Reading my way to better fitness

I normally let up on my gadget gathering on the lead up to my birthday for fear that I'd accidentally double up on a thoughtful gift that my loving wife had already procured, an event that once experienced should never be repeated. This year however I've managed to thread the line of danger by not purchasing just one new toy but two only a week before the big day. Both expenses were of course cleared with the family accountant...

Ever since my first PDA (An unwieldy Cassiopeia E-100) I've been convinced that I loved reading books on electronic devices. What appealed to me back then was being able to carry hundreds of books in my pocket which I could read at any time, as well as the embarassingly geeky satisfaction that I was reading on a PADD from Star Trek. I've always been a stickler for keeping my books in pristine condition, though try as I might I'd never fully avoid making a slight crease in the spine of a paper back or discolouration of the pages from nasty finger oil. Of course something that would never be an issue with electronic books.

Over the years I've continued to read a library of books on various PDAs and most recently my HTC Touch. Two fairly major drawbacks to reading books on these portable devices sadly.

• The screen
  Most people can't fathom how I can read a full book on such a small computer screen. Given my infatuation with electronics I can only surmise that my retinas have adapted to withstand the barrage of backlit devices I expose them to. The bane of LCD screens however is direct sunlight, as anyone who's tried to use a laptop in the sun will attest to. No point in trying to read a book in the park if I need to build a tent around the screen to huddle under.
  


• Battery life
  I'm by no means a fast reader so there's little chance that I'd be able to finish a short novel in the four hours my PDA is willing to give me. Frantically searching for a socket to plug my book into so I can continue reading has a tendency to spoil the mood somewhat.
  

Predictably, these are precisely the two problems I've addressed with my latest spend-fest... a Sony Reader PRS505. While there's something to be said about wisdom of having a device that only does one thing in an age of convergence, boy does it do that one thing well. The secret is in the new display technology that it uses, E-ink. Rather than using an LCD screen which draws power whenever active, the E-ink screen only needs juice to change a page which it does by rearranging the pigment on the surface. As a result we're talking about weeks of happy reading without recharging, and more importantly - no wash out when reading in the sun.



I've given it a thorough test this week and re-read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Readability is absolutely amazing and photos will never do it justice. You just need to see one of these things in your hands. To my delight the battery indicator is still at full charge as I move to my second book. It's only four battery bars though so there's limited granularity.

If I did have any complaints it would probably be that the technology is still in its infancy, clearly evident by the slow-ish refresh rate of the display. It takes about half a second for the display to rearrange itself to show the next page which you quickly get used to. Sony also made some pretty lame brained decisions with the interface including the lack of a filter on books in the library, something that hamstrings the potential of loading thousands of titles onto memory. The other issue, which I'll be honest I haven't had experience with, is the bundled library software that Sony has developed. Given the weight of negative opinion against the application, I found a fantastic open source alternative prior to ordering the device and started formatting books in anticipation.



All in all I'm super enthused about the reader. It's definitely the way forward though I'd suggest that anyone that isn't an early adopter should probably wait for the technology to mature a little more.

The other purchase, which I won't gush about nearly as much since we haven't used it much, is Wii Fit. We were walking around Indooroopilly the other day after work and on whim I thought I'd check to see if the title had been released. It had, we bought it, we rock.



Well... maybe not so much on the rocking. My disloyal Wii had little issue with telling me what an overweight slob I am. The whole premise of the game is that it comes with a new Nintendo accessory, the Wii Balance Board, which detects pressure as you stand on it. The minigames that it comes with centre around improving your balance as well as exercises designed to catapult you down the path of physical well-being. It's thankfully not the sort of game that one would play for hours straight (in my case for fear of grievous bodily harm) so we probably won't have an accurate impression of what it's like until we've used it for a few weeks. If I don't bring it up again then let's assume the Balance Board is collecting dust under the TV cabinet. :)