A quiet revolution is taking place — or trying to take place — in the way we read books, which hasn’t changed much in the past 1,500 years. The printed book, supreme for centuries, has even repelled the advances of the digital age. Until now, that is. Most people who have tried one of the e-books from Sony, Amazon and others have been extremely impressed by the readability and the way in which you can download new books if you run out on holiday. The downside is you have to carry another device around with you.
Or do you? Half of the planet already has a phone. Why can’t that be used? Most people recoil from the prospect of reading books on a phone. Unless they are from Japan, where half — admittedly, graphic novels — of the top 10 books in a recent survey were read on mobiles. Is something happening?
Something is certainly happening to me. After downloading some titles to my iPod Touch — an iPhone without phone or camera — reading a book on a mobile became, for the first time, a pleasurable experience thanks to its large screen and some neat innovations. There are lots of choices. You can download a service called Stanza for nothing or e-Reader (with a free book and options to buy more). It fits 20 lines on to a screen, maybe too many for comfort. Far better is Classics, costing US$2.69 in the UK, with 16 free out-of-copyright books, from Paradise Lost to Pride and Prejudice, with more to be added later. Maybe one day it will give access to the digital treasure chest at europeana.eu.
The screen offers a cute image of a bookshelf with books on the shelves waiting to be clicked. The typeface is bigger — limiting it to an eye-friendly 15 lines a screen — with the ability to turn pages with a finger or thumb. You can work it with one hand, leaving the other to take notes or deal with the washing machine. As you turn pages frequently, there is no danger of the back-lit screen switching off. I could see myself reading a condensed newspaper this way, even paying for the convenience.
These are some of more than 5,000 new applications available on the iPhone, which are taking mobile usage to a new level. Over the years I have totted up the functions on a mobile that could be sold as separate products, ranging from cameras to MP3 players. It has got to more than 60, but I will have to abandon it, as the number of new applications is exploding. Among those I have bought recently are a useful spirit level and a clarinet that is made to work, I kid you not, by blowing gently into a tiny microphone attached to my earphones and working the stops on the screen. A harmonica operates in a similar way, while the piano is played just like a piano (with big quality limitations).
A drum acts by just flicking the iPhone in the air as you would a drumstick. Imagine a band using only iPhone instruments topping the iTunes chart sometime soon.
If this is merely the first surge of applications, many from a resurgence of bedroom programmers, goodness knows what will happen when Google’s Android ecosystem and Nokia’s are in full swing.
Meanwhile, mobile books are not standing still. Two companies still want to revolutionize how we read on a phone. Instead of taking in sentences at a time, you concentrate on the shape of a single word in the middle of a screen that changes rapidly, the pace being under your control. You can read on a train or in idle moments. ICUE is in competition with BookMuncher, which will soon move from being mainly PC-based to mobiles, especially those using the open source Android system.
BookMuncher says once you have got used to the new way, you can read far faster and claims it is even possible to read a proper book and one of its own at the same time. Read what you like into that.
Why is Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not a “happy camper” these days regarding Taiwan? Taiwanese have not become more “CCP friendly” in response to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) use of spies and graft by the United Front Work Department, intimidation conducted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Armed Police/Coast Guard, and endless subversive political warfare measures, including cyber-attacks, economic coercion, and diplomatic isolation. The percentage of Taiwanese that prefer the status quo or prefer moving towards independence continues to rise — 76 percent as of December last year. According to National Chengchi University (NCCU) polling, the Taiwanese
It would be absurd to claim to see a silver lining behind every US President Donald Trump cloud. Those clouds are too many, too dark and too dangerous. All the same, viewed from a domestic political perspective, there is a clear emerging UK upside to Trump’s efforts at crashing the post-Cold War order. It might even get a boost from Thursday’s Washington visit by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In July last year, when Starmer became prime minister, the Labour Party was rigidly on the defensive about Europe. Brexit was seen as an electorally unstable issue for a party whose priority
US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House has brought renewed scrutiny to the Taiwan-US semiconductor relationship with his claim that Taiwan “stole” the US chip business and threats of 100 percent tariffs on foreign-made processors. For Taiwanese and industry leaders, understanding those developments in their full context is crucial while maintaining a clear vision of Taiwan’s role in the global technology ecosystem. The assertion that Taiwan “stole” the US’ semiconductor industry fundamentally misunderstands the evolution of global technology manufacturing. Over the past four decades, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), has grown through legitimate means
Today is Feb. 28, a day that Taiwan associates with two tragic historical memories. The 228 Incident, which started on Feb. 28, 1947, began from protests sparked by a cigarette seizure that took place the day before in front of the Tianma Tea House in Taipei’s Datong District (大同). It turned into a mass movement that spread across Taiwan. Local gentry asked then-governor general Chen Yi (陳儀) to intervene, but he received contradictory orders. In early March, after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) dispatched troops to Keelung, a nationwide massacre took place and lasted until May 16, during which many important intellectuals
RSS