Barnes and Noble confirms COLOR e-book reader for Spring 2010 [INCORRECT] - Page 4

thechansen · 10-09-2009, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahi

Ok... so eBooks don't need pages, typography, and now colour... do they even need letters/characters? Maybe it would be more relaxing to just stare blankly at a ... blank page, and imagine the possibilities!

- Ahi

Well what I was getting at was color it self doesn't change the meaning of the words on screen, but I can see it being overused and gimmicky. Black and (off)white really provides the ideal color scheme for reading plain text. That was a bit of leap from where I was headed with my comment.

Alisa · 10-09-2009, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gollu

Having a color screen and a nice OS makes the device more than a book reader. It may become close to netbook in usability, as well as digital frame for time when not in use.
And as a text book reader - it for a first time becomes usable for graphs and cpmplex drawings.

Last but not least - I've heard a few people saying "B&W nahhh, I am not interested." Now they may change their mind.

Color is great but I don't think we'll be getting anywhere near netbook usability until the screen is fast. I think it's refresh speed more than the lack of color that limits the functionality of our current e-ink devices. All the color prototypes I've seen in videos were significantly slower than the current black and white readers. I will be thoroughly impressed if the upcoming color devices are as fast as what we have now. I will be surprised if they're faster.

Now this could be a contender for a multifunction tablet. I don't know what the battery life will be like when you're running it at 30 FPS, though. I'm also still eagerly awaiting the first PixelQi products. They said September and it's October already!

CharlieBird · 10-09-2009, 02:20 PM

I'm more enthused by B&N's "imminent, 6" screen, running Android" and linked earlier by sforce. This link was also on Teleread today.
http://gizmodo.com/5377505/barnes--n...and-next-month
d

Elfwreck · 10-09-2009, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thechansen

Well what I was getting at was color it self doesn't change the meaning of the words on screen, but I can see it being overused and gimmicky. Black and (off)white really provides the ideal color scheme for reading plain text. That was a bit of leap from where I was headed with my comment.

Plain text is better in B&W. Novels don't need color, although color covers would be nice.

However, many technical & scientific books would be greatly enhanced by color; a lot of charts are much harder to read in black & white. Color's a terrific way for pointing out important information in a complex set of data.

And books about history--pretty much any kind of history--are better with color photo options. Ditto books about wildlife. Books about crafts, whether stone, wood, yarn, or glass, are more useful with color images.

That's without getting into magazine and coffee-table art book issues.

Yes, there'd be abuses. Self-published blog collections with color smilies all over the place, and seven different fonts on a page, and half the text in purple script. We can ignore those, and focus on the usefulness of four-color maps and photos that let you know what kind of bug that is.

badbob001 · 10-09-2009, 02:47 PM

Color would be great for childrens books, like the 500 that Disney put onto their website. I wouldn't mind having color for my digital collection of comics.

Of course, I would give up color if it is at the expense of resolution and contrast.

Daithi · 10-09-2009, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alisa

Color is great but I don't think we'll be getting anywhere near netbook usability until the screen is fast. I think it's refresh speed more than the lack of color that limits the functionality of our current e-ink devices. All the color prototypes I've seen in videos were significantly slower than the current black and white readers. I will be thoroughly impressed if the upcoming color devices are as fast as what we have now. I will be surprised if they're faster.

Now this could be a contender for a multifunction tablet. I don't know what the battery life will be like when you're running it at 30 FPS, though. I'm also still eagerly awaiting the first PixelQi products. They said September and it's October already!

Qualcomm's Mirasol display looked really cool.

Somebody please give Alisa 3 karma points to give her an even 5,000.

sforce · 10-09-2009, 02:54 PM

Maps and travel/tour books, too.

AdamGott · 10-09-2009, 03:11 PM

I will believe it when I see it! I would guess that the 'Spring 2010' is the best case guess for when they will be able to market this thing.

kazbates · 10-09-2009, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I totally agree. As a developer we have gotten very used to seeing our source code colorized in todays modern IDEs and even text editors like VIM, TextMate, Notepad++, e colorize your code.

Someone got the bright idea to product a programming book with the code samples/snippets colorized. It was a revelation... made the book so much better. Now many publishers are moving to do this. So, being able to have the same color in the eBook version will make them that much more readable.

I also agree with Zelda, for Kids books this is a must. Of course, we are probably talking 10 years away until readers are so cheap and ubiquitous that they replace kids picture books.

BOb

You would be surprised how willing vendors are to making a price correction that will get their product adopted into the educational system. Here in our school district, every classroom has a SmartBoard.

