hmm. interesting article, although i'm not sure if i agree with (/like) all of the points he makes. for example, his idea of books with embedded video... we can already do that, online, of course, or offline by creating multi-media interactive hypertext applications, and some of those can be brilliant. but i don't think i want that to be the future of my books. reading is a rather unique medium in that it engages the reader in a significantly more active way than video to create their *own* sounds and images of the story, and to me adding video would be a loss rather than an improvement. there is already tv ; i don't want tv in my books as well.
for the same reason, i'm really not sure i want a multi-function device. i want a telephone, of course, but i want it to be really small and have a good color screen, because i like the convenience of the built-in camera. it's horrible to read on for longer than a 30 minute métro ride and i certainly wouldn't want it to be my main device. on the other other hand, i want my liseuse to be MUCH larger than my telephone, and i absolutely DON'T want a backlit screen. horrible for taking photos ! and i would look ridiculous holding that giant thing up to my ear to make a call. so, for me, certain devices are absolutely better as single-function. it will be interesting though to see the evolution of the technology / hardware;
also his idea of drm, scrambling the insides of books... lord preserve us. imagine the day the drm company who manages your entire library decides to stop supporting that format, and you're left with an entire library of scrambled texts. no, no ; that is not the way. watermarking is fine with me, if you're going to be all paranoid, but seriously, learn from the mistakes of those who have gone before you : NO DRM. sheesh.
on the other hand, despite his saying that ebooks are advancing more slowly, if we really are only 3 years behind mp3s, that's pretty good news i think.
