Consumers Not Convinced they Need Ereader

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

... Personally, I see no reason why to say the epub format isn't "robust"....

Here is one, it can't do this:

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[purl4peace]

Frankly, I don't NEED a reader any more than I NEED a TV or MP3 player or just about any gadget you could name (including dishwashers, toaster ovens etc). However, I ENJOY it and it makes reading much more enjoyable.

[dmikov]

Originally Posted by Sonist

Here is one, it can't do this:
<Horribly cluttered magasine cover with beutifull chicks deleted>
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Of course it CAN, it's called imbedded image. Same way it's implemented in pdf most of the times.
In fact any format with image support can do this.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And they are doing it incorrectly since eReader already has a definition.

Yes, but the word "eReader" did not appear even once the article. Of course "eReader" is a book format, but that is not the word they used, even once. The word they used was "e-Reader" which is defined almost everywhere on the web as a device to read electronic books. For example Ziff Davis defines it here as

A handheld device specialized for reading electronic books.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

The fact is most "consumers" don't.

Most people don't read enough to need one.

Yep. I think the tech will improve where there are lightweight color tablets & netbooks that are readable like eInk, have great battery life, but that are also fast enough to support multimedia and productivity applications. The current crop is still subpar for reading but I don't think we're that far off with screen tech, power saving tech and improved batteries. (Just looking at what PixelQi has coming supposedly this fall as far as screens is heartening. They're saying daylight readability and 20hrs use. Their next step is even more power saving.) Fix these things and you'd have a device that would be an excellent reader, but that wouldn't be the only thing it could do well. At that point, many people will have these things for work and play, not just the students and other heavy readers. Folks can read their magazines or the occasional book on them as well as web surf, watch movies, play games, etc. People will move away from print to digital because they already have a good device to read on. As you say, most won't buy a device just so they can get digital publications. That takes a hardcore reader unless the device is dirt cheap.

I just don't see stand-alone reading devices being with us long term. They're a stop along the road. I'm glad I have one for now but I doubt I'll have one ten years from now. Maybe not even five. They make sense with the tech as it stands now but the only thing you can count on is change.

[Teyrnon]

Well, only a few months ago ebook readers were barely a blip on my radar. I knew e-ink existed and thought it was a nifty technology with potential but beyond that I really wasn't interested in it. I'm not entirely sure what brought a shift in my thinking, I'm sure that part of it was the sinus problems I've been having the past year and my observation that reading seemed to inflame things. Also there was looking around my house and realizing I had books all over the place and I was developing a Pavlovian aversion to reading. I think there were more factors that I've yet to identify. Then I saw an announcement about the Kindle DX and something clicked and wile I wasn't 100% sold on the Kindle I knew I was either going to get a reader or give up reading.

I think most people, who could benefit from a reader, are where I was prior to a few months back. The devices are expensive, you don't really see them in stores unless you're looking for them. You wonder if the books you want to read will actually be available on them. It's not an impulse buy for most budgets and it's hard to get interested unless something else helps to draw you in. It's only then that you start actively looking at what's available.

I don't see that really changing any time soon.

[Jack Tingle]

WRT color ebooks:

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Just because current reading software/devices are unable to render them properly doesn't mean the ePUB format itself is the problem.

Huh! (taps side of ebook reading device) Mine must be defective, it shows color all the time.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by Jack Tingle

WRT color ebooks:



Huh! (taps side of ebook reading device) Mine must be defective, it shows color all the time.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

You should run right out and replace that, then.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by dmikov

Of course it CAN, it's called imbedded image. Same way it's implemented in pdf most of the times.
In fact any format with image support can do this.

You are not REALLY missing the point, right?

If EPUB cannot reproduce complex layouts, such as the one I posted, then it is of dubious value as a publishing "standard."

[Hellmark]

Sonist, epubs use CSS, which can manipulate text in a manner like that. Trust me, I'm a programmer, and have done stuff like that before.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Sonist, epubs use CSS, which can manipulate text in a manner like that. Trust me, I'm a programmer, and have done stuff like that before.

Please prove an example, so that I can spend the weekend curled in my bed with my tail tucked between my hairy legs.

Trust me, I hire programmers, and would love to be able to get them to do this....

