Password Incorrect Blog » Mobile Phone http://www.passwordincorrect.com Mobile Ebooks, Self-publishing, Digital Storytelling Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:22:30 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Blurb Mobile Sets the Standard for Future Digital Storytelling http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/07/09/blurb-mobile-sets-the-standard-for-future-digital-storytelling/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/07/09/blurb-mobile-sets-the-standard-for-future-digital-storytelling/#comments Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:06:19 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/07/09/blurb-mobile-sets-the-standard-for-future-digital-storytelling/ When I’ve written a post with a list of mobile storytelling applications, I had a chance to take a closer look at Blurb Mobile. When I opened it for the first time a couple of days earlier, it looked a bit complicated, but when you give it a second chance, it’ll reveal all the possibilities [...]

"Blurb Mobile Sets the Standard for Future Digital Storytelling" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> Blurb MobileWhen I’ve written a post with a list of mobile storytelling applications, I had a chance to take a closer look at Blurb Mobile. When I opened it for the first time a couple of days earlier, it looked a bit complicated, but when you give it a second chance, it’ll reveal all the possibilities and open your imagination as to how future digital storytelling will look like.

The most prominent part of Blurb is that it prompts you to think of a story as a sequence. You can upload up to eight elements at once and this is immediately making you think of the order, the structure, the plot.

Now, a fantastic thing is that those eight frames to fill don’t have to be of the same kind. You can add not only images, but also audio and video. You can place them in one story. This is revolutionary.

So far we had single-form stories. We read books, watched films and listened to radio. We also have multimedia stories, like enhanced e-books. In all of them, a prevailing form is known upfront.

Blurb is different and I realized that only because of looking at such a simple task – eight frames waiting to be filled with the story. Those frames are equal and sequenced.

A piece of music after a picture of a beautiful girl is a different piece of story than a picture of a beautiful girl and a picture of a piano.

When you sit down with iMovie, you are going to make a video. When you take Blurb Mobile, the imagination works differently. There is absolutely no need to think of eight images or eight videos or eight audio tracks. Once you drop the usual thinking, you allow yourself a to bring a completely new, fresh, unexpected dynamics to a story.

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]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/07/09/blurb-mobile-sets-the-standard-for-future-digital-storytelling/feed/ 4 Storytelling Applications for Your Smartphone http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/06/30/storytelling-applications-for-your-smartphone/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/06/30/storytelling-applications-for-your-smartphone/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:57:33 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/06/30/storytelling-applications-for-your-smartphone/ Here’s a handy list of storytelling applications for iOS, Android and other mobile platforms. Note-taking and writing apps were covered already, but storytelling is not only about creating stories, but also sharing them. What’s even more important, technology allows to tell stories instantly – you can think of them, create and share on one device [...]

"Storytelling Applications for Your Smartphone" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]>

Blurb for iPhone

Here’s a handy list of storytelling applications for iOS, Android and other mobile platforms.

Note-taking and writing apps were covered already, but storytelling is not only about creating stories, but also sharing them. What’s even more important, technology allows to tell stories instantly – you can think of them, create and share on one device and in one go.

The greatest thing about such instant stories is that they are catching the mood and emotions you would find extremely difficult to restore afterwards.

Every time you reach for your smartphone, think of it as a way to tell engaging stories and think of you as a storyteller. Here are a couple of applications with which you can reveal the creative part of you.

If you’re using a storytelling app not listed below, please share it in the comments.

Opuss

Added on December 13th, 2011 | Applications: iPhone

Opuss hit the AppStore a couple of days ago and it’s definitely worth trying. The most proper description is the Instagram for words – and that’s why I love it so much. I’ve been sharing nanofiction on Twitter for years but Opuss is very likely to be my major landing place. It’s simply the cool and fun way to share stories!

Users can publish their texts in several categories – poem, quote, story, review among others. You can add a location, so that users can find stories told nearby. Sharing, following, likes – it’s all there. Plus your shared story links to a beautifully looking web page. What you wrote looks fantastic – so better write fantastic texts.

