out for a while. It’s a program you can download and install. And once you have it, it makes buying and downloading and updating your software much easier.

Obviously, the app store model has worked incredibly well for some companies in the mobile space. It’s not clear yet whether that’ll translate into the desktop market. But with the Mac app store set to launch sometime in the next couple of weeks, and the Google Chrome Web Store soon too, it’s definitely worth watching.

National Public Internet

Bill St. Arnaud, on the need for a National Public Internet:

it is well within the realm of possibility to deploy both a wired and wireless National Public Internet (NPI)– that is committed to the principles of an Open Internet. I am not advocating that we replace the telcos and cableco and their “Internet-like” service. But much like PBS and NPR provides an alternate voice to the mainstream broadcasters, NPI could ensure that there remains an independent and open Internet with all the benefits that entails in terms of innovation, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

I’ve often wondered whether the CBC could become an ISP. In theory, I think it could, and it’d be a great way to help fulfill the CBC’s mandate. In practice, though, probably not so much.