Have ereader development peaked?

[speakingtohe]

I think ereaders can be improved significantly with little additional cost.
I love touch screen and physical page turn devices such as Sony. The touch screen makes the battery life suck however.

It should be a trivial task to let the user disable the touch screen scan if they wish except when it is necessary.

When you press options, home, or magnify buttons etc. the touch screen would be enabled.

Options would have an option to toggle touch screen page turns.

Battery life would be significantly increased for those using physical page turns.

Not an improvement for many but I am often away from a power source and get panicky when my battery goes down to the last 1/4 mark.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by CyGuy

The problem I see now is that features are now being left off intentionally. Several mainstream readers are missing SD card readers. Several mainstream readers are limited to the kinds of files they support. Several mainstream readers do not have folder support. Several mainstream readers won't allow simple copy/paste from the host computer. I feel like vendors are attempting lock-in and are just making the readers less and less versatile all the time.

Very good points.

[elcreative]

Try an external Solar power device with integral Lithium polymer battery... something like a PowerBee... charges from the sun (slowly) but can also be directly charged with PSU and can then charge Sony eReader for two and a half full charges and it's only a bit larger than a larger smartphone...

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Battery life would be significantly increased for those using physical page turns.

Not an improvement for many but I am often away from a power source and get panicky when my battery goes down to the last 1/4 mark.

[bhartman36]

I think SD card readers are a big issue, but I console myself with the idea that I can always save files on my computer and transfer files over a cable or e-mail them. Folder support? Meh. I'll take collections and/or tagging.

I think the big thing that e-readers need is whiter screens. Contrast on my K3 is great, but it could always be better as long as it's gray.

[DiapDealer]

I think the big thing that e-readers need is whiter screens. Contrast on my K3 is great, but it could always be better as long as it's gray.

I agree. And it's the only area of improvement that would actually have anything to do with "reading."

[charmian]

Totally agreed about the whiter screens. Have any rumors leaked about about what comes after Pearl? Pearl was released around July-August 2010, and they say it's on a 1.5 year release schedule, so possibly six months from now we'll hear about the next stage? It just seems that currently all other reflective screens are not ready for prime time (Mirasol, Pixel Qi).

[Fbone]

I am disappointed in the prices of the new ereaders. Despite being simple and basic devices the prices have not dropped very much.

Really expected to see below $100 price tags.

[Graham]

Do any of the devices other than the Pocketbook 360 incorporate a G-sensor to detect when you switch to Landscape automatically?

That's buried an annoying "button then 2 taps" down in the Sony interface. Being able to quickly turn the reader would make reading pdfs considerably easier. More processing power would help there as well, to speed up rendering the page in the new aspect, and for caching more pages in each direction ready for display.

Graham

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I agree. And it's the only area of improvement that would actually have anything to do with "reading."

i don't mind a lighter screen, but completely white? sounds like it'd hurt my eyes o_o

[elemenoP]

Originally Posted by charmian

Totally agreed about the whiter screens. Have any rumors leaked about about what comes after Pearl? Pearl was released around July-August 2010, and they say it's on a 1.5 year release schedule, so possibly six months from now we'll hear about the next stage? It just seems that currently all other reflective screens are not ready for prime time (Mirasol, Pixel Qi).

There will be no new e-ink screen this year, that's all we know. Hopefully next year.

http://news.cnet.com/e-ink-no-succes...0058940-1.html

[Cyberman tM]

Originally Posted by Graham

Do any of the devices other than the Pocketbook 360 incorporate a G-sensor to detect when you switch to Landscape automatically?

The Cool-Er EB600 used a hardware button for that - which was perfect, IMO.
I loathe devices that try to outsmart me and turn to landscape whenever I don't hold it at the perfect angle.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

There will be no new e-ink screen this year, that's all we know. Hopefully next year.

http://news.cnet.com/e-ink-no-succes...0058940-1.html

I wouldn't be surprised though if we see devices with new screens at CES. Dove tails in with the 1.5 year life cycle, as well as no new ones this year.

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

i don't mind a lighter screen, but completely white? sounds like it'd hurt my eyes o_o

Everyone's eyes are different. Does reading something you printed out on your printer in black text hurt your eyes? That's the level of white I'm talking about.

Although, I suppose it doesn't have to be white. Sepia would work, too (at least, for me). I just think white would be easier to pull off, technologically.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

By the by, if you follow MP-3 music players, they peaked as a product in 2007...They are now made cheaper (i.e. crappier), and dropping features.

That depends on what you consider an MP3 player to be, surely?
My iPod Touch has a lot more features than my iPod Classic.
So has the market has segmented into two:
a) Bargain basement offerings with minimal functionality
b) Multi-function devices that have absorbed the original functionality
Which sounds like what is being discussed about eBook readers too.

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

That depends on what you consider an MP3 player to be, surely?
My iPod Touch has a lot more features than my iPod Classic.

The big thing that's suffered (primarily because of Apple's dominance, I think) is format support. You just don't see as many formats supported as you used to. I had an MP3 player that could play:

MP3
OGG
WMA
FLAC

And it did it all handily. You don't see a lot of devices like that anymore. Of course, some would argue that you don't need WMA, but OGG and FLAC sure come in handy. The same player not only had a radio, but it could trasmit its signal to a radio, so you could listen to your music on your car stereo or stereo at home without using wires. (This was way before Bluetooth.)

The same can be said of video support.

Originally Posted by murraypaul

So has the market has segmented into two:
a) Bargain basement offerings with minimal functionality
b) Multi-function devices that have absorbed the original functionality
Which sounds like what is being discussed about eBook readers too.

I think the problem is that even the high-end MP3 players don't have the features the MP3 players used to have.