The future is here. I’ve always wanted to say that. Especially in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice circa 1984. Or should that be, “I’ll be back”?. Well both will do nicely here, actually. I’m talking about the world of the e-reader.
Perhaps the future is here in the form of these nifty devices that put heavy tomes at your fingertips and alleviate all that muscle pain that you get from hours of hefty holding. Or perhaps the book will be back in a daring comeback staged in the year 3011 when trees have overtaken the Earth and somebody needs to do something with them all.
But before I get dragged away to my padded cell, it’s worth chatting about the new Eee Tablet that has casually sauntered onto my screen. I wish it had sauntered onto my desk. That would be slightly more exciting.
I’ve abandoned my netbook somewhat. It sits forlornly beside the sofa in the lounge with an unattractive pile of dust on top. I keep meaning to do something about it, but I also keep getting distracted with things that do it, but smaller.
Clearly I am sizeist.
Oh come on, look at the size of the Eee Tablet! Look. This little chap is so extremely portable and yet boasts a 2450dpi touch resolution screen, a media player, e-reader, 2 megapixel camera and super snazzy sync functions. What’s not to love.
The thing is, you can nab as many devices and gadgets as you like, but if they aren’t easily compatible with all the other gadgets and devices and computers you own, then they’re just not worth the effort. In my opinion anyway (sorry).
I am particularly fond of ASUS’ claim that the text file page turns on their tablet are nine times faster than those of normal e-readers. Oooh, sparkly. I’m already starting to come round to the idea of an e-reader so this might help a bit.
Also it had me pondering how the speed of page turns affected the overall reading experience and then promptly timed my own page turns (with some help) to see what speed it should be. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any intel on exactly how fast these page turns were so I could compare them with my own.
My record is half a second. That’s a normal turn without trying to snap the pages open and look like a right moron. I’ve pinged ASUS HQ and asked them what the speed of this device is as this has become something of a fascinating point for me. I’ve also asked them if they have any research into how fast the e-reader should turn without interfering with the reading experience.
As soon as I know, you’ll know. Even if you are, right now, thinking of ways to stop me.
Back to the Tablet then…it has 10 hours of battery life, which makes it a perfect travel companion, and you can write notes on images and screenshots instantly, ideal for making notes before you forget them, and its light and pretty. Bring it on!
