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Digital Books Start A New Chapter
conq writes "BusinessWeek has a piece on the latest advancements in eBooks, and how this time they might just take off. From the article: 'Portable devices are becoming lighter and more appealing. The most important step forward may be in digital ink, the technology used for displaying letters on a screen. A small company called E Ink has created a method for arranging tiny black and white capsules into words and images with an electronic charge. Because no power is used unless the reader changes the page, devices with the technology could go as long as 20 books between battery charges'."
How many freakin articles about this do we have to read before it's actually in production? Wake me up when it's ready.
And the bad:
Having to spend $400 before getting any actual content is pretty harsh. The readability and low power consumption are a step in the right direction, but until the price drops considerably this won't be mainstream thats for sure.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I only care about e-books if the following conditions are met:
1 - The image has to be inert - no glow effect of any kind. Ideally it should look just like paper.
2 - The "book" has to be waterproof. I read in the tub.
3 - The technology has to be sturdy. ANY portable technology should be sturdy.
4 - It has to be affordable.
5 - In the event of a crash I need to be able to replace the books in it without charge.
If I'm going to read, oh, say 100 books over the life of the product, it better cost me less for the unit plus the e-copies of the books than it would to buy the books outright. Otherwise there is no point.
"Every other form of media has gone digital -- music, newspapers, movies,"
True. Music has gone digital, mostly because people take their un-copy-restricted CDs and rip them into MP3s. Then they can use the MP3 on as many computers and devices as they want, give it to friends, and have backups. Newspapers exist as un-copy-restricted HTML pages, which may be printed, sent to friends, and stored digitally without restriction.
What the publishing industry is peddling right now is copy-restricted garbage. It will be locked to a particular computer or device. I can't have backups of the text or lend it to a friend. Often I can't even print it. If the Microsoft operating system that stores the text wipes it out, oh well, go buy another one. Meanwhile the publishing industry salivates at the thought of copy-restricted electronic textbooks that expire after a single semester!
This copy-restricted garbage will not take off. If I want digital content, I'll go for something that does not have these ridiculous restrictions. Such unrestricted media can and will take off, because it has advantages--i.e. it's searchable, and cheap to distribute. For example, Wikipedia is far superior to its dead-tree equivalents for these two reasons alone. Also, the Amazon Shorts model looks promising. But I'll take a dead tree over copy-restricted garbage anyday.
Penny - plain text accounting
I like paying $2-5 for used paperbacks on the street, or $0-0.25 for newspapers. When those are lost or damaged, I can forget about it. When my mobile "phone" can spring into a 9x16cm reflective display (with backlight) for long reading sessions, I'll be willing to replace paper books with nondisposable digital ones. Because then I won't be carrying around an extra thing to worry about. If I can still buy "books" for $0-5, and lend them to friends whose minds I'd like to colonize without paying a franchise fee.
--
make install -not war
Let's see - with my current library, I can -
1) Skim through the pages at high speed without wearing down the battery
2) Keep reading through an EMP
3) Knock my library off a high bookshelf onto concrete multiple times without damaging it
4) Lend books to friends and family
5) Read any book hundreds of times without having to recharge it
6) Hurl a book across the room without damaging it
7) Toss a book into a crate and ship it UPS without packaging, and be reasonably certain it will be readable if it ever arrives at its destination
8) Have ten people reading books from my library at the same time
9) In less than two seconds, take a book from the library and hand it to a 90-year-old who's never used an electronic device in their life, and have them start reading it without any problems
10) Sell my books to other people
I'm sorry, but every time I read about eBooks, I can't figure out how it will ever do more than take a small dent out of the dead tree book market. I personally like real books. Maybe I could get used to reading things I only intend to read once (pop literature, etc.) on an electronic device if the price was right, but there is no way I'm ever buying any sort of book in electronic form that I want to keep forever and refer to often.
My shelves at home are covered with texts on the industrial history of the American west from about 1860 to 1960 - mining, railways, early roads, electrical generation and distribution, etc. A good chunk of these are approaching a hundred years old or more, having been printed as contemporary reference material around the turn of the last century or before. I have original maps going back as far as the 1860s. Some, especially the maps and blueprints, are fragile, but they're still very usable. Nobody is going to convince me that any eBook will have a service life of 100 years, or even close. Plus there's nothing like researching for an article by being able to spread a whole bunch of sources on the same topic out on a large table. The advantages of being able to see it all at once simply cannot be replicated in an electronic device, nor can the ability to make photocopies when needed.
Now, if I wanted to pick up the next Clancy, Grisham, other misc pop lit novel for a long flight, I might consider something like this if the price was right. I probably won't read it more than once, so if I lose it I don't particularly care, and if it's cheap enough, it might just make sense.
Just appreciate the since of progression the simple act of turning the page gives? I used to think I'd like eBooks as a concept, but simply find it more of a tangible, qualitative, and quantitave experience to be able to actually turn the page. Further, until they produce an affordable (and by that I mean sub $100) reader that approximates the size of a large format paperback, with close to the same heft, and the ubiquitous availability of ALL the subjects I'm apt to read (not just oprah's book club, ny times best sellers, or random obscure titles) I'm just not interested. It isn't worth it. I'll also ditto mark up, book marks (the digital dog ear), and bad lighting. Battery life be damned, the thing better mimick the actual reading experience.
The english language is in beta. It's evolving but has not yet reached a level of usability.
What if, say, it's 75% cheaper? Would price savings compensate for the additonal restrictions?
Not for me. This reduction is only temporary, until they gain control of the market- at that point, they'll charge whatever they want.