07-14-2008, 12:14 PM | #1 |
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Benefits of wifi?
Being a complete newbie, but gradually reading my way through the site and hopefully learning on the way to finally make an informed decision on what to buy, I noticed that several people are waiting for the Astak releases with wifi. Given that it is not possible to purchase and download direct as the Kindle does, what is the big advantage to a device with wifi? What do those of with wifi use it for?
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07-14-2008, 12:16 PM | #2 |
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No compelling advantage at all, IMHO. It's useful on an LCD device for things like web browsing, but you really don't want to browse the web on an eInk device - it's a rather painful experience with the slow screen refresh.
On the one eInk device I've owned which had WiFi, I never once used it. I use the WiFi on my iPod Touch, on the other hand, all the time. |
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07-14-2008, 12:22 PM | #3 | |
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Quote:
The second feature I could think of would be purchasing directly from the device. The third feature would be access to some cloud based repository of your ebooks. Hopefully it would be a repository that you could add books you didn't purchase via some store. It would be really cool if they enabled doing this via MobileMe (for Macs) and Windows Live Mesh services. But, if not, I would be willing to pay a yearly fee to have this ability... to also know all my eBooks are backed up on the cloud. I keep hopping that Amazon adds this feature to the Kindle. I think someone said the eBookWise bookshelf allows you to upload your own stuff to it. Any thing after that would be nice. A basic web browser perhaps. But, you can't do ANY of the above without some type of connectivity. BOb |
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07-14-2008, 12:26 PM | #4 |
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"Cloud", Bob? What do you mean by that?
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07-14-2008, 12:31 PM | #5 |
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07-14-2008, 12:34 PM | #6 |
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07-14-2008, 12:35 PM | #7 | |
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BOb |
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07-14-2008, 12:36 PM | #8 |
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Thank you. I would regard myself as being reasonably "in the biz" (I work for one of the largest server companies in the world) and that's a new term for me. I'm obviously not "hip" enough .
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07-14-2008, 01:54 PM | #9 | |
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Still, WiFi can be used for content delivery. FictionWise could build this into eReader for the Astak Mentor for example. If a basic web browser can be made to work, then web sites optimized for the Mentor could also be used to buy content. Note that this is already possible for Windows Mobile devices and eReader, see OTA (OVER THE AIR) DOWNLOADING of EBOOKS. MobiPocket has something similar for Blackberry's. I think the touchscreen is potentially more useful, but only if it is used to get a wider selection of existing software running on the device. It may not be needed for a pure reading device though, and in Astak's case their software has to run on a version without a touchscreen too. |
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