It's almost as difficult to get into new habits as it is to break free of old ones. Here is an example of what I mean: I have been subscribing to the International Herald Tribune for several years now and I would find it very difficult to do without it. Next year, however, I am seriously considering abandoning the print edition and switching to the electronic version which I would read on my iPad. The advantages are considerable: cost savings, no more missed deliveries, fairly regularly updated news, larger rain forests, etc. But I have been reading newsPAPERS for most of my life and I wonder if I will be able to make the switch after all this time.
As if aware of the predicament of people like me, The Tribune is currently and temporarily allowing people to download the electronic edition onto their iPad or other device free of charge, and I in turn am making a conscious effort to forswear the printed page in favour of the iPad. And I can now report that I am gradually getting used to the change and can begin to imagine a world without paper.
The only trouble is that if someone rips the paper out of your hand, you haven't lost very much, but if someone were to snatch your iPad, he (or more likely she) has walked off with a valuable piece of merchandise. That is why my prediction for 2011 is the introduction of chains and padlocks for your electronic device. But for goodness sake don't lose the key.
Somewhat akin to the fifty-pound bicycle rule: a forty-pound bicycle only needs ten pounds of chain to secure it; a ten-pound bicycle needs forty pounds of chain to secure it.
ReplyDelete---
In addition to subscribing to the paper edition of our local paper, our wont is to read the New York Times online Monday through Saturday, but buy a print copy for Sunday.
The quiet, private time reading an actual newspaper is still one of life's pleasures.
-lesle
When you say you "read the N ew York Times online Monday through Saturday, lesle, do you mean on your desktop or laptop or on some other device?
ReplyDeleteThe NYT (like the IHT) has a very good app which is free for the moment.
Best
Barnaby
Desktop. My eyesight is such that I need a larger screen. No app, just http://www.nytimes.com/
ReplyDeleteThere are now tablets, netbooks, notebooks, and laptops. Not to mention smartphones. I'll eventually get a tablet, a larger-screen one.
Technology ain't what it used to be.
-lesle
I see that the artist David Hockney is so taken by the iPad that he has actually used it to make a series of works now on display in Paris. All his jackets have special deep pockets suitable for transporting his iPad!
ReplyDeleteGreetings Barnaby
ReplyDeleteWe gave maytrees min an Ipad for her 21st birthday last month which seems to be a great success - upon her bringing it home from uni for the Christmas holidays her parents and siblings use it as much as she.
As for the more serious point of your blog post I received a Kindle for Christmas and used it for the first time today on the District Line commute from Wimbledon to Victoria (about 30 mins). Much better than reading a small book or newspaper. I can adjust the print size/font to suit my eyes rather than the publisher's. The illuminated screen keeps the book readable even when the train lights dim on points etc; the Kindle automatically opens at the same page; it weighs less than most paperbacks. Long battery life and easy to slip back into my brief case. A little pricey but it was a shared present from maytrees max to min so the cost was shared too.
Downloading reading matter is easy as well and should save me carting paperbacks around on holidays trips home and abroad.