June 30th, 2007
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June 30th, 2007 at 7:59 am
The simple fact is, the iPhone is just too expensive especially given the fact that it comes encumbered with a 2 year contract with AT&T. I sincerely hope Apple manage to come up with a better deal when they finally get around to launching this thing in Europe, otherwise it’s going to be relegated to a niche market. Plus it needs to get 3G added if it’s going to make the grade over here, too.
June 30th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
I bought one today. I will continue reading ebooks on either my Palm TX or Nokia N800, but if some form of ebook reader were made available for the phone, and it read Mobipocket format, I would jump on it. Having one device is, for me, always better than carrying two.
June 30th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Paul: Congrats on your iPhone. If you have time, I’d love to read your further thoughts on the iPhone as an e-book machine )even if it doesn’t run Mobipocket now). How does the browser work with online books and other HTML files? And what do you think of the PDF viewer? Thanks. David
June 30th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Right now I’m stuck because AT&T is having problems activating new iPhones. See my various posts at Palm Addict.
http://palmaddict.typepad.com/palmaddicts/
When I can use the phone I will certainly report back here as to the above. You mention some things I haven’t thought of.
July 1st, 2007 at 12:58 am
My eyes get tired reading my Nokia 770, so I don’t think the iPhone is the way I would go. I need a bigger screen. Love the size of my eBookwise-1150, but it is currently being repaired.
I would LOVE one device for using the net, phone, reading ebooks and other useful tasks, but it seems like the market is just trying to make devices smaller and smaller. Some of the UMPCs coming out look interesting. I am especially interested in the ASUS eeePC 701. Read it here: http://linux.wordpress.com/2007/06/08/asus-presents-199-umpc-eeepc-701/
July 1st, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I picked up an iPhone Friday night and have had some time to play with it. It eliminates my _having_ to carry both a cell and a seperate PDA which is a major relief.
That said I will still use my Palm TX for reading ebooks. I still like the portability and the backlit screen on the Palm.
As far as the iPhone: I did a little testing and I can definitely read the web based versions of ebooks online at Manybooks. With unlimited data time on the iPhone service contract there is no reason I cannot read online and then just bookmark where I leave off in reading. I’m thankful Manybooks has web based ebooks, because I can see myself forgetting to take my Palm TX with me sometime and online reading will do in a pinch.
Of course you have to be within range of the ATT EDGE network to read online and the website has to be up and running so there are more links in the chain.
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:51 am
I probably wouldn’t buy an IPhone because (a) too expensive (I am not a phone person) (b) don’t like the way Apple locks up the format on their music downloads, which makes me a little suspicious of using their hardware - it breaks and you lose your files.
Am I right in thinking the internet speed is very slow on these in USA? We can already get very good speeds here in Australia on phones and other similar devices, so I can’t see people here putting up with slow connections just to own an IPhone.
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:11 pm
AFAIK the iphone is more or less completely closed to 3rd party developers, making it impossible to make an e-book reader for it.
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Marcus: I too wonder about these things. But Matt at least is talking about optimizing material within his site for the existing hardware-software configuration. Thanks. David
July 9th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I own an iPhone and wouldn’t give it up. The only thing I miss on my Treo 650 is the eBook reader.
I think the iPhone, though brilliantly suited for reading, reflects the target audience — dancing people listening to their itunes.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
I picked up an iPhone on Sunday, selected the browser, went to my Web site, and pulled up a technical paper in PDF. Read through the first couple of pages with no problems. Very impressive.
Bill
July 15th, 2007 at 3:17 am
I’m dying to get an iPhone, but without some sort of viable book reader it would be but slag in my pocket. I read voraciously; often on airplanes which would make a web-based reader a virtual impossibility.
Even within existing readers and formats it’s always a challenge, certain books be available in one but not another; gawd help us if someone starts a new, proprietary reader just for the iPhone.
I guess I’m still in the minority as a PDA-reading-person. But once you try it you’ll never go back.
Fingers crossed….