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And yet, Amazon and Google announced this week that they will be making more books available for download on cell phones. Google says its 1.5 million public domain books that are now available to read on computers are now available on some cell phones, including the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1. Amazon, meanwhile, is in the process of making the books available via its e-reader, the Kindle, accessible on phones. It's easy to see e-readers like the Kindle and Sony's Reader substituting for a paper-bound book on the road. Maybe there's a generational default line, but I cannot see reading whole books on a phone screen, even a beautifully sized clear one like the iPhone. Listening to them via a phone? Sure. Sites like audible.com and audiobooks.org provide ample titles for download, and there are programs that allow you to turn an iPhone and other mobile devices like the Palm Treo and BlackBerrys into e-readers. Do you read books on your phones yet? If not, can you see yourself poring through the latest bestseller on a screen that fits in the palm of your hand? [Image: Stanza by Lexcycle/e-reader for iPhone]
Posted by: JeremyRose| February 07, 2009 at 04:24 PM Being "of a certain age" I tried ebooks when they arrived for PDAs. Awful experience: the screen was small, the backlit screen created a glare no amount of eye drops could relieve. Last year I got a Kindle and haven't looked back. I read more and in more places. The eInk technology is amazing and creates no eyestrain at all. I will not go beck to small backlit screens. Ever. And the ability to carry hundreds of books in my purse means there's always something good to read. Reading a book on an iPhone bothers me far less than the ability of a doctor reading a MRI on his iPhone. That is stated as an App on one of the commercials. Is that really necessary? Will it be big enough to accurately read? This scares me! Yikes. That does put things in perspective, Tina. I'm not sure I'd like that either. Thanks for the insight on Stanza, JeremyRose; I was wondering how it compares to the Kindle, which, as bookworm says, is really the standard to beat for portable ebooks. I don't see myself reading a book on a handphone, While I might consider browsing an article or 2 in a small pda screen, I don't think a whole book on a 2 - 3 in screen is going to cut it. Perhaps we need to invest in stocks that sells glasses or eye surgeons with younger people damaging their eyes faster James My first response is no, but not all that long ago, I resisted reading newspapers and magazine articles on my computer screen, as well as, looking words up online instead of reaching for a dictionary, and now I don't think twice about doing any of them ... so stay tuned. The world is changing and so are some of my old ingrained habits. I have been reding on my mobile phone for years, first it was the Nokia 6600, then the Nokia 6630 and now on my Iphone. I must say that I love it, you can carry books with you everywhere and anywhere and I never have to complain of unadequate lighting! I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often. Betty Well, beleive it or not there are places connected to the U.S, were reading a book can be a problem, first of all finding a good book. |
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As an avid audiobook user, I can certainly understand the hesitance to reading on the screen of the iPhone. That is, I understood it until I began using Stanza. Using the default settings is painful on the eyes at best and ridiculous on the headache at worst. But you can make it dimmer so that you don't get the glare in your eyes and invert the contrast so that you are reading grey-on-black. And that's far less painful than reading a paper-and-ink book, I have found, since I can spend far longer with the iPhone than I could ever spend with the book before feeling the strain.