Blog Posts by Jesse Michaels

Kindle Paperwhite (Courtesy Amazon.ca)One of the top complaints of ereaders - both the devices and the people who use them has been that they can't be read in the dark. No backlight means no sneaking in a chapter while your significant other snoozes beside you in bed.

Amazon seems to have solved that with the release of its first front-lit Kindle - the Paperwhite. I had a chance to test one for a few weeks and was generally pleased with the result.

[ Related: Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite, $89 Kindle launch in Canada ]

The device does live up to its name and makes reading everywhere easy, thanks to its very bright and vivid screen, which boasts a higher contrast display and more pixel density than previous models. The front-lit screen even makes reading in bright conditions a pleasure, such as my my daily bus trip to and from work.

The touch screen also benefits from new capacitive technology, which seemed to account for fewer accidental swipes and taps (compared to my own Kindle Touch).

I didn't have the Kindle long enough

Read More »from Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite lights up a new generation of ereaders

The writer hopes that one day in Movember his moustache will look like Burt Reynolds' or Tom Selleck.We're almost at the halfway point of Movember, and Mo-bros (that's men in Movember-speak) are busy growing and grooming their moustaches across the country.

But what about those of us lacking in the 'stache department? What's a guy to do when he doesn't have much of a cookie duster to show? I'm one of those forlorn fellows,
dreaming of emulating Tom Selleck but with little chance of getting there.

Sure, I could try a distraction like buying a new pair of glasses or donning a disguise, but ultimately my no-stache will still be a topic of conversation among the chattering classes with a better-formed hairy upper lip.

[ Related: Movember: The growing is the hardest part ]

The good folks at Movember have thoughtfully supplied a number of grooming tips, including shampooing regularly, employing conditioner and using a hot towel to cleanse the skin below the moustache.

Good tips, all of them, but what I'm looking for is more along the lines of a moustache growth serum, or even a magic bean

Read More »from Movember: How to turn a ‘no-stache’ into hirsute happiness?

Screen capture from CTV's Lisa LaFlamme Twitter

The news network was covering the fire and subsequent explosions at a racing fuel plant in the city but had quite a bit of trouble spelling its name.

The closest they got was "Winnepeg" in the place name. Unfortunately, their version in the caption was even more mangled — "Winnpieg."

This isn't the first time the city's name has been misspelled — rock group U2 spelled it "Winipeg" and referred to Manitoba as a state during a concert pre-show in the city last year.

Winnipeg was also in the news recently when Toronto Mayor Rob Ford mistook it for the city of Windsor, Ontario during a trade mission to Chicago last month.

Read More »from CNN covers Winnipeg fire but has double trouble spelling the city’s name

REUTERS/Stephen LamGoogle's Nexus 7 tablet might be getting great reviews, including kudos for its affordability, but you wouldn't know it if you've pre-ordered the device (like I have) in Canada.

Despite some anecdotal evidence that the 8GB version of the tablet is shipping, Canadians (and others) who ordered the 16GB model through the Google Play store seem to be in the dark as to when they might receive the highly anticipated tablet.

Adding salt to the pre-order wound is that the tablet has made its way to some stores across the country in limited numbers, allowing anyone to just walk in and pick one up. One potential Nexus 7 owner was angry enough to start an online petition asking for Google to refund shipping costs.

[ Related: Google's Nexus tablet selling fast across retail chains ]

So what's the point of pre-ordering a gadget if you can't reap the benefits of getting it before others? I naively believed that a package would make its way to my doorstop sometime before the tablet would hit retail

Read More »from Canadians who pre-ordered Google's Nexus 7 tablet in the dark on shipping

Hugo Barra, product management director of Android, introduces Google's low-cost computer tablet Nexus 7 during the keynote speech at Google's annual developer conference, Google I/O in San Francisco.In an Apple-style unveiling today at their annual I/O conference, rival Google announced two new products aimed squarely at their competition: The Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus Q media player.

The Nexus 7, having been rumoured for months, comes packed with quad-core Tegra 3 processor, 1.2-megapixel front camera and a 1280 x 800 screen running Jelly Bean, Google's newest Android operating system. The tablet will have access to books, movies and music in the cloud through the Google Play store.

Rivals Apple and Amazon will surely be watching closely, with the former also rumoured to be launching a 7" iPad and the latter looking to launch a new version of their popular Kindle Fire tablet.

Google also announced the Nexus Q, a rather interestingly-shaped media streaming device that connects to your TV and can be controlled by an Android device, similar to the Apple TV.

The Nexus 7 starts at $199 U.S. and is expected to ship in mid-July, while the Nexus Q will sell for $299 U.S. and will also

Read More »from Google unveils Nexus 7 tablet, Nexus Q streaming media player

On the eve of the upcoming "Freedom Weekend" in February, hosted by Sun News Network personality Ezra Levant, questions are being raised as to how many people they've managed to attract to the event and who exactly is watching the channel.

Openfile.ca is reporting that Twitter comments (of the event) "were almost uniformly dismissive, and generally quite condescending."

Of course at $1,200 per person for a weekend spent with personalities of a news channel that's just to the right of Attila the Hun and less than a year old, the derision shouldn't come as a surprise.

Meanwhile, Openfile contacted veteran entertainment journalist and former Sun Media TV columnist Bill Brioux to try and understand the numbers behind the news channel.

According to Brioux (who has access to the BBM Canada viewership numbers), Sun News viewers are "miniscule".

"Very few Canadians watch Sun News Network. A look at the BBM Canada overnight, estimated ratings for [Wednesday, Dec. 28], showed that their highest

Read More »from Who’s watching Sun News?

TwineWhat if you could have your washing machine tell you when your clothes are clean and the plant that your mom gave you speak up when it needs to be watered?

Thanks to a cool little device that looks like a bar of soap, you may soon be able to do all of this - without having to buy expensive "connected" appliances.

Twine is a device created by two MIT grads, David Carr and John Kestner, that houses Wi-Fi and sensors for moisture, temperature, motion, vibration and a magnetic switch. The device uses a simple "if this, then that" interface. You can connect it to a window, for example, and then have it tell you how many times the window has been opened and closed via Twitter, text message or email.

The fellows put their idea on Kickstarter (a "crowdfunding" fundraising site) and expect to start shipping the device in May of this year.

Soon you too will be able follow the daily drama that is your door opening and closing.

(Photos from Toronto Standard)

Read More »from Twine will tell you when your socks are dry and what plants need watering

Saadi Gadhafi, son of Moammar, owns a $1.6 million penthouse in downtown Toronto.

The son of the late Libyan dictator apparently purchased the condominium at 10 Navy Wharf in May of 2008, according to an investigation by the National Post.

Saadi, a one-time professional soccer player and full time playboy, left the job of being his father's right-hand-man to his brother, Saif Al-Islam.

According to the Post, Saadi visited Toronto about once a year to conduct business, revel in the city's nightlife and once hosted a party during the Toronto International Film Festival.

Oddly enough, he preferred to stay and party in hotels, despite owning the million-dollar condo.

Plans were initially made to spirit Saadi to Canada after the Libyan revolution began in February. Unfortunately for him, the RCMP would have arrested him on the spot. A second scheme to get him to Mexico also failed because the Mexican government refused to provide proper documents to travel to a villa near Puerto Vallarta

Read More »from Saadi Gadhafi’s million-dollar (but unused) Toronto penthouse