The Bookseller’s Feast
Media Apps for Android Tabs, Part II
In our last posting we discussed some apps and content sources that allow you to read books for free on an Android tablet. It’s worth repeating—there’s tons of great reading out there that you don’t have to pay for. But that said, it’s a fact that buying a book is sometimes the best way, and sometimes the only way, to get a copy. In this post we’ll look at a couple of apps that help you buy books. But first, this just in from the world of science.
You’re Slowing Down and Research Proves It
Reading on a tablet can be fun, cost-effective, and engaging… but you should allow a little extra time. Recently researchers at the Nielsen Norman Group (no relation to the TV rating Nielsens) conducted a survey comparing reading times on tablets, computers, and printed books. They discovered that it took subjects between 6 and 11 percent more time to read on tablets than to read printed books. The survey also covered several “softer” factors. On a seven-point “likeability” scale, tablets and printed books were pretty much equal at roughly 6. The PC came in at 3.6: subjects said that reading on a PC was too much like work. Subjects also told researchers that reading a printed book was very relaxing, which may not qualify as a news flash.
The survey mirrors our experience with our Samsung Galaxy Tab—it’s a pleasure to read on the Tab, but it does seem to take a little longer. What we miss most in the transition from print to tablet are little tangible qualities inherent in print: the ability to skip forward and back, to mark the pages, to access the index and endnotes easily, and to measure progress simply by seeing where the bookmark is. Admittedly, these are matters of personal opinion. What we enjoy most in the transition is the fact that the 13-ounce Tab is a lot lighter to carry than the three or four books we may be chewing on at any given time… and weight is not a matter of opinion.
It seems like everybody’s running a bookstore these days, including a number of companies we think of as hardware or software vendors, like Sony, Sharp, and Google. But convergence works both ways, and companies we used to think of as bookstores are now selling hardware and software—specifically, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. In a hedging of bets, the last two companies have “opened” their platforms by developing free apps that turn Android tabs into Kindles and Nooks. We thought we’d share our experience buying books at three major retailers.
Kindling
Measured by Amazon’s standards the Kindle has to be an unqualified success—not as technology, but as a spur to book sales. The company claims to be selling more e-books than printed books, an astonishing accomplishment in such a short period. Are they making more money as a result?
A Kindle app came preloaded on the Galaxy Tab, making it easy as pie to explore. In fact, easy is the word to describe the whole Kindle experience: Amazon is as adept at parting readers from their money as a company can get. Selecting Kindle Store from the app’s menu brings up an elegantly simple screen offering nine choices, including Books, Newspapers, Magazines, and Kindle Singles (Amazon’s name for its line of “long-form” essays). The final choice on the menu is Amazon’s spooky mechanical mind reader, Recommended for You.
Finding what you want is a piece of cake… if you know in advance what you’re looking for. We had our hearts set on a Cormac McCarthy novel, Suttree. It took two taps to reach a search screen, and a search on “Cormac McCarthy” brought up all of his books, each listing graced with the blindingly small cover thumbnail that everyone has come to know and love on visits to the Amazon Web site. It’s worth mentioning that Amazon offers something north of 850,000 digital books for sale.
If you have an Amazon account (and who doesn’t?) the familiar 1-Click option provides instant gratification. Suttree downloaded in a matter of seconds. Up to the point of sale, all of the screens we saw were formatted for tablets, crystal clear, and a breeze to navigate. However, account management activities, such as adding a new credit card or changing a billing address, are accomplished through the Amazon Web site on the browser, which, as every digital tablet user knows, is about three bricks shy of a load when it comes to convenience.
The other major component of the Kindle app is, of course, the reader, and there certainly isn’t anything wrong with the Android version of the Kindle reader: it’s intuitive, simple, and works great. Using the Android Kindle reader isn’t quite the same as reading on a genuine Kindle… though maybe that’s not a bad thing. Pages turn with a finger flick instead of buttons, and there’s no hardware keyboard or navigation button to contend with, obviously.
Some features will be very familiar to Kindle owners, however. Amazon’s stalwart resistance to page numbers is maintained on the Kindle app, which uses the unusual “location” numbers found on Kindles. Readers accustomed to the lack of contrast on the Kindle’s e-ink screen can tint the background on their Android app a sepia tone (giving book pages the odd appearance of an old pulp paperback), or even switch the display to white text on a black background, guaranteed to induce immediate migraines, nausea, and vertigo. The Kindle’s bookmarking system is also maintained: setting a bookmark creates Kindle’s little “dogear” triangle in the upper right hand corner of a page, and you can sprinkle as many bookmarks as you like throughout the book you’re reading. Touching the Tab’s “search” button brings up a search box and the touchscreen keyboard. Voice searches are possible if you don’t like to type.
To us, most of these features are, if not totally gratuitous, minor distinctions—while Amazon is masterful at selling books, the Kindle reader is ultimately just like everybody’s else’s: familiar, fully functional, and as good as it needs to be. Is it possible that the technology of reader apps on tablets has reached perfection in only three years?
Filed under: GentryMedia •Apps4Tablets •
(Page 1 of 3 pages for this article 1 2 3 >)
Ads
