jon said:
can someone tell me what kind of cellphone can give you say half a page of print at a time in comfortable size, steadiness, contrast and readable resolution for hours on end?
no. only you can be the judge of that. "comfortable" and "readable" are highly subjective variables... but it's certainly the case that _some_ people judge the iphone to be acceptable on those dimensions (or the equivalent to those people)... and some smaller percentage of people judged the rocketbook to be acceptable, and some smaller percentage judged the palm acceptable. and some percentage of people judge the kindle to be acceptable, and some larger percentage of people will judge the kindle dx acceptable, although some of _them_ will then start complaining that it's "too big" to carry with them on a regular basis, so that'll be an offsetting factor. but don't focus on _books_ per se, because the number of book-readers in the population is very small. (and it's getting even smaller every day.) book-readers won't drive this revolution. the thing that will drive this revolution will be a growing desire on the part of "ordinary" people to carry a computer-communications device with them wherever they go. the top need, of course, will be the phone. but the iphone with its apps have shown that there are lots and lots of _other_ ways that an internet-connected device can be useful to people as they negotiate their route through their existences in the real world. first of all, making a voice-call is not the only way that people talk with each other these days. they also use text-messaging, twitter, and so on. second, location-based services are proving to be tremendously valuable. since your iphone knows where you are, it can look up handy information for you, like where is the nearest gas station, emergency room, and so on. it will even tell you where you are, when you don't have the foggiest notion, or when you think you're in some other place entirely. and it'll then tell you how to get from where you are to where you want to be. immensely handy. the kind of thing that, once you get used to, you don't want to live without. lastly, as more and more people start carrying around connected devices, the assumption will be that _everyone_ has one, and life will start to grow increasingly difficult for those who do not. for example, see public phones. there used to always be a public phone around. but as cell phones grew in popularity, public phones seemed to vanish. now they are exceedingly rare, to the point where you cannot count on finding one when you do need one. so many people bought a cell-phone when they otherwise might not have... -bowerbird ************** Recession-proof vacation ideas. Find free things to do in the U.S. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/domestic/national-tourism-week?ncid=emlcn...)