Review, Usage Guide and Tips for Amazon Kindle e-book Reader in India

All-New Kindle (10th Gen), 6" Display now with Built-in Light, 4 GB, Wi-Fi 

Features 

- 6 inch display, 167 ppi glare-free feels to eyes like real paper, even in direct sunlight.

- Adjustable front light - read comfortably - 24 levels of light from zero to max. 

- As no internet browser, speaker and media options one can read distraction-free. 

- Dictionary feature, Highlight passages, look up definitions, translate words

- Adjust text size—without ever leaving the page (2 finger zoom works).

- Huge and larger selection compared to other options like Kobo

- Book formats size is very compact and so even 4GB can holds thousands of titles, so virtually you can carry library with you.

- Prime reading gives you ten books at any time from a selection of Kindle books. If you need another book, just return one of the existing ones and new one can be downloaded. (Limit of 10 is valid as of May 2019). 

- Amazing battery life. A single battery charge lasts weeks, not hours.

- This device does not support playback of Audible audiobooks.
- Experimental Browser - for very basic web browsing in Black and White

 

- Product dimensions - 160mm x 113mm x 8.7mm

Usage review - 

- This 2019 Kindle 10th Gen makes an already well designed product even better.

- Light weight for its size. At 174 grams, comfortable for even for single hand use.
- Addition of back-light to this base model of latest gen device is a welcome step.

- Although it has 4 LEDs in back-light the light is very uniform across the screen and there are no patches of brightness. You need back-light only in dark or if you prefer a brighter screen. Based on ambient light and what is comfortable to your eyes light can be adjusted at 24 different levels.

- No charger is included. Only a USB cable which can be used to charge from any standard 5V USB charger or a computer. Micro USB port is on lower edge of the device as you see in picture. Next to it is the power button. 

- Availability of many free books as per of Prime Reading (for Prime members) makes money spent more worth it for me.
- Price of many international titles as well as Indian books is far lower for Kindle edition compared to paper backs and hard cover books.

- Resolution of 167ppi sounds low when we compare with phone screens which have upwards of 400ppi these days but with e-ink screen and the book reading this resolution and clarity is really good.

Buy Kindle on Amazon India   (amazon affiliate link)
Buy 2019 Kindle on Amazon.com  (amazon affiliate link) 

Here is some views of device menus and options

- On this Kindle Bluetooth is not enabled for audio books (as of May 2019). 

There are good accessibility options in case you need assistance. These include ofcourse the font size adjustment, screen adjustments for brightness as well as screen reader which can read out buttons and menus for guidance and operation. As there is no builtin speaker one has to be a bluetooth speaker or earphone. volume and speech rate of spoken feedback can be adjusted. 

- In accessibility settings when VoiceView Screen Reader is enabled you can setup a Bluetooth speaker or headset which can be used for listening to on screen menus and commands and if a book page is open it starts to read the same. This is not a very good audio book experience.

- Reading options have language learning features which can be good for learning new words and vocabulary skills.

Experimental Browser
There is a very basic experimental Web browser in Kindle and can be accessed from the top right corner of menu (three dots). Refer to the picture. With this you can have basic browsing done.

   

Parental control options are available to restrict features and content with a passcode. 

Let me know if you have any questions on usage experiences, instructions and tips on transferring books to especially the NCERT and CBSE school books to Kindle?

For converting books for CBSE or any other NCERT books to make them compatible with Kindle, I used Calibre SW which is very easy to use and works flawlessly. 

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Pioneer - MVH-X169UI - 2014 Car Stereo Review and Error - 19 Resolution for USB

Got this Pioneer - MVH-X169UI from Pioneer's 2014 car entertainment line. It is a USB player with Mixtrax, USB direct control for ipod/iphone and certain android phones. It is a unit without any disc drive. So no CD/DVD supported.

Product Features

MIXTRAX (MIXTRAX EZ for Quick Non-Stop MIX Play)
USB Direct Control for iPod/iPhone (Optional Cable Required)
Android MTP -USB Direct Control for Certain Android Phones
Bright USB Port (Front: High Current 1A Handling Capability)
AUX Input (Front)
MP3/WMA/WAV Playback
Advanced Sound Retriever
RCA Preout x 1 (2 V)
5-Band Graphic EQ
Detachable Face Security

USB
DEVICE USB
DECODE(FORMAT)14*WMA/MP3/WAV(4)
LIST SEARCH (File/Folder/iPod)

AUX - 1(Front)
iPod INTERFACE - YES(USB)
ILLUMINATION(COLOR) RED (Single color)

