10-18-2006, 02:24 PM | #46 |
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Via SD. In this case the reader acts as a viewer, and it's screen is bigger than a pda's.
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10-18-2006, 02:34 PM | #47 |
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Heaven forbid I should steer you away from an e-ink device, Yvan... but I think maybe it might not be the best way to do those business things. It may be a pain to keep all the right docs on it, and to navigate to them. Your clients would lose interest by the time you got to the next drawing or contract. And the screen is probably a bit smaller than you might want.
It's really awesome for reading a novel from front to back, but for random and frequent navigation across documents and pages, the e-ink is just too slow, in my opinion. A UMPC or small laptop or small tablet would seem to be pretty good for those kinds of activities, and would be a lot of fun when you are not with clients also! But much more expensive. Alas, so far there is no great universal solution for computing and presenting and reading etc etc. |
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10-18-2006, 02:39 PM | #48 |
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Thanks Bob! I was'nt aware that navigating the PRS was so arduous.
Maybe if we pester Fittila long enough we might get something decent? |
10-18-2006, 02:39 PM | #49 | |
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Though, I agree with Bob that a Tablet PC might be a better fit than any of the current e-ink devices.... |
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10-18-2006, 04:55 PM | #50 |
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Good point, but I got the impression - which Yvan le Terrible's previous email now confirms - that Yvan did not actually have an ereader, and was assuming it served that purpose. Business stuff of that sort is for a computer of some sort, I think, and not a reading device, as BobR states.
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10-19-2006, 02:54 PM | #51 |
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da_jane's idea to "brand" the device with a popular niche is a good one... I hadn't thought of a sci-fi or romance tie-in myself. I've suggested the same thing elsewhere on this site about newspapers and, by extention, monthly magazines.
How 'bout a reader branded with Popular Science, or Cosmo, or Time, or Car and Driver, for example? Possibly even a reader tied into a subject-promo package (example, Popular Science, Scientific American, and Science Digest... the weekly news magazines... or the Marvel Comics collections). Of course, a color reader would go a long way here... and it might be that the color reader WILL be the one that sells, branded or not. But branding and/or tying it in with content should reduce the price, which would be a BIG help. |
10-19-2006, 03:07 PM | #52 |
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It's also a generational thing, I think. A number of older friends of mine will throw their hands up in horror at the thought of ebooks ("oh, I could never read anything on that!") and say how much they love regular books. It makes no sense to me. We're talking mass market paperbacks here, not beautiful photo gravure coffee table books. Who can really be in love with acidic tree pulp???
That said, I'll add that DRM is still a major drawback and probably the biggest argument against ebooks. With a regular book I can read it over and over, lend it to a friend, even sell it used if I have to. Not so with ebooks. (Though, as an author, I also don't want a person buying my book then making 300 copies for their closest friends. That's where the ebook/regular book comparison breaks down and the need for some sort of DRM pops up.) I can't imagine a student preferring to lug around 75 lbs of text books when the same information can be had on an SD card and an iLiad or Sony eReader (or equivalent). The downfall of currently available formats is lack of annotation (some people are sooo addicted to highlighting) but with color e-ink and faster devices, I think that problem will eventually be solved. |
10-28-2006, 02:48 PM | #53 |
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It seems as though this thread is maybe a tad off-topic.....allow me to add to the wobble.
So, e-ink/e-paper is pretty much a laminated cover sheet with pretty moving words. If e-texts are to be universally appreciated and utilised, these conditions much exist: 1. a universal, compact, durable, simple reader. e.g. a single sheet of e-paper that one can fold, spindle (but not mutilate) that fits into a purse or back pocket, with about 64 MB of storage (that's a few novels, some service manuals, dirty pictures, and the latest copy of wired & WSJ, I think?) 2. Absolutely do restrictions such as DRM. The data must be free--to travel to & from my e-paper notepad, my laptop, my PDA, my wife's gadgets, and the ones owned by all my friends 3. New, topical, and interesting content much be cheap, or cheap as free. RSS feeds, newspaper subscriptions, Rowling's latest novel, &tc must cost no more than paper equivalents 4. Someone explains to everyone on the planet that we can stop using so many tress (paperless world my lovin'.....) and rather turn dead dinosaurs into nifty little displays that's we'll effortlessly carry around for 10+ years Oh! And make sure that everyone can still read and enjoys reading by 2050 |
10-28-2006, 03:36 PM | #54 |
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Cthulhu, I especially love that last line! Sadly, that's probably going to be the biggest hurdle for e-books in a generation or two.
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10-29-2006, 09:43 AM | #55 |
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"Print is dead."
-Dr. Egon Spengler, 1984 (look it up) I think we should all give up on the idea that, in the future, people won't be able to read. They'll have to read! If they can't read, they can't learn... if they can't learn, they can't become engineers and scientists... if there are no engineers and scientists, we sure as hell won't have any e-book readers around! People still need to read, in order to function in the society we've been grooming for the past 3000 years. Now, making sure they enjoy it requires compelling content. I think the content is there, though it needs expansion (more e-magazines and e-newspapers, for example... print mags and print-and-online newspapers are enjoying successful sales now, and I think their e-versions will ultimately sell better than e-fiction), leaving DRM and price as the only real hurdles here. Last edited by Steven Lyle Jordan; 10-29-2006 at 09:45 AM. |
10-29-2006, 09:55 AM | #56 | |
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10-29-2006, 08:04 PM | #57 | ||
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10-30-2006, 02:30 AM | #58 |
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To take the thread even farther off topic:
Language, many sociologists argue, is the basis of thought. At least, organised human thought. A written language is a good way to ensure proper propogation of data. Reading & Writing are wholly artificial, human adaptations. I do not believe one needs to know how to read or write in order to think or learn, but it certainly helps. (I might be splitting hairs there). On another point: Was watching TV today with some friends today, and when I mentioned the neat technology of e-ink & the SONY reader, one said "who reads anymore?" Not one of my friends could explain how there's this thing called the NY Times Best Seller list, which compiles the names of *millions* of books sold. I guess my friends think its some kind of scam or money laundering front. Hope everyone else's friends have more brains than an iguana. |
10-30-2006, 03:31 PM | #59 |
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And as that example indirectly suggests, there's no point to the NYT Best Seller List without the New York Times, one of the widest-read publications on the planet, and reread every day. There are a lot of newspapers out there being read, in print or online, by somebody. Likewise a lot of news and specialty magazines. People are reading. They're just reading less fiction, leaving that to movies and TV.
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10-30-2006, 04:00 PM | #60 | |
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Unfortunate that I'm proving my own point about what people are reading by citing a movie reference... |
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