They are an incredible product if they are actually used. However, putting one in a Kindergarten or even a first grade classroom is just overkill. Even with what would seem a prohibitive price, the school board saw it as a win/win for all parties. I must say that I liked using it with my 3rd and 5th graders and the kids liked it too.

Having said all that, school boards are happy to make a committment to new technology that is an effective teaching tool and one they see that will make an impact with student learning. A color e-ink display device which allows for storage of multiple books and is sturdy enough to stand up to the riggers of young students would be a perfect example and one that, if the price is right, would have school boards, administrators, and teachers (not to mention parents) salivating.

Faenad · 10-09-2009, 03:25 PM

Barnes & Noble's do not yet have any ebook reader on the market.
I guess the only thing they can do is tell us tales of their next vaporware super-reader "around the corner" so hopefully people will wait for it and don't purchase some Amazon or Sony reader this fall. It's sad.
Ie Plastic Logic reader are always "around the corner".

fugazied · 10-09-2009, 04:28 PM

Color is pretty sweet, good to see they don't mind leapfrogging over Amazon in certain ways. I hope it does REALLY well, more competition would be great.

brecklundin · 10-09-2009, 05:34 PM

I wonder if they will have to get out cans of Walmart-knock-off spray paint to get their readers through customs in China?

And to those whining about color being "useless"...so is your home (live in a freaking cave or lean-to), vehicle (walk or ride a horse), printing presses as well as paper (rock and chisel...naw too much tech...oral history is good enough), electricity (manual labor is good for you so electricity is unhealthy ans thus unnecessary), and to be kind your current ebook reader is overkill as well--there are billions of p-books already---your vice has killed enough of the planet already! Stop doing worse with your evil technology...

freaking luddites...hehehehe...just TEASING and exaggerating to illustrate that once upon a time every change in how things are done was claimed as silly and/or unnecessary at some point...most of them we could not live without today, though I say we should be doing more manual labor every day as THAT would make us each better off.

For me I want a full sized/large panel color reader with true full color panels. I do not "need" animation/motion enabled screens for a long time as all I want now is the ability read/take my antiques reference books, photography books and other similar content with me. For the simple pleasure of recreational reading a 5" reader like the Pocketbook 360 is just fine.

But for my color reader I want an 8.5"x11" panel as PL is using for their B&W large format reader...fyi that means it is a 14" reader, well, just about a 13.9" reader if you want to split ~0.1" hairs.

fuzzy_dunlop · 10-09-2009, 08:24 PM

I love the gray is a color theory. Rogue B&N Sales Rep. or marketing genius?

The relevance of color depends on the price. The Fujitsu Flepia (http://tinyurl.com/cl2so3) is the first color e-ink reader available now and it retails for 99,750 yen or US$1110.

The color in this demo looks, well dull (http://tinyurl.com/ykz5t6y). So the question is whether you would pay double the price of a Kindle DX for dull weird color that you would not need for fiction, and could live without for non-fiction.

brecklundin · 10-09-2009, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuzzy_dunlop

I love the gray is a color theory. Rogue B&N Sales Rep. or marketing genius?

The relevance of color depends on the price. The Fujitsu Flepia (http://tinyurl.com/cl2so3) is the first color e-ink reader available now and it retails for 99,750 yen or US$1110.

The color in this demo looks, well dull (http://tinyurl.com/ykz5t6y). So the question is whether you would pay double the price of a Kindle DX for dull weird color that you would not need for fiction, and could live without for non-fiction.

FYI the Flepia is kinda old news around here...the first thread I found searching titles only was from 2008...and here is the most recent:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...ghlight=Flepia

And yeah, the colors look to be washed out...that will change within a year, if not from Fujitsu then PL or another player like even Samsung (a stealth player I suspect in the whole area of epaper panels...it is a direct competition with their DLP LED based TV's and the new lower power LED TV's...so they have a HUGE interest in this tech and it won't be long before one of the current companies is bought out by Sony, Samsung or other big corp...)

DLP LED TV's...
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...3&q=LED+dlp+tv

zacheryjensen · 10-09-2009, 09:01 PM

I'm surprised to see this news posted here today since plastic logic has denied the color e reader rumor. Basically this BN guy is talking out of his poop-chute and is wrong, at least, about the Plastic Logic part.

It's important to remember, Plastic Logic is making *ONE* reader, they are not branding it under any companies, but they are partnering with some. One is BN and it will be a source for content, not a brand on the reader itself.

Anyway, you can see the denial on plastic logic's twitter feed.

