Quote:
Originally Posted by haertig
There comes a point where technology doesn't need to advance - things are good enough as they are. How about the technology of printed books? The last time that changed was well before my birth ... I certainly don't remember it ever changing during my lifetime.
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The change in my lifetime was from sewn bindings to perfect. For many years, it meant that a lot of glued-together books fell apart.
The most significant eBook change since the Kindle came along was the demise, several years ago, of the killer app, the $1.99 / month NY Times Latest News Blog.
As for readers, neither my wife nor I have found anything better than the Kindle 3/Keyboard. We did try the front-lit Voyage when Amazon accidentally sent us one when I had bought a spare used Kindle Keyboard. We like the old model. Obviously, YMMV.
The only big defect I see in the eInk Kindle Keyboard, and it is significant, is that you can't read ePUB library books, such as from the Cloud Library. There also are defects in the "experimental" browser -- web site support for which has declined -- but since we eventually broke down and got international smartphones from Google Fi, it is no longer an issue for us.
It is unfortunate that prices of eInk readers haven't sunk to the point where people in dire poverty around the world can easily buy them. Maybe that will have to wait until eInk patents run out.
The biggest improvement I would like to see is international eBook equality. There still are eBooks I read that you can't find at amazon.com but can find at amazon.co.uk. Right now I am reading
this one in paper. I know how to evade the purchase geo-restriction but I doubt I'll go through the hassle again.