Originally Posted By: ryck
I'm unconvinced that's entirely the case with the iPad, particularly the part about reading books on it. I cannot imagine reading a novel or any other lengthy book on a screen.

I'll first reiterate Dave's point: that we (millions of us) already read text on a screen many hours a day. Most of what i've learned about Unix (for example) has come from on-screen documents.

Have you experimented with the dark theme here at FTM? Try this: select "ubbthreads-dark" from the popup menu at the bottom of the screen... and then bump up the text size significantly with command+      ...that's pretty easy on the eyes, no?

Also... some users with *extremely* poor vision (my mom has macula degeneration) have to use screen-based devices. She has this "reading machine" that zooms her materials (novels mostly) up on a screen, and she does about 6 hours a day like that. (it's her only source of entertainment, as her hearing device's processor does not allow her to understand "fast" speech... so TV has been out of the realm of possibility for some years now). Like the dark theme here, her machine can do white text on black background... as well as various other shades and color combinations.

Anyway, part of my interest in the iPad is to see if she will be able to read from it. I'll need to investigate what options it has [text size, etc.] not just in the iBook area, but also with email. We have tried the "zoom" feature offered by Mac OS, but the laborious scrolling required has proven to be too disorienting for her to use.