Quote:
Originally Posted by bhartman36
I'm not sure I'd be that harsh. His reviews of the original Nook and the Kindle have merit. I think the problem (at least from an e-ink perspective) is that he's inordinately fond of tablets. He seems convinced that dedicated readers are doomed, because "there's an app for that". What I find odd about that is that he's actually a photography enthusiast.
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Maybe it was a bit harsh. As an Apple user, I read Pogue for years (going as far back as OS7). I suspect his feelings towards e-ink readers are a combination of his fondness for tablets, default antipathy towards any device that serves a function he feels can be accommodated by an Apple product, and his not being a reader.
That last one may seem like an unfair guess, but I know more than a few tech writers. Pleasure reading is an odd novelty for them, since their time is absorbed by the constant necessity of keeping up to date with tech news. For a person whose leisure reading consists of a yearly novel read over vacation, a dedicated device designed solely around recreating the experience of paper books is gonna seem more superfluous and 'primitive' than it is to someone for whom pleasure reading is an inextricable part of their life; a "reader," if you will.
Put more simply: many (not all) tech writers just don't get it, because most of them are about as qualified to judge e-ink readers as a bachelor is qualified to review a baby monitor. Some of those have LCD displays, too.