[ekaser]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Such as what for example? What can a simple eInk reader not do that other reading devices - let's take a paper book as an example - can do? Many can actually do more than a book - eg search for a word or phrase, or change the text size, or the font.

eInk devices (currently, and probably indefinitely, due to the limitations required to make the battery last so dang long) can not:
1) Quickly flip through the pages of a book to locate something visually.
2) Quickly scan through your library to locate a book visually.
3) Allow the USER to select their preferred reading software.
4) Allow the USER to add applications to their device.

For simple novels (and similar material), sure "quickly flipping through pages" isn't THAT important. But the world of reading is far bigger than those types of things: magazines, text books, technical books, children's books, etc. Many of these require speed for fast scanning through pages.

Imagine standing in front of bookshelves filled with 1000's of books, sorted the way YOU want them sorted, each book with it's own semi-distinctive spine (colors, logos, title, graphic), how EASY and QUICK it is to spot and zero-in on the book you want (even if you don't remember the exact title or spelling of the author's name). Yes, "quickly finding a book" can be done using carefully structured sub-directories and naming conventions and search routines. But navigating those on a power-hoarding machine will never come close to what you can do with that same ability AND a "visual bookshelf"... which takes speed (which usually takes power).

The current eInk devices are (and will likely remain, due to their power-hoarding requirements) purely "vendor-only software" devices. Yes, there are small exceptions (running custom programs in FB reader, Open Inkpot, etc), but those are not (and never will be) terribly widely used (FB reader programs) or as QUICKLY (massively) flexible as a machine running a common, OPEN operating system onto which you can load pretty much anything (program-wise), without worrying about the power-hoarding requirements. Yes, Open Inkpot lets anyone contribute anything, but step back and look at it compared to what comes from the manufacturers, and there's really not that big of a difference, and the changes come VERY slowly (if it were anything other than a 'hobby' system, Open Inkpot would have been available for the Hanlin V5 machines IMMEDIATELY, not a year or two later). I'd gladly pay $35 to someone for a good ADE replacement that actually let me modifying formatting, etc, in a reasonable way. Instead, we're stuck waiting months and years for the manufacturers to release firmware updates with minor tweaks to the standard ADE, which never quite please ANYONE with regard to font sizes, page numbering, status bars, etc. With an 'open' system, there would be a plethora of reading programs you could load. But 'open' systems mean "power-hoarding" has to go out the window, to some degree. Give me 24-hours on a charge, and I'm willing to trade that against 2-3 weeks on a charge in order to get much greater functionality.

A lot of folks seem to want nothing but a straight "novel reader", and for them, eInk is great. But there's just as many (or more) folks who would like to have their device do a few things more. You can argue about one-function devices vrs multi-function devices until a blue moon (well, okay, yeah, that's today... ), but the simple fact is that these devices are a computer, running Linux (for the most part today, but any OS will do...), and adding additional programs to them is NOT anything like adding a scanner to a printer.

Am I arguing for LCD screens and 4-hour battery life? No. But technology doesn't stand still. Screen technologies will advance, battery technology will advance. Will it happen over-night? No, it will be a slow painful slog, and for a while eInk will remain superior FOR NOVEL READING to most other devices. But over 5-10 years, that will change. Because the trade-off in battery life and screen capabilities and CPU capabilities will shift enough to allow these kinds of features while still supporting "easy on the eyes" novel reading.

For the folks who are intent on arguing for the sanctity of a "novel reading only" device vrs some "multi-function device", not also arguing for having a computer on their desk that ONLY does spreadsheets (but does them VERY well) and another computer that ONLY does word-processing (but does that VERY well) and so on? Because it's silly. eInk is successful today because it's the best (in terms of readability and battery life trade-offs). But that won't remain so. As screen, cpu and battery technologies advance, gray-scale eInk WILL give way to color screens with much faster updates, which will mean shorter battery life, but as long as it doesn't get TOO short, that's a trade-off that MANY people will be willing to make. Short-term, that means there will be a lot of LCD machines being introduced. But LCDs were not the first fast, color screen technology, and they won't be the last.

Sorry for the length of this, but it takes lots of words to explain complex concepts. It's mostly a wasted effort, I'm sure, as very few folks are willing to change their tightly held beliefs (myself included ), but hey, we're just standing in the village square having a conversation, right?