Comments on: A week in the life of a gadget-loving reader who hates eBabel and wants to resize the fonts in her e-book bag http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/05/14/a-week-in-the-life-of-a-gadget-loving-reader-who-hates-ebabel-and-wants-to-resize-the-fonts-in-her-e-book-bag/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:30:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Steve Bolton http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/05/14/a-week-in-the-life-of-a-gadget-loving-reader-who-hates-ebabel-and-wants-to-resize-the-fonts-in-her-e-book-bag/#comment-799956 Steve Bolton Thu, 15 May 2008 08:50:24 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/05/14/a-week-in-the-life-of-a-gadget-loving-reader-who-hates-ebabel-and-wants-to-resize-the-fonts-in-her-e-book-bag/#comment-799956 I want to be able to change the colour of the text and background as well. The best reader I have used to date for this was uReader, but unfortunately it doesn't run on my Windows Mobile 6 phone (HTC S710) - no touch screen. In uReader one touch on the screen allowed me to change from day-time colours (White text on black background) to night-time colours (maroon text on black). I read in the dark at night so as not to disturb others in the bedroom when I read late so I want a less bright display. Mobipocket supports colour changing although it is more onerous. Finally I could not care less about text layout or graphic design. I read books for the ideas in them and the author's words get those to me fine. I don't want graphic design or pieces of dead trees to be involved. I can keep 12000 ebooks in a tiny space in my house electronically and I can read them anywhere. I can get a dump of Wikipedia onto a phone using a micro SD card and have a searchable encylopedia with me all the time. (Does epub handle reference docs like tomeraider?) When the DRM nonsense is finally buried and people get used to having etext or audio books on their phones the whole issue of print books will be forgotten - just give it a few years - we are only 20 or so years into the whole www experience. You don't see many people riding a horse to work these days.... I want to be able to change the colour of the text and background as well. The best reader I have used to date for this was uReader, but unfortunately it doesn’t run on my Windows Mobile 6 phone (HTC S710) - no touch screen. In uReader one touch on the screen allowed me to change from day-time colours (White text on black background) to night-time colours (maroon text on black). I read in the dark at night so as not to disturb others in the bedroom when I read late so I want a less bright display.
Mobipocket supports colour changing although it is more onerous.

Finally I could not care less about text layout or graphic design. I read books for the ideas in them and the author’s words get those to me fine. I don’t want graphic design or pieces of dead trees to be involved. I can keep 12000 ebooks in a tiny space in my house electronically and I can read them anywhere. I can get a dump of Wikipedia onto a phone using a micro SD card and have a searchable encylopedia with me all the time. (Does epub handle reference docs like tomeraider?)

When the DRM nonsense is finally buried and people get used to having etext or audio books on their phones the whole issue of print books will be forgotten - just give it a few years - we are only 20 or so years into the whole www experience. You don’t see many people riding a horse to work these days….

]]> By: Library » Blog Archive » A week in the life of a gadget-loving reader who hates eBabel and wants to resize the fonts in her e-book bag http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/05/14/a-week-in-the-life-of-a-gadget-loving-reader-who-hates-ebabel-and-wants-to-resize-the-fonts-in-her-e-book-bag/#comment-799035 Library » Blog Archive » A week in the life of a gadget-loving reader who hates eBabel and wants to resize the fonts in her e-book bag Wed, 14 May 2008 16:39:14 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/05/14/a-week-in-the-life-of-a-gadget-loving-reader-who-hates-ebabel-and-wants-to-resize-the-fonts-in-her-e-book-bag/#comment-799035 [...] TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home wrote an interesting post today on A week in the life of a gadget-loving reader who hates eBabel and wants to resize the fonts in her e-book bagHere’s a quick excerpt Moderator’s note: The IDPF is holding the Digital Book 2008 conference today. May companies there heed Ficbot’s advice! - D.R. I enjoyed the recent TeleBlog debate on resizing text on the fly. Is this a feature people really use on a regular basis? And do we need an e-book standard like ePub, which allows easy resizing and could work for everything from a cell phone to a book-optimized tablet? One’s not enough In a word, yes, because many e-book fans read on more than one device. They can p [...] [...] TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home wrote an interesting post today on A week in the life of a gadget-loving reader who hates eBabel and wants to resize the fonts in her e-book bagHere’s a quick excerpt Moderator’s note: The IDPF is holding the Digital Book 2008 conference today. May companies there heed Ficbot’s advice! - D.R. I enjoyed the recent TeleBlog debate on resizing text on the fly. Is this a feature people really use on a regular basis? And do we need an e-book standard like ePub, which allows easy resizing and could work for everything from a cell phone to a book-optimized tablet? One’s not enough In a word, yes, because many e-book fans read on more than one device. They can p [...]

]]> By: Buy » A week in the life of a gadget-loving reader who hates eBabel and wants to resize the fonts in her e-book bag http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/05/14/a-week-in-the-life-of-a-gadget-loving-reader-who-hates-ebabel-and-wants-to-resize-the-fonts-in-her-e-book-bag/#comment-799033 Buy » A week in the life of a gadget-loving reader who hates eBabel and wants to resize the fonts in her e-book bag Wed, 14 May 2008 16:36:32 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/05/14/a-week-in-the-life-of-a-gadget-loving-reader-who-hates-ebabel-and-wants-to-resize-the-fonts-in-her-e-book-bag/#comment-799033 [...] TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home wrote an interesting post today on A week in the life of a gadget-loving reader who hates eBabel and wants to resize the fonts in her e-book bagHere’s a quick excerpt Moderator’s note: The IDPF is holding the Digital Book 2008 conference today. May companies there heed Ficbot’s advice! - D.R. I enjoyed the recent TeleBlog debate on resizing text on the fly. Is this a feature people really use on a regular basis? And do we need an e-book standard like ePub, which allows easy resizing and could work for everything from a cell phone to a book-optimized tablet? One’s not enough In a word, yes, because many e-book fans read on more than one device. They can p [...] [...] TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home wrote an interesting post today on A week in the life of a gadget-loving reader who hates eBabel and wants to resize the fonts in her e-book bagHere’s a quick excerpt Moderator’s note: The IDPF is holding the Digital Book 2008 conference today. May companies there heed Ficbot’s advice! - D.R. I enjoyed the recent TeleBlog debate on resizing text on the fly. Is this a feature people really use on a regular basis? And do we need an e-book standard like ePub, which allows easy resizing and could work for everything from a cell phone to a book-optimized tablet? One’s not enough In a word, yes, because many e-book fans read on more than one device. They can p [...]

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