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Have You Changed Your Opinion On eBook Readers?
An anonymous reader writes "The Kindle made waves when it came out, but they've now had the chance to calm. How many of you have been using your eBook readers since you've received them? How many of you forgot you had one, and how many of you swear by your reader? I like my single-purpose (well, dual — music player) Sony Reader because I actually use it to read, rather than multitasking myself to death. Is this technology as convenient and useful as you expected?"
If not, what refinements or improvements would reKindle your interest?
I'm sick of books and would gladly pay for non drm'd replacement pdfs. I have hundreds of textbooks, novels and paperback books and can think of several serious restrictions. I have to remember who I loan them to. They are a pain to move and an even bigger pain to put back on shelves. Eventually, almost all of them will rot. I'd much rather have them all stored on a hard drive that I can run away with when the next Katrina comes. I've been taking pictures of the books I use more frequently, but a pdf would be better.
Publishers don't really stand to lose much this way. If the price was right, most people will just buy their pdfs. Universities and other schools can put the cost of texts into tuition. Employers will keep buying reference material. Libraries could pay a special fee based on average circulation. The other stuff might be swapped but it's not something people would have bought anyway. Publishers that don't get it soon enough are going to be made irrelevant by things like Google text and free science journals.
But you realize that the costs of printing and distribution in the paper industry are already very very low? Like under a buck a book for mass market paperbacks? So as long as the traditional publishing houses are involved, the price will stay high as they need to put food on the table for their employees.
Prices can only drop as we cut out middlemen.
If an itunes-like publisher were to open up, and offer low priced books direct from the author (like on the itunes app store model maybe) this would revolutionize (read KILL) the dead tree publishing industry. It would also open the door to lots of CRAP. But a ratings system would emerge I am sure.
If wishes were fishes...
Chuck
From what I've seen of e-book readers so far, I can predict that in The Future, the "perfect" e-book reader will be almost identical to a paperback book, only slightly smaller than a real book, with electronic pages, and dozens of seldom-used features like dictionaries and trivia games and thesauruses. And I guess the pages might as well light up too. Maybe it will be useful if there is a paper shortage
On the other hand, the newspaper functionality has potential. Unlike novels, reading the newspaper can be very clumsy and annoying unless you have an entire table to read it on. And the online distribution method is so much more convenient than real newspapers. Of course you can already get news on your cell phone or computer for free, but all the same I think e-book newspapers have some serious advantages over the real thing, which I can't say about the e-novels.
Yes, it is. It's also got a screen the size of most other ebook readers. Think about that: The screen is about as big across as the entire Kindle. Believe me, you need to see it. After that, the price seems a lot more justified.
GPL made simple: What was my stuff is now our stuff. If you improve our stuff, please keep it our stuff.
Check out a Palm T/X. It has a 480x320 screen, will display video in any common format, has built in WiFi * bluetooth, plays MP3's, uses SD cards, supports every common e-book format except .lit with freely downloadable or built-in software, surfs the web and has tons of games available.
I've also heard that you can use it to take notes and stuff.
And, even new at full retail ($299), it's cheaper than just about every eBook reader out there.
If the thing had a cell phone expansion card it would blow the iPhone out of the water.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
I had a Tungsten E2. It was nice, bright, transflective screen and good resolution... higher end display on a low(ish) end PDA. I bought it to try to stay organized, used it mainly as an e-book reader, and it was pretty good, long battery life etc.
Then I cracked the display. I was looking at replacement PDAs when a co-worker was talking about his PSP. It's cheaper, wider screen (which makes reading more pleasant), good battery life etc., and trivial to hack to run custom software like an ebook reader.
Plus if you get bored you can play games, listen to music, or watch a video. Definitely recommended.