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scstraus · 12-01-2007, 09:04 AM

The reasons ebooks have failed so far are always 1 of the following things, and they are what must be done right (in decending order of importance)

-Screen

e-paper, nuff said. Don't think color is super important just yet.

-Battery Life

(Battery life MUST be rated in pageturns, and you've got to be able to use the device for minimum of a few weeks on a regular basis for it to be useful. This is what the iliad got wrong and why I don't own an ebook yet although I desperately want a good one. If iliad had made a switch to turn off the touchscreen and power off the device (but leave e-ink screen on) between page turns I would own one, because then I wouldn't have to charge it every day.)

-Content

Extremely important. Without a link to at least 1 major ebook vendor and reader, I won't touch an ebook. I'm not going to spend my time scouring the internet for things to convert and format. I've got better things to do.

-Touchscreen

Okay, this probably isn't as important to many people as it is to me, but I want my ebook to double as a notepad. Also nice for annotation, but for me it's all about notes. I take a lot of them and an ebook would be the perfect place to index and store them all.

- Openness

Very important. Base it on linux, let people develop for it, and make sure it supports as many formats as possible. Don't be dumb and try to own the platform. It's lame.

-Usability

Buttons need to be in the right place for pageturns, it needs to work pretty quickly for turning pages, and the interface mustn't get in your way. Easily said but more difficult to do. But for me this isn't a huge priority as long at the thing works, I mean how badly can you screw up page flipping?

Personally if I were to make one (and believe me I thought about it), I would use something like what palm was going to use with the foleo (linux with instant on capability), and make sure to power off the processor between pageturns, but also make sure that it had the openness and power to do whatever people dream of with it and easy to port different readers to.

Okay, I've given away all the secrets to a good ebook, so make one finally.

12-01-2007, 09:04 AM	#25
scstraus Member Posts: 22 Karma: 29 Join Date: Aug 2004	To me it seems fairly straightforward The reasons ebooks have failed so far are always 1 of the following things, and they are what must be done right (in decending order of importance) -Screen e-paper, nuff said. Don't think color is super important just yet. -Battery Life (Battery life MUST be rated in pageturns, and you've got to be able to use the device for minimum of a few weeks on a regular basis for it to be useful. This is what the iliad got wrong and why I don't own an ebook yet although I desperately want a good one. If iliad had made a switch to turn off the touchscreen and power off the device (but leave e-ink screen on) between page turns I would own one, because then I wouldn't have to charge it every day.) -Content Extremely important. Without a link to at least 1 major ebook vendor and reader, I won't touch an ebook. I'm not going to spend my time scouring the internet for things to convert and format. I've got better things to do. -Touchscreen Okay, this probably isn't as important to many people as it is to me, but I want my ebook to double as a notepad. Also nice for annotation, but for me it's all about notes. I take a lot of them and an ebook would be the perfect place to index and store them all. - Openness Very important. Base it on linux, let people develop for it, and make sure it supports as many formats as possible. Don't be dumb and try to own the platform. It's lame. -Usability Buttons need to be in the right place for pageturns, it needs to work pretty quickly for turning pages, and the interface mustn't get in your way. Easily said but more difficult to do. But for me this isn't a huge priority as long at the thing works, I mean how badly can you screw up page flipping? Personally if I were to make one (and believe me I thought about it), I would use something like what palm was going to use with the foleo (linux with instant on capability), and make sure to power off the processor between pageturns, but also make sure that it had the openness and power to do whatever people dream of with it and easy to port different readers to. Okay, I've given away all the secrets to a good ebook, so make one finally.