One of the things that most annoyed me about the dog-and-pony show surrounding the release of the iPad was that stupid demonstration of the iPad’s ability to turn pages like it was a book. Why on earth would I want my $600 miracle of modern electrical and software engineering to act like a relic first imagined at least 1000 years ago??? Something interesting to think about is if iPad technology had existed at the time the printing press was invented, would we even have such things as books today? But still, every eBook reader I have tried for my Nexus One has tried, in one way or another, to be like a book
Why would you display half a page of text???
Back when I had a Sony Clie, there was this wonderful program called iSilo that would allow me to auto-scroll my way through a book. I could sit my face in front of the screen, and the words would flow down the page and right into my brain. I called it “downloading”. The program was configured so I could use the volume buttons on the side of the device to control the speed of the scrolling. When the book was getting good, I would go faster and faster, until the words were a blur on the page. If it was boring, or I was somewhat distracted, I could slow it down or even back it up without moving anything more than my thumb. It was the perfect way to read a book.
When I bought my Nexus One, the first thing I did was go hunting for a good eBook reader. I read the reviews and started with something called Aldiko…hated it!!! It tried so hard to replicate the experience of reading a book that it should have been delivered with a dust cover. What does the concept of pages have to do with reading a book electronically? Why would you include blank pages? Either they don’t get it…or I don’t.
I tried a few others but each one failed in a similar way. One I tried had auto-scrolling, but you couldn’t adjust the speed with the volume control.
</ rant>
I noticed there was a new eBook reader app on the Market this morning that actually featured auto-scroll…I might give it a try tonight and report back if I like it.
