OT: e-Readers

[Andy Burns]

tablets will be a bluer light, not good for going to sleep.

watching videos on tablets we're used inherent flicker, but ebooks don't have a refresh rate (except on page turns).

[Pancho]

People say that, but I'm suspicious that it is bollocks.

FWIW, I have a lifelong inability to read in bed. My girlfriend used to laugh at my trying, she said I never got as far as turning a page, before I fell asleep.

I'm talking about using tablets to read books.

[Chris Green]

So does your smart phone work without charging for several weeks?

[Chris Green]

It's built in to the Kobo Forma (and I think maybe other Kobo models), you just configure it with your library card number and that's all that's needed. (Yes, inside it uses Adobe stuff, but it doesn't impinge on the user)

[Chris Green]

Yes, that's easy too and the Kobos can manage a wide range of different formats.

[Andy Burns]

The ereader bopping me on the nose doesn't help!

And I was saying neither books or ereaders flicker ... tablets used as ereaders do.

[Chris Green]

Yes, I do the above on my Kobo Forma. But using Overdrive directly with the local library is more straightforward so it's what I do most of the time.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The only difference is e-ink versus lcd

E-ink does better in sunlight.

Its pretty useless at 3 a.m. in a darkened hospital ward.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Mmm. Its an interesting point. An LCD has a slow response.

LED backlights are DC fed. So where IS the flicker on a static display on an LCD?

[The Natural Philosopher]

And I am saying that I dont think that modern LCD screens illuminated by DC powered LEDS do flicker at all.

When displaying static data.

Wiki supports that. There is a very low level pixel flicker from the LCD drive methodology, but the LED backlights are constant and steady or at least flickering at tens of KHz.

[Andy Burns]

just recorded my tablet screen from my phone using 1/8th speed slowmo, and have to say I can't see any refresh happening ...

[Brian Gaff]

I think most companies do this you have to keep the account to keep the books/tunes/whatever these days. Its becoming a subscription driven world. As a blind person we do get access to books that can be read aloud or audio books, but it is increasingly difficult to own them, unless you buy them at a shop. Even then of course the publisher has copyright, and its only when a book is not available in a given format for a blind person that the Marrakech treaty steps in and waives copyright in that medium. Brian

[SteveW]

But they do eat power, whereas a reflectively lit, e-ink screen takes nothing except when turning pages.

[Jeff Gaines]

They have to be refreshed, timing via the CPU clock.

[Andy Burns]

My kobo (not actually the glo as I said, but the aura HD) needs Adobe Digital Editions, I just put it on charge so it doesn't kill the battery, it's over 10 years old and it just got a firmware update, unfortunately it doesn't include the OverDrive for direct library support ...

[The Natural Philosopher]

So what?

That wasn't the objection you raised.

[The Natural Philosopher]

But that refresh does not result in any picture change on a static display,

[Jeff Gaines]

But it does make the display flicker at the refresh rate.

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, it does not.

The pixels do not change or dim.

[Jeff Gaines]

You'd best go and do some research.