Slashdot Mirror
Bubble Bursts for e-Books
Reuters has a piece noting that ebooks haven't lived up to the hype. Give it a few years, and publishers willing to issue non-DRM ebooks, and reading devices that go for days without being recharged and are as light as a paperback, and then we'll see...
If you like to read scifi or fantasy, one publisher already did all this.
Go here and check Baens webscription: http://webscription.net/
Or check their free library where you can read ebooks for FREE: http://www.baen.com/library/
All their books are DRM free and available in several different formats, including HTML (which obviously can't be DRM'ed).
I bought lots of ebooks there primary because it is so easy and I get the book instantly. I wont touch any ebook that has DRM as those always try to limit the number of devices I can read them on. Today I am reading those books on my iPAQ PDA, but in a year I have most likely retired that device for something better.
Contrary to what others seem to be saying here, ebooks really works for me. I almost completely stopped reading ordinary books, always prefering to use the light ipaq over a heavy real book. The display is clear, bright and does not strain my eyes. The battery lasts about 10 hours when reading. The only times where the battery live is a problem is when I am home, and there I just hook it up to power when it runs out.
It is not perfect, but it is more than good enough. At least for fiction reading anyway - I might not want to use it for a science text book, or any other book with tables, pictures and the like. Some of my ebooks contain maps, which are completely unreadable on the ipaq (but you can read them on the computer of course).
Check out the prices on Al Franken's latest book at Amazon.com.
Lying Liars (hardcover): $14.97
Lying Liars (adobe ebook): $24.95
Gee, wonder why the ebooks aren't selling?