10 Reasons To Get a Kindle

I love my Kindle, and I’ve had a couple friends ask me why I love it and if they should get one. If you are wondering that too, then I say to you, yes, you should. I know Kindle-haters are usually book collectors, and if you are an avid book collector, then maybe a Kindle isn’t right for you. But if you like to read, don’t like to spend a lot of money on books, and don’t care to have a library in your house, then you should get a Kindle.

10 Reasons Why:

1. Books are cheaper. Yes, you can find used books for pretty cheap at bookstores, but rarely will these books be new bestsellers or hardback books. Kindle books are drastically cheaper than regular books and some of the classics are even free. On top of that, Amazon sometimes has random book sales, and I’ve gotten some great best selling books for like, $2. Worth it!

2. You can get books instantly. Forget about going to the bookstore, you can download your favorite book in under 5 seconds. Books are never sold out, unlike at the store, and you can buy new releases on your Kindle at midnight. I definitely wanted to start reading Jaycee Dugard’s story, “A Stolen Life,” as soon as I could, so I bought it right after midnight on my Kindle. I know people still having a hard time finding it because it sold out at all the bookstores.

3. You can change the size of the font. Ever buy those books where the font is microscopic? I have, and those kind of books make me so tired when I read them, I don’t even want to read them. They are too much work! On Kindle, you can change the size of the font, although the standard size font is perfect for me. Great for those folks with not so keen of vision.

4. It’s small and lighter than a regular book. It’s easy to just pop in your purse or backpack or book bag and take with you anywhere. You don’t have to worry about smashing your book or loosing your bookmark in your bag because your book is all secured. Buy a cheap case for your Kindle to protect it, and you’re good.

5. I tend to read in awkward, curled up positions, so reading on a Kindle is great for me – no book pages to smash when you try and turn them. All you have to do is push the forward button, and you’re good to go. Because it’s so light, it’s easy to read in every position.

6. I have the 3G Kindle, meaning I have internet access everywhere. Free internet. On my Kindle, I can go online or check my Facebook or buy a book wherever I go. This 3G is also global. Can your book do that?

7. I personally think the Kindle is better than other eReaders out there, particularly the Nook. First of all, Kindle is created by Amazon. Amazon isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Barnes & Noble? Not so sure about that. Amazon has an amazing selection of books for great prices. I don’t know about B&N, but I’d rather not invest in something made by a bookstore at this point in time. Besides that, I just like the look, feel and price of the the Kindle. It’s so simple and light, as it should be.

I feel like the Nook tries to do too much, like with their touchscreen eReader. I am not a fan of the LCD touchscreen eReader; I feel like it’s trying to be a tablet, but it’s an eReader. It’s not really great in any one way, rather, it’s mediocre in both the tablet and eReader markets. It’s not the same reading on an LCD screen, and it lacks a lot of things a tablet needs and has. The touchscreen eReaders with the eInk technology is laggy, and it seems to imprint more than it would be on a regular eReader. That’s just my 2 cents.

8. The Kindle tells you your progress on your book, what percentage you’ve read and how long until the next chapter. No longer will you need to turn page after page to see when the next chapter is, or count pages to see how much you’ve read.

9. You can read it in sunlight. Yes, this is a benefit over the LCD screen tablets, but it’s also easier to read than a normal book, too. There is no glare, and because the Kindle background is sort of an off white, it doesn’t shine right back into your eyes like some white paged books do.

10. It’s fun to read on! I don’t know why, but I get excited to read on my Kindle. I never thought that I would be so excited to read again.

The one downside that I’ve seen is that not every single book is available for Kindle. Although all the books that I’ve wanted to read are available, I know of a few books that I’ve already read that aren’t (like Harry Potter). I see great potential with eReaders and textbooks for college, although it doesn’t seem to have taken off quite yet. I also think that libraries supporting eReaders and digital books will be a huge trend later this year and next, and it will completely revolutionize the way we read.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m a big Kindle fan. What do you like about your Kindle? Or what turns you off about getting an eReader? Let me know in the comments.

