Reading e-books on your phone - why do it?

[msundman]

Originally Posted by Alisa

reading on a backlit screen for long periods strains my eyes.

There is no way your eyes could know whether the source of the light is behind the screen (backlit) or in front of it (frontlit/reflective). However, the nature of the light might be different on one device than on another. So, maybe it's some flickering LEDs or EL-plate that has some characteristics that strains your eyes. Anyway, the problem is not that the display is backlit.

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by msundman

There is no way your eyes could know whether the source of the light is behind the screen (backlit) or in front of it (frontlit/reflective).

Generally true, but another factor could be the difference in lighting between the screen and the surroundings (in which case the front-lighting on the new Sony Reader case should cause similar strain.)

But I've never noticed a problem with reading on LCD, anyway. I like e ink for the longer battery life and cooler operating temperatures.

[erwin]

About the eyes strain: as I said at everyone its tastes, but from my experience I developed the strong suspect that the notorious color LCD backlighting eyes strain is frequently a... pigment of immagination (my apologies to Pratchett for the theft...

I started reading ebooks back in 1993 on a Newton MP0 (a Sharp ExpertPad really, but that is another story... . If some of you ever used that generation of PDA he\she will know what mayor pain in the... eyes those screens were!

Along 15 years I used all the Newton models (100,110,120,130, 2x00), a Rocket eBook, iPaq 3130, 3630 & 5450; Sony Clie' NX80 & NZ90; various Palm from the original PalmPilot to a couple of Treo; Nokia 770, 7710 & E61i, a Sony Reader, plus some other models of PDA and smartphone that I believe noboby knows today (Amstrad PenPad anyone? Hmmm... maybe I should start to consided to sell my collection...

I have not done this list to show-off (ehm... but to say that I really used a lot of different kind of machines with different type of screen and functions ensambles. And my personal conclusion is that, at least for my way of life, nothing beats for now, as fullfillment of all my necessities of info-fruition on the move and as well when reading in bed, a smartphone with an ample and backlighted screen.

When the e-ink technology will give me a screen with not-ridicoluos refresh times and optional backlighting for when I decide that I need to use it (and color maybe), I will gladly buy it and use it as my main mobile info-machine. Longer battery life and lower temperature ar not enough. IMHO the Readius is a really good step in the right direction, expecially for the foldable screen, but no-cigar-yet...

Beside the screen considerations, my perplexity about a dedicated readers for ebooks is centered on the core of the ebook concept. In my opinion a dedicated reader is just like the first cars. They were designed not as a new mean of locomotion, but as horse-carriages whitout the horses. Mind the Ford Model-T.

Ebooks are IMHO a new way to access info, and replicating the paper book paradigma is an epistemological error. I don't care for the book as a fetish, I want my info as ready to be fruited as possible! And I want them integrated and integrable with hypertextual access to other info, and all this without cluttering my life with another piece of plastic. Ergo, the smartphone.

We can discuss the right screen dimension and quality of the aforementioned 'phone if you wish, but a dedicated machine is a no-go, with eink of LCD does not matter. And not let me even begin about DRM and similia and how a dedicated and proprietary machine is more useful for a centralized control of contents that for its useful distribution...

My apologies for the long rant and for my grammar errors (I'm not an english native spek... ehr, writer I mean...

[nekokami]

My ideal device would be about the size of a "trade" paperback but no more than 2cm thick, would run for at least 12 hours between charges, and would have integrated lighting, at least 150dpi (more would be better), and stylus input including handwriting recognition. From a software point of view, it should be able to read PDF and all the standard ebook formats (though I don't care about DRM support). I don't care about making phone calls, so my ideal device isn't a phone, but some kind of anywhere-wireless access would be ideal. Color is less important to me than all of the above, and rapid screen refresh only slightly more important than color, though if I could have a full-power computer that I could do graphics work on, I'd want both.

I'm really talking about a tablet, but tablets don't run for more than an hour or so. So at the present time, the iLiad meets my needs best, not just as an ebook reader, but as a general device. The Newton MP 2x00 was the closest contender in the past (and I'm still mad at Apple for cutting the Newton product line).

I don't know if there's a one-device-fits-all for anybody, but based on the difference between my needs and erwin's, I'm pretty sure there's no one-device-fits-everybody. Which is fine by me.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by nekokami

My ideal device would be about the size of a "trade" paperback but no more than 2cm thick, would run for at least 12 hours between charges, and would have integrated lighting, at least 150dpi (more would be better), and stylus input including handwriting recognition. From a software point of view, it should be able to read PDF and all the standard ebook formats (though I don't care about DRM support). I don't care about making phone calls, so my ideal device isn't a phone, but some kind of anywhere-wireless access would be ideal. Color is less important to me than all of the above, and rapid screen refresh only slightly more important than color, though if I could have a full-power computer that I could do graphics work on, I'd want both.

