Quote:
Originally Posted by radius
It always amazes me how Mobileread forums are so satisfied with the current state of the art. I often wish for improvement in ereading and I am only a light reader compared to many on the forum (average about 70-80-ish books per year, maybe 75:25 fiction:non-fiction) so surely it must affect others even more than me.
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I solved most of the issues you mention by switching to reading mostly on a tablet.
In project management, there is an old saying - Cheap, Fast, Easy. You get at the most two out of three. With eReaders, customers have gone for Cheap and Easy. I'm sure someone could come out with a fast eReader, but it wouldn't be cheap. Adding all those library features is also doable, but it would require faster hardware and it wouldn't be cheap. Plus, it's really a niche market. The standard customer tends to have less than 20 ebooks on their device at a time, usually no more than 5. You don't really need any library feature for that.
Tablets, which tend to be rather more expensive, are also a lot faster and allow for customized apps. I've got Calibre Companion for library management and Marvin as my eBook reading app. There are other reading apps available.
Can't say that I've noticed any issues with removing DRM. It's easier now than it was 10 years ago, at least with the Kindle store.
When you mention manga, I suspect that some of your issue is that while manga and comics get lumped in with eBooks, such books, along with coffee table books, have very different requirements than a regular eBook. It's a bit like trying to read a PDF on a regular sized eInk reader, not a very satisfying experience for many people.
If I were to totally focus on what I don't have that I want, I would be focused on the eBook store side rather than the reader side. Discoverability and competition are my two big soapbox issues.