Audio/Video sync issues with Photo Booth on YouTube

Today I created my first video blog post, and I thought it would be super easy as I have a MacBook with Photo Booth, but I ran into several super annoying issues. I thought I’d share my problems and how I fixed them because I had to do several searches on the internet – very time consuming – before I found the answer.

I thought that I could upload to YouTube straight from my Photo Booth, and while it did allow me to do this, my audio and video did not match up, making the video unwatchable. Then I tried to upload the Photo Booth video straight onto my blog post through WordPress’s options, but it wouldn’t even recognize the file. What I had to do is bring the video into iMovie (should come with your Mac) and export it with QuickTime though there.

Now, this is where I had the most trouble. I have never really used iMovie before, and I was getting super frustrated with items being blocked out for no apparent reason. Here’s what you need to do (what I did)…

First: You need to import you Photo Booth movie into iMovie. I could not, for the life of me, find the movie in the Photo Booth when doing this option, so I had to drag the Photo Booth movie onto my desktop and import it that way.

Second: You need to export the movie using Quicktime. When I tried to do this initially, the option was blocked out. What you need to do, is make sure the movie clip is not only in the main, bottom box but also in the top box on the left hand side. If the clips were not on both sides, I could not export the movie. All you have to do is command + a the video clips in one box and drag it into the other. Then you should be able to Share > Export Using QuickTime.

Third (read before you hit export): You might need to mess with some of your export settings, but if you’ve never really changed anything, I think the default settings are okay. Now, make sure that the export settings say “Movie to Quicktime Movie.” For some reason, mine defaulted to “Movie to Image Sequence,” which I accepted accidentally… and let me tell you, you don’t want to do that! All the other settings are probably okay, but make sure that the section “Prepare for Internet Streaming” is set to Fast Start.

*Also, I kept going back and forth between my notes and the iMovie settings, and each time I did this, it completely blocked out my options. I don’t know if it’s my computer or what, but I recommending knowing what you need to change first, so you can avoid this.

Fourth: Once your video is done exporting, you can upload that file straight to YouTube. Your audio and video should be synced perfectly!

Good luck and hopefully you don’t have to deal with as much trail and error as I did.

Looking For Job Opportunities in Portland

I’m currently looking for online marketing and social media job opportunities in the Portland Metro Area (or remotely). I created a short little video to share what I’m looking for and for you to get to know me a little better. Thanks for watching!

How To Choose A Point And Shoot Digital Camera

I don’t consider myself an expert when it comes to photography but as a consumer, I scour the web when it comes to buying big purchases such as a digital camera. As with most subjects I research online, I found that everyone has their own opinion. Many of the articles I found came from people who knew much more on the subject than me, and wrote like it. In this post, I’ll tell you what I found and what worked for me as a novice photographer.

Groupon — The Ultimate Deal Provider?

I received an excellent comment on my last post regarding Foursquare vs. Facebook Places from Sheldon; he asked, “What you think about Groupons? are they going to be affected by facebook deals?”

It made me realize that I didn’t know much about Groupon, so I decide to sign up and give it a try. 

Foursquare vs. Facebook Places

Which do you prefer?

Although Facebook Places is in its infancy, it is definitely causing a stir in the social media world — especially for one of the leading location-based networks, Foursquare. Blogs everywhere are blowing up on this topic and many believe that Facebook Places will be the Foursquare killer once it becomes more developed. I don’t think anyone can accurately determine which will come out on top yet. Personally, I’m team Foursquare and though I love Facebook, I want to use Facebook for Facebook purposes, not location-based purposes. After the jump I point out the pros and cons of both Foursquare and Facebook Places and why I ultimately believe that Foursquare won’t be dying anytime soon.

HTC Droid Eris Low on Space?

