Tablet Love
One of my favorite pastimes involves reading books in beds. Unfortunately, since I prefer to lay on my stomach, reading on a laptop is extremely bad for my neck. I usually have to curve my head up in order to see the screen. While this is possible, my body usually aches the next day.
In college, tired of buying heavy books only to finish them a week later, I resorted to online tutorials and a laser printer. Although it worked well for bed-reading, the solution was messy due to hundreds of printed pages per week. Thus began my quest for a digital alternative.
During my senior year, I purchased a Sony Clie handheld with a built-in PDF reader. I read a few e-books on it, but the low-resolution fonts hurt my eyes. I decided that, for a good experience, I would need at least 640x480 resolution. I returned the device a few days later.
A year later, I decided to convert an Apple iBook into tablet form. At the time, the screens in iBooks were 1024x768 resolution - plenty of real estate to display a PDF book. After several weeks of rewiring and construction, I ended up with a prototype. Unfortuately, without a touch screen, input suffered and I decided to return to normal books. I did learned one important lesson from this experiment, however - pixel density matters! Even though I could fit a book nicely in the 1024x768 resolution, the pixels were physically too big and the made the text hard to read.
A few days ago, I stumbled across the website for the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. It uses a build-in LCD at 800x480 resolution and over 200 dpi and can connect wireless (hence, I can read Safari Books Online on it).
I received the device yesterday and read my first book last night. Wow! I am impressed! Although the operating system and web browser are a bit slow, the screen is beautiful and renders my online books crisply. Overall, a nice device.
A year later, I decided to convert an Apple iBook into tablet form. At the time, the screens in iBooks were 1024x768 resolution - plenty of real estate to display a PDF book. After several weeks of rewiring and construction, I ended up with a prototype. Unfortuately, without a touch screen, input suffered and I decided to return to normal books. I did learned one important lesson from this experiment, however - pixel density matters! Even though I could fit a book nicely in the 1024x768 resolution, the pixels were physically too big and the made the text hard to read.
A few days ago, I stumbled across the website for the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. It uses a build-in LCD at 800x480 resolution and over 200 dpi and can connect wireless (hence, I can read Safari Books Online on it).
I received the device yesterday and read my first book last night. Wow! I am impressed! Although the operating system and web browser are a bit slow, the screen is beautiful and renders my online books crisply. Overall, a nice device.
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