Plastic Logic QUE event (Thu 7:30 am PT)

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Hmm... I thought when she talked about the air gap she was explaining that is why the sharpness and contrast on the Sony suffers... rather than about glare. Since there is no "air gap" on the Que it doesn't suffer this lack of clarity.

Perhaps I will have to listen to it again.

BOb

She was explaining because Len Edgerly specifically asked why the Ques didn't have glare while the Sony touch screens do have glare.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I bet a lot of Edge users are going to try to use the Stylus on the LCD side and be confused as to why it doesn't work.

BOb

And poke holes in the LCD screen.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

She was explaining because Len Edgerly specifically asked why the Ques didn't have glare while the Sony touch screens do have glare.

Ah... I thought I heard "blur" not "glare". And from the vid the Que screen certainly reflected all the bright lights. Of course, as Jon likes to tell us "reflection" and "glare" are not the same... but they are certainly kissing cousins... aren't they?

BOb

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Ah... I thought I heard "blur" not "glare". And from the vid the Que screen certainly reflected all the bright lights. Of course, as Jon likes to tell us "reflection" and "glare" are not the same... but they are certainly kissing cousins... aren't they?

BOb

well yes, reflection, glare, blur, contrast and sharpness. They all are there I think. I've taken to thinking blur when people say glare, because it seems to be a simple matter to tilt the reader to remove reflection and glare, but the other three are more inherent in the display due to it's physical characteristics. (certainly the reflection and glare are somewhat due to the top layer as well)

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

"The Kindle Chronicles" site has a nearly 10 minute Que demo video from CES.

Interesting vid .

What I didn't like about it was the piano black casing, shining away and showing up every little fingerprint - I'd be constantly giving it a wipe.
Give me a matt finished case any day.

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by kennyc

well yes, reflection, glare, blur, contrast and sharpness. They all are there I think. I've taken to thinking blur when people say glare, because it seems to be a simple matter to tilt the reader to remove reflection and glare, but the other three are more inherent in the display due to it's physical characteristics. (certainly the reflection and glare are somewhat due to the top layer as well)

This was what I was trying to say with my post. I didn't think the print clarity was any better on the Que than it is on my Sony 600. I would have liked to do a side-by-side comparison when I was there but thought the Que people would frown on that. I did think the contrast could be darker but I lived with my 700 for almost a year and was perfectly happy with it until the 600 came out and I saw the improvements.

As for the surface reflection, I noticed some reflective quality with all the readers I saw at the show. Some had less than others and none of them was as bad as my 700 but I think you are going to get that with any plastic unless maybe it's pebbled in some way which would be counterproductive. Let's face it, very little technology is going to be as nonreflective as paper. If you are that picky, stick with paper!

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Interesting vid .

What I didn't like about it was the piano black casing, shining away and showing up every little fingerprint - I'd be constantly giving it a wipe.
Give me a matt finished case any day.

I'm sure skins will be available.

[Dulin's Books]

There is a Matte finish case for it as an accessory.



which is a pretty snug fit. I'd definitely be picking one up to deal with fingerprint issues. I know the fingerprints were one of the things talked about most when i was there.

I told them they should include one of the cases/folios for the pre-orders. They might do it.

For the non-3g models they could have put an SD card slot right where the sim card slot is on the bottom. of course you will be able to get documents to the device WITHOUT plugging in via the print to function over WiFi and the bluetooth from Blackberry(and other smartphones once the aps are written) but it would be nice to just pop books in with an sd card.

[Dulin's Books]

I actually tried to do that with the edge- use the stylus with the lcd mostly i think because i was using the Boox so much. But i can see users doing it as well.

[ricou]

Well I am less than confident for this tool.

For casual readers like me who only want a large screen reader, then the added functions are unnecessary and do not justify the extra cost. The skiff looks better for my need, but what if kindle decides to drop the price of its DX ? For let’s see 399£ ? At that price its small flaws would not matter anymore, at least not to me ;-)
In addition, competition on the 9.7 inch segment will be fierce. Samsung announced a new line of readers (including a 9.7). that will be cheaper. I think that the other major player might also be interested in the 9.7 segment.

For business users it is even worse !
Competition comes from tablet PC, edge, and most of all netbooks (I cannot see why a business reader would like a QUE as opposed to a netbook for business AND a reader for leisure). OK we have the subscriptions to morning papers, but even though the more I read about this reader, the more I think that bad positioning will be its downfall.

Personally I will look elsewhere (anything with the minimum functionalities and better price tag).

