Following the Fair path

As a potential phone buyer, you’re never short of negative articles about the iPhone. Apple is a company that people in general love to hate. Even though I’m sure many of the articles are true, I’m just as sure that the articles could just as well have been about other phones. After all, most phones, regardless of brands, are made in the same factories.

And until now, you haven’t been able to buy a phone that doesn’t come with many negative issues regarding how it’s produced, the material used and how the workers are treated. No phone owner (until now) has had a completely clear conscience. It doesn’t matter if you’re using iOS or Android. The producers are using the same materials, the same suppliers and are treating their workers the same.

Since it hasn’t been possible to buy a fair phone, I’ve used iPhones (and a HTC) because it came down to two choices. Either living off grid with no phone or using “the best one” available. I have to admit, I love iPhones (and HTCs 😉 ). So until now, I’ve had a HTC Desire C and an iPhone 4s and I’ve been really happy with them. There’s just been one problem – a big one. I didn’t like how they were produced.

So my latest phone is a Fairphone, this wonderful little gadget that “has everything” you can wish for. The company is treating the workers better than any other phone company. The materials used for producing it are the best available for the environment. I’m starting to get used to the Android OS. It’s actually pretty cool. Of course I still miss my iPhone and the iOS. There are still things I can’t do with my Fairphone, but what I can do is pretty awesome. The best thing about it (apart from the obvious) is that because of the dual sim, I can actually manage with only one phone.

Many thanks to the Fairphone team for helping me keep my conscience clear and still get some of the “good stuff” in life.

The ebook – a threat or a goldmine?

As a passionate writer, reader and even a aspiring bookbinder, I have a great love for books. I love the craft of a well bound book, the smell of a new book fresh from the presses and the wonderful little sound a book makes when you open it for the first time. You might have thought I wouldn’t like the growing number of books you can find online nowadays. I don’t though. Bringing books to everyone can’t be a bad thing. Spreading the joy of reading must be something to appreciate.

I do feel some concern though. If more readers abandon the paper version of the book, the publishers might do that too. Already we can see fewer titles published each year and the publishing companies seem to focus on “big authors” and top list books. It’s very difficult for new writers to be published the traditional way. I’ll get back to how you might be able to address these problems, in another blog post.

Actually, I think the ebook is a great invention. You can easily bring a whole library with you on trips or to bed. When you don’t have to print lots of copies of books with a quality that might not last for so long, you are saving trees. Another good thing, that didn’t occur to me before, is that you can read whatever you want without people trying to figure you out by the choice of book titles. I read somewhere that the most popular type of ebook is the erotic one. 😉

Ebook readers

There are plenty of readers around. Some are for reading offline on the computer, some are built on so called book shelves on ebook sites where you read the books online. Others are programs made for smartphones, mobile phones or other hand held devices such as the ebook reader Kindle.

These are just a few readers for ebooks:

Text file based ebooks – can be read by notepad or any other simple text file software.

Html format books – can be read by any browser.

For the iPhone – Bookshelf

For Kindle – Mobipocket reader

The good thing about the Mobipocket reader is that it can be used, not only with the Kindle, but on a lot of different smartphones. It runs brilliantly on my Sony Ericson P1.

Free ebooks

There are a lot of free (legal) ebooks around from many different sites. Some are classics made available to the general public because no one holds the copyright to it anymore. Some are by unknown authors who want to make a name for themselves in this inexpensive way of publishing.

Manybooks

Free Novels Online and Links to Other Online Cyberbooks – http://www.starry.com/free-online-novels/index.htm

Digital Book Index

Free ebooks

Get Free Ebooks

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