Quote:
Originally Posted by radleyp
Isn't the iphone screen as big (or very nearly as big) as the Zodiac's?
|
I'm not sure, but doesn't matter. Unless/until Apple releases the SDK for the iPhone, the software won't be there for most of what I do. And even after they release it, it will take a while for certified apps to appear, and who knows whether anyone will port an ebook viewer to the iPhone? (Mobipocket would be the obvious first choice, but do they have the developer resources?)
The iPhone is pretty, with elegant design, a gorgeous display, and a superb UI. What the iPhone does, it does very well. What it doesn't do makes it unsuitable for me.
Quote:
|
I carry a smartphone (a MotoQ, on which I used to read books) and the Kindle. I have a lot of software on the Q (Quicken, Zagat, PocketStars, games) and it works fine. I input very little on the phone - I am a touch typist and only a full keyboard is for me truly satisfactory, so I input almost all on my desktop.
|
I don't do a lot of input on the PDA, but I have a folding keyboard for those instances when I need to. I don't like thumbboards, the on-screen virtual keyboard is too slow, and while I'm passable at Grafitti, a keyboard is a lot faster and easier for any extended input.
Quote:
|
A device the size of a Kindle would never, in any case, work as a phone.
|
Agreed. I have a tiny Nokia that works just fine.
Quote:
|
Dennis, I think the matter of price for the eink reader is exaggerated: figure I'll keep it for two years (that's how long I've had my Q), that's less than $20 a month, I spend that and more going to the movies once with my wife. Yes, the pda does more, but I don't see that that changes much: a Kindle is a reading device, period. I do not need or want pim functions in a device that size, as pim functions for me must fit in my pocket.
|
Price is only one factor, and eInk isn't the point.
The question becomes: how many different devices am I willing to carry? I'll carry a cell phone and a PDA. I
won't carry a cell phone, PDA,
and reader. I won't carry a combo cell-phone/PDA because I haven't seen a converged device that works for me. I want a larger screen than any cell phone will have.
eInk is lovely, but one of my requirements is color, and that's a couple of years off for eInk at best. It's in development in the lab, but I don't expect to see it in a device soon.
I'd
like a device that could normally replace my
laptop as well as my PDA, with something in a smaller, lighter form factor. It doesn't have to fit in a pocket. My PDA is a bit big to carry in a pocket, and lives in a shoulder bag or a briefcase. It needs to have PIM functions, display ebooks, play MP3s and videos, display photos, surf the web, handle email and newsgroups, do word processing, spreadsheets, and text editing, and play games. It needs a color screen large enough to do such things comfortably. It needs a keyboard, but an external BT keyboard or the like is fine. It needs Wifi and BT.
It does
not need to run Windows - I can handle Linux, thank you. It does not need to run MS Office. Open Office works for me.
It does need to be flash based, and use SD cards for external storage.
The closest I've seen to what I'd like thus far is the ASUS eee, but I'd like a larger screen. If ASUS made something like the eee with a larger screen as a tablet, minus the keyboard, that you could use a BT keyboard with, we'd start getting into the range of what I'm looking for.
______
Dennis