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.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under