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Android-based cell phone ‘just four weeks away’? With FBReader among the third-party options?
August 13, 2008 | 10:28 am
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By David Rothman
This is good news if true. The FBReader folks, I’m sure, can’t wait.
With FBReader, an Android-based cellphone could display ePub, non-encrypted Mobipocket, HTML, TXT and a host of other formats.
No, I doubt that FBReader would be an official option.
But it could be among the many third-party apps you could install.
I just hope that the FBReader folks can pounce on Android as soon as it happens, or shortly thereafter.
“This version is still in beta stage, some FBReader features are still not implemented," developer Nikolay Pultsin said of the beta you see in the screenshot via an Android emulation.
"We plan to improve FBReaderJ to implement all the features of original FBReader. We also plan to release a version for J2ME devices (e.g., for Symbian phones) [link added]."
That was back in April. I’m sure he’s made much progress since then. I’d welcome further details from members of the TeleBlog community.
Related: Earlier TeleBlog stories on FBR’s Android possibilities.
Technorati Tags: Android
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Comments:
I really believe that there’s a great potential for Android. With companies such as HTC (#1 on the smartphone market), Samsung, LG & Motorola on board, Android could easily reach dozens of millions of users.
I love the open philosophy of the platform, yet I hope that Google will release something similar to the App Store (iPhone), not to filter or sell the applications, but to provide an easy way for anyone to discover and install new apps.
Reading applications have been very successful on the iPhone, and they should be equally successful with large screen phones running Android.
Hadrien, you’re right on. Android, too, in time, will be a major factor.
All this is one more argument against a focus on dedicated e-readers. Consumers will buy ‘em. But long term, they may actually purchase more books for use on phones. Meanwhile, as people here keep noting, some users will go for both platforms.
What’s cool about the Stanza approach is that, thanks to Feedbooks, it paves the way for book downloads to be as easy as on Kindles. And I know you want to do the same with FBReader for Android and presumably for Stanza for Android.
At which point the question becomes, “Why a dedicated device?”—except for factors such as screen size. Even that might vanish when rollout E ink or whatever becomes common.
Thanks,
David