MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Princeton University to sell Kindle Formatted Textbooks

RickyMaveety · 06-25-2008, 04:14 PM

Oh, that is a nice thing to hear. I've still got a lot of my old college textbooks, but it would be nice to have updated editions.

I agree about the color plates and other formatting. I do hope that someday, someone, somewhere, comes up with the perfect ebook, size, format, screen color, the whole ten yards for textbooks.

Just lugging around all of my art history books hurt my back, not to mention my chemistry, physics and astronomy texts. That would have been so very nice to have an ebook that could combine all of them into one lightweight package.

What I would perceive as perfect would be a combination of e-ink with a tablet PC. By that I mean .... ok .... I'll make a list of what I would like to see in a ebook specifically for textbooks:

1. Screen that has text and images in full color;
2. With content easily viewable in bright sunlight;
3. A built-in (but not necessarily back lit) lighting system -- possibly something like the lights I have seen in watches -- that the user could turn on or off as they liked;
4. Ability to write on the screen - highlight and take notes;
5. A version of MS OneNote for taking notes and for collecting highlighted materials from the ebook texts;
6. Roughly magazine sized, to allow for larger color plates and graphs or other data;
7. The ability to split the screen (so that you could view text and take notes at the same time);
8. At least limited internet connectivity so that you could do research directly from the book.

I do love my Kindle, but I can see limitations for its use as a textbook depending on the subject matter. I'm also very fond of my tablet PC, which is great for reading books in PDF format. It also does a nice job of printing sections of a PDF book to it's own notebook format so that you can draw and highlight or take notes all over the text. The only problems with the tablet are (1) battery life, (2) visibility in full sun, and (3) weight.

So .... I would really love to see a product that combined what I love about both. Maybe even a fold away keyboard of the type my tablet PC has.

06-25-2008, 04:14 PM	#12
RickyMaveety Holy S**T!!! Posts: 5,213 Karma: 108401 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: San Diego, California!! Device: Kindle and iPad	Oh, that is a nice thing to hear. I've still got a lot of my old college textbooks, but it would be nice to have updated editions. I agree about the color plates and other formatting. I do hope that someday, someone, somewhere, comes up with the perfect ebook, size, format, screen color, the whole ten yards for textbooks. Just lugging around all of my art history books hurt my back, not to mention my chemistry, physics and astronomy texts. That would have been so very nice to have an ebook that could combine all of them into one lightweight package. What I would perceive as perfect would be a combination of e-ink with a tablet PC. By that I mean .... ok .... I'll make a list of what I would like to see in a ebook specifically for textbooks: 1. Screen that has text and images in full color; 2. With content easily viewable in bright sunlight; 3. A built-in (but not necessarily back lit) lighting system -- possibly something like the lights I have seen in watches -- that the user could turn on or off as they liked; 4. Ability to write on the screen - highlight and take notes; 5. A version of MS OneNote for taking notes and for collecting highlighted materials from the ebook texts; 6. Roughly magazine sized, to allow for larger color plates and graphs or other data; 7. The ability to split the screen (so that you could view text and take notes at the same time); 8. At least limited internet connectivity so that you could do research directly from the book. I do love my Kindle, but I can see limitations for its use as a textbook depending on the subject matter. I'm also very fond of my tablet PC, which is great for reading books in PDF format. It also does a nice job of printing sections of a PDF book to it's own notebook format so that you can draw and highlight or take notes all over the text. The only problems with the tablet are (1) battery life, (2) visibility in full sun, and (3) weight. So .... I would really love to see a product that combined what I love about both. Maybe even a fold away keyboard of the type my tablet PC has.