If any additional reference to Instagram could to be added, I’d add that Opuss is better designed than Instagram.

Broadcastr

Applications: iPhone, Android

Broadcastr is a social media platform for location-based audio stories, created by Electric Literature. You can use an app on your iPhone or Android to record a story, add category, tags and finally pin it to a map. The story can be located anywhere in the world, not only at the place you record it. All you have to do is to drag the pin to a desired location.

Your stories can be afterwards accessed from mobile applications as well as from a webpage, where you can see a stunning visualization of all the stories recorded so far.

The most fantastic thing about matching stories with locations is that it’s places our most intense memories are associated with.

Audioboo

AudiobooApplications: iPhone, Android

Audioboo started in early 2009 and proved to be a great tool to deliver audio recordings, called “boos”. Many of the recorded ones are actually mini audio stories.

A free account allows to create boos up to 5 minutes long. You can also add photo and geolocation info.

Boos can be easily embedded in blogs, and it’s a very clever idea to support your writing. PJ Kaiser is sharing her #FridayFlash stories together with their Audioboo tracks. Check one of them, Coffee and Cotton Candy.

Blurb Mobile

Applications: iPhone (Android app in development)

This is undoubtedly the most powerful storytelling application available. Opposite to other applications, you can use video and audio and pictures in your stories! You can add pictures in bulk, crop, resize, and rotate them. There is a possibility to add a text caption under every image.

The application is very well designed and gives a lot of fun when creating a story. You can choose a theme for your story and attach a tag and location, among other features.

A free version allows to add up to 8 images and one 10 sec video clip per story. Check the comparison between a free and paid version ($1.99).

Blurb Mobile is the only multimedia storytelling tool for mobile phones. What makes it revolutionary is the ability to use different forms (image, audio, video) within one story sequence.

Users of mobile devices constantly improve with processing different media types. For me, a multimedia story is clearly the future of mobile storytelling.

TypeDrawing

Applications: iPhone

My favorite storytelling tool. I’m using it for one picture stories since the beginning of last year. The application is unbeatable when it comes to play with typography.

You can type words in a freestyle way. In fact it’s more like painting. You can zoom in to focus on details or zoom out when selecting a huge font size. There is a large selection of font types. You can pick up the color from a background picture and use transparency or shadow.

The application allows to save pdf or png file to iTunes. Paid version costs $1.99.

PictureShow

PictureShowApplications: iPhone

One of the most versatile photo applications for iOS, with lots of cool features to choose from, including preset filters, effects (scratches, light leaks, frames, HDR)) as well as color edit and crop/rotate tool.

What makes it useful for storytelling is an option to add text. There are 14 fonts types and many predefined colors to choose from.Thanks to that you can create a story from the moment of making a picture to the moment of sharing it to social networks – all in one application.

Both TypeDrawing and PictureShow with their possibility to add text can be an exciting way to bring new meaning and context to stories put together in Blurb Mobile.

Halftone

HalftoneApplications: iPhone

This fun application will turn your photos in a piece of a cool, vintage comic. You can choose one of 9 predefined layouts (with or without caption and border). There are 21 paper styles, 21 stamps with customizable colors and 6 balloon types to choose from.

I’ve tested the app and the outcome is outstanding. All what you’ll have to focus is find and write a good story around a picture.

Wanderlust

Wanderlust StoriesApplications: all system with a mobile browser – go to address http://wanderluststories.com/

I love the idea of Wanderlust Stories. In order to read a story you have to check in via Foursquare to a right kind of place. So, if the story starts in a bar, you have to be in a bar to be able to read it.

Think of telling stories from a point of view of a guide, who takes readers to different places – literally. This opens a stack of new possibilities, as the reader can physically experience what you are writing about (a music in a restaurant, a dialog of the two women at the next table, etc.).

You can add images, audio and video to a story. If you want to start writing, send a tweet to @wanderlustapp.

