Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
Maybe. But other than screen clarity, I can't think of one technological advance that would improve my current ebook reading experience. How will faster, thinner, and more capacity enhance my "Buy Book, Turn pages" habits? To be perfectly honest, I think we've already blown past the Rube Goldberg point with todays eReaders.
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Oh, come on. I strongly prefer eink to a backlit LCD, but that large fraction of a second to change a page-- and even larger one to change a greyscale page-- makes the reader look like something out of the Flintstones. Are you really saying a page change time of 1/30th of a second instead of a change time of 1/2 of a second wouldn't improve the quality of the reading experience?
And beyond the page turn speed, the CPU speed-- when I place or remove a bookmark on a page, it takes probably at least 5 seconds for it to appear/disappear. On any computer you use (even single purpose ones) if there is a noticeable delay between choosing "do this" and "this" being finished, then there is room for a quality-of-use improvement in the technology. There will be future CPU speed improvements without sacrificing battery life.
And when I went from my 300 to my 350, I just wasn't willing to put up with the 300 anymore-- it felt like a brick in my hands after using the 350. I'd love to have a few more ounces shaved off the weight of the 350.
Current eink based readers are a clumsy cludge that are the best we can currently do with delivering a "paper-like" reading experience, but I refuse to believe that current eink is the best that is physically possible, and that we have already discovered the optimal combination of atoms for a "paper-like" display. I fully expect new discoveries to be made that allow for
much faster page refreshes, much whiter whites, and high-resolution color without sacrificing battery life without relying on unobtanium-- this isn't building a space elevator.
I'll resay it-- people of 10 years from now will look at the best eink reader on the market today-- and
laaaaaaaugh.
"640 KB is good enough for everyone."