Where would you start in explaining ebooks to a non-techie total newbie?

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

That was my first thought. If they can't do their own research, how do they 'think' they need a Kindle?

They are looking for a way to read not to research and compare products. When my wife wanted a DSLR camera, she simply told me she wanted a DSLR and for waht purpose and told me to figure out which would best fit her needs. Similarly, when it comes time to determining whether to buy a piece of artwork, I tell her whether I like something and she researches the artist and evaluates the artwork for quality and skill. Different folk have different interests and different skill capabilities.

I think someone "thinks" they need a Kindle (or any ebook device) just by hearing about portability and the number of books they can carry with them. I believe that for many people, excluding those who would like to avoid destroying more trees, it is the ease of carrying around a library to read that makes them think they want an ebook device -- that certainly was the case for me. What other reason would there be to buying one?

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by rhadin

They are looking for a way to read not to research and compare products. When my wife wanted a DSLR camera, she simply told me she wanted a DSLR and for waht purpose and told me to figure out which would best fit her needs. Similarly, when it comes time to determining whether to buy a piece of artwork, I tell her whether I like something and she researches the artist and evaluates the artwork for quality and skill. Different folk have different interests and different skill capabilities.

I think someone "thinks" they need a Kindle (or any ebook device) just by hearing about portability and the number of books they can carry with them. I believe that for many people, excluding those who would like to avoid destroying more trees, it is the ease of carrying around a library to read that makes them think they want an ebook device -- that certainly was the case for me. What other reason would there be to buying one?

Okay, I give up. It must be just me that feels people, men or women, are fully capable of doing their own basic research for something they think they need. After that, getting opinions of different devices is another matter. When we went to buy our first (and only) digital camera, I wanted as much input as my husband had, since I would be the one using it most. Ditto for phones, furniture, house, etc. I don't want someone else, even my beloved, to tell me what I need.
So, you watched Oprah, and now you "ThinK" you need the device, for whatever reason. Fine, go for it. A simple visit to the Kindle home page would have answered all of their questions. Case closed.

[nekokami]

I'm the one who gets stuck with all tech support at our house-- and I also get to provide tech support to my parents (both of them, though my mom usually handles quite a bit of her own support needs), my husband's parents, and assorted other friends and relations. I'm also the one in the family who gets set on any sort of analytical comparison, e.g. alternative cell phone plans, taxes, adoption agencies, etc.

On the other hand, my husband (bless him) makes sure the bills get paid every month, as well as taking care of laundry, dishes, shopping, and most of the cooking. And a good thing, too. I can cook, but I'm not so great at the rest of it. I get bored with routine. He finds it comforting. We make a good partnership.

Here at work, sometimes people apologize to me for asking "stupid" questions, and I always say, "Not at all-- this is my job, you shouldn't need to know everything about computers to be able to use one. That's what I'm here for." I do encourage people to learn about the software they use every day, but there are a lot of details that they don't want or need to know, and don't have time to learn (and don't use often enough to remember). On the other hand, I really don't want to have to balance the accounting books. (I think I'd rather do the dishes!) It takes all kinds to make the world work, I think.

So maybe these folks are only getting into ebooks because Oprah got one and has been talking them up. So? Maybe if they get them, they'll discover things like the ability to adjust font sizes or look up words (depending on the device) that they had never realized could help them enjoy reading more. I think it's positive that they're interested, and asking around about the devices. The world changes fast, and some people are more comfortable with change than others, while others want a bit more hand-holding.

[ficbot]

Oh, it's for real. It's a fitness board, so it is 99.9% women (I think we have one guy posyer who posts like once a year and is always greeted with great fanfare). And I at early 30's, am on the lower end of the age range. There are a few ipod/mac/techie types on there, but most of them just don't have much in the way of techie inclinations.

I wonder if it's a generational thing. I installed eReader for my stepmother onto her iPhone and set her up with some free books. She seemed interested, but then later kept saying that she just didn't know if she could read on a screen (hint: it's all set up for you, hun, just open it up and give it a try!) and it all seemed very weird to her. And my mom, don't get me started on her! I actually had a conversation once with my stepdad wherein the short version was that his brand new digital camera would not sync with his decade-old imac and he was shocked and stunned and amazed. At one point, he trots out the argument 'but they are your mother's pictures! SHE wants them off the camera!' Um, yeah. Because the camera cares who the pictures belong to, right?

Myself, girl though I might be, I do like to be a little independent. I mean what would happen if I wanted to *do* something, and there did not happen to be someone around to help me? I like to know how to do certain things myself. But I recognize that not everyone is like that and some relationships have 'domains' or whatever where maybe some people do and off parts of their life for the partner to deal with

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

But the point was, they aren't looking to learn. They want their husbands, friends, etc to do the research for them.

No one was more 'tech challenged' than me when I first started with this. I had never wanted anything to do with such a thing as one of those 'new fangled e-book readers'. However, it didn't take long to change my own mind.....I just wanted it badly enough to do my own looking.........no one is too dumb to do that, and I never called them inbeciles. I"m just saying......if Ophra "kindled" their interest, fine. After that, its up to them to see if its something they really want.

Well, they're apparently doing some research on their own because they asked their friend on a forum about the Sony.

"Imbecile" was a stand in for all the general insults I read back there from you and others. I believe you just said they didn't have a clue. Someone back there went so far as to call them "brain dead" and you seemed to find it quite funny. I hope they don't come here and see this thread in the course of any further research.

