|
That wide bezel is specifically for holding onto. I'm certain that there will be a screen rotation option (there is already on the Jetbook/Aluratek -- just add two more 90-degree stops.) Don't waste money on an accelerometer -- not for such a simple purpose.
I owned an REB1100 for years -- by far the best ergonomically-designed ebook reader; they even used the giant battery as a hand-grip and a way to prop up the device for reading. Once you've used something good, the rest of these terrible designs (including the Kindle) become obvious. As I've said, I like my Libre but it is a struggle to use naturally (ie: without conscious thought intruding.) I constantly have to consider strategies in how to hold it, or balance it, or push the buttons.
Holding this JBMini is going to be easy. If there is reasonable configurability on the buttons, it's going to become completely transparent. Pick it up, turn it on, your thumb will sit on the page-turn button. No struggle to find a way to curve your thumb backward to drag a slide-bar, or reach across the device to push a button, or balance it on your palm and little finger. Just hold it, like a tool, and push the frackin' button. Think about how you hold a car-remote, or a hammer.
Forgive my frustration, but I go a little nuts every time I end up having to use two hands to read. It's not like designers don't have hands, is it? Don't they drink coffee while reading?
I think the new Sony readers are beautiful. I would like one (and I may, after the price falls somewhat) but for all their beauty (and glorious touch-screens) my guess is that some genius somewhere decided that because a paper-book has a spine that causes us to hold the middle-bottom of a book, that's what we should do with our flat readers. So the buttons are at the bottom, along a narrow bezel, such that we need two thumbs on one hand to use it effectively.
I will buy this. It will work, be reasonably sturdy, feel pretty good in the hand, be useable by either hand, be widely available and probably be pretty cheap. It won't be wired to some corporate scheme to milk me of money, it won't spy on my reading habits, it won't flash when I change a page, and it won't have middle-of-the-road-let's-just-do-what-everybody-else-is-doing-and-not-shock-the-neighbors design.
And I can probably get it in bright yellow.
If they added a touch-screen, an indiglo backlight and buttons on the back, it would be perfect.
|