(2008-12-31) Wilson Mobile Reading Writing

Driven from his laptop by travelling, Fred Wilson is enjoying both Reading And Writing on his Blackberry (Mobile).

Reading in lean-back mode on the couch or in the coffee shop, on the train or in the plane, is more enjoyable and relaxing than the lean-forward mode required by the computer... It's becoming more natural for readers to want to interact with the content they are reading. Computers have allowed this to happen and mobile devices need to support it. It's not just commenting, it's tagging, sharing, reblogging, and a host of other interactions that make consuming content online a better experience than offline consumption. It's gotten to the point that if I can't interact with content, I don't want to consume it. When I read books, I underline certain passages so I can blog about them later (Annotation). If I were reading on a connected device, I'd simply reblog on TumblR and be done.

I've written longer and more thoughtful posts this week than has been normal and they've tackled a variety of subjects. I don't really know why writing on a blackberry brings out this side of me but it does. It could be the lack of distraction (hard to multi-task on a blackberry), it could be that I can't link out so I don't bother to be referential, or it could be something else entirely. All I know is I feel very comfortable writing with blackberry in hand. Its my quill pen.

Also I am excited about the power of blog commenting to bring "intellectual discussions" back to the mainstream. (Disputation Arena)

I enjoy having my Nokia N810 available when nothing else is, but I don't find it that enjoyable to deal with otherwise. (My main uses continue to be PDA functions and Private Wiki. RSS reading, EBook-s, and writing-for-online are secondary.)