One of the most interesting features of the Kno tablet is not the hardware or software but the way in which it is being developed. Anyone can go to the project’s website and join the advisory panel to offer their input on development. They are particularly looking for educators and other thinkers who could be eventual customers. Furthermore, the operating system of the Kno is Ubuntu Linux with a Webkit-based interface. This means that all apps for the Kno are written in HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

The Kno gives students the ability to take notes with an included pen, right on the screen, and even make notes and annotations directly on their textbooks, highlighting key words, dropping in sticky notes, or circling important items. It also supports video playback in a variety of formats, including Adobe Flash player.

Technical Specifications

Display:

• 14.1 inch single or dual color LCD backlit glossy widescreen multi-touch displays
• 1440×800 WXGA resolution
• 262,144 colors
• Anti-glare film screen with hard coat surface

Input:

• Fingers and Pen stylus (for note taking)

Processor:

• Nvidia Tegra T200 series CPU ( based on the Dual-core ARM Cortex -A9 MPCore) 1.0GHz

Memory:

• 512 MB RAM

Storage:

• 16 GB or 32 GB flash memory

OS:

• Ubuntu 9.10

Other Hardware:

• Micro USB
• 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
• Microphone with active noise cancellation
• Accelerometer – 3 Axis +/- 1.5 g
• Ambient light sensor

Power:

• DC power connector
• 50.6 watt-hour lithium polymer battery (6 hours usage)

Wireless:

• IEEE 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR technology

Software Features:

• eReader
• Note-Taking with a pen
• PDF annotation – Web apps for Docs (Google Docs or Office Live)
• Virtual keyboard
• Built-in Webkit-based browser

Audo Playback:

• AAC-LC, MP3, WMA 10, PCM/WAV (Ogg Vorbis support interestingly not listed)

Video Playback:

• H.264 – 1080p, WMV9/VC-1 1080p, MPEG-4 – 1080p, JPEG up to 80 megapixel per second, HTML5 video, and Adobe Flash

Price:

• Single Screen 16GB: $599 –  32GB: $699
• Dual Screen 16GB $899 – 32GB: $999

Average cost of traditional textbooks:

• $121

Average cost of Kno textbooks:

• $63

Pre-orders of the Kno have just started shipping to select customers. It will eventually be something that schools can purchase in bulk, distribute to students, and even allow the students to take home and use whenever they need it. The company behind Kno sees itself as an innovator hoping to change education, the way people learn and the way knowledge is used. This is a lofty goal, but it is definitely one that warrants attention. One thing I do Kno for sure is that this tablet will likely change the landscape of the tablet market for the better.

Design and Ordering Process

Ordering on Zazzle is a super easy process. For this review, I’ll do a quick walkthrough of the iPad case ordering process, although its very similar with all their products. (I’ve gotten business cards from them and its almost exactly the same, and have designed t-shirts with them, which is also basically identical in most aspects.)

First, head over to www.zazzle.com/custom/ipadcases. Here you’ll be greeted with some examples of what can be done when users are left to customize their own cases, as well as some information on the process. Click the “Create a case” button toward the right to get started.

Once you click through to Zazzle’s iPad case design page, you’ll be greeted with a “Getting Started” window. This window will allow you to start by inserting the picture of your choice, or text of your choice, onto the case. You can always add more later, and once you have a few items on there, you can adjust their size, orientation, placement and more with the intuitive controls provided on the site.

Keep in mind that in the case of images, you want to use as high a resolution as possible, that way if you decide to expand them a little during your design process you won’t have a problem with their appearance. If you do expand an image to the point where it may not look good in the final printing of the product, you’ll get little exclamations letting you know you may want to switch to a higher resolution image, or reduce the zoom of the image in your current design. The image below is an example of a design with a stretched out low-res image. See the exclamations?

Once you’re happy with the appearance of the case, just click the “Add to cart” button and follow through the standard checkout procedure. Shipping times vary depending on how much you spend, but I bought economy and it took about a week to arrive.  Not bad at all considering it’s custom made!

The Final Product

As for the final version of my iPad case, well, for the moment I couldn’t be happier. It’s very rigid, offering great protection against bending, and it barely adds any bulk to the iPad. In fact, I found it actually made gripping the iPad significantly easier, making reading and playing games significantly more enjoyable than before. It also does a great job of protecting against those little dents the aluminum backs of iPads tend to get over time.

One of the reasons though that the grip is so good is the material they use to make the custom designs. I’m not sure if it is some type of plastic or not, but it sure feels like fabric. This gives it a great grip, but also has lead to some concern for me. While I’m not seeing any problems yet (I’ve only been using it for a few days) I am concerned that if this is truly a fabric, as it feels to be, that anything white may tend to get dirty over time.  I’m hoping this is not the case, and will certainly be keeping you all informed as time goes on, but for now, its a perfect white, the graphics look fantastic, and the case protects as advertised!

