Getting approach plates to play on portable electronic devices has proven to be a round peg in a square hole. Several companies have tried to crack this nut, but it seems to defy an elegant why-didnt-I-think-of-that solution that resonates with everyone. The latest effort is to adapt Amazons much hyped Kindle e-reader to the task of being a chart library, something it was never designed to do but can actually manage with a reasonable degree of grace. A company called Gold Seal Ventures through its Web outlet www.airbrief.com will launch this product formally at EAA AirVenture in July. They sent us an advance unit for a first look and although were favorably impressed, perfection still eludes. Amazon has made ripples in the publishing world with its Kindle e-reader, a device thats sold as being so-called electronic paper. Kindles are among a class of products that have electrophoretic displays that use minutely charged particles re-arranged on a plastic substrate to produce readable images and text. The process is somewhat like the old Etch-A-Sketch toys we had as kids, but instead of a couple of X-Y knobs, the process is done rapidly by applying selective voltages to the screen to rearrange ink particles into type and rudimentary images.
Paul Bertorelli is Aviation Consumer’s Editor at Large. In addition to his valued contributions to Aviation Consumer, his in-depth video productions on sister publication AVweb cover a wide variety of topics that greatly contribute to safety, operation and aircraft ownership. When Paul isn’t writing or filming, he’s out flying his J3 Cub.
