i agree with what many other people have already said. which makes me wonder ; if these problems are so obvious as to elicit a quasi-consensus amongst the population most concerned by them, why *exactly* have publishers not caught on yet ?
(is that bad will i smell ?)
but in case you need more testimonies i'll add my voice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vince_on_fire
What do you, as user of E-books and E-readers, see as the biggest issue when using these technologies? What problems do you run into and what would you like to see changed?
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1. lack of content ; there are still a lot of editors who seem quite refractary to offering books in digital format. there is also sometimes a rather brutal division between "new" and "recent" ; it's very frustrating to find that only the last 3 books of a 15 books series you would like to start reading are available as ebooks.
2. price of ebooks. they should be MUCH cheaper than paper books. look at
this thread for example where we were discussing price, and
this one about possible new publishing models.
3. DRM. if i want to "borrow" a book i'll go to the library, where that is free. if i pay for it, it's mine, and i want to be able to read it whenever i want, on any device, under whatever circumstances i choose. since it's mine, i should also be able to lend it to a friend, in fact, just like i do now with paper books.
4. the tower of babel of incompatible formats. standardize, please.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vince_on_fire
What made you buy an E-reader, for what purpose and 'where do you use it for?
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I discovered the Gutenberg Project many years ago and thought it was brilliant, but although i downloaded dozens (possibly hundreds...) of books, i realized i never read them, because i find reading on my computer really unpleasant, not to mention that i like to read in bed and my monitor is not very cuddly. so i bought the least expensive one i could find (eb1150) to see whether i liked the experience. i love it, in fact in many ways i find it a significant improvement over paper books, and now i want to buy one with an e-ink screen.
i use it for pleasure reading mostly, at home (the eb1150 is larger and significantly heavier than the more recent models, too heavy to carry around the city in my bag) and when travelling. i might take it with me if i go to a café near my house to spend the afternoon reading there, but so far i haven't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vince_on_fire
What's your opinion on content supplies? Do you find it easy to get content for your device? What are the biggest problems concerning content?
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my biggest supplier is Project Gutenberg, since as i said that was the original motivation for my purchase.
nonetheless i have also bought several recent books, however i have bought
significantly fewer than i would have, had i not encountered the problems listed above (most importantly, price, and availability of titles i was looking for). also, since the native format of the eb1150 is rather obscure and not a good choice for archival purposes, i buy more common formats (.lit usually) and convert them to html (for archiving) / .imp (for reading) ; it drives me crazy being forced to use Internet Explorer to download my DRM-ed .lit purchases, on principle.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vince_on_fire
Why do you think people will not try using E-books or E-reader and what would you change to make it more interesting for non-users?
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1. price of the devices and of content ; i think they will gain much more widespread acceptance when prices go down.
2. intimidation / confusion when confronted with the problem of sorting out the different formats and other technical specs. not everyone is at ease with computers. see also DRM and format wars above.
3. nostalgia for paper books as objects ; however i think this reaction will diminish progressively (taking into consideration, of course, that digital displays cannot replace paper for some specific kinds of books --art books, etc.-- in the foreseeable future, until the displays are dramaticaly improved in terms of color, contrast, and resolution), especially as display quality continues to improve.