Mossberg on e-books for the iPhone, iPod Touch

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by Enraptured

I think I'd have trouble reading on such a small screen. Plus, the eInk screen is one of the major reasons I like having a dedicated reader. I think it's good that people are starting to read on their iPhones though - the more ways there are to read ebooks, the more people will read them.

Agreed. I think it's a good solution for people who don't read a lot, but want to every once in a while.

[SpiderMatt]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Or books about witchcraft, the occult, and entheogens, with recipes for various psychotropic herbal mixes that enhance spiritual revelations if used properly.

Or explicit slash fanfic, involving Harry Potter and several of his peers in more-than-compromising positions. And the "secret lives of Wayne & Kent, and my-oh-my let's talk Kryptonian stamina."

Being seen to read trashy pop fiction is the least of my worries. I'd never fret about being seen reading anything that can be bought at Barnes & Noble or Waldenbooks. However, with the Reader, I get people glancing over saying, "oh, is that one of those ebook things? I've been wondering about them? Do they work okay?"

I can't very well turn to them and say, "Oh yes, looks just like paper, see..." and show them a page out of "Harry Potter And The Bound Prince."

Fair enough. The simple solution, of course, would be to stop reading that garbage. But I can see you are set in your ways, haha.

[aznativegirl]

Hey, I'm searching for info on iPod touch. Can I download kindle files .azw and use a usb cable to get the books onto the iPod touch? or is it like the iphone and needs to be in US airspace to get the downloads? Both of my kindles have cracked screens from traveling, Amazon wont ship to turkey to fix, i cancelled my iPhone service due to $2500 data transfer fees via my phone service...I can still read my kindle books that I had in my HOME but nothing that is archived on my phone. So, my only other option at present is to find a way to usb to my iphone or see if an itouch will work via usb cable and will go get one. Otherwise i have no way to read all my books i bought for my year plus travels overseas...Thanks

[mrscoach]

Elfwreck:

Hey, why not show SlashPerv's work? I love her writing! Might give the person a quick thrill, too. LOL

Um, I'm actually joking about all that. I do love the Bound Prince series, but definitely not for the masses. I'd be afraid the screen would melt, anyway. That stuff is HOT.

You are currently reading "Harry Potter and the Charming Prince" aren't you?

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Or books about witchcraft, the occult, and entheogens, with recipes for various psychotropic herbal mixes that enhance spiritual revelations if used properly.

Or explicit slash fanfic, involving Harry Potter and several of his peers in more-than-compromising positions. And the "secret lives of Wayne & Kent, and my-oh-my let's talk Kryptonian stamina."

Being seen to read trashy pop fiction is the least of my worries. I'd never fret about being seen reading anything that can be bought at Barnes & Noble or Waldenbooks. However, with the Reader, I get people glancing over saying, "oh, is that one of those ebook things? I've been wondering about them? Do they work okay?"

I can't very well turn to them and say, "Oh yes, looks just like paper, see..." and show them a page out of "Harry Potter And The Bound Prince."

If they responded faster ("just as fast as turning a page in a paper book", hah), you could switch out of the book and to another easily and quickly.

Gee, I have read a couple things on the Palm z22 with a screen res of only 160x160. So it can be done.

And, no, I am not a masochist.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

Elfwreck:

Hey, why not show SlashPerv's work? I love her writing! Might give the person a quick thrill, too. LOL

It's, umm... a little much to open to a random page and show to strangers on the train, I think.

Recently got into a talk about ebook readers, and frantically looked through my Reader to find something in LRF format (so I could show off the best of the S/M/L features), and was happy to realize I had Peter Pan on my Reader. Am going to put together a small set of "sample docs" to show off to people who have more than 20 seconds to ask, "hey, is that a red Kindle?"

Um, I'm actually joking about all that. I do love the Bound Prince series, but definitely not for the masses. I'd be afraid the screen would melt, anyway. That stuff is HOT.

You are currently reading "Harry Potter and the Charming Prince" aren't you?

