Have ereader development peaked?

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

Despite our referring to paper as 'dead tree books,' ereaders have little, if any, ecological high ground to stand on. The amount of chemicals, water, non-renewable metals and fossil fuels ultimately used to create an ereader is significant. Top that off with yet another electronic device and its battery filling up landfills.

I think you just named a number of things they could improve in e-readers right there. If nothing else, they could always make the e-reader greener.

[The Redbaron]

While there are a lot of possible "improvements" and ideas flying around as to how to improve our beloved e readers... My biggest fear is they try to become something they are not. Other than improvements in processors/speed, maybe memory size, cataloging and readability which should evolve soon enough as new incarnations of our favourites become available, personally I hope they don't get too "bigger".

Put simply, they are designed to read books. I'm not after an mp3, iPad, internet browser or radio... there are other gadgets for these. Keep it simple I reckon. A bit of fine tuning, maybe bigger processor as people have said they get bogged down if getting full, and maybe a bit more memory (though most, if not all, can store ebooks on PC if necessary). That's it for me.

[J. Strnad]

As the OP, I'd like to thank everyone for their participation and for kindly overlooking the typo ("Have" for "has") in the hastily typed subject line.

All your base are belong to us.

[DiapDealer]

As the OP, I'd like to thank everyone for their participation and for kindly overlooking the typo ("Have" for "has") in the hastily typed subject line.

Is it time to go home already?
Can't we stay just a little bit longer?... please?

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by The Redbaron

While there are a lot of possible "improvements" and ideas flying around as to how to improve our beloved e readers... My biggest fear is they try to become something they are not. Other than improvements in processors/speed, maybe memory size, cataloging and readability which should evolve soon enough as new incarnations of our favourites become available, personally I hope they don't get too "bigger".

Put simply, they are designed to read books. I'm not after an mp3, iPad, internet browser or radio... there are other gadgets for these. Keep it simple I reckon. A bit of fine tuning, maybe bigger processor as people have said they get bogged down if getting full, and maybe a bit more memory (though most, if not all, can store ebooks on PC if necessary). That's it for me.

Agreed. If Amazon does introduce a color tablet this fall, I hope they don't discontinue the eink line. I like the fact that my Kindle 2 is a one-trick pony. It does that trick very well and with a minimum of distractions.

[Hellmark]

I doubt that Amazon will get rid of eink anytime soon. They'll probably have both in tandem, and get as large of the market as possible. I mean, it is working for B&N, so why not Amazon?

As far as things go for ebook readers not being enviromentally friendly, you have to kind of factor in the total impact. Yes, the initial production of the device has a negative impact, but is it greater than the production of the number of books that the owner would have in paper otherwise over the lifespan of the device? My reader is still going strong, and has a few hundred books under its belt.

[jbcohen]

I believe that a lot of the development of the electronic reader goes hand in hand with the development of the microprocessor which has been evolving since the 1980s. As far as processing power that I have not seend electronic book readers take advantage of is the multi-core functionatlity, or the ability to do multiple things at the same time. This implies that an electronic reader will be able to download a book in the background while the reader is reading a different book. Also recent advancements in microprocessors have lowered the power requirements for the chip making it possible for new models of electronic readers to last longer between charges. I do not see the development of new ideas as a stumbling block to the development of the electronic reader, the only stumbling block that I can see would be the failure of developers to take advantage of new capabilities of new models of microprocessors.

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

As far as things go for ebook readers not being enviromentally friendly, you have to kind of factor in the total impact. Yes, the initial production of the device has a negative impact, but is it greater than the production of the number of books that the owner would have in paper otherwise over the lifespan of the device? My reader is still going strong, and has a few hundred books under its belt.

Very true. It depends on how long the device is used. Not everyone will dump their ereader for every new generation. Sources I've seen claim that the carbon footprint for an ereader is equal to about 40 books, which I'd say is easily achieved by most ereader customers. But those paper books can also be re-used by multiple people, and more of the materials used to make them are renewable and can be recycled.

The question of ecological impact of paper vs. ebooks is an interesting one with many dimensions. If I weren't so lazy I'd make a thread for discussion.

[Leyor]

Give us Mirasol displays please

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

I believe that a lot of the development of the electronic reader goes hand in hand with the development of the microprocessor which has been evolving since the 1980s. As far as processing power that I have not seend electronic book readers take advantage of is the multi-core functionatlity, or the ability to do multiple things at the same time. This implies that an electronic reader will be able to download a book in the background while the reader is reading a different book. Also recent advancements in microprocessors have lowered the power requirements for the chip making it possible for new models of electronic readers to last longer between charges. I do not see the development of new ideas as a stumbling block to the development of the electronic reader, the only stumbling block that I can see would be the failure of developers to take advantage of new capabilities of new models of microprocessors.

Multicore is not the same as multithreading or multitasking. Multitasking is the ability to run more than one application at a time, multithreading is the ability to treat a program as more than one running process, and multicore is the mating of more than one processor core (to improve the ability of the other two multi's) Current ebook readers, hardware wise, are able to do more than one thing at a time. The hold up is firmware related. Either the kernel supports only one thing at a time, or in the case of many that are linux based (including android based ones), the applications being run just aren't advanced enough to do more than one thing at a time. If it is an app issue, the reason for that is either they're too lazy to make it do more than one thing at a time, reduce cost (takes more time to design and make a system for doing that), or they have not done it to keep things simpler for the end user (since the ability to do more than one thing at a time often increases complexity).

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

I doubt that Amazon will get rid of eink anytime soon. They'll probably have both in tandem, and get as large of the market as possible. I mean, it is working for B&N, so why not Amazon?

As far as things go for ebook readers not being enviromentally friendly, you have to kind of factor in the total impact. Yes, the initial production of the device has a negative impact, but is it greater than the production of the number of books that the owner would have in paper otherwise over the lifespan of the device? My reader is still going strong, and has a few hundred books under its belt.

Same here. Add to that, of course, all the personal documents I've taken directly from my computer to my Kindle.

[carld]

Originally Posted by Leyor

Give us Mirasol displays please

Only if they've improved a lot. Mirasol displays are still too small and sepia toned.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by carld

Only if they've improved a lot. Mirasol displays are still too small and sepia toned.

What I don't understand is why Qualcomm (leading maker of cell phone components) can't get anyone to use a Mirasol display in their phone ('feature phones', the ones most people still use), even if it's done at a loss initially. Screen size is more than adequate, color balance don't matter there and the power savings would be quite useful (imagine a phone display that didn't ever have to turn off). Plus it would help drive production costs down if there were actual applications for the screen. Without applications, it's all just R&D down the toilet. I'm sure they have a plan, but it seems like it is taking a very long time to bring this to market, and very unlikely that its first appearance will be on a Kindle.

[Leyor]

Originally Posted by carld

Only if they've improved a lot. Mirasol displays are still too small and sepia toned.

If the reading quality is just as good on e-ink, I have no problem living with the sepia tone.

For some reason new display technologies are very hard to get on to the market. Both the Mirasol and Pixel Qi is taking a really long time getting here, both technologies having alot of promise for us niche group of e-readers.

Shame that the initial Notion inks with pixel qi isn't as clear as e-ink and have subpar viewing angles. Really think those technologies have promises if manifacturers actually use them and they get a chance to get developed.

[elcreative]

The main reason the new display tech takes time is usually due to premature announcement of it... making small samples for demo is relatively easy, ramping up to full scale production with reasonable yields, is another matter altogether...