I'm glad you pushed yourself to do your own research. I would hope that would make you a little more sympathetic. Yes, I want them to stretch themselves and be more comfortable with technology, but I don't think that should be the entrance criteria for owning a Kindle. It's for reading books. You can love books and not be comfortable researching a gadget. You can see how convenient it is to have hundreds or thousands of books with you at all times without having any comfort level with the technology that makes it possible. That concept was one of the major driving forces behind the Kindle design and Whispernet. I think we would do better to encourage people to stretch a bit than just throw up a hurdle in front of them. Calling them clueless and brain dead isn't exactly welcoming them into the ebook community where they could potentially learn a lot. How would you have felt if you came here when you were first looking around and read that?

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

We both fight over who's going to hide from the relatives with computer-related questions. At least with my relatives it's usually a genuine problem; with some of his it's because they don't believe in anti virus and wonder why their PCs break every 6 months or so.

Pretty much every time I visit my family there's tech support to be done. My favorite is when my dad calls and says, "A window came up and I hit ok and now it doesn't work." *sigh* He's not stupid. He's actually quite intelligent yet somehow when it comes to computers, it's like something in him shorts out.

[CleverClothe]

Here is what I would tell them. Feel free to use this or edit it to your needs. Keep in mind that I write this only about the e-ink e-book readers.

-----

E-book readers are devices designed to read digital books, like a digitial camera is designed to take digital pictures, or a MP3 player is designed to play digital music. Since e-book readers have one main purpose, they are easier to use than a personal computer. E-book readers work along side your personal computer like a digital camera does. For most e-book readers, you will need a computer to buy and load books onto the reader (the Kindle can buy and receive books wirelessly without a computer, if you are within the Whispernet service area).

Each e-book reader generally has its own format and store for e-books. Most of the e-books can also be read on a regular computer with the right software. Some e-book readers can read regular computer documents and there is software to covert computer documents to e-books, but that takes some learning. Also, most e-books support pictures (but no color yet on the e-book readers).

What can an e-book reader do?
- Read books! There are more and more books being offered as e-books, even classics and out of copyright books.
- View pictures. But no color.
- Store hundreds or thousands of books on something the size of a book, carry your whole e-book library with you.
- Automatically remembers where you stopped reading each book.
- Change the size of the text for more confortable reading.
- Read a book with one hand, or no hands. You won't have to hold your book open. And you just need to press a button when you want to turn the page.
- Some e-book readers allow you to bookmark locations in your e-books.
- Some e-book readers allow you to look up the definition of a word you are reading.

That is great. But if I don't have all the pages in front of me, won't it be slow to flip through the book?
The designers have thought about this problem. E-books have tables of contents that allow you to jump to a section of the book with a few clicks (well, some poorly made e-books don't), and the e-book readers let you jump ahead or behind by large numbers of pages. Some e-book readers even allow you to jump to a page number.

Can I read in the dark?
No. Just like a paper book, you will need light to read by. The one exception is that Sony offers an e-book reader with a built-in reading light, and a leather case with a built-in reading light for one of their other e-book readers.

What are prices like for e-books?
Mostly e-books are about the price of paper back books if that edition is available, or the price of a hard back. However, this situation has been improving and there are several stores (like Amazon) that offer large savings and better prices than the paper versions of books.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Husband will look at the price and say.. You don't need that.

And then he would buy it for her for Christmas.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

And then he would buy it for her for Christmas.

Or buy himself one, to see what it's like... and three months down the line say he still hasn't decided

[Alisa]

Great summary CleverClothe!

[SaraD]

In our household my husband is the IT person (by inclination and profession) and I am an admin who does well with using computers. By the end of the day he doesn't want to even look at another computer while I am tired of other people's problems so learning about new gadgets in the quiet of my home office is soothing. Right up until I get frustrated with the super technical side of things - a code monkey as my husband calls it I am not! So I do as much of the research as I can until I have to take my findings to him for the final evaluation before making a purchase. I spend quite a bit of time learning and reading and it is hard work! Right now I'm trying to figure out format conversion (what goes easily from one to another) so that I don't put myself in a bad place and the reader I eventually choose will not work with the books I want to buy that I can't get anywhere else. Most of my women friends look at me like I totally lost my mind this time and ask me to let them know the answer after I have it figured out. With everything else in their lives it simply doesn't rate high enough for the effort required even though they love their mp3 players and the idea of books that don't require dusting or moving a lot of weight greatly appeals to them. While this isn't quite the bleeding edge of technology anymore, it is still close enough to put people off.

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Okay, I give up. It must be just me that feels people, men or women, are fully capable of doing their own basic research for something they think they need. After that, getting opinions of different devices is another matter. When we went to buy our first (and only) digital camera, I wanted as much input as my husband had, since I would be the one using it most. Ditto for phones, furniture, house, etc. I don't want someone else, even my beloved, to tell me what I need.
So, you watched Oprah, and now you "ThinK" you need the device, for whatever reason. Fine, go for it. A simple visit to the Kindle home page would have answered all of their questions. Case closed.

I think that's exactly where the husband would come in,because not for all the kindle is a good choice.
I for one, really don't need wireless, and hated the Kindle's design.
And if there is one thing that really not makes me want to buy a device,that would be sales talk!
The whole Amazon kindle thing is full of people glorifying the kindle, while when doing a little research it is not at all that great of a device as portrayed (that's why I went for a Sony which better fitted my needs and desires). It does have flaws, and it does take a while to figure them out!
(Every reader has btw..)

I've learned over time (being a salesman myself in the past) not to trust or fall for those talks, since they are all one-sided (only the good about things).
Really, put a salesman in a shop and he'll convince you to buy the kindle, but if he gets payed more by selling a