Reading e-books on small screens

Most readers of this blog know (or at least sense), I think, that I am not a Luddite, though I have a considerably more chastened view of technology than do some digitopians. In any event I have been experimenting with various uses of a SmartPhone of late. My most recent tests have been stimulated by the arrival this past week of my new iPhone 4—an upgrade from my older 3G. The phone itself is substantially faster than the 3G (though I’ve read that the difference from the 3GS is not as pronounced). That plus the increased RAM and higher resolution screen enable new considerations.

Though my ultimate goal is to consider Bible-related uses, my immediate tests relate to more general uses. I just read two books in the iBooks reader: a novel (Pride and Prejudice) and a piece of nonfiction (Luther’s essay on Bible translation). I found the novel easier and better reading on the small screen than I expected. The increased resolution and greater speed made it much more practical Than my previous attempts. The screen orientation lock also helped. As for nonfiction use, I have mixed feelings. It “reads” OK, but other purposes have challenges for serious use. For one, how do I quote efficiently? E.g., if I want to quote this extract from Luther,

“We do not have to ask about the literal Latin or how we are to speak German—as these asses do. Rather we must ask the mother in the home, the children on the street, the common person in the market about this. We must be guided by their tongue, the manner of their speech, and do our translating accordingly. Then they will understand it and recognize that we are speaking German to them.”

I can easily copy it and paste it into my WordPress app (as I just did). But how do I cite it? It was p. 22 of 88 when I copied the text, but I’d had to reduce the font size to get it all on the same screen. If I had copied it at my regular reading size, it would have been 35 of 140! So unless e-books include “hard” page numbers from the printed editions, quoting is not very useful—or at least helpful.

I also find it much harder (if not impossible) to compare passages that are very far apart—or even to find those passages. Despite the claims of search abilities in e-texts, one must remember enough of the exact wording. But I’m often thinking, “didn’t the author say something about this earlier?” and that’s as close as I can remember it. At that point search isn’t very helpful—and the small pages make skimming very difficult.

Someday some smart people will probably find solutions to these problems (and maybe already have).

The other tedious thing is entering lots of text this way, i.e., tapping with one finger! I’ve entered this entire post that way. It’s doable, but only that. In due time I want to try synching this iPhone with a BlueTooth keyboard. That wasn’t possible with the 3G, but is supposed to be supported with the new phone and iOS4, but that keyboard is not at home to try tonight.

One of these days, hopefully soon, the Accordance app will be released and I’ll have even more to try out–and perhaps an iPad to buy (but I’m trying to wait for the 2d generation to do that).

But for tonight my one finger is tired!