Twitter

TwitterApplications: your preferred Twitter application

Twitter? Yes, Twitter, the application you’re using on your smartphone a couple of times a day. Twitter with its 140 character limit appeared to be highly motivating for users to write stories.

There are lots of folks who create awesome Twitter stories. Top storytellers on Twitter are @arjunbasu and @VeryShortStory. Check also an anthology of Twitter fiction with over 150 stories from 37 authors.

Think of Twitter as a place where you’re already telling stories – about yourself. What you can do is to switch to a third person narration and add a tag to a tweet. The most popular one to spot stories on Twitter is #vss, what stands for very short story.

* * *

Obviously this list could be longer. A great selection of tools is available at the Langwitches Blog. It’s just a matter of your sensitivity and creativity which app you’ll pick up and how you want to use it. The more unexpected effect, the better.

One of the greatest miracles of internet and digital technologies is that they allow absolutely everyone to tell stories. All what you need is a will to do it and an app which will make it happen.

Why don’t you start now?

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]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/06/30/storytelling-applications-for-your-smartphone/feed/ 14 Which Links Shared on Twitter Are Mobile Friendly? http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/05/22/which-links-shared-on-twitter-are-mobile-friendly/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/05/22/which-links-shared-on-twitter-are-mobile-friendly/#comments Sun, 22 May 2011 14:47:02 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/?p=24596 Recently Mashable published interesting numbers showing that Twitter users are likely to share a story without actually reading it. In my opinion, one of the major reasons is that users are afraid of opening links on their mobile phones. And as much as 37% of users access Twitter via mobile devices as this infographic shows. [...]

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]]>

A mobile friendly version of the Mashable article

Recently Mashable published interesting numbers showing that Twitter users are likely to share a story without actually reading it.

In my opinion, one of the major reasons is that users are afraid of opening links on their mobile phones. And as much as 37% of users access Twitter via mobile devices as this infographic shows.

Compared to Facebook, where every link was clicked on average more than three times, Twitter received only 0.38 clicks per tweet.

Are you in a group of tweeple who share content without reading? I have to admit that I do it from time to time -  when I know a post has been published on a blog with no mobile theme. I usually read it later, via Instapaper or Readability.

So, if this is such an issue, is there a way to find out which links are mobile friendly before clicking them?

Most popular url shorteners, bit.ly or t.co, don’t give a hint what kind of site will be opened. There are many shorteners, however, which are a guarantee that you’ll easily open a page in a browser of your mobile phone – and enjoy reading it.

http://tumblr.com

Native url shortener of a popular blogging platform. Every newly published post is shared with tumblr.com short link.

http://post.ly

Similar to Tumblr, all posts from Posterous are shared automatically with post.ly right after they are published.

http://wp.me

Links to WordPress.com blogs, which are mobile friendly by default. However not all the links may open mobile interfaces as wp.me shortener can be also used, via plugins, by users of self-hosted WordPress blogs.

http://amzn.to

Links to Amazon sites. Opposite to microblogging services, where in most cases photos or short notes are shared, this short link can lead to a Kindle book you can start reading in a few clicks. Read a full article about it.

http://rdd.me

Link shortener from Readability, a service which turns web pages into a reading mode. When you click on rdd.me you’ll be redirected to a distraction-free and mobile-friendly version of the article, even if it’s published at a blog with no mobile theme.

* * *

Popular news or tech sites use their own shorteners and have mobile versions as well, so you can also be sure to open the right kind of link:
Mashable – http://on.mash.to
Engadget – http://engt.com
ReadWriteWeb – http://rww.to

Most of photo, video and localization platforms also use mobile friendly links, naming only three of them:
Foursquare – http://4sq.com
Gowalla – http://gowal.la
YouTube – http://youtu.be

Things change fast. More and more sites are launching mobile versions. So, next time, when you’ll be scrolling through Twitter stream on your mobile phone, just remember – now you have much more chances to open a link and read the article.

