E-Books On a $20 Cell Phone

An anonymous reader writes "Moon+ Pro Reader, FBReader, Kindle, you name it--many popular Android e-book apps can run on a smartphone available for $20 and shipping. The trick is to respect the device's limits and keep down the number of apps you install. This fun isn't for eager multitaskers. On the bright side, the $20 phone can do Acapela TTS, includes a 4GB memory card and works with cards of up to 32GB--easily enough for scads of pre-loaded books. Plus, the WiFi is great. And the screen of 3.2 inches isn't that much smaller than the 3.5 inchers on the older iPads. What could cell phone e-reading mean in the many "book deserts" of the U.S.? And how about the U.K. where miserly pols are closing libraries even though the Guardian says "a third of UK children do not own a single book and three-quarters claim never to read outside school"? The smartphone post on the LibraryCity site tells how librarians and others could start "cell phone book clubs" to promote the discovery and absorption of books as well as smarter use of technology."

Comments

Seriously?

[drdread66]

Reading e-books two or three lines at a time on a 3.2-inche screen would turn anyone off of reading. If you're trying to interest people in reading more, it's going to have to be a pleasant experience.

Re:Seriously?

[Bohnanza]

Reading e-books two or three lines at a time on a 3.2-inche screen would turn anyone off of reading

I prefer to read on my phone over any other format. I can hold it and turn pages with one hand, and since only one paragraph fits on a page, I never lose my place even if I am distracted. I read MUCH faster on my phone than when reading from a paper book.

My current phone is bigger, but I read many books on my Iphone 3, with a screen size of only 3.5 inches, so I think the experience would be similar with these small phones.

And I am not alone, e-reader apps have always been among the most popular.

Re:Seriously?

[Dan East]

I've read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, and dozens of other ebooks, on a Blackberry Pearl, which has a 2.25" screen. It's really not that bad. The text size / appearance is the same as anywhere else, you just have to manually interact with it more often. But, the smaller the device, the easier it is to comfortably hold and thus easier interact with to turn pages.

Re:Seriously?

[pnutjam]

My daughters school required Ipads this year, which parents had to either purchase or rent. They indicated they would offset books by using resources on the Ipad, since the rental fee was about the same as book fees usually are.
Oddly enough, when book fees came out, hers were twice the normal amount.

Re:Seriously?

[MacTO]

Reading on a 3.2" screen isn't all that bad, but I wouldn't present that as a solution for children. Books for the youngest are illustrated, and present part of the story as part of those illustrations. Early chapter books use larger text, presumably because the audience is still learning the shape of letters. Even later chapter books have illustrations that would be difficult to enjoy on a small screen.

Yet the real problem with closing libraries in favor of elending is the lack of availability of ebooks for lending. (That, and libraries offer much more than books.)

It is much smaller than the iPads screens

[aliquis]

But it is much smaller than the iPads screens.

It is less than 1/9 the size of the 10" of an iPad.

Also can I expect the resolution to suck too?

Why cares? Why is this slashvertisment posted on /.?

It may not be much smaller than an old iPod Touch and maybe it doesn't have worse resolution either who knows but so what? It's still poor and shitty. Small, low-res and no e-ink.

"Shitty smartphone can do smartphone stuff although shitty" - You don't say?

I know the later may come out as trolling but .. it's just the truth.

"older iPads"

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

What "older iPads" had 3.5" screens? Did you mean iPhone?

sponsered phones.

[leuk_he]

These phones are sim-locked and sponsered by the provider. So the 20$ mark means not much, the real price is 10-40 dollars higher.

Using a phone for reading zaps through your battery life (1-3 hours) to light the screen.

But the discusssion stays, since for $99 you can get a reasonable e-paper reader. How to get content for this.... i leave to your imagination.

Re:sponsered phones.

[stoolpigeon]

For $70 you can get a fantastic e-ink reader. The 6 inch kindle with offers is $69.

Team that up with Calibre on a PC and you are all set. That is how I do all my reading now.

Re:sponsered phones.

[wren337]

You can pick up a CDMA smartphone with a bad ESN for next to nothing on ebay, and with wifi it's a pocket-size game and internet platform for kids. No need to activate a call plan.

Subsidies

[angryfeet]

The phones are only that cheap because they're subsidised. If too many people bought them just for books then they would stop being so cheap.

"Book Deserts"? WTF?

[c0d3g33k]

What could cell phone e-reading mean in the many "book deserts" of the U.S.?

Citation needed. I've never heard of this phenomenon. Sounds like a made up term to add extra drama.

Re:"Book Deserts"? WTF?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I'm not certain what the category is called(there must be a term for it; but I don't move in linguistics circles); but 'book desert' is an example of a specific class of made up term, the one that is novel; but is an explicit extension of an earlier and better recognized term(the best known example I can think of is, at least in the US, the ability to add "-gate" to almost anything to imply that it is a scandal. The result is always a made up word; but it creates a direct connection to 'Watergate').

In this case, the 'root' is 'Food Desert', a term describing the areas (mostly poor urban neighborhoods, and likely some rural ones as well) where grocery stores are effectively nonexistent and the population subsists on a mixture of convenience store fare and fast food, with a variety of types of food either atypically expensive or simply unavailable. By extension, a '[something] desert' is a region where local conditions make some good that you might expect to be available based on the overall development level of a country scarce or unavailable.

Anyone know what this type of coinage is called? It isn't merely a neologism; but I don't know what the subcategory is called.

Sounds uselesss to me

[TheGoodNamesWereGone]

I have a phone with a 3.5" screen. It's just about useless for e-reading. Also, the idea that if all the troubled youth were just given books they'd read them is bogus. They *can't* read and if they could they still wouldn't want to.

How short our memories...

[evilviper]

The trick is to respect the device's limits and keep down the number of apps you install.

What?!?! That phone has better specs than the highest of the high-end $600+ smartphones just 4 years ago. It's got specs as good as my $200 mid-tier smartphone from 2 years ago.

They could handle multiple apps back then, they can now, too.