iPad vs. Kindle, tablets and plain old books

I've resisted writing a Kindle vs. IPad post because too many others have done it already, and done it better. But after several comments from friends and co-workers who say they want advice from someone they know, I decided to bang something out. And since I use this site as a testbed, I’ll conduct an experiment at the same time and see what kinds of ads Google delivers to the left of this post.

This advice assumes you're interested in paying the money for a dedicated e-reader. If not, you'll want to stick to physical books or download a Kindle app to your smartphone or desktop. The Kindle apps aren't ideal options for extended reading, but they do in a pinch. And they're free.

OK, now to the e-reader question:

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"Creep," SoundCloud and missed opportunities

I've been messing around with a new music-sharing service called SoundCloud that offers lots of promise but leaves me frustrated because I see a lot of missed opportunities.

As you may have read previously, I'm something of a hack audiophile, not the geekiest by any means but moreso than your average person who thinks the quality of MP3s is all that. So I was excited to test out a service that presents music in a visual way, with the song's audio map front and center (a completely new view for many people).

SoundCloud offers an easy way to share music, whether a link through social media, widget music players or by placing an actual song file in someone's SoundCloud Drop Box. Depending on the settings, songs also can be downloaded or syndicated via web players (such as are attached in this post). Musicians and record labels are starting to share more music in SoundCloud. It's especially popular for those creating electronica.

So here's where I think SoundCloud excels and where it could use some work:

• It's very easy to create personal playlists with one click on a song you like. Here's my list. And here's a set list of some fantastic '90s guitar pop by someone with the handle D-Waves.

D-Waves 90s Guitar Pop Mix by D-Waves

• I love the idea of being able to add comments at specific points in a song. For example, at the 3:40 mark of Devo's "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA," I was able to comment on how I love the bridge that connects the two songs. My comment was simple, but could have gone deeper in terms of the mix, echo, etc. These can be the equivalent of audio footnotes, something musicians and fans contribute to add new dimensions to artwork. Sadly, the comments on most songs are junk (here are some for Them Crooked Vultures' "New Fang"). I know this kind of complaint makes me sound like the old man yelling, "Get off my lawn, you crazy kids!" I get that. But that lack of a filter is a serious flaw for me, the music geek.

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Digging AP's edgy Timeline Viewer

I've been playing around with AP's Timeline Viewer, a new platform for consuming news that's built in HTML5.

Timeline Viewer is in beta, but is pretty polished out of the box. It was launched in conjunction with the release of the new Internet Explorer 9 browser, a product built with HTML5 in mind.

The experience is pretty straightforward: A nav bar on the left allows you to choose your content stream from 1 to 10 main categories like U.S. News, World, Sports, Entertainment, Technology, even the ever-popular Wacky News.

Those selections are then loaded into the main viewing area, sorted by date. When you mouseover an item, a summary pops up. If you want to read more or see an enlarged photo, you just click again, which takes you to a story page. Once on a story page, you can either click back to the main page or click back or forth through all the stories in your categories. Favorite stories can be added to a personal queue to be read later.

Story views are large and easy to read. For me, Timeline Viewer is a great showcase for HTML5 but builds on earlier experiments like Google Timeline and platforms like TweetDeck and Flipboard. The influence of tablet usability is pretty obvious, as well. I can see Timeline Viewer being a hit because of its intuitive navigation is perfect for touchscreens.

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