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]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/05/22/which-links-shared-on-twitter-are-mobile-friendly/feed/ 2 What Is Your Primary E-reading Device? [Poll] http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/04/06/poll-which-is-your-primary-e-reading-device-computer-e-reader-tablet-mobile-phone/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/04/06/poll-which-is-your-primary-e-reading-device-computer-e-reader-tablet-mobile-phone/#comments Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:00:56 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://passwordincorrect.com/2011/04/06/poll-which-is-your-primary-e-reading-device-computer-e-reader-tablet-mobile-phone/ I would appreciate, if you leave your quick vote. Although many of us may access their digital bookshelves from a number of devices, I wanted to keep the poll simple. Please check only one answer, make sure to choose your primary e-reading device – the one you use most intensively to read e-books. Computer desktop, [...]

"What Is Your Primary E-reading Device? [Poll]" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> I would appreciate, if you leave your quick vote. Although many of us may access their digital bookshelves from a number of devices, I wanted to keep the poll simple. Please check only one answer, make sure to choose your primary e-reading device – the one you use most intensively to read e-books.

Computer desktop, laptop, netbook, etc.
E-reader a device specifically designed to be used for reading e-books, f.e. Kindle (Nook Color comes here)
Tablet multi-purpose devices like iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab
Phone any cellphone
Others other devices with e-reading capability, f.e. gaming consoles (iPod Touch comes here)

It would be great, if you will also leave a comment with what device you use and how do you feel about it.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I’ve been running a similar poll already at Password Incorrect, but decided to close it as it was not including tablets as a separate answer.

The poll started in July 2009. Things have changed since that time. Tablets entered the game as well as cloud bookshelves, accessed from applications or browsers. Both changed the way we consume books. Now we can freely use more than one device to read books. Clearly, e-book reading moves from device-centric stage to the next one, where reader’s cloud bookshelf is the most important element.

In this former poll 387 votes were left. What’s important: blog’s visitors come from different countries, so the results represent not only a US  perspective. Check this screenshot with a worldwide traffic to Password Incorrect.

The results for the closing day, 6th of April 2011 were:

1. Computer – 43%, 165 votes
2. Phone – 32%, 125 votes
3. E-reader – 25%, 96 votes
4. Others – 12%, 47 Votes

At the beginning, in 2009 computers were dominating, with more than 50%, but certainly their role will be limited to book buying and managing. I’m surprised that so many people are using their phones to read – even that the results may be affected by the profile of this blog, devoted to make people use their phones to read e-books.

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]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/04/06/poll-which-is-your-primary-e-reading-device-computer-e-reader-tablet-mobile-phone/feed/ 18 Perfect e-reading application for iOS http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/29/perfect-e-reading-application-for-ios/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/29/perfect-e-reading-application-for-ios/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:29:07 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/29/perfect-e-reading-application-for-ios/ Stanza’s functionality + iBooks’ interface + Kindle’s offer   Related posts21.01.2011 -- iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch – jak dodać własne pliki do aplikacji e-książkowych19.10.2010 -- iPad vs. iPhone 4 – size comparison [infographic]19.10.2010 -- iPad vs. iPhone 4 – porównanie wielkości 17.10.2010 -- 3 Ways to Add Books to Your iPad or iPhone04.09.2010 -- Use [...]

"Perfect e-reading application for iOS" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> Stanza’s functionality

+ iBooks’ interface

+ Kindle’s offer

 

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]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/29/perfect-e-reading-application-for-ios/feed/ 0 iBooks: How to Add Books Without Connecting to iTunes http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/27/ibooks-how-to-add-books-without-connecting-to-itunes/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/27/ibooks-how-to-add-books-without-connecting-to-itunes/#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:40:51 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/27/ibooks-how-to-add-books-without-connecting-to-itunes/ Adding third-party books to iBooks is painful. You need to cable your device (iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad) with a computer to sync books between iTunes “Books” folder and the application. I personally feel stressed every time I connect a device to iTunes. Syncing is slow and when it’s finished app icons are messed up [...]