But I would not be surprised if Amazon caught anyone unaware with either a new product (with color, as hinted), or a significant price drop in price for it DX (remember Amazon core business is books, I do not think they care about losing money for the readers, since they make it up with online books sales, they should even give away readers :-). See what they are doing with video game. PS3 is sold at a loss, but they know that the average customer will purchase at least 10 games, and pricey accessories.

Anyway, future does not look bright for QUE (or for irex for that matter, with their future dr800 that looks outdated already).

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by ricou

Well I am less than confident for this tool.

For casual readers like me who only want a large screen reader, then the added functions are unnecessary and do not justify the extra cost. The skiff looks better for my need, but what if kindle decides to drop the price of its DX ? For let’s see 399£ ? At that price its small flaws would not matter anymore, at least not to me ;-)
In addition, competition on the 9.7 inch segment will be fierce. Samsung announced a new line of readers (including a 9.7). that will be cheaper. I think that the other major player might also be interested in the 9.7 segment.

For business users it is even worse !
Competition comes from tablet PC, edge, and most of all netbooks (I cannot see why a business reader would like a QUE as opposed to a netbook for business AND a reader for leisure). OK we have the subscriptions to morning papers, but even though the more I read about this reader, the more I think that bad positioning will be its downfall.

Personally I will look elsewhere (anything with the minimum functionalities and better price tag).

But I would not be surprised if Amazon caught anyone unaware with either a new product (with color, as hinted), or a significant price drop in price for it DX (remember Amazon core business is books, I do not think they care about losing money for the readers, since they make it up with online books sales, they should even give away readers :-). See what they are doing with video game. PS3 is sold at a loss, but they know that the average customer will purchase at least 10 games, and pricey accessories.

Anyway, future does not look bright for QUE (or for irex for that matter, with their future dr800 that looks outdated already).

I am sure that Amazon will drop the price for the DX this year. But even then, the DX is much bigger than it should be, with that giant keyboard at the bottom. That also makes it heavier. So, if Amazon goes down to $350 and improves its software, I would get the DX, but at 450 or 420 I would still prefer the Que. As for the new color readers, we are talking early next year, and probably 6" screens only in the beginning. That doesn't interest me. Other 9.7" black and white are said to appear after September only.

Amazon might take the road of subsidizing the Kindles, but they won't do it lightly. At the moment they are making good money on them. The fact that Amazon has not dropped the price for the DX yet shows 2 things. As far as the Que is concerned they probably believe that the Que is so much more advanced, a cheaper price wouldn't help much. And Amazon also feels that the 9.7" readers from other companies are still so far away that they can get full price for the DX for some time to come.

[aleks]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

And poke holes in the LCD screen.

It is a bit disingenious on the part of the Edge folks that they do not spell this out clearly. For example, it did not click for me until the above post.

Aleks

[scoff]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

I actually tried to do that with the edge- use the stylus with the lcd mostly i think because i was using the Boox so much. But i can see users doing it as well.

The LCD side uses a resistive panel (right?), so can't you use a stylus anywhere you would use your finger? No writing tho...

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by ricou

Well I am less than confident for this tool.

For casual readers like me who only want a large screen reader, then the added functions are unnecessary and do not justify the extra cost. The skiff looks better for my need, but what if kindle decides to drop the price of its DX ? For let’s see 399£ ? At that price its small flaws would not matter anymore, at least not to me ;-)
In addition, competition on the 9.7 inch segment will be fierce. Samsung announced a new line of readers (including a 9.7). that will be cheaper. I think that the other major player might also be interested in the 9.7 segment.

For business users it is even worse !
Competition comes from tablet PC, edge, and most of all netbooks (I cannot see why a business reader would like a QUE as opposed to a netbook for business AND a reader for leisure). OK we have the subscriptions to morning papers, but even though the more I read about this reader, the more I think that bad positioning will be its downfall.

Personally I will look elsewhere (anything with the minimum functionalities and better price tag).

But I would not be surprised if Amazon caught anyone unaware with either a new product (with color, as hinted), or a significant price drop in price for it DX (remember Amazon core business is books, I do not think they care about losing money for the readers, since they make it up with online books sales, they should even give away readers :-). See what they are doing with video game. PS3 is sold at a loss, but they know that the average customer will purchase at least 10 games, and pricey accessories.

Anyway, future does not look bright for QUE (or for irex for that matter, with their future dr800 that looks outdated already).

I played with one of the new Samsung readers (the 6" touch screen version) and was completely unimpressed. It is not a true touch screen in my opinion because you must use the provided stylus to make the touch screen work.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by scoff

The LCD side uses a resistive panel (right?), so can't you use a stylus anywhere you would use your finger? No writing tho...

I am pretty sure the Edge LCD has a capacitive touch screen.

BOb