Shelf Life

I finished the e-book on my Blackberry. I am sold on the technology and am beginning to consider what my next phone will be. I am leaning toward the iPhone because of the Kindle software, the larger screen, wi-fi access, and compatibility with iTunes. I have a music player on my Blackberry (MiuTunes) but it is harder to use and while I like my iPod I really want just one device. The calendar/organizer program will probably be the deciding factor, though. I miss the Palm organizer on my old Treo. I still covet the Kindle but, as I mentioned, I want one device and the pocket portability is great.

The small screen and the back-lighting did not bother me nearly as much as I thought. The only time my eyes were tired was when I actually read in the dark. It probably helped that the book (Infected by Sigler– review coming soon!) was very engaging. I have already downloaded The Omnivore’s Dilemma so I’ll see if non-fiction reading is any different. The only problem I had was a few thumb cramps from advancing the text when I sat down to read for long periods of time. It would be nice to be able to program different buttons for navigation functions (in Mobipocket Reader on the Blackberry the space key, at the very bottom of the device, is used to advance the text).

I received a response from tech support about Mobipocket Reader not finding the memory card in the phone. Their instructions did not help. It may be that I have the original Pearl model and there are some technical differences between it and the newer ones. A work-around that solves the problem is to manually drag and drop the e-book files from the computer to the correct folder on the memory card. I had to change the settings in the software so it did not automatically transfer new items to the phone because my news feed filled the phone’s main memory. All things considered it is a minor inconvenience but it is still a little frustrating.

One surprise was that the tech support reply came from Amazon. Turns out they own Mobipocket. Between Kindle and Mobipocket, Amazon has a pretty sizable chunk of the e-book market already cornered…hmmm.

And today, in the Monday morning rush, I left my cell phone at home. I NEVER leave my cell phone at home. I am lost without my organizer but the first thing I thought was, “oh no! My book is on there!” Of course I was standing in the middle of a room with 15,000 books when that thought occurred to me

Mr. Doyle