Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
The one thing I always see with regard to new e-readers is that people want the software to do specific things. One e-reader can have 20 custom fonts, the other has 20 settings for margins, while a third has 15 settings for line height. That sort of stuff. No reader has everything.
I've read that there are some nice reading applications for tablets, and that some people prefer a tablet for readin because of the choice of apps and their customizability.
Let's say, a manufacturer would do something like this:
- Create a line of e-readers: 5 inch, 6 inch, 7 inch, and 9.7 inch.
- Capacitive touch screen
- Front light, 30 settings, from completely off to as bright as a tablet.
- The reader has back/forward-buttons, but with a twist. You get 2 faceplates: one completely out of plastic, hiding the buttons, and a face plate that allows you to press them. (Rubber at the button positions, a clicking mechanism, whatever.)
- NO internal memory. Nothing, zilch. BUT, it will accept SDXC cards up to 2TB.
But most important:
It will run a completely stripped down version of Android, but you won't ever see the operating system. The reader itself would only provide the utter minimal stuff: WIFI connection, handling the front-light, setting page flash (between 0-10); basically, make the hardware usable. (Isn't that what an OS is supposed to do?) Everything, and I mean *EVERYTHING* related to reading would be left to the applications, from choosing reading fonts up to Facebook/GoodReads integration.
The manufacturer of the reader will have a marketplace, but with only one type of applications: reading apps. Anything else is not allowed. Comics, books, PDF's, an internet browser, etc... whatever. People who have a reading app in the Android store could probably port it quite quickly to the e-reader.
Not all reading applications may be free, and some could cost up to $10. The manufacturer itself will have a free reading application in the market, comparable to what a Kindle Paperwhite has to offer now; it won't be installed by default.
If you have only one reading application installed, it will start by default when booting the reader; if you have more than one installed, you can choose which one to start by default, or start none and present you with a choice when starting the device. This way, you could be reading a book in one application, and read a PDF in another.
Of course, this would be a high-end device, with a high-end price: the price will be between $150 and $300 depending on the size.
Would you buy this "Uber E-Reader"?
(People might say: But this is just an e-ink tablet, stripped of everything except a market to install reading applications? Yeah, you'd basically be right. That's why it's an Uber E-Reader, and not a generic tablet.) |
The really hard part is imagining that this can be done and hasn't. I know it can be done, but the software people employed by eink ereader manufacturers seem to have a hard time doing this.
People have rooted their Linux and android based ereaders I think so that other reader apps can be run on them. Most are happy with the results but I don't hear any outcries of having the perfect ereader.
I would pay $300 for a much better ereader, although I am sure many couldn't or wouldn't and I am sure one can be built. We have PC applications that are free that do most of what you mention and more.
The stumbling block seems to be coupling existing software techniques such as consistent sorting, reliable page turning etc. with an eink screen. The only limitations to the eink screen that I can think of offhand are the slower update and the visible refresh this causes. The other limitations that eink readers have that tablet apps don't seem to be due to lack of competent programming knowledge. After all most eink readers do sort perfectly and turn pages perfectly, some rarely crash, and some crash all the time. Some have bells and whistles, and some don't.
Of course their may be something inherent in an eink screen that prohibits getting everything right these days, but my tablets do much more and many things consecutively and never seem to crash. My PC's crash occasionally, but I am inclined to push them to the limit in the multitasking category, and they don't crash or reboot 1/50th of the times my ereaders do.
I'd easily pay $500 for an ereader with the latest screen technology that was 100% reliable in the basic ereader functions.
Helen