I just tried out my Kindle-for-iPhone (and iPod Touch) application. And I find that my ingratious bitching about the low contrast of the Kindle screen was not all that off the mark. In short I find it easier to read on the iPod as on the Kindle, and this is despite the Kindle's screen being almost 2.5 times bigger. (It may be different in bright light, but when am I ever in bright light?)
Also, to be frank, after using it for a while, I'm a bit tired of the Kindle's sluggish speed and basic interface. It's just clumsy to use and navigate.
Update: to equally frank, I don't think I could use an iPhone/iPod-Touch for long, for reading, it's especially the navigation and any action that bugs me, the small screen just irritates me, like wearing too-small shoes. I sincerely don't get how so many people use it so much, if I had been the focus group, it would never have been launched! :-)
By the way, the Kindle application on the iPod has a nice feature: when you rotate the screen by rotating the iPod, there briefly appear a little padlock in the corner, and when you click it, the screen rotation locks. This is good, for instance if you're reading or viewing in bed and lying on your side. I don't see this feature in Safari on the iPod, but I hope it will come on the iPad.
(Does anybody know if it's possible to use an iPod Touch as a hard disk? The option is missing in iTunes.) (Please don't tell me the theory if you don't have a Touch. :-)
(Update: not important. I found out I could get ebooks onto the Touch if I installed the ebook reader Stanza.)
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PS: if the text on the picture made you curious, read here about the computerized bicycle by my friend Stephen. Scroll down for a video.
Stephen typed on the handlebar while pedaling... in binary! 35 words a minute!
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PS: if the text on the picture made you curious, read here about the computerized bicycle by my friend Stephen. Scroll down for a video.
Stephen typed on the handlebar while pedaling... in binary! 35 words a minute!
TTL said:
Well, he is not really typing in binary. What he is using is known as a chorded keyboard. It just happens that his is inbuilt into the handlebars. In fact, using eight finger chords it would be more correct to say that he is typing in octal.
Chorded keyboards are cool. Especially single handed ones, which don't require a table to rest on. I.e. you just hold it in your hand. It is very ergonomic as there is no strain on your wrist. You can keep your hand in any position you like. And once you learn it, you can type (chord) very fast.
I've toyed with the idea of switching entirely to a chorded keyboard, but to get the benefits of it, you need a portable computer to go with it.
Using a telegraph key is “typing” in binary.
Could you perhaps change the colour of the text, or find another font that would be easier to read? Or maybe change the background colour?
ReplyDeleteEolake said...
ReplyDelete"Stephen typed on the handlebar while pedaling... in binary! 35 words a minute!"
Yes! I remember reading that! Quite an interesting creation that "brainy" dude did...among many others!! Thanks for sharing his story, etc. w/us. :-)
Ray: on the Kindle? No, none of those things can be changed, another limitation.
ReplyDeleteI like the screen rotation lock. That drives me mad in bed and doesn't make for easy reading on one's side, as you mentioned. Look forward to that being used more often.
ReplyDeleteScreen location rock: good point! I always feel being fooled when I try to turn some flickr photos, haha!
ReplyDeleteThat's because I sometimes want to read some included text or whatever, and the pics always follow my turns dammit haha.
So you can't use the Touch as a seperate HD while it's connected with a mother mac? Mh. I'm not sure, but if I recall well, apple blocked this, for whatever reason. But I'm not sure - I'd have to check it out.
Amendment: I found this in a German iPod hacking book:
"iPod as harddrive
.... Nearly every iPod can be used as a harddisk under Windows [xp]. Only the new iPod touch as well as the iPhone are restricted by Apple for this purpose".
Doesn't say anything about leopard.
There might be a way for a hacker. Sorry but my initial quick research doesn't deliver more useful results.
Maybe "where's a will there's a way" will apply.
Greetings.
"Screen location rock"
ReplyDeleteYou had me puzzled there for a while. Was that a typo or a joke?
Yes, I *really* hope Apple introduces it as a universal feature. It's really stupid if it ain't.
(Update: the hard disk thing is not important. I found out I could get ebooks onto the Touch if I installed the ebook reader Stanza.)
ReplyDeleteHehe, I think it started with a typo of the letters of the first word, but I kept on writing and tweaked the remaining bunch of letters: vipla: the JOKE was born. (...you ought to know I'm a joyful person).
ReplyDeleteWhilst we're on it: my touch screen produced another joke RIGHT NOW: I punched in "viola" (who said so?), but my screen shows vipla (it's got to do with my thick milker's fingers and the typo-auto-correction feature of the iPod).
Ha I smelled the joke, so I left it as it was! Explanation: now the word is a mixture of Eo's "viola" and the German word "hoppla" (yes houp-la).
Compris?
Greetings from joyland. Erm. Deutschländ.
And a big big (;-))
Well, he is not really typing in binary. What he is using is known as a chorded keyboard. It just happens that his is inbuilt into the handlebars. In fact, using eight finger chords it would be more correct to say that he is typing in octal.
ReplyDeleteChorded keyboards are cool. Especially single handed ones, which don't require a table to rest on. I.e. you just hold it in your hand. It is very ergonomic as there is no strain on your wrist. You can keep your hand in any position you like. And once you learn it, you can type (chord) very fast.
I've toyed with the idea of switching entirely to a chorded keyboard, but to get the benefits of it, you need a portable computer to go with it.
Using a telegraph key is “typing” in binary.
Thanks.
ReplyDelete(Post updated.)
Personally, I would rather strap on a VOX recorder and either transcribe, later on, OR...use some kind of voice-to-text type of service and be DONE w/it! :-) Talk about "tennis...thumb"!! :-/
ReplyDeleteIn fact, using eight finger chords it would be more correct to say that he is typing in octal.
ReplyDeleteActually, this isn't correct either.
What I meant to say is that he is chording in an octet of bits, i.e. a byte. Yes, that forms a binary number. But so is a "binary number" (key code) associated to every key in a standard QWERTY keyboard, too.
To actually type on a QWERTY keyboard, we program our muscle memory to associate locations of keys to letters in the alphabet (no one thinks in terms of the numeric key codes that those keys send down the wire)
Likewise, a chorded keyboard user associates a finger chording with a letter in the alphabet. The fact that it also represents a binary 8-bit value is irrelevant because the number-to-letter mapping is arbitrary, just an agreement.
When building and programming a chorded keyboard you no doubt have to think in numbers, i.e. binary. But at some point, to become a fast "typist", you have to forget those numbers and let the brain form connections directly between muscle grip patters and letters in the alphabet.
TCG, the first bike was in the eighties, I don't think dictation software worked then.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCorrect; hence, why I first suggested the dictation (via a VOX headset; and a cassette recording). Windows XP has voice recognition...which was released in 2001 so...for at least the past 8 years, I know that that could have been a possibility. :-)
ReplyDeleteHe does mention voice technology in the (old) video on his site.
ReplyDeleteIt seems he has many websites scattered around. From one of them I get the impression that he is no longer into bikes, but to boats. Or is that a different person.
Anyway, cool stuff.
No, same guy. compact super-computerized boats.
ReplyDeletemicroship.com