[Hellmark]

To do that cover, you'd need to use layers in CSS, and relative positioning. Bottom layer you have your background image. Next add a layer with the title. Next layer, you'll need the image of the girls, with a transparent background (PNG would work best for this, due to the alpha channel). On top of that, you have another layer, with the various text styles, colors, etc. Special fonts you'd have to include with it, or otherwise the renderer would most likely default the font if the person didn't have that font included on the system (and is why most of the time for special fonts, they just make it an image on the site). The only real issues would be how well the renderer included on the reader supports CSS.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by purl4peace

Frankly, I don't NEED a reader any more than I NEED a TV or MP3 player or just about any gadget you could name (including dishwashers, toaster ovens etc). However, I ENJOY it and it makes reading much more enjoyable.

True if you want to get into the semantics. Then I'd rephrase my early statement to say that most people don't read enough to WANT an e-reader.

Certainly not on the level of people who watch enough TV to WANT a TV, or movies to WANT a DVD player etc.

Originally Posted by Alisa

I just don't see stand-alone reading devices being with us long term. They're a stop along the road. I'm glad I have one for now but I doubt I'll have one ten years from now. Maybe not even five. They make sense with the tech as it stands now but the only thing you can count on is change.

Agreed. Dedicated e-ink readers will stick around a while even with multi-function things coming out as the hardcore readers will want them for the long battery life and ease on the eyes.

But once tech improves to where we can have small, light tablet devices that do even better for reading than current e-readers but also do internet, video, etc. etc. they'll vanish.

Bookworms will buy these new devices and mainly only use the reader functions. The mainstream will buy them for other functions and maybe occasionally read an e-book on them (and thus expand the market for e-books since there are many more of them than avid readers).

[LDBoblo]

I'm a bit surprised people think that once most people try an ebook reader device, they'll be hooked on it. Since they're not typically sold in Taiwan and need to be imported, people always are interested in looking over my shoulder at the reader. When I let them try it out however, they often find it maddeningly primitive and inferior for pretty much any of the things they envisioned it could be used for. A close look at the e-ink screen and its pixels reveals to a lot of folks "well crap that's just like a cheap old LCD isn't it?"

A lot of people like the idea of the reader devices, and many people can even see the potential for wide applications, but then the actual experience with the device leaves a sour taste in their mouths. I'm quite positive trying out a PRS-505 has turned a lot of my colleagues and students off enough to avoid ebook reader devices until at least the next generation, and they'll be leery about them even then.

It's not that these people don't read either...they just wouldn't invest in a toy that mimics a book as badly as the reader devices do. One of my colleagues in his 60s appreciated the text resizing, but that was about the most positive comment that came about. No "oooh just like paper" or any of that rot once they looked at it closely. Most of what they knew originally was hype from the Kindle marketing wave in tech magazines, but the real devices are quite a let-down for many.

I think a lot of people who have seen these devices in action don't want them because they are what they are. The ones who like the specialization don't want them because they are pretty embryonic devices that reek of unused potential, and the rest don't want them because they're not versatile enough to justify the prohibitively high cost of admission.

I rather doubt it's a matter of a lack of education or a lack of experience that is causing hesitation. Had I the opportunity to play with one extensively before buying one, I would have not bothered. Unfortunately my reader is a bit too fragile and the corner got a bit deformed by rubbing against some cotton or something (ok it bumped into a plastic pen inside the cotton) and the chrome painted plastic corner by the power switch deformed enough that I can't sell it like new for half what I paid.

Sooo, I'll use it for my disposable indulgent novel reading that doesn't justify ownership of the actual text, and I'll continue to get stares for it and people will continue to be disgusted at its interface and usability, and I'll continue to justify it to them with statements like, "yeah as long as I only use it for novels that I don't have to navigate in, it's not too bad".

Great idea, but I think a surprisingly large number of people have the common sense to wait for something good to actually be released.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Jack Tingle

WRT color ebooks:

Huh! (taps side of ebook reading device) Mine must be defective, it shows color all the time.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

I wasn't referring to color when I mentioned devices/software do not support it. I use Stanza iPhone and obviously, that can deal with colored images well enough. It's the poor css rendering of the current crop of readers that preclude proper display of complex layouts.