Nope; can't stand LJ WIPs, for several reasons. And hers are more troublesome than many, 'cos she carefully arranges her chapter lengths to fit within a single LJ post, with space for the headers & visitor count code in each post, so she's limited to 3-5k word chapters. (Also, I'm not done with White Queen; got distracted by the Beauty & Shooting Star set. And, erm, the Snarry Games are on.) When it's all done & posted, I'll go pester her for a Word doc copy of the whole thing, throw it into Reader-sized PDFs, and eventually get around to reading it.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by aznativegirl

Hey, I'm searching for info on iPod touch. Can I download kindle files .azw and use a usb cable to get the books onto the iPod touch? or is it like the iphone and needs to be in US airspace to get the downloads?

No you can't use USB to transfer books. But you can use the Kindle App on the iPod Touch and d/l the ebooks from Amazon over a wifi connection.

You of course need a US iTunes account to get the App and a US Amazon account to register your iPod to. I assume you already have the later.

BOb

[carlobee]

haven't had much issues reading on my iPhone too. works great because of it's great portability.

[mdb139]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Agreed. I think it's a good solution for people who don't read a lot, but want to every once in a while.

I don't know how you qualify "a lot", but I read on my literally iPhone every day, and read 3-5 books per month. For me, having one device is the key factor, and the screen doesn't matter that much... I read the same amount on my Windows candybar smart phone for two years or so (was that screen even QVGA? -- the screen was maybe 1.5"x2.5").

The big trade off to me is not so much the screen but the battery life... I like the idea of eInk but have never used it so I'm not missing anything.

To those that say they "couldn't" read on a iPhone -- I finally got my wife, who used to say the same thing, to try reading on her iPod Touch, and she's hooked. The big plus for her being that it's so much easier to read in bed. And now she's in fact reading more.

Anyway, I've been reading on PDA's and phones for years and have no plans on looking back. The iPhone feels like a good compromise to me -- one device, reasonable screen size.

[owlrigh]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Or explicit slash fanfic, involving Harry Potter and several of his peers in more-than-compromising positions. And the "secret lives of Wayne & Kent, and my-oh-my let's talk Kryptonian stamina."
[...]
I can't very well turn to them and say, "Oh yes, looks just like paper, see..." and show them a page out of "Harry Potter And The Bound Prince."

Ahaha. Yes, this. It's great to have something which doesn't tether me to the computer to read fanfiction. Speaking of: how do you get it onto your reader? I have come up with two ways:


1. Instapaper it, and then put it onto my ipod touch.

2. Save it to HTML, run it through calibre to make it into a Sony-friendly format, and go from there.

(I do 1. mostly, and have always wanted to say to someone if they ask what I'm reading: "Gay porn, actually, and if you don't mind, I just got to a good bit, so ...")

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by owlrigh

Ahaha. Yes, this. It's great to have something which doesn't tether me to the computer to read fanfiction. Speaking of: how do you get it onto your reader?

Rolled my own solution (with some help), at least for FanFiction.Net.

FLAG (Fanfiction.net Lightweight Automated Grabber)
FiC (FLAG iPhone Companion)

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

When all three of my Cliés died (one dead screen; two with battery problems) I decided to switch to currently-supported tech. I like the longer batter life on the Sony Reader (the Cliés kept dying on me mid-book), and I like the navigation better, but I can't say I actually care about the eInk screen or the page size. It's much better for images, and it's nice to have larger-font headers and smaller-font footnotes, but it's also more bulky, and I keep getting nervous about people reading over my shoulder.

How can you not care about the eInk screen when that is what gives your PRS-505 its long battery life?

Also, why was this thread bumped from its grave?

[owlrigh]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Rolled my own solution (with some help), at least for FanFiction.Net.

FLAG (Fanfiction.net Lightweight Automated Grabber)
FiC (FLAG iPhone Companion)

I have used that for a few stories, thank you; it's just that there's an overwhelming amount of dross on that site, and a lot of good stuff outside of it!

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by owlrigh

Ahaha. Yes, this. It's great to have something which doesn't tether me to the computer to read fanfiction. Speaking of: how do you get it onto your reader? I have come up with two ways:

I throw it into Word (copy & paste), do some find-and-replace formatting, try to get chapter titles styled as Heading 1, and make 3.46x4.6" pages with .1" margins, 10 pt Fontin or Georgia main body font, and run it through the PDF conversion with the Sony Reader optimization settings.

Erm. I spend waaaay too much time working with both Word and Acrobat.

When I'm in a hurry, I throw it into Word, save-as RTF, make sure the body font is at least 16 pt, and read it that way. That's what I do for Livejournal posts with comments that I want to grab before I leave for work.