"iBooks: How to Add Books Without Connecting to iTunes" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> Adding third-party books to iBooks is painful. You need to cable your device (iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad) with a computer to sync books between iTunes “Books” folder and the application. I personally feel stressed every time I connect a device to iTunes. Syncing is slow and when it’s finished app icons are messed up almost every time.

Comparing to Kindle’s 60 seconds, a cable connection is just outdated. The other thing is that with the iBookstore offering such a little selection of books, many people try to download their own book libraries collected before.

Two tips listed below apply only to pdf documents, so probably only iPad owners will want to try it. You can’t use them to send ePub files to iBooks. I hope it will change soon. So far only Stanza is capable of opening external ePubs (as well as pdf docs as you’ll see in the screenshots).

I assume a book is already on your computer. What you can do is to:

1. Attach to email

When you send yourself an email with the attached book and open a message in a native Apple Mail application on your iPad, you are able to open and save it to iBooks.

Opening pdf documents from Mail

2. Open from Dropbox app

If you have a Dropbox account and the application is installed on your device, you can open it and look for the pdf previously uploaded from a computer. In a latest update Dropbox added a possibility to open documents in third-party applications.

Opening pdf documents from Dropbox

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]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/27/ibooks-how-to-add-books-without-connecting-to-itunes/feed/ 9 Use Dropbox as a Cloud Bookshelf for Stanza http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/26/use-dropbox-as-a-cloud-bookshelf-for-stanza/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/26/use-dropbox-as-a-cloud-bookshelf-for-stanza/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:50:54 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/26/use-dropbox-as-a-cloud-bookshelf-for-stanza/ By now Stanza is the most robust e-reading application for iOS. It’s packed with features other apps, like Kindle or iBooks are missing. However it has one big disadvantage: no cloud-based bookshelf. The application is associated to a device not an account. There is no way to sync books and bookmarks like in Kindle. It’s [...]

"Use Dropbox as a Cloud Bookshelf for Stanza" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> By now Stanza is the most robust e-reading application for iOS. It’s packed with features other apps, like Kindle or iBooks are missing. However it has one big disadvantage: no cloud-based bookshelf.

The application is associated to a device not an account. There is no way to sync books and bookmarks like in Kindle. It’s fine when you have one device. Things get complicated to those iPhone or iPod Touch users who are buying iPads. They realize that to read books they collected in Stanza, they need to download them again.

There are a few ways to transfer books to Stanza. I’d like to add to the list a simple solution, which gives at least part of cloud bookshelf functionality. It’s Dropbox (AppStore link), an application available for both iPhone and iPad. Sure, no sync is possible, but at least you can manage you book library from a single place.

This is possible with a recent update of Dropbox. You are able to export documents to other apps, even those ones which can’t be opened by Dropbox itself – like ePub. Please note in the screenshots below, that ePub files can be opened only by Stanza, and pdf files – by Stanza and iBooks.

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]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/26/use-dropbox-as-a-cloud-bookshelf-for-stanza/feed/ 8 E-reading applications: my feature wish list http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/24/e-reading-applications-my-feature-wish-list/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/24/e-reading-applications-my-feature-wish-list/#comments Sat, 24 Jul 2010 11:02:41 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/24/e-reading-applications-my-feature-wish-list/ Currently to read e-books I’m using two devices (iPhone and iPad) and three apps (Kindle, Stanza and iBooks). I don’t have any problem with using either iPad or iPhone. The devices are perfectly complementary. I read on iPad mostly at home and when on the move an iPhone is a perfect reading companion. It’s not [...]

"E-reading applications: my feature wish list" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> Currently to read e-books I’m using two devices (iPhone and iPad) and three apps (Kindle, Stanza and iBooks).

I don’t have any problem with using either iPad or iPhone. The devices are perfectly complementary. I read on iPad mostly at home and when on the move an iPhone is a perfect reading companion.

