The Vent and Rant Thread

[idraw22]

Hi,

Theres something I don't understand. I've been browsing BEST BUY waiting to see the new Kindle and I was looking at the ipad. Tho it's neat, it's too bright to read, and part of that bright is coming from the epaper itself. Why do they make the backing so bright on webpages and ebooks. I know they usually put it on a white background, but alot of pbooks have changed to offwhite or beige pages, and some ebooks are shown that way in the ereaders. It's one of the reasons I love the ereaders so much. Why don't they change the default to a grey or at least cream backround for the webpages on pcs and lcd machines? It sure would make it easier on the eyes. My two cents...

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

....

Few/no invisible fences around here...but I have similar reactions to people who know they have an aggressive dog, but leave their gate open and "control" their dog's charging of my dogs by screaming pointlessly at it and then apologizing...repeatedly...over many such events. And then they walk their dog down the street off-lead. Morons.

Cheers,
Marc

Exactly!

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

Few/no invisible fences around here...but I have similar reactions to people who know they have an aggressive dog, but leave their gate open and "control" their dog's charging of my dogs by screaming pointlessly at it and then apologizing...repeatedly...over many such events. And then they walk their dog down the street off-lead. Morons.

There aren't that many occasions to meet unleashed dogs in the city, however, there seems to be a great number of people who go to public parks for the sole purpose of abusing their dog very loudly. There is one guy who seems to be there every time I go to the pond for a little peace and quiet. He can sit there for hours insulting his dog, apparently. I can't see them because they are on the other side of the pond, hidden from my view by the reeds. I can barely hear the dog except for a bit of splashing about.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by idraw22

Hi,

Theres something I don't understand. I've been browsing BEST BUY waiting to see the new Kindle and I was looking at the ipad. Tho it's neat, it's too bright to read, and part of that bright is coming from the epaper itself. Why do they make the backing so bright on webpages and ebooks. I know they usually put it on a white background, but alot of pbooks have changed to offwhite or beige pages, and some ebooks are shown that way in the ereaders. It's one of the reasons I love the ereaders so much. Why don't they change the default to a grey or at least cream backround for the webpages on pcs and lcd machines? It sure would make it easier on the eyes. My two cents...

the ipad is not an ereader

[devilsadvocate]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

the ipad is not an ereader

Wasn't the Toymaker trying to corner that market as well? I seem to recall him making various nefarious deals with print publishers (both books and periodicals) when the iPad dropped. Annnnnnd, they have a bookstore.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by idraw22

Hi,

Theres something I don't understand. I've been browsing BEST BUY waiting to see the new Kindle and I was looking at the ipad. Tho it's neat, it's too bright to read, and part of that bright is coming from the epaper itself. Why do they make the backing so bright on webpages and ebooks. I know they usually put it on a white background, but alot of pbooks have changed to offwhite or beige pages, and some ebooks are shown that way in the ereaders. It's one of the reasons I love the ereaders so much. Why don't they change the default to a grey or at least cream backround for the webpages on pcs and lcd machines? It sure would make it easier on the eyes. My two cents...

I'm pretty sure there is a brightness adjustment.

BOb

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I'm pretty sure there is a brightness adjustment.

BOb

Yes, and you can probably change the background color according to your preferences, at least in most reading apps.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by idraw22

Theres something I don't understand. I've been browsing BEST BUY waiting to see the new Kindle and I was looking at the ipad. Tho it's neat, it's too bright to read, and part of that bright is coming from the epaper itself. Why do they make the backing so bright on webpages and ebooks. I know they usually put it on a white background, but alot of pbooks have changed to offwhite or beige pages, and some ebooks are shown that way in the ereaders. It's one of the reasons I love the ereaders so much. Why don't they change the default to a grey or at least cream backround for the webpages on pcs and lcd machines? It sure would make it easier on the eyes. My two cents...

See if this helps: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/artic...ness_controls/
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

the ipad is not an ereader

It's a multi-function device* that can display ebooks among other things, and most features can be adjusted to the user's preference.

* A friend who is a content developer calls it as "media consumption device", which sounds accurate. It can simply consume more than one kind of media. <burp>
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by devilsadvocate

Wasn't the Toymaker trying to corner that market as well? I seem to recall him making various nefarious deals with print publishers (both books and periodicals) when the iPad dropped. Annnnnnd, they have a bookstore.

As mentioned, it's a media consumption device, and ebooks are a form of media. It would be stupid if it didn't display ebooks, and whatever things you might call Apple, stupid shouldn't be one of them. eBooks were a principal use case they trumpeted when they introduced it.
______
Dennis

[devilsadvocate]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

eBooks were a principal use case they trumpeted when the introduced it.
______
Dennis

Thanks, that's what I thought. I also seem to recall a confluence of events concerning that and the ever-popular agency pricing model the big houses have recently adopted.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by devilsadvocate

Thanks, that's what I thought. I also seem to recall a confluence of events concerning that and the ever-popular agency pricing model the big houses have recently adopted.

Well, some of the big houses. Random House is a notable exception. I'm not going to open that can of worms here. It's being discussed at length elsewhere.

But an advantage of a multi-function device is that it broadens what you can read. Dedicated readers tend to have limitations in reading DRM protected content, the biggest being that they will support only one form of DRM, so you can read DRM protected Mobi titles, or DRM protected ePub, but not both. (The devices I'm aware of that support Mobi and ePub are based on the open source FBReader app, which rolls its own support for both formats, and doesn't support DRM.)

With a multi-function device, you might be able to install both the Kindle app and the B&N app, and read DRM protected books in either format sourced from either vendor. Of course, then you run into what I deal with on my PDA - I have viewers for Plucker, eReader, MobiPocket, PDF, Word/RTF and plain text documents, and must remember what documents are in what format, viewed by what reader.
______
Dennis

[kindlekitten]

I know it's a multi-function device, but one should not expect the same things from it that one expects of a true e-reader. that was the op's complaint, the appearance

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I know it's a multi-function device, but one should not expect the same things from it that one expects of a true e-reader. that was the op's complaint, the appearance

I suppose it depends on what you expect.

All the multi-purpose devices I've seen can be customized to various extents to suit the user. The problems tend not to be with the device, but with individual applications that have made questionable decisions when designing the UI the user must deal with.

In the particular case, what the OP wanted to do could be done - the OP just hadn't found out how to do it.
______
Dennis

[FlorenceArt]

Can somebody explain this to me, because I'm obviously too stupid to understand it:

There is a singer called Eva that I've been thinking about a lot, as a part of my midlife crisis I guess (childhood memory ). Most of her works are on vinyl, but a double CD album was made in 1999, and was sold out soon after, if I can believe the comments on Amazon. I can't find it for sale anywhere, but since I very rarely buy CDs maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

Anyway, that's not what this rant is about. The rant is because this CD is available for online listening, but I can't buy it!!!! How stupid is that???? The site looks legal enough to me (musicme.com) and has other songs for sale, but not these. I can play them (and therefore copy them one way or another, obviously) for free, but I can't buy them!!!!!