I've always been a voracious reader. I used to get about 30 books a week from the library and read them all, when I was younger. As I've grown older and have more responsibilities (and less free time), I'm down to perhaps 5 books a week now. I've found though, that I almost never buy paper books anymore. My last few trips overseas, I've loaded up my PDAs (over the years) with 30-40 books, and managed to read those during my vacations.
I listen to audiobooks with my PDA as well (yay Audible.com!).
I completely agree though, that DRM is the key factor that turns me off any proprietary device. Except for Audible (which has a great model for recovering lost books or burning to audio CD), I don't really trust any single manufacturer or publisher to lock their books into proprietary formats.
Does anyone else think that a standalone book reader will work? Lets see: - my PSP (or DS) for games and movies/TV shows - $300 - my cell for phone calls - $600 - my eBook reader for books - $400 - my iPod / MP3 player for music - $400 - my PDA for, well, everything else? - $600 - a geeky vest with enough pockets for all of these things, and probably a personal security system so I don't get mugged - priceless
I've gotten myself down to three devices, and I'd love to get to one that will do them all. I'd be willing to pay $1000 for that!
1) No real filtering / search mechanisms - I have a list of 200+ items in some categories that I have to scroll through to find what I want.
2) No previews of pictures / theme packs. Since they don't offer refunds in most (all?) cases, I don't want to spend points (even a lousy 20) on something that I can't preview in advance. Why can't I see a thumbnail preview of an icon or theme pack before purchase? I have the bandwidth!
3) Foreground downloads - there is no excuse to not let me at least continue using the XBox Guide or blades to listen to music or even play an XBox Live Arcade game while downloading. I shudder to think about downloading a (non-arcade) game demo - what am I going to do while downloading a 500MB file? I guess I'll go use my PC!:(
Otherwise, I'm very happy with my XBox 360 and XBox Guide / Marketplace. Good job Microsoft!
Slashdot Mirror
I've always been a voracious reader. I used to get about 30 books a week from the library and read them all, when I was younger. As I've grown older and have more responsibilities (and less free time), I'm down to perhaps 5 books a week now. I've found though, that I almost never buy paper books anymore. My last few trips overseas, I've loaded up my PDAs (over the years) with 30-40 books, and managed to read those during my vacations.
I listen to audiobooks with my PDA as well (yay Audible.com!).
I completely agree though, that DRM is the key factor that turns me off any proprietary device. Except for Audible (which has a great model for recovering lost books or burning to audio CD), I don't really trust any single manufacturer or publisher to lock their books into proprietary formats.
Does anyone else think that a standalone book reader will work? Lets see:
- my PSP (or DS) for games and movies/TV shows - $300
- my cell for phone calls - $600
- my eBook reader for books - $400
- my iPod / MP3 player for music - $400
- my PDA for, well, everything else? - $600
- a geeky vest with enough pockets for all of these things, and probably a personal security system so I don't get mugged - priceless
I've gotten myself down to three devices, and I'd love to get to one that will do them all. I'd be willing to pay $1000 for that!
AoD
I have three main criticisms of the Marketplace:
:(
1) No real filtering / search mechanisms - I have a list of 200+ items in some categories that I have to scroll through to find what I want.
2) No previews of pictures / theme packs. Since they don't offer refunds in most (all?) cases, I don't want to spend points (even a lousy 20) on something that I can't preview in advance. Why can't I see a thumbnail preview of an icon or theme pack before purchase? I have the bandwidth!
3) Foreground downloads - there is no excuse to not let me at least continue using the XBox Guide or blades to listen to music or even play an XBox Live Arcade game while downloading. I shudder to think about downloading a (non-arcade) game demo - what am I going to do while downloading a 500MB file? I guess I'll go use my PC!
Otherwise, I'm very happy with my XBox 360 and XBox Guide / Marketplace. Good job Microsoft!
AoD71