It’s not that easy with applications. They all have their pros and cons, some of them have features the others are missing. This is easily leading to disappointment, as a personal e-book library is split in three places and sometimes I get lost where is a book I feel like reading right now.

So here is a wish list of features a confused reader would love to have in one application to stick to it. The list only contains features which are not available in all three apps. Is there anything missing? Please leave your tips in the comments.

ePub support

Available: Stanza, iBooks

Bookshelf synchronisation

Available: Kindle

Support for audio and video

Available: Kindle, iBooks

Dictionary lookup

Available: Stanza, iBooks

Book content search

Available: Stanza, iBooks

Sharing options

Available: Stanza

In-app purchase

Available: iBooks

Catalog of free resources

Available: Stanza, iBooks

In-app book download from other resources

Available: Stanza

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]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/24/e-reading-applications-my-feature-wish-list/feed/ 9 8 Myths About Reading Books on a Mobile Phone http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/02/8-myths-about-reading-books-on-a-mobile-phone/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/02/8-myths-about-reading-books-on-a-mobile-phone/#comments Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:44:59 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/02/8-myths-about-reading-books-on-a-mobile-phone/ According to Wikipedia there are 4.6 billion mobile phones in the world. It’s a huge number. But people don’t try to read books on them. In this post I’d like to address some of the most popular reasons, which prevent us from doing it. The screen is too small This is true – if you [...]

"8 Myths About Reading Books on a Mobile Phone" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> According to Wikipedia there are 4.6 billion mobile phones in the world. It’s a huge number. But people don’t try to read books on them. In this post I’d like to address some of the most popular reasons, which prevent us from doing it.

The screen is too small

This is true – if you still own a 5-year old phone with black&white screen large enough to show in full length only a phone number (if you’re lucky). But things change, and one of the quickest developing ones are mobile phones. More and more people buy smartphones. They have screens large enough to make their producers cry: “hey you can even watch movies on this phone!”.

I’ve heard many times that reading on a mobile phone is a disaster. Now try to watch a movie. It stops every 5 seconds, as it takes a lot of time to download it. THIS is a disaster.

Let’s compare sizes. For a book, you have an A5 format (average paper book) vs a phone screen. For a video, you as a reference we can use a 21″ TV screen. If we can shrink our video world that much, why we can’t do the same with books?

Another comparison. On average the screen of a smartphone has the width of a text column in a newspaper. If the size of a text field in a paper edition of The New York Times is not enough for you, then you can also complain about a mobile phone.

This is bad for eyes

This is truly mysterious point of view. If you read on your 21″ desktop computer monitor – this is bad for your eyes. But the smaller the device is, the less it affects your eyes.

The font is too small

This argument comes usually with a first one, but I guess it’s also connected in some way with a general perception of what the e-book is. There are still a lot of people who think, that an e-book is a fixed pdf document, and that you need to scrool&zoom a lot to see anything.

It’s not true any more. More and more e-books are made with mobile devices in mind. They have a proper format (like ePub), which enables a user to change a font size, among many other features. That means you can enlarge a font to the size you want. Kid book size needed? There you go.

There are few books available

People with the knowledge of modern e-book formats, still think that the number of publications is very limited and they are hard to find.

The truth is that any major e-bookstore now offers books in mobile friendly formats. Do you have an account at Amazon? All books in Kindle e-bookstore are well readable on smartphones. That means you log in to your Amazon account from your cellphone and start reading an e-book in minutes. Same with Barnes&Noble or Borders. What’s more important, there are sites devoted to mobile reading, like Feedbooks or Wattpad. Go there and you’ll see how many good books you can download to your mobile phone – for free.

Extra effort is needed to get a book

If you have a smartphone, you can easily turn it into an e-reader – I wrote a short post about it. What you need is to choose your favourite method. The most popular and the easiest way is to download an application. For iPhone OS you have Stanza. Free books for Android are available via Aldiko application. Kindle and Kobo have apps for both mobile OS-es.

