Thread: What Additional Function would you like to see in your reader?
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Old 10-16-2009, 10:44 AM   #35
Kali Yuga
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dmaul1114 View Post
No reason we can't have dedicated readers and multi-function devices. Everyone has their own needs.
Keeping in mind that the question posited is "what do you want in your ereader device," not "what do you want in your multi-function device that you could use to read ebooks:"

If you want a multi-function device, by all means go get a multi-function device -- i.e. something built from the ground up to accommodate a wide variety of functions. A major advantage of a focused device is that it is optimized for a specific task; adding unrelated functions just distracts -- both the user during reading process, and the purpose of the device.

Or to put it another way: You might have 2 people who want a calendar, 3 people who want a built-in camera, 4 people who want animations, and so forth. By the time you're done piling on functions unrelated to the process of reading, you don't have an ebook reader -- you have a bloated, jury-rigged device that, as a victim of feature creep, isn't particularly good at anything and is ten times more difficult to support.

And ebook readers are so small, light, easy to use, and now dropping in price, that for a serious reader I see fewer reasons not to have a dedicated device, especially one that can sync up with a multi-function device.

I say focus on making ereaders the best possible device for the reading process, rather than bog it down with unnecessary and distracting functions.


Quote:
Originally Posted by FragFrog
I don't need anything fancy like synchronisation, but for crying out loud, my six year old $20 cellphone had an organiser, calendar and contactlist.
If you have all that on your cellphone (and computer and netbook and your GMail and your portable music player and your 2-Way Wrist Radio and what have you), why do you need it on an ebook reader?

P.S. in most cases, that "$20 cellphone" actually costs more like $150. The full cost is usually distributed across the full duration of the contracts or service agreements you have with your carrier.
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