David Gilson sneeks a peek at a couple of novel versions of a classic literary work, looking mainly at one by Offscreen Technologies, but also mentioning GoSpoken's more traditional ebook edition. What do you think of this trend of content being wrapped up in application form? Will it result in us drowning in icons? Comments welcome!
As someone who travels from country to country and already has too many books, I think it's a great idea. You can't beat real old fashioned paper but like digital music, digital books do have the benefit of portability.
BUT there is one major design flaw in Offscreen Technologies' ebook reader, as I discovered on a recent business trip when I read their ebook of "A Study in Scarlet." The backlight stays on permanently, so if you are reading in bed (as many people like to do) and you fall asleep (as often happens!) then the backlight stays on and when you wake up in the morning the phone's battery is dead!
This is particularly a problem if you also use your phone as an alarm clock to wake you up the next morning!
I know that one shouldn't complain about something that comes for free, but nevertheless this is a nasty (if slightly unexpected) problem with the ebook reader. It would be great if the backlight time was limited to five minutes for this reason. That would give you enough time to read a page, without flattening the battery if you fall asleep.
Hopefully the Offscreen Technologies guys are reading this!
From an Offscreen Technologies ebook fan (currently reading "Treasure Island" but not in bed). :-)
It's a great idea, but...
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