First Folding-Screen e-Book Reader

MJArrison writes "Yahoo is carrying a Reuters story about a laptop that isn't much more than a foldable LCD screen. It's very small screen 6.7"x5" appears to be a strange black on green monochrome, so it better be cheap. It's made by Samsung and will be launched in Korea first." It's a start; I can't wait for them to integrate an IBM 701cs style camber for both screen and keyboard. T. adds: Rather than a general-purpose laptop, it looks like this is being pushed as an specialized device for reading e-texts.

Comments

Re:Dead Tree Society

[Ryan Amos]

The GameBoy Advance and GameBoy Color both used reflective LCDs, and both with poor results. Yes, they're cheaper than normal LCDs because you don't need a backlight, but they're also horribly dark and the contrast is awful. The cries of bloody murder over the GBA screen should be evidence of this. On top of that, the things are fragile as hell, the only reason they work well in the GBA is because they're buried far below the casing. Reflective LCDs are a good idea, but they often need their own external light source in order to be usable (which defeats the purpose.) Hopefully nobody in their right mind would use one in an eBook thing.

Re:Dead Tree Society

[Phong]

The ONLY advantage one of these has over a book might be weight and ease of storage. For those of us who only read one book at a given time there is very little advantage.

Not so! If you have a good ebook reader (which are, unfortnately, rare at the moment) I think you'll find that there are plenty of advantages. For me I much prefer to read a book on my Rocket eBook whenever possible. Here's why:

• Ergonomics. Paper books are much less convenient to either hold open (especially a paperback) or keep from flopping around (like a hardback when reading in bed). With my ebook reader I can sit it on the table while I eat, put it on the arm of the sofa while I recline with my feet up, etc. and it works much better than a paper book (just tap it periodically for the next page).
• Lighting. With a (good) ebook reader, I don't need to turn on a lamp in the room to get really good illumination and contrast. The Rocket eBook excells in this area, and this is the main reason why I continue to use it and not some newer reading hardware.
• Searching. I often read multi-volume episodic fantasy, and it is really convenient to be able to search for a particular character name or event. For instance, there was this one book where a character's name got mentioned late in the book, and the only previous mention was way back in the prologue. I needed a reminder of who exactly this person was, and a quick select/search-backwards answered that question quickly and easily.
• User-selectable fonts. I don't require a large font for reading (yet), but it's nice to know that if/when I do, all my books will still be readable.
• Non-destructive markup. I never markup my paper books, but on an ebook it's easy to underline something or make a note, find it later (searching is easy), and then remove/hide it when I'm done.
• Longevity. As long as I'm not using a high-encryption ebook (which I never buy), my books will last a really long time without getting stained or torn or mangled. And for those that like to read in the bath, I hear that putting a reader in a zip-lock bag is a great way to keep it from getting wet. (In the future ebook-reader prices will be both affordable and the hardware will probably be water resistent, so even the reader will have longevity and/or easy replacability.)

So, in summary, I have come to love reading ebooks, primarily because I found an ebook reader that was of a high enough quality and versatility to make the reading experience better. I'm still hoping for a lighter reader with higher resolution and at least grayscale if not color, but for now, I'm enjoying the advantages that I get from my Rocket eBook.