Phone Frustration

A few weeks ago my phone started saying that it was low on storage space. Low on space? I hadn’t changed anything! Needless to say, it was frustrating for the notification to keep popping up — especially since I kept deleting apps to free up my internal memory. I finally fixed the problem — Facebook was syncing with my phone contacts, making my contact storage over 25 mb! Facebook was also a memory suck, taking up nearly 10 mb. On top of that, my battery was draining too quickly, and I had to start bringing my charger everywhere. Crawling the internet, I found the solution, but I thought it might be helpful to put all the info in one place for other people who are having the same problems I had. Here are my troubleshooting tips for getting your Droid Eris under control.

Tips For College Seniors

It has been a full year since I’ve graduated from the University of Oregon which also means it has been a full year of working in the “real world.” Though it has not been as scary as I imagined it would, I definitely can attribute much of my success to my actions during my senior year at the UO. Although many of my peers have just graduated, I thought it might be helpful to create a list of tips for what I thought benefited me while I was at school.

1. Internships. During my junior and senior year, I was involved in several internships — often more than one at a time. Yes, I was busy, but I also gained extremely valuable experience during the time when I needed it the most. Nearly all were unpaid but in the long run, it doesn’t matter. Take advantage of this experience while you can. Businesses will favor potential employees that have experience (unpaid or not) and it is much harder to work at an unpaid internship after you finish school when you have to start paying back student loans. Tip: There are many ways to find an internship — such as through your school, online, or social media. If you are still having trouble, find a local non-profit organization that you are passionate about. E-mail them and see if they could benefit from some of your skills!

2.Get involved on campus. Whatever your passion is, get involved in groups and activities with other people that share your passion. Though this is something I wish I did more of at the U of O, I had plenty of opportunity. For me, I could have become involved in my school’s PRSSA chapter or even Allen Hall Public Relations, a student-run PR firm at the U of O. If you don’t know of any activities that you can get involved in, ask your professor or talk to an advisor. These extracurricular activities look great on a resume.

3. Get to know your peers, professors and advisors — and stay in touch! Luckily for me, my classes senior year were all small and intimate, allowing me to get to know many of my peers and professors. These people are a great resource for you now and in the future. Everyone goes their separate way when they graduate and in the long run, that separation provides you to have resources in many different places. Not only can these people inform you about potential new opportunities but it’s always easier to get involved in a company if you already know someone who is connected. And, with social media now-a-days, it’s easy to keep in touch with these people.

4. Be involved and knowledgeable about new media. Technology is ever-changing and its growth will not stop anytime soon. Understanding and being involved in current and new technology just adds more to your personal branding. It’s even more important to know how to use this technology to benefit you in your field of interest. I personally have a strong interest in social media and have made an effort to incorporated my knowledge and interest in social media to use strategically for brand management. An updated and constant knowledge and understanding of new media, especially because it’s always changing, will set you apart from colleagues who lack this skill.

Although there are an infinite amount of tips for college seniors, these are my best four. What other tips would you recommend?

Droid Eris Review

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to upgrade my cell phone from a LG enV2 to a HTC Droid Eris. I’ve never before had a smartphone, let alone any internet capabilities. A lot of people have been asking me how I like it, so I decided to write a review of the phone (from what I’ve experienced so far).

As I said, in the past I used to own an enV2. I also have an iPod Touch that I use pretty regularly. I know that the iPod Touch is not an iPhone but because they have so many similarities I will use some comparisons.

First off, the Eris was free so that’s an awesome start. I’m on a family plan and my dad wanted to buy the Moto Droid, so we were able to use the “Double Your Droid” deal (he bought a Droid for regular price and I got the Eris for free). I would definitely recommend paying attention to these Verizon deals because sometimes they are amazing! Anyway, the Eris, with the new-every-2 is $100 less than the regular Droid. Yeah, over the course of a few years that one hundred bucks won’t really matter but it’s just a bonus for a poor, post-college student (and I wanted this phone anyway).

