Discussing eBooks, the Kindle, and the iPhone Amazon Application via Ustream

By Wesley Fryer On December 19, 2009 · · 3 Comments

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

This evening at long last, I was able to corner my wife and son for a thirty minute interview about their experiences since this summer reading eBooks on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Kindle. We webcasted this interview live over Ustream and archived it. We also discussed some of the differences between reading ebooks and listening to audio books.

They have both read about twenty ebooks (to date) on their respective devices. In addition to hearing from Alexander and Shelly, we skyped out to my dad in Kansas to hear about his recent experiences reading Dan Brown’s latest novel on an iPod Touch. I have shared and recorded webcasts using Ustream and Skype previously, but this was my first time to use a microphone setup with a local panel of speakers as well as Skype callers. I’ll share a subsequent post about some of my lessons learned from tonight’s webcast. The audio wasn’t superb, particularly at first, but I was able to make some adjustments which seemed to improve the quality as the webcast continued. I will most likely share this later as an audio podcast in my podcast channel. Please share any feedback on this conversation as comments here. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Technorati Tags:
amazon, audio, books, ebook, read, reading, ustream, webcast

Remember to follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter (@wfryer), Facebook and Google+. Also "like" Wesley's Facebook pages for "Speed of Creativity Learning" and his eBook, "Playing with Media." Don't miss Wesley's latest technology integration project, "Mapping Media to the Common Core / Curriculum."

On this day..

Share →

http://carver.tulsaschools.org Mona Edwards

Just listened to this. I was trying to find some podcasts to download for a trip. I stopped when I ran across this. I’m very interested in ebooks and ebook readers. I wondered about using the iphone as a reader and having the phone ring. Is it an easy transition from one to the other? I also was thinking that the iphone would be too small to read even when Alexander was saying that it was okay for him. He’s young. Once you hit 40′s it’s not as easy to read small print, so it was good to find out that he was using the middle font size choice. Great point about the Kindle enabling those with poor sight to read again. I’m wondering what they would think about using one of those little notebooks as a reader. It’s not as portable as a Kindle, but “Mom” was leaving the Kindle at home anyway.

I’m still pondering whether to buy an iphone or not. I just don’t want to pay the monthly fee for Internet for it. I need to upgrade phones though. If it could be used as an ereader, then that would be another plus.
Thanks! Very helpful!
http://www.wesfryer.com Wesley Fryer

Mona: If you don’t want the monthly charges for the iPhone (and I agree, they ARE ridiculously expensive) then try an iPod Touch. That is what Alexander uses. It runs almost all the same applications the iPhone does, doesn’t have a phone and the ability to access the web via the cell phone data network, but does have almost all the power of the iPhone including the ability to access/read eBooks.

My wife and dad were doubtful about whether the iPhone/iPod touch screen would be large enough to be useful / comfortable to read eBooks on, and both found it WAS. My wife is enjoying the larger screen of the Kindle along with its longer battery life, but overall was very pleased with reading on her iPhone as well. You can set the size of the text to one of five different sizes on the iPhone / iPod Touch. I’ve found it to be very readable, and I’m ALMOST 40.
http://www.paragraf.su Vizitki

I wondered about using the iphone as a reader and having the phone ring. Is it an easy transition from one to the other? I also was thinking that the iphone would be too small to read even when Alexander was saying that it was okay for him. He’s young. Once you hit 40’s it’s not as easy to read small print, so it was good to find out that he was using the middle font size choice. Great point about the Kindle enabling those with poor sight to read again. I’m wondering what they would think about using one of those little notebooks as a reader.