10-09-2009, 08:24 PM	#58
fuzzy_dunlop Enthusiast Posts: 29 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: none	I love the gray is a color theory. Rogue B&N Sales Rep. or marketing genius? The relevance of color depends on the price. The Fujitsu Flepia (http://tinyurl.com/cl2so3) is the first color e-ink reader available now and it retails for 99,750 yen or US$1110. The color in this demo looks, well dull (http://tinyurl.com/ykz5t6y). So the question is whether you would pay double the price of a Kindle DX for dull weird color that you would not need for fiction, and could live without for non-fiction. Last edited by fuzzy_dunlop; 10-09-2009 at 08:28 PM.

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10-09-2009, 02:20 PM	#48
CharlieBird ¿Huh? Posts: 349 Karma: 1004526 Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: rural Jalisco Device: HiSense A7 CC, Fire HD6, Kobo Libra2	I'm more enthused by B&N's "imminent, 6" screen, running Android" and linked earlier by sforce. This link was also on Teleread today. http://gizmodo.com/5377505/barnes--n...and-next-month d

10-09-2009, 02:47 PM	#50
badbob001 Fanatic Posts: 556 Karma: 1102020 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: Kindle Keyboard (rip), Kindle Voyage, Fire Tablet 10 '17, iPad '19	Color would be great for childrens books, like the 500 that Disney put onto their website. I wouldn't mind having color for my digital collection of comics. Of course, I would give up color if it is at the expense of resolution and contrast.

10-09-2009, 02:54 PM	#52
sforce Connoisseur Posts: 81 Karma: 184 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: Plastic Logic (?)	Maps and travel/tour books, too.

10-09-2009, 03:11 PM	#53
AdamGott Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 2139614 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: Kindle/iPad	I will believe it when I see it! I would guess that the 'Spring 2010' is the best case guess for when they will be able to market this thing.

10-09-2009, 03:25 PM	#55
Faenad Ad astra per aspera Posts: 347 Karma: 724 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Mexico Device: PRS-505, PRS-300 & HTC HD2	Barnes & Noble's do not yet have any ebook reader on the market. I guess the only thing they can do is tell us tales of their next vaporware super-reader "around the corner" so hopefully people will wait for it and don't purchase some Amazon or Sony reader this fall. It's sad. Ie Plastic Logic reader are always "around the corner".

10-09-2009, 04:28 PM	#56
fugazied Wizard Posts: 1,305 Karma: 1958 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: iPod Touch	Color is pretty sweet, good to see they don't mind leapfrogging over Amazon in certain ways. I hope it does REALLY well, more competition would be great.

10-09-2009, 05:34 PM	#57
brecklundin Banned Posts: 1,906 Karma: 15348 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: mine	I wonder if they will have to get out cans of Walmart-knock-off spray paint to get their readers through customs in China? And to those whining about color being "useless"...so is your home (live in a freaking cave or lean-to), vehicle (walk or ride a horse), printing presses as well as paper (rock and chisel...naw too much tech...oral history is good enough), electricity (manual labor is good for you so electricity is unhealthy ans thus unnecessary), and to be kind your current ebook reader is overkill as well--there are billions of p-books already---your vice has killed enough of the planet already! Stop doing worse with your evil technology... freaking luddites...hehehehe...just TEASING and exaggerating to illustrate that once upon a time every change in how things are done was claimed as silly and/or unnecessary at some point...most of them we could not live without today, though I say we should be doing more manual labor every day as THAT would make us each better off. For me I want a full sized/large panel color reader with true full color panels. I do not "need" animation/motion enabled screens for a long time as all I want now is the ability read/take my antiques reference books, photography books and other similar content with me. For the simple pleasure of recreational reading a 5" reader like the Pocketbook 360 is just fine. But for my color reader I want an 8.5"x11" panel as PL is using for their B&W large format reader...fyi that means it is a 14" reader, well, just about a 13.9" reader if you want to split ~0.1" hairs.

10-09-2009, 09:01 PM	#60
zacheryjensen Addict Posts: 229 Karma: 887 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Utah, USA Device: iPad, iPhone 4	I'm surprised to see this news posted here today since plastic logic has denied the color e reader rumor. Basically this BN guy is talking out of his poop-chute and is wrong, at least, about the Plastic Logic part. It's important to remember, Plastic Logic is making ONE reader, they are not branding it under any companies, but they are partnering with some. One is BN and it will be a source for content, not a brand on the reader itself. Anyway, you can see the denial on plastic logic's twitter feed.