Another way is managing and reading books via a mobile browser. This is what Google Editions is going to bring to an e-book world in the coming days. Reading books will be even easier. No special app needed, you’ll use your smartphone’s browser.

One thing is clear. You absolutely don’t need to learn anything about format-to-format conversions to start reading books on your mobile phone.

It costs money

Most e-book reading apps are free of charge. What you need to pay for is books themselves. So if you think, that turning your mobile phone into an e-reader will cost you an extra money -  you’re just wrong.

What you may want to know is that there are two kinds of apps in the applications markets. One is a program to read and manage books downloaded to it. The other one is a book-app – a book sold as a separate application.

If you want to give the e-books a try at no cost the best way is to download Stanza for iPhone or Aldiko for Android. They both give you the access to free resources from Feedbooks – public domain books as well as new titles from self-published authors.

It’s inconvenient to manage a book library

Some of us think, that building a book library based on a mobile phone is a useless work. Managing all the books from a small device is hard to imagine.

You don’t need to assume that any more. With cloud-based services you can access your library from a lot of devices, like a computer, a tablet, an e-reader – and a mobile phone.

You don’t need to manage your library from a mobile phone – just pick up the most convenient device for that.

Phones will be replaced by better-suited devices anyway

Not true. Tablets, e-readers and phones will be used simultaneously. I’m sure that with the availability of bookshelves in the cloud, anyone will want to have a comfort to access books from whatever device he’s got at hand. The big decision to make will be “tablet or e-reader”, but smartphones? We have them anyway, they can be easily turned into e-reading devices.

And they can be used to read books on the go, anywhere where there was no reason to take a bigger device – but there is time to read books.

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"8 Myths About Reading Books on a Mobile Phone" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/07/02/8-myths-about-reading-books-on-a-mobile-phone/feed/ 19 Posterous goes mobile and what it means for readers http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/04/24/now-posterous-lets-us-read-on-cellphones/ http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/04/24/now-posterous-lets-us-read-on-cellphones/#comments Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:19:54 +0000 Piotr Kowalczyk http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2010/04/24/now-posterous-lets-us-read-on-cellphones/ This is a fantastic news for everybody, who is using a mobile phone not only to make calls, listen to music or play games, but also to read. Posterous has just introduced a mobile version of the site. For mobile users of social networks this means one essential benefit: every post.ly link is a guarantee [...]

"Posterous goes mobile and what it means for readers" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

]]> This is a fantastic news for everybody, who is using a mobile phone not only to make calls, listen to music or play games, but also to read. Posterous has just introduced a mobile version of the site.

For mobile users of social networks this means one essential benefit: every post.ly link is a guarantee of a mobile friendly page.

Until now I missed the url shortener, which at the same time could inform other users, that a link I tweet is readable on a mobile phone. I had to describe links as “mobile friendly”. Now the problem is solved. Anyone who knows that Posterous went mobile, can open post.ly links without any fear of getting stuck in a full site view.

This is especially important in times, when more and more people are sharing stuff without actually reading it. The culture of over content is created also due to a lack of tools, which help to conveniently consume the content. A technical problem (“will it open?”) prevents people from reading. Instead they share everything – both good and bad stuff.

The mobile interface of Posterous is simple&beautiful and loads pretty fast. All pictures are re-sized to fit the width of a screen. This pretty basic and very useful feature still doesn’t work f.e. in WP Touch plugin for WordPress.

But there are also some disadvantages. In my opinion the body font is too small. There is still no option to leave a comment. Thumbs at a landing page are not loading fast or not loading at all.

Not so long ago I was wondering why so many blogging platforms were giving so many so advanced tools for people to write posts from a mobile phone, while giving no chances for mobile readers to read them. At that time only WordPress.com was detecting a mobile browser and switched theme to a mobile friendly one.

Now it’s changing for the better – and changing very quickly. Not only Posterous, but also Tumblr recently announced mobile optimized version. Keeping fingers crossed for the next services.

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"Posterous goes mobile and what it means for readers" is a post from Password Incorrect Blog.

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