I'm in roughly the same position.

I'm not interested in convergence, because of the compromises in form factor required. I simply want a bigger screen for the other things I do than any usable cell phone can have.

My cell phone is a tiny low-end Nokia. All it does is place and receive calls, and that's all I want it to do. I'm happy to carry a cell phone and another device.

My requirements for the other device include color, and the ability to do other things besides display ebooks. The PDA I use has a fair subset of the capability of a laptop. I'd like a screen larger that the 320x480 screen it uses, but I haven't found a device that has one that does everything the PDA can do.

I'm comfortable reading on an LCD screen, and battery life, while not wonderful, is bearable. I can generally go all day and simply put the device on the charging cable at night to be topped off by the next morning.

I'll carry a cell phone and a PDA. I won't carry a cell phone, a PDA, and a reader.
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Dennis

[nekokami]

I admit, what caused me to switch from the Newton MP 2000 to the Palm Pilot III (besides that I won one in a drawing, much to my surprise) was the ability to synchronize the calendar with my "work" calendar (which was on Solaris Calendar Manager at the time). I'd happily leave the Palm behind if I could do this on my iLiad-- I'd carry a slightly larger bag to have the iLiad with me all the time (I keep it in a day planner case anyway). The only other semi-critical function on my Palm (I have a IIIxe now) is the Chinese dictionary that accepts character input and provides pinyin pronunciation and English translation. It seems likely to me that something like this could be ported to the iLiad as well, but I don't know of a linux application that works as well as the one I use on the Palm.

I've played Colossal Cave and other IF games on the Palm, but it never really occurred to me to read on it until after I'd discovered dedicated ebook readers. And I'd have to buy a newer PDA with a lot more memory or support for storage cards to keep my full library available. And I really do prefer a larger screen, so rather than buy a new PDA, I bought a half-price used iLiad.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by nekokami

I've played Colossal Cave and other IF games on the Palm, but it never really occurred to me to read on it until after I'd discovered dedicated ebook readers. And I'd have to buy a newer PDA with a lot more memory or support for storage cards to keep my full library available. And I really do prefer a larger screen, so rather than buy a new PDA, I bought a half-price used iLiad.

I have versions of Adventure, Rogue, Moria, Larn, and Nethack on my PDA. (The latter deeply amused Eric S. Raymond: he's a contributor to Nethack, and wasn't aware anyone had done a Palm port.)

My first PDA came from my then employer, when someone decided all of the IT staffers should have PDAs, and a co-worker called saying "Hey, Dennis? You want a PDA?" "Uh, okay..." A Handspring Visor Deluxe arrived in interoffice mail. It wasn't clear what I was supposed to do with it, so I went looking for software that would help me in my work as a systems administrator. One of the first things I discovered was that I could take documentation for the systems I worked on and convert them to a form I could keep on the PDA, using an open source offline HTML reader called Plucker. I could carry manuals in my pocket in searchable electronic form, and not have to deal with large heavy books.

The Deluxe was a mono 160x160 screen, but I could read on it comfortably, and with a Springboard adapter and a Compact Flash card, I could store a considerable amount of information. I hadn't seen myself reading fiction on the device, but the same program that handled the systems manuals could do other kinds of books, so I stated branching out.

The current device has a 320x480 color screen, and two SD slots with a 2GB card in each. I have about 3,500 ebooks on it on a wide variety of topics. Most of it is still in Plucker format, but I have eReader and Mobipocket Reader for Palm OS, plus a PDF viewer, and programs than can handle Word documents, RTF files, and plain text files, so I can handle pretty much anything, The main issue is remembering which content is in which format viewed with which program.

Add PIM functions, databases holding data on a variety of topics, the ability to create and edit documents and spreadsheets, the ability to listen to MP3s and view videos, the ability to go online, get email, and surf the web (though I generally don't do that), and oh, yes, to play games, and I have a truly multifunction device. As mentioned, I'd like a larger screen, but I have yet to find a device that has one that can do everything the PDA does. (The usual lack is PIM functions.)
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Dennis

[erwin]

@ nekokami - About the Newton: I feel your pain, bro! Oh, if you only knew how much I feel your pain!!! Beside any consideration on the quality of the OS etc, I had nearly 5 years of my working life invested in the darn platform when Genius Jobs sunked it...

