On Feb 16, 6:24*am, Paul Terry wrote:
In message , Brian Watson
writes

It's because

1) *y o u *a r e *u n d e r g r o u n d* and there are usually at least a
few yards of earth between you and the mast, also

2) People don't want to hear you shouting, "I AM ON THE TRAIN" over the
racket of a tube train so no-one is going to go to the expense of enabling
it.

I never cease to be amazed at the number of phones users who shout down
their mobiles "Hello, hello! Can't you hear me?" as the Piccadilly
plunges down to the depths after Baron's Court. I guess they never
studied physics.

....or have previously lived in almost any other country in the world
with an underground rail system.

Even Sydney, where public transport is best categorised as "following
the UK model, but slightly worse", has mobile phone repeaters at all
the underground stations on the rail network (although not the tunnels
between stations).

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

In message 01cbce1e$13a7dce0$LocalHost@default, Michael R N Dolbear
writes
The Kindle ebook reader comes with a free 3G data link (GPRS or EDGE if
no 3G) mainly intended for downloading books but which including a
simple internet browser. And I have just acquired one (£152).

A user could check Live Departure Boards on the way to the station
without presenting, as a smart phone would, the temptation to use voice
and thus annoy fellow travellers.

Ah, but you *can* annoy fellow travellers by using the Kindle's
text-to-speech option, which is surprisingly good. For those that want
to annoy, of course (and so many seem to want to do that). It doesn't
work on web pages, as far as I can see.


--
Clive Page

On Feb 17, 9:14*pm, Clive Page wrote:

In message 01cbce1e$13a7dce0$LocalHost@default,
Michael R N Dolbear writes

The Kindle ebook reader comes with a free 3G data link (GPRS or EDGE if
no 3G) mainly intended for downloading books but which including a
simple internet browser. And I have just acquired one (£152).

A user could check Live Departure Boards on the way to the station
without presenting, as a smart phone would, the temptation to use voice
and thus annoy fellow travellers.

Ah, but you *can* annoy fellow travellers by using the Kindle's
text-to-speech option, which is surprisingly good. *For those that want
to annoy, of course (and so many seem to want to do that). *It doesn't
work on web pages, as far as I can see.

And I can annoy annoying Kindle users by threatening to lamp them! I
must admit I hadn't realised it could talk - of course it seems
entirely obvious now that you've said it.

It's an opinion I doubt many on here will share, but I think it's
rather a shame there's now a web browser present on the new Kindle - I
really liked the idea of a pure single purpose book-like reading
device, unencumbered with the infinite distractions of the web - the
joy of immersive, long-form, non-hyperlinked reading.

Mizter T wrote

On Feb 17, 9:14*pm, Clive Page wrote:

In message 01cbce1e$13a7dce0$LocalHost@default,
Michael R N Dolbear writes

The Kindle ebook reader comes with a free 3G data link (GPRS or EDGE
if
no 3G) mainly intended for downloading books but which including a
simple internet browser. And I have just acquired one (£152).

A user could check Live Departure Boards on the way to the station
without presenting, as a smart phone would, the temptation to use
voice
and thus annoy fellow travellers.

Ah, but you *can* annoy fellow travellers by using the Kindle's
text-to-speech option, which is surprisingly good. *For those that
want
to annoy, of course (and so many seem to want to do that). *It
doesn't
work on web pages, as far as I can see.

And I can annoy annoying Kindle users by threatening to lamp them! I
must admit I hadn't realised it could talk - of course it seems
entirely obvious now that you've said it.

It's an opinion I doubt many on here will share, but I think it's
rather a shame there's now a web browser present on the new Kindle - I
really liked the idea of a pure single purpose book-like reading
device, unencumbered with the infinite distractions of the web - the
joy of immersive, long-form, non-hyperlinked reading.

So wander along to Waterstones and trial one of the Sonys.

Except that books may have hyperlinks as from the table of contents to
a chapter.

Yes, Kindles can do Text-to-Speech except for DRM-encrypted books sfrom
Amazon which have the note "Text-to-Speech disallowed". It also has an
MP3 feature which allows music as background to reading and the playing
of Audiobooks, podcasts and the like.


--
Mike D

On 18 Feb 2011 10:54:04 GMT
"Michael R N Dolbear" wrote:
It's an opinion I doubt many on here will share, but I think it's
rather a shame there's now a web browser present on the new Kindle - I
really liked the idea of a pure single purpose book-like reading
device, unencumbered with the infinite distractions of the web - the
joy of immersive, long-form, non-hyperlinked reading.

Theres a great device that does just that - its called a Book.

E-readers along with digital picture frames must be in the top 10 of most
pointless devices ever.

B2003

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 03:58:26PM -0800, Mizter T wrote:

It's an opinion I doubt many on here will share, but I think it's
rather a shame there's now a web browser present on the new Kindle - I
really liked the idea of a pure single purpose book-like reading
device, unencumbered with the infinite distractions of the web - the
joy of immersive, long-form, non-hyperlinked reading.

I do *not* share.

A device that only does one thing has to do it a *lot* better than the
competition to justify carrying it around*. And so I don't have a
Kindle. My phone isn't quite as good at being a book reader, but it's
"good enough". My ability to use it for the joy of immersive, long-form
reading is limited solely by how well the author has done his job.

Trouble is, the Kindle makes a pretty damned poor web browser too, so
it still effectively only does one thing, and does it in a very large
device which counts even more against it.

* this is why I carry an iPod as well as an iPhone - the iPod is a
*much* better device for listening to music.

--
David Cantrell | even more awesome than a panda-fur coat

Nuke a disabled unborn gay baby whale for JESUS!

"Theo Markettos" ha scritto nel
messaggio ...
Brian Watson wrote:
2) People don't want to hear you shouting, "I AM ON THE TRAIN" over the
racket of a tube train so no-one is going to go to the expense of
enabling
it.

There's no reason why mobile operators couldn't deploy a BTS that only
allowed texts, data and emergency calls. Though they wouldn't make as
much
money out of it, which might not make it too attractive.

Theo


I'm happy that some people get agree with me saying that communication is
important wherever u are
at least as guarantee in emergency cases and then where texting is not
really a drawback.

On Feb 18, 10:37*pm, David Cantrell wrote:
\ A device that only does one thing has to do it a *lot* better than
the
competition to justify carrying it around*. *And so I don't have a
Kindle. *My phone isn't quite as good at being a book reader, but it's
"good enough". *My ability to use it for the joy of immersive, long-form
reading is limited solely by how well the author has done his job.

Trouble is, the Kindle makes a pretty damned poor web browser too, so
it still effectively only does one thing, and does it in a very large
device which counts even more against it.

* this is why I carry an iPod as well as an iPhone - the iPod is a
*much* better device for listening to music.

I'm assuming by "better" you mean "holds more", here? My flatmate's
iPhone has a better music interface than my iPod Classic, sadly you
can't get a 160gb iPhone yet.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...



It's an opinion I doubt many on here will share, but I think it's
rather a shame there's now a web browser present on the new Kindle - I
really liked the idea of a pure single purpose book-like reading
device, unencumbered with the infinite distractions of the web - the
joy of immersive, long-form, non-hyperlinked reading.

Sony PRS 350? smaller than a Kindle, no web browser, hold about 2K books.
has got a basic music player but headphone only so no annoying your fellow
travellers.

--
Cheers, Steve.

Theres a great device that does just that - its called a Book.

E-readers along with digital picture frames must be in the top 10 of
most pointless devices ever.

when "computers" were invented, did you spend 5 years telling the world
that they're no more useful than "chalk and slate"?