All right guys. Try something before you discount it.
I've been reading on my Tapwave Zodiac since I got it in 2003. It's backlit. NO eyestrain ever, so don't give me that crap about eyestrain from a backlit screen. My vision hasn't changed in all that time and I never get headaches or eyeaches from reading. There are times I'll spend more than eight hours reading in bed with the lights out.
Before owning a Zodiac, I used my Palm V. Guess what. It's backlit too. Almost everyone I know who bought a Zodiac still uses it for reading even though they've moved PIM functions over to something else (I have an HTC Touch linked to my Exchange server).
Also, I get about 14 hours of battery life using %50 brightness and autoscroll with a "screen full" every five seconds. That's SMOOTH scrolling text, no jumping like the old PDA's did. When I'm reading in bed with the lights out so the wife can sleep, I cut the brightness down to the minimum which I think is about %5. Full sunny day really only needs about %40. The Zodiac will fully charge in about two hours when not in use and a little over four when in use. If I do only night reading (lowest brightness possible) I get about 18 hours before needing to charge.
Backlighting is not that big of a power hog. Use freaking LEDs and side light it. Put a switch on there for when people don't need the light.
These things cost way too much are physically too big and need a built-in light. Plain and simple.
I loved my Zodiac 2. But man did they have quality problems. I preordered my first one which died 3 days after it arrived. They replaced it with another new one which lasted 6 weeks and the back light died. Third one never powered on at all. 4th one lasted about 3 moths. Nice unit if it had lasted. Sadly they went under. Not sure if it was because of lack of orders or their high failure rate which was infamous.
The phone has 256MB of RAM and a 1GHz processor, which do the job reasonably well, though the Anna interface will likely leave something to be desired for many smartphone users.
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All right guys. Try something before you discount it.
I've been reading on my Tapwave Zodiac since I got it in 2003. It's backlit. NO eyestrain ever, so don't give me that crap about eyestrain from a backlit screen. My vision hasn't changed in all that time and I never get headaches or eyeaches from reading. There are times I'll spend more than eight hours reading in bed with the lights out.
Before owning a Zodiac, I used my Palm V. Guess what. It's backlit too. Almost everyone I know who bought a Zodiac still uses it for reading even though they've moved PIM functions over to something else (I have an HTC Touch linked to my Exchange server).
Also, I get about 14 hours of battery life using %50 brightness and autoscroll with a "screen full" every five seconds. That's SMOOTH scrolling text, no jumping like the old PDA's did. When I'm reading in bed with the lights out so the wife can sleep, I cut the brightness down to the minimum which I think is about %5. Full sunny day really only needs about %40. The Zodiac will fully charge in about two hours when not in use and a little over four when in use. If I do only night reading (lowest brightness possible) I get about 18 hours before needing to charge.
Backlighting is not that big of a power hog. Use freaking LEDs and side light it. Put a switch on there for when people don't need the light.
These things cost way too much are physically too big and need a built-in light. Plain and simple.
I loved my Zodiac 2. But man did they have quality problems. I preordered my first one which died 3 days after it arrived. They replaced it with another new one which lasted 6 weeks and the back light died. Third one never powered on at all. 4th one lasted about 3 moths. Nice unit if it had lasted. Sadly they went under. Not sure if it was because of lack of orders or their high failure rate which was infamous.