Comment by scorpioxy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by scorpioxy | Hacker News Reader

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You're not the only person, but it depends on what it is I'm trying to do. Reading on a phone for example is possible but it's a struggle due to smaller screens. Trying to write anything besides a few words for a short email is an exercise in frustration. Games are not enjoyable due to the exclusive touch interface and small screen and so on. Calendar, task list and communication are what phones do best though. There are some specific mobile applications that are also very useful for me.

I think when phones started morphing into computing devices(aka "smartphones"), functionality was being shoved into them that didn't quite fit. Things started to change when the UI/UX process for mobile software was re-considered and the builders walked away from the desktop UI/UX but on phones to what we have today.

"Hate" is a strong word though. I tend to use separate devices for separate functions and stopped trying to find an all-in-one device. That made it OK but I tend to use only a few apps on my phone or tablet compared to others.

Isn't phone winning on reading and photography because that's something you always have with you?

I personally prefer reading on the phone: set a big font and there you go. Some books are terrible on it,but text only is great.

I read often in the gym between exercises and in the washroom. In both those cases I only have the phone with me,surely not a paper book

I don't know if anything is winning. I do have my preferences and others have theirs. I can tell you that reading on a tablet and reading on a phone are distinct experiences, even for text-only material.

Looking around, the younger generation doesn't do any reading on their phone. I see a lot of scrolling so probably social media or tiktok. The older generation doesn't do any reading on their phone as I see them carrying paperbacks. That's for the people who are still reading books(physical or digital) which seems to be diminishing every passing year.

Photography, is a different area. The more capable cameras on today's phones have sort of killed the mid-range market of cameras. As an amateur photographer, I haven't used my mid-range DSLR in a long time now and keep it for when quality of the image matters.

I do not get the "experience" difference for text-only, but I definitely see the difference for anything that require fixed-space fonts (code) or images.

I read plenty of books over my phone, though. Never been a problem. Also great being able to read on the bus while standing, which you can't do comfortably on a tablet.

As for paper books, I had to go back to reading a paperbook for something that's not sold in digital form and I found insane how bad the experience is. I like reading on the side and every even (or odd) page is a bad experience depending at which point of the book you are in, with being half-way affecting both sides.

Granted all the books I read are usually thick, so there's that.

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