@ DMcCunney & nekokami - About an infopad-gizmo: the machine that, as today, IMO is the nearest to what I think you are searching (and to what I know I'm searching... is the HTC Advantage - http://www.pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=1118 - The price is high (about 1000 bucks for a not-subsized one) but it really has all. Add a bluetooth stereo headset if you really want, and you are game.

Now, what can I sell to rise the money to buy it... hmmm... there is nobody around interested in a vintage PDA collection? Seriously.

[nekokami]

The HTC advantage looks kind of interesting, but runs Windows. And I'm honestly pretty happy with my iLiad. But thanks anyway.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by erwin

@ DMcCunney & nekokami - About an infopad-gizmo: the machine that, as today, IMO is the nearest to what I think you are searching (and to what I know I'm searching... is the HTC Advantage - http://www.pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=1118 - The price is high (about 1000 bucks for a not-subsized one) but it really has all. Add a bluetooth stereo headset if you really want, and you are game.

HTC makes nice devices. But the price is high (my PDA cost about 1/4 of what the HTC does), and at that price, I want a larger screen. I can also do without Windows Mobile 6.

I'm somewhat interested in the 9" screen ASUS eee, but I'd want Xandros, not XP on it. I'm making a leap of faith PIM functionality improves for small Linux based devices.
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Dennis

[erwin]

A cheaper alternative could be the I-Mate Ultimate 9502 - http://www.pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=909

Around 600 bucks, more or less the same functions of the Athena, the main difference is that it has a 2.8" screen instead of a 5" one. It still runs WinMobile alas - of which I'm neither a big fan, but IMO the hardware is nice...

@DMcCunney: 9"? Hmmm... sorry but on this our needs diverege. 5-6" is the max for me. That, or a rollable/foldable display: I want an at least "near-pocketable" machine!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by erwin

@DMcCunney: 9"? Hmmm... sorry but on this our needs diverege. 5-6" is the max for me. That, or a rollable/foldable display: I want an at least "near-pocketable" machine!

I'm not worried about carrying it in a pocket. My PDA is just about the size where it doesn't fit in a pocket, and that's not normally where I carry it in any case. I technically can pop a Wifi card into my PDA an go online, but usually don't - trying to do things on a 320x480 screen is painful, and too many sites don't have mobile-friendly pages. (And the state of the art in Palm OS browsers lags that of other devices.)

WRT the ASUS 9" model, what I'm looking for is a device that does a large enough subset of normal tasks that it can replace a laptop in most cases. The concern is weight, and (to a lesser extent) battery life. A lot of what I do on desktop or laptop really needs a larger screen. (The desktop, for instance, has a 19" monitor in 1600x1200 mode. If I had room on the desk that holds it, there would be two of them...) I like the current ASUS models, but want a bigger screen.

And I don't care for the thumbboards on various of the devices. If I need to do any extended keyboard entry, I'll get a bluetooth folding keyboard.
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Dennis

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I'm not worried about carrying it in a pocket. My PDA is just about the size where it doesn't fit in a pocket, and that's not normally where I carry it in any case. I technically can pop a Wifi card into my PDA an go online, but usually don't - trying to do things on a 320x480 screen is painful, and too many sites don't have mobile-friendly pages. (And the state of the art in Palm OS browsers lags that of other devices.)

WRT the ASUS 9" model, what I'm looking for is a device that does a large enough subset of normal tasks that it can replace a laptop in most cases. The concern is weight, and (to a lesser extent) battery life. A lot of what I do on desktop or laptop really needs a larger screen. (The desktop, for instance, has a 19" monitor in 1600x1200 mode. If I had room on the desk that holds it, there would be two of them...) I like the current ASUS models, but want a bigger screen.

And I don't care for the thumbboards on various of the devices. If I need to do any extended keyboard entry, I'll get a bluetooth folding keyboard.
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Dennis

they now have a 10" model. Any bigger and you would have a laptop. see the wiki

Dale

[astra]

If I had cell phone with at least 5" eInk screen and decent battery life than I would consider using it as a book reader, until then...cell phone is for phone calls and calendar reminder only.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by astra

If I had cell phone with at least 5" eInk screen and decent battery life than I would consider using it as a book reader, until then...cell phone is for phone calls and calendar reminder only.

Would a device with a screen that large be a good form factor for a cell phone?

That's why I'm not into convergence: a screen as big as I'd like for all of the other things I do with a device makes it too big to be a realistic cell phone.
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Dennis