I have a Polder oven thermometer. If you do decide to go through your
oven's calibration process, be sure to let the oven stay at
temperature for 30-45 min first. My oven beeps "ready temperature"
about 20 min too soon.
As far as faster or lower, my oven decreases the temperature by 25
deg for "convection baking" but keeps the set temperature for
"convection meat," which tells me baking-lower, meat-faster. I don't
use convection for things that have to rise, especially batters, as
the crust will form quicker because of the circulating dry air before
the rising is sufficient. I don't know if that will be a problem if
you try it with bread (I haven't) but if you have a crust that needs
initial moisture (eg. steam) for good results, I'd guess you'd want
to skip the convection. So I use baking convection for items that
don't rise much such as thin cookies, roasted vegetables, or should
be crispy, and meat convection for meat and things that should be
crispy (eg. breaded fish). Don't be afraid to use trial and error to
test the differences.
I would like to add some "new oven" advice: if you have a
self-cleaning oven, be aware that the first time you use the
self-cleaning cycle it will produce the most seriously horrible fumes
while it burns off the factory oils! So be sure to run the first
cleaning on a day when you can open the windows and ventilate the
house or apartment well (i.e., nice weather). Even an
outside-ventilated range hood won't be enough unless it's industrial =:o.
As far as bread machines... for me the fun is in the eating. I don't
consider kneading or cleaning up to be "fun" and I love the set it
and forget it convenience of the machine while I do something else.
So to each their own :) I will on occasion make no-machine
bread. And, yes, I have a e-reader as well. (To which, BTW, I
uploaded some of my recipes so comes in handy in the kitchen.)
Sue