The page should at least mention that Readmill is an e-book reader for the iPhone. It is not evident upfront from the blog post and the screenshots are not as clear. It almost seems like Readmill could be a read-it-later app like Pocket or Instapaper.
Maybe it's because I ride a bus but not a train. I've never seen a 'raised eyebrow' when someone pulls out an iPad or other larger-than-phone device to read or otherwise pass the time with.
Hopefully someone from Readmill is around to satisfy my curiosity - why would someone raise an eyebrow at that?
When I commuted into and around NYC, reading on a larger-than-phone device was always totally unremarkable, so I'm confused. There's probably a cultural difference here that's interesting.
In Chicago it may depend on which form of transportation that you're riding. On the Metra, it's second nature to see laptops, tablets, kindles, etc. On the El, coworkers have shared that tablets aren't as common (mentioning theft) and people can be apprehensive to flashing their smartphone. I'm aware that's a major blanket statement but my experience is that ride duration, available seating, and rider demographics play a role.
My issue was the sentence: "Luckily, we have great reading devices in our pockets: our phones."
My phone is not a great reading device. Far too small. I do have ebooks on my smartphone in case I ever needed something to read, but the compactness of the phone made me never do so.
That's cool, but iBooks works pretty well. This is prettier in a Metro-sort of way and less skeuomorphic, so there's that.
My biggest complaint about ebooks in the Apple ecosystem is that iTunes is a miserable way to manage them. And I want a single app for iPad and iPhone, plus a Mac version, which handle at least ePub PDF and mobi, and sync content and metadata. Simple, right?
