Quote:
Originally Posted by Tamara
I was thinking the same thing. I understand my 6 year old niece being easy to distract but an adult should have learned to focus  . |
Hi, Tamara. Yes, one would think so, but, alas, at 40, distractions are the bane of my existence.
I can see it being a problem for me, though that is also why the whole "multitasking" thing doesn't bother me. If I can maximize my window (if you forgive the metaphor), it usually lets me focus, to the exclusion of other things. I am curious how I will respond to using an iPad as a reader (I don't have one - I may be getting one next month). Will I be distracted? Will I not read, but simply lie in bed at night browsing the MR forums (as I do now, with my iPhone)? I will be interested to see if I am as easily distracted as your 6 year old niece.
(<--- That's a genuine smile, right there. I have a 5 year old nephew, whose lack of focus I get along remarkably well with
).
Quote:
Originally Posted by scottjl
why all the concern about the margins? do you not just read all the lines of text and hit next page? when i'm into a book, i don't even notice the house burning down around me, let alone what the page margins look like.
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I haven't seen of which he speaks, but, for me, those distractions can impinge on the experience. In the same way that I don't like my Iliad e-ink screen as much as I thought I would (nor my LED booklight's colour), typographical variations are something that I might find off-putting (see above response to Tamara). I don't expect that this will at all be a general thing other people might also find annoying, but then I'd be getting the device for me, and not for other people.
So, I can see the possibility of overlarge margins being annoying, but, then, I haven't really experienced the margins to know if they're "over" enough to impinge on my consciousness. It's not a either/or thing...just an ambiguous, subjective degree, on certain things (for instance, I dislike it when first letters of chapters are turned into elaborate symbols. It's strictly a personal thing, but it unfocuses me). Without those distractions, I am strictly focussed - my general day-to-day experience involves me trying to remove all distractions to obtain that unbreakable focus (just ask my partner, who may currently be screaming my name without me hearing it
).
Quote:
Originally Posted by kjk
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But sometimes it takes more than just a 5 minute hands on demo to fully appreciate how you will use a product.
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It's funny you should say, because I had a 5 minute play with an iPad just the other day. I do have both an iPhone and iPod Touch, which I have thoroughly enjoyed, and the iPad gave me that same, slick feeling of satisfaction - the kind of device I want. I found, looking at iBooks, that I seemed to like it in landscape format, with the two pages next to each other, rather than portrait. It was only 5 minutes though, and it will be interesting to see if I maintain that preference (talking of distractions, in the middle of a large department store...well, let's just say there were a lot of distractions. How has that coloured experience?). So, yes, I think I experienced that limitation you suggest.
I am looking forward to getting an iPad. Of course, I am one who has a tendency to still go with the "comfort food" of paperbacks, so consider this and the above strictly personal, individual observation and hypothesising.
I do expect bedtime MR-browsing to be more pleasant on the iPad than on the iPhone.
Cheers,
Marc