Have any of you ever made a custom case? What cases are you using now, if you’re using one  at all?  Is this something you’d be interested in? As always, let us know in the comments!

In this article I will provide an overview of some of the more interesting features the Kindle has to offer.

1. Browsing the Web

The Kindle was created with one function in mind: to read books. This means that doing anything, aside from reading books, is quite a chore. Nevertheless the Kindle does come with a handy web browser that can be used in a pinch. To launch the web browser press the Menu button on your Kindle.

Then select Experimental. From the Experimental menu select launch browser

Once the browser launches you will be presented with a number of pre-bookmarked web sites.

Selecting one of these launches the site immediately, or you can select Menu and Enter URL to browse to a web site not on the list.

As I have mentioned in my previous article, the Kindle uses a special display technology called E-Ink. This is great for reading as you are generally looking at a static page. However, for something with dynamic content, such as a web site, it makes navigations and usability difficult. Further, since the display is not touch-screen moving the cursor requires you to use the D-Pad. Nevertheless, as you can see the page itself looks relatively clear and there is no content that is hidden or blocked.

2. Turn Web page into Article Mode

There is one other useful trick that the Kindle’s browser has. If you browse to a website with a lot of articles (such as nytimes.com) you can use the “Article Mode” to read the article without any of the other distractions on the web site.

First, browse to the web site of your choice. Then use the Enter key to zoom into the section of the page which has the article you want to read. Once you have zoomed in select the article. Once the article has opened select Menu and select Article Mode.

This will reformat the article into a book format, allowing you to read through it as though it were another book on the Kindle.

3. Social Services

One of the most lauded features of the newer generation of Kindle’s is the ability to share what you are reading with the world. You are able to select a sentence or a passage of what you are reading and share it over Facebook or Twitter.

Firstly, you must connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts with the Kindle.  Select Menu and Settings and use the Next Page button to scroll to the third page and select manage.

This launches the web browser from where you must authenticate your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Once you have connected your accounts with the Kindle you can select text inside any book you are reading and post it to your Facebook and Twitter account.

First, use the D-Pad to select the text you want to share.

Next, select the Alt and Enter key to share the text. This will open a small text box allowing you to input a small message of your choice.

You can now see the selected quote and your message displayed on your Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Clicking the custom amzn.com link displays the selected text.

This feature would be more useful if the title and author of the book was also displayed. Nevertheless, this is a good way of sharing a passage that is particularly interesting or striking.

4. Clippings

After selecting text, making notes within a book, or bookmarking a particular page you will find a My Clippings option on the home page of your Kindle.

All your notes are displayed here but the separation between the sections is not always clear and it is a little difficult to navigate your various clippings.

5. Searching a Book

A friend mentioned to me that she did not want to give up reading books because she loved the ability to flip through the pages. Unfortunately, this is impossible to do on a Kindle and at times it can be a problem if you need to jump to a certain section of a book. If the book is very long it can be a pain to use the Next/Previous buttons to jump through the pages.

To alleviate this problem Amazon uses the “Location” feature to allow jumping to sections of a book. If you look at the bottom of a book you can see the location points displayed.

You can jump to a particular location in the book by selecting Menu and Go to…

In the message box you must enter the location number you want to jump to. Unfortunately, the Kindle keyboard does not come with any number keys so you will have to select the Sym key and select the numbers from the pop-up box.

This is the only method of jumping between sections of the book and unfortunately, it is not very specific. I will often have to flip through pages to find the part I was reading.

Conclusion

Amazon has refined the book reading features of the Kindle to the point where it is almost the perfect “E Ink” device, easily beating out its competitors. However, some of the features I have mentioned in this article attempt to keep it relevant in a world dominated by the iPad. There are still a number of features that the Kindle has to offer, so for all the Kindle users out there keep an eye out for another Kindle article.

Image credit: Yutaka Tsutano

I think this is a remarkable achievement, as compared to PS3 that took eight months to reach a million.

With the launch, it once again created storms and waves of gaming frenzy. Other than being sleeker and lighter than the original, it also has more RAM, better graphics handling capabilities, stunning widescreen display and rich on multimedia functions. Not only does it capture the hearts of gaming enthusiasts, Non-gamers are not spared as well. In fact, it has already become a must-buy for gamers who currently do not own a PSP system.

In Singapore, the PSP-2000 was launched on Oct 20, 2007 and priced at S$280

I have already placed it in my Christmas wish-list, what about you?