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Will the ipad3 resolution make reading books easier?
- Thread starter marc55
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My experience nothing beats e-ink technology for reading books. Tablets are especially reflective in light and it makes it hard as hell to read.
I'm actually surprised that a device such as the Kindle Fire has Kindle in the name because as a e-book reader, it sucks.
Though to answer your question I don't think a increase in resolution (retina) is going to make it easier to read, might even make it worse. For instance, changing a desktop resolution to something higher makes everything smaller and harder to read, though it will be clearer.
If you are concerned with reading (specifically text based books) then I think a Kindle or any other e-book reader with e-ink technology is going to be your best bet. They are so cheap these days its hard to not justify getting one.
I'm actually surprised that a device such as the Kindle Fire has Kindle in the name because as a e-book reader, it sucks.
Though to answer your question I don't think a increase in resolution (retina) is going to make it easier to read, might even make it worse. For instance, changing a desktop resolution to something higher makes everything smaller and harder to read, though it will be clearer.
If you are concerned with reading (specifically text based books) then I think a Kindle or any other e-book reader with e-ink technology is going to be your best bet. They are so cheap these days its hard to not justify getting one.
The "retina display" just packs more pixels in the same area. Appearance wise, everything will remain the same size (e.g., nothing appears "smaller" on the iPhone 4 vs. iPhone 3GS).
I actually disagree on the Kindle bit. I've had two Kindles and, ironically, both gave me eyestrain. The contrast isn't high enough yet that it's like reading a piece of paper. Also a pain in the rear in low or no-light conditions.
If it's the same PPI as the iPhone's display, you bet. Text on the iPhone display is sickeningly sharp. You literally can't make out pixels. I read a book or two on my iPhone 4 in my pre-iPad days, so I can tell you that reading on such a display will just rock. It's not e-Ink, but it's the closest I have seen from an LCD.
Its amazing how people somehow managed to read books before the iPad. Dark ages indeed
Amen to that I'm surprised after what 4 generations of kindles that a backlight has not even been considered.
As far as I know that would be impossible, that's just not how E-Ink screens work.
If you wanted to design an E-ink device with a built in light, I think it would have to be in the form of a ring of LEDs in the bezel shining onto the surface of the display.
Reading a book and working on a computer screen are two completely different things. Reading a book forces you to focus on a specific area of the screen intently, whereas your eyes dart back and forth when simply working, easily leaving the screen without truly interrupting your focus. They're note remotely the same.
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Because you can't backlight e-ink.
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What a dumb assertion. Kindle succeeds because it has the best content. Apple would be stuck with the horrible iBooks store and it would fail miserably.
Maybe in your line of work that's the case. For what I do, I read 50-100 page agreements/documents right off of my computer screen. And you can bet that I'm focusing on a specific area of the screen intently.
It all just comes down to personal preference. Some of us get eyestrain reading off of computer screens, others get eyestrain reading off of Kindles.
Who said you couldn't read Amazon books on an Apple e-ink reader? Amazon even has a Kindle app for iPad.
just a tip, I find increasing the font size of books on the ipad to something
"This Big"
eases eye straim, makes reading easier and faster, no more squinting or close to screen reading, also make sure to use night mode/theme even in light. Dont forget to bring down the brightness from WITHIN ibooks as it has a seperate brightness controller other than the one in the ipad's setting,
try reading with font size blown out of proportion. No more small print like in books where they try to save paper and shelf space. its digital!
"This Big"
eases eye straim, makes reading easier and faster, no more squinting or close to screen reading, also make sure to use night mode/theme even in light. Dont forget to bring down the brightness from WITHIN ibooks as it has a seperate brightness controller other than the one in the ipad's setting,
try reading with font size blown out of proportion. No more small print like in books where they try to save paper and shelf space. its digital!
IIRC there was one Sony e-reader that had a built-in light along one side (which was often incorrectly described as being backlit) but it didnt work very well and was a power hog.
However, a couple of years ago, Qualcomm announced Mirasol, a new type of display crudely, its a colour alternative to e-ink.
Initially, there was quite a bit of excitement about what this could mean for smart phone displays and theres recently been a soft launch for a colour e-reader. One reason I mentioned this is that in the e-reader thats come out, the display uses LED lights so it can be used in the dark - and in various demonstrations, similar set-ups were used and it was touted (or perhaps, it's fairer to say, reported) as being a solution you could use with natural light or no light.
The early reviews havent been great but it looks potentially good as I mentioned, this is a soft launch, which most people thought indicated that a fair bit of work needs to be done - especially as the first estimate for a Mirasol reader was about a year ago (IIRC).