DISQUS

nick · 1 year ago

A nice round up of the readers. I think we should really consider cell phones when reviewing eReaders, most people probably have a 'book reading capable' cell pone in their pocket right now. The cell phone has a few interesting properties:

* ubiquitous: both penetration in the population and capability will increase.
* ultra-portable: the phone is a 'must carry', people are almost never without it and thus it is designed to be easy to carry.
* connected: all that Kindle goodness is already included.
* based around the human hand / pocket: the ergonomics are centered around one handed operation, lightness, etc etc. Phone screens will probably grow to 'cover' the whole device, but they probably won't get much larger - already the iPhone is probably 'too large'.

You can build a book reader that takes advantage of all the above features, works within the constraints, and delivers a good reading experience. You can see an example at http://www.booksinmyphone.com they have hundreds titles they give away. You can install straight from their mobile site, or via PC.

Daniel Langendorf · 1 year ago

@ nick: i thought about cellphones, and i wish the iPhone had this capability. but the more i used an electronic reader, the more i appreciated the display (can cell displays be easy on the eyes for long periods?) and reader-dedicated interface (even with its flaws). we'll see. it would be great not to carry yet another device.

Matt D. · 1 year ago

@nick: I do see your point, but I think I would go crazy trying to read a whole book on my cell phone. All of the interesting properties you mention that the cell phone has are true, but I don't think that is enough reason to use it as a book reader. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I just think that I would go crazy trying to read a whole book on a cell phone because the idea seems so foreign.

Patrick · 1 year ago

Ebooks on mobile is convinient way to cut the travelling time required these days. I normally dump ebooks on my cell and read them on my way to and from office. I do a travelling of 2 hours and now I spend the same by reading ebook and listening to music which is the most productive use I can do. Also while I am travelling out of town it helps a lot.

PDF Mania · 1 year ago

I used to bring several books while traveling before I have my Nokia Communicator to save some documents. But it's limited to numbers of kilobytes of the file. I really want to have a small eBook reader but since I only have laptop, i used it for reading, storing and sometimes creating new eBooks. Now, There's an UMPC with tablet style (kojinsha), a smaller laptop that ease me to read ebooks and work while I'm mobile. IMHO, eBook reader will be less useful compared to the UMPC since UMPC have the ability not only to read eBook but also to use softwares for other jobs. The UMPCs' price now range from US$ 350 to US$ 900. Quite cheap and useful..

Patrick · 9 months ago

The way I see it the current technology lacks a major aspect and that is the ability to cross several platforms. For instance the Kindle 2 will only download amazon books. I agree that Amazon has the largest collection including newspapers but when a reader comes out that I can put any ebook on I will buy it and use it often. Online that problem has been solved with Adobe that crosses all platforms. Offline there is lots of money involved in the purchase of the ebooks or materials for the readers.

The second problem is that many people still prefer an actual hard copy to lay in bed and read. The new digital readers are not really comfortable and there is just some tact feeling that is not represented in an actual book.

The new readers are nice and I do own several but they all have their problems at this point. So I do agree with the author for the most part but as to wheter or not they will replace standard books remains to be seen.