DISPLAY
DEVICE - LCD(NEGA)
COLOR - BLACK BACK(NEGA)
There is no brightness or contrast adjustment

Installed it in car. I have a simple set up with only two front speakers and so installation was easy. Just had to connect wires matching with the description and color coding (only connections required were)
1. Main battery (Yellow)
2. Ground (Black)
3. Red (Ignition key power control)
4. White + White Black - Left front speaker connections
5. Grey + Greay Black - Right front speaker connections
6. Antenna coaxial connection for radio 

Error 19

Initial set up is just setting up the clock if you would like to set up clock. Then connected my iPhone and it worked flawlessly first time after connecting the iPhone USB cable to the unit. Later also tried a USB memory stick. It was an 8GB HP memory with around 3GB worth of music. It started reading but after few seconds later gave ERROR 19 message.

Looked at the manual and it says Error 19 is a communication error and Perform one of the operations
- Turn the ignition switch OFF and back ON.
- Disconnect the USB portable audio player/USB
- Change to a different source.
Then, return to the USB portable audio player/USB memory.

I tried all these few times but nothing seemed to help. Then I brought the USB to my Windows machine and did a scan / error checking to fix the file system and bad sector errors. Device was formatted originally to FAT32 which is OK. USB scan for error reported that there were few file system errors which are fixed. So after that I tried the USB device again in MVH-X169UI and it started working without any problems.

Photo of installed unit running from USB after resolving the Error 19

I did search on web and saw some people suggesting different bit rates settings, not using variable bit rate songs etc and also removing the tags information from songs to make it compatible. I did not do any of these things and atleast my problem got resolved just by scanning and fixing the file system errors.

This solution may or may not work for all but I hope this information is useful for some of the users.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS5 Point & Shoot 14.1MP Digital Camera, 5x Lens

Got Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS5 Point & Shoot camera recently for not so tech savvy family members who are not comfortable with bigger cameras with many settings including my Sony HX100V. 


Key features that attracted me to this one were specifications like AA batteries, 720P video at 30 frames per second and optical image stabilization at sub Rs4000 (USD80) price point.


Panasonic DMC-LS5 Product Page


Images courtesy Panasonic product website

Due to a smaller CCD sensor (1/2.33-inch) with 14.5 Total Megapixels cramped in the image quality is not that great and with cheaper electronics response in terms of focusing is also slow. It is a very basic camera and for the price paid it is fine.


One issue I am having is that it is only working with Alkaline batteries and not with any of my NiMH rechargeable batteries. I have tried all 5-6 sets I have from various brands including Duracell and Energizer after charging fully as well. Measured voltage also and all if fine with batteries. I have report this issue to Panasonic support through an email and waiting for their response. I have not seen any one other reporting the issue yet online so may be a problem with specific unit.


Update - 
Based on voltage measurements on batteries, it does not operate if battery voltage is less than 1.5V. NiMH which has a standard voltage of 1.2V each cell should also work as per product specifications. Even some other Alkaline batteries including another set of Panasonic batteries with voltage of 1.47 volt are not able to power the camera. It appears to be a manufacturing/component defect in the power circuit of the camera.


Update - I had given camera to Panasonic service center and they claimed to have changed the power circuit and returned the camera to me after couple of days. Now it is working fine. Another thing I noticed is that camera power circuit is quite sensitive to internal resistance of the batteries. My older NiMH batteries which work in Canon cameras and other electronics do not work in this Panasonic camera. I have bought some new Sanyo Eneloop and Sony NiMH batteries which are working fine in this camera. 



Summary Review - 


Good things
- AA batteries (standard pencil cells)
- SD Card (cheap cards available these days)
- 720P video recording
- Easy to use modes and options
- Outdoor picture reasonable quality
- Image stabilization works reasonably well (not perfect but one can see the difference)


Flaws 
- Very sensitive to type of AA batteries. Takes only best quality batteries (fresh NiMH) and Duracell / Sony high drain batteries). With some of the Panasonic, Eveready, Energizer Alkalines did not even turn on or with fresh batteries says batteries low. Batteries which work fine in a Canon are simply rejected by this camera. This may be my unit’s problem but Panasonic service is not able to fix it even after they claimed that they have changed the power circuit.
- Slow focus
- Slow recharge of flash (shot to shot)
- Significant lag from button press to shot.
- Big annoyance – Can not replay HD recorded video in camera. It can only play back VGA or lower resolution.
- Indoor and low light pictures are very noisy.
- Lens motor is little bit noisy (focusing lens motor can be heard when putting camera near your face)