Second, I don’t know if you’ve seen the Moto Droid but it’s pretty hefty. I think that has something to do with the slide out keyboard which personally, I didn’t need or want. It might have some benefit, especially for people who aren’t used to using a touch screen, but I feel it’s unnecessary. Because I don’t like big, fat phones, I was definitely drawn to the Eris’ sleek, light design. I mean, the Droid advertises that “It isn’t pretty but it’s fast,” and I agree. The Eris on the other hand is pretty and cute, similar to many of HTC’s phones. All the goods and a little better packaging if you ask me! The Eris also has a little TrackBall similar to the Blackberry. Not a huge deal but it’s different, a bit useful, and you can set it up to light up when you get a text/notification.

The Moto Droid does have a bit better specs, as far as having Android 2.0 OS and flash on the camera while the Eris has the Android 1.5 OS and no flash. But from what I’ve heard, the Eris will be getting the 2.0 OS (or possibly even 2.1, like the Nexus One) within the next few weeks (speculated Jan. 20). From some of the research I’ve done, the reasoning behind having a 1.5 OS has something to do with the HTC Sense UI not quite syncing with 2.0 (which the UI is supposedly awesome) and that HTC is taking their time to make it work. Anyway, 2.0/2.1 should be up and running on the Eris soon anyway, so no big deal (the main difference from 1.5 and 2.0, or so I hear, is turn-by-turn Google navigation).

The Eris is completely customizable. Like the iPhone/iPod touch, it has sliding pages. There are only 7 pages but there is also a pop-up menu that has all the apps. Unlike the iPhone, you can decide how you want apps to look. You can make apps have little boxes, if that’s what you want — but many apps can be made bigger or shaped different based on what it is (like my Google Calendar can take up it’s own screen). Another difference from the iPhone/iPod Touch is that the Eris can run several apps simultaneously. Notifications (text messages, e-mails, Facebook updates, etc.) show up and scroll in the header, so you don’t have to stop what you are doing to read a message. So many different possibilities but for example, you can listen to Pandora while writing an e-mail and reading a text message.

One thing that compelled me to choose the Eris over a Blackberry was the Google integration. Overall, I wanted something easy, something that I could use to go online, update social media, and have apps. Both phones can do that. But I personally use Gmail, Google Calendar, and all those goods and the Eris is completely synced with these. I also liked the Eris design better than the Blackberrys that are currently on the market.

A few other quick things

• It has a USB charger, so you can charge your phone on the computer. I guess this is the new, more common thing to happen to cell phones but it’s a big difference from my old phone.
• It has a fun people shortcut so that you can easily text/call the people you talk to the most.
• Information can be organized based on a person, so I can see everything that someone sent me and their info in one place.
• I really could go on, but I don’t want to take all the fun and surprises out of getting a new phone. BUT, one more thing I like is the Google Search via voice recognition. Press a button, say “Taylor Swift” and it’ll search it for you on Google!

Hopefully that covered it. Any questions? Leave me a comment!

Celebrities on Twitter

Everyone is on Twitter, especially celebrities. Watching the playoffs, I had to laugh out loud when I heard Dwight Howard thank his Twitter followers. And then I had to add him. There are hundreds of different Web sites that give out “authentic” celebrity Twitter accounts, including CelebrityTweet, TIMES online and The Guardian online. But why are celebrities so hooked on Twitter? I’ve been thinking about this.

Celebrities usually want to keep their lives private, so why are they constantly updating their status on Twitter? Maybe it is a marketing technique for celebrities and it allows them to up their status in Hollywood — the person with the most followers is the most popular. Or it could be that Twitter allows them to share information with fans in a controlled way. Or maybe they are just doing because everyone is doing it. Could they simply be doing it because Twitter is… fun? Whatever the reason is, celebrities are joining at an alarming rate.

However, it may not be all that it seems. Celebrities are joining Twitter, but they are also on other social networks like Facebook or Myspace. While hundreds of celebrities are on Facebook, it doesn’t seem to make as much of an impact as Twitter does. This is because of the social aspects of Twitter. Fans are able to follow and even interact with their favorite celebrities unlike Facebook and Myspace where there is a slight chance that their response is even looked at. Twitter allows “normal people” to get close with celebrities. Good for fans, good PR for celebrities.

You can follow me on twitter: @nikimae