TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for the ‘Nokia’ Category

By David Rothman

Nokia says it might enter the laptop biz.

And why not? Cellphones and laptops are converging. And Nokia’s Internet tablets, like the N810, shown here, pack the wallop of the laptops of yore.

Perhaps Nokia could also think about putting out an app-rich tablet—with a  screen six inches or bigger—if Apple keeps ignoring this niche.

Related: New screens, $200 prices could boost netbooks as e-readers. Plus, tablet capabilities from Asus in March.

By Paul Biba

Editor’s Note: The following was originally published in a slightly different form yesterday on PalmAddicts, another site that I write for. I thought our readers might be interested, especially if they are considering buying an iPhone for e-book reading.

Since (inadvertently!) taking over TeleRead’s management my phone usage has changed quite a bit. First, I have much more need for email than I did before. I need to be in touch with our writers and the other editors constantly. The iPhone just doesn’t cut the mustard for this. It is just impossible, for me, to do much typing on the phone. The on-screen keyboard makes for slow, mistake-ridden typing. When I am out and about I found that I don’t answer emails, but tend wait ’till I get to a computer to get on Gmail and answer them there - even if this is half a day later. Not good.

Second, I need great battery life. Sending and receiving emails and checking the site often on Wi-Fi or 3G is very battery intensive. This is even more so if I want to use the iPhone’s music player as well. For example, I was recently in New York for 3 days to attend O’Reilly Publishing Tools of Change Conference. There is no way the iPhone’s battery would last throughout the whole day if I used the phone intensively there. Even my Co-Editor’s (David’s) iPod Touch would not last out the whole day, what with using Wi-Fi to check the site and answer emails. I knew before the Conference that I would have to bite the bullet and get a new phone.

Three major requirements - good battery life, a keyboard for email and an excellent web browser. I rejected the Blackberries. I’ve used them in the past and they have a good keyboard and battery, but their web browser stinks. While I was at the Conference TeleRead was also still in the process of changing web hosts, so it was important that I be able to see exactly how the site looked from moment to moment. The Blackberry web browser is years behind and just can’t cut it.
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By Paul Biba

Most Americans are not too familiar with Nokia, as their phones have always been a niche presence on this side of the pond. However, on a worldwide basis, Nokia is the force to be reckoned with. They are the largest phone manufacturer by a huge margin. Recently they have been putting more and more of a push into their “technology phones” and their high-end phones are arguably the most sophisticated in the world. I’ve been using unlocked Nokias on and off for years and am a big fan. Their recent E71 has replaced my iPhone in daily use for a variety of reasons.

Nokia recently announced the formation of its Ovi store. It will contain applications, but also, and more importantly for the e-book world, content such as themes, wallpapers, and audio and video content. I sincerely hope that someone is talking to Nokia about getting e-books into the store. For a nice article on the store see nokiaexperts here.

I have Mobipocket on my Nokia and Fictionwise has a beta eReader that works on the Symbian platform. Mobipocket works just fine on my phone and is quite readable. At the recent O’Reilly conference I asked the Stanza folks if they were going to do something for this platform, and they said that have no intentions of addressing Symbian because the feel that the display quality of Nokia phones is not up to the iPhone standard. That leaves the two players mentioned above.

I hope that someone gets, or is getting, in touch with Nokia to put e-books into the store. It seems to me a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor with a company that is the dominant cell phone provider in the world. I would suspect that Mobipocket will be restrained by Amazon, but how about you, Fictionwise?