Reading on Cell Phone
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TOKYO - Your eyes probably hurt just thinking about it: Tens of thousands of Japanese cell-phone owners are poring over full-length novels on their tiny screens.
In this technology-enamored nation, the mobile phone has become so widespread as an entertainment and communication device that reading e-mail, news headlines and weather forecasts — rather advanced mobile features by global standards — is routine.
Now, Japan's cell-phone users are turning pages.
Several mobile Web sites offer hundreds of novels — classics, best sellers and some works written especially for the medium.
It takes some getting used to. Only a few lines pop up at a time because the phone screen is about half the size of a business card.
But improvements in the quality of liquid-crystal displays and features such as automatic page-flipping, or scrolling, make the endeavor far more enjoyable than you'd imagine.
A library in one hand
In the latest versions, cell-phone novels are downloaded in short installments and run on handsets as Java-based applications. You're free to browse as though you're in a bookstore, whether you're at home, in your office or on a commuter train. A whole library can be tucked away in your cell phone — a gadget you carry around anyway.
"You can read whenever you have a spare moment, and you don't even need to use both hands," says Taro Matsumura, a 24-year-old graduate student who sometimes reads essays and serial novels on his phone.
Such times could be just around the corner in the United States, where cell phones are become increasingly used for relaying data, including video, digital photos and music.
U.S. publisher Random House recently bought a stake in VOCEL, a San Diego-based company that provides such mobile-phone products as Scholastic Aptitude Test preparation programs. Random House also said it reached licensing arrangements with VOCEL to provide cell-phone access to the publisher's Living Language foreign language study programs and Prima Games video game strategy guides.
Cell-phone books are also gradually starting to get traction in China and South Korea. In Japan, though, some people are really getting hooked, finding the phone an intimate tool for reading.
Reading with the lights off
It's especially effective for intensifying the thrills of a horror story, said Satoko Kajita, who oversees content development at Bandai Networks Co. Ltd.
The Tokyo-based wireless service provider offers 150 books on its site, called "Bunko Yomihodai," which means "All You Can Read Paperbacks." It began the service in 2003 and saw interest grow last year. There are now about 50,000 subscribers.
"It's hard to understand unless you try it out," Kajita said, adding that the handset's backlight allows people to read with the lights off — a convenience that delights parents who like to read near sleeping infants.
Users can search by author, title and genre, and readers can write reviews, send fan mail to authors and request what they want to read, all from their phones.
A recent marketing study by Bandai found that more than half the readers are female, and many are reading cell-phone books in their homes.
Surprisingly, people are using cell-phone books to catch up on classics they never finished reading. And people are perusing sex manuals and other books they're too embarrassed to be caught reading or buying. More common is keeping an electronic dictionary in your phone in case a need arises.
Cell-phone novels remain a niche market compared with ringtones, music downloads and video games, said YoShiteru Yamaguchi, executive director at Japan's top mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo. But no longer is reading books on a phone considered unbelievable, he said. -
lost count of how many times i have knock on someone or something when i read my message on my cell phone....
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Wah... never knew reading cellphone messages can pose such a threat to personal safety one!!!Originally posted by kops21:lost count of how many times i have knock on someone or something when i read my message on my cell phone....
Kops, how in the world do you read your messages till you hurt someone in the process? And, I'd also like to know how large is your phone - sounds like those huge chunky archaic ones that can give someone a serious brain hemorrhage if you knock them with it, as you claim to do! hahahaa!!! -
call me old fashion, but I still like the feeling of flipping the pages on a good novel.
None of that mobile phone which is also a camera, and a PDA, and a mini-TV, and a radio, and an MP3 player and a mini-fridge,... for me.
Just old fashion me...
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Oh, you academic, you!Originally posted by ilovemyrolex:call me old fashion, but I still like the feeling of flipping the pages on a good novel.
None of that mobile phone which is also a camera, and a PDA, and a mini-TV, and a radio, and an MP3 player and a mini-fridge,... for me.
Just old fashion me... 
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Well, I'd much rather hold a book and flip its pages and place a nice bookmark / card nicely into it and look at the cover and all that...
I wouldn't want to read novels on the cellphone.
Although, hmm... it would be nice to have an encyclopedia available at the touch of a mobile phone button, wouldn't it? A dictionary and English-Chinese translator too. Now, THAT I would appreciate. -
u walk while sms, sprain the ankle from that damn pop hole on the floor.Originally posted by Rhonda:Wah... never knew reading cellphone messages can pose such a threat to personal safety one!!!
Kops, how in the world do you read your messages till you hurt someone in the process? And, I'd also like to know how large is your phone - sounds like those huge chunky archaic ones that can give someone a serious brain hemorrhage if you knock them with it, as you claim to do! hahahaa!!!
i always seem to knock into someone while walking. maybe too engrossed.
my phone small and handy.
Not the old model lah...u think i PCT meh...need to use the Da Ke Da as a hammer to knock those nails. 
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hehehee!Originally posted by kops21:u walk while sms, sprain the ankle from that damn pop hole on the floor.
i always seem to knock into someone while walking. maybe too engrossed.
my phone small and handy. Not the old model lah...u think i PCT meh...need to use the Da Ke Da as a hammer to knock those nails. You didn't elaborate in your post, mah! So I assume and made an ass out of u and me! hehehe! -
LOL you are what keeps librarians & booksellers in businessOriginally posted by ilovemyrolex:call me old fashion, but I still like the feeling of flipping the pages on a good novel.
None of that mobile phone which is also a camera, and a PDA, and a mini-TV, and a radio, and an MP3 player and a mini-fridge,... for me.
Just old fashion me... -
I can imagine curling up, nicely tucked in a throw on the window seat with a good book and a nice drink within reach but... how do you curl up with a good mobile?
BTW, I really miss my days in Baltimore where I had a lovely window seat right in my bedroom! I used to wake up early to watch the birds and the squirrels on this huge tree just outside the window.
The air was really chilly then so it was good to walk around the room with a wool blanket wrapped around me, opening the windows tentatively and enjoying the fresh, cold breeze for a while before running to get a hot beverage and curling up on the seat with a good book / mag.
Sorry but cannot imagine doing that with a mobile! Maybe, can play games on the mobile but as for reading, I still prefer a good ol' book. -
i'm reading a book....
unless they make the new electronic gizmo a lot lighter and a lot cheaper..
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Jap have an obsession for all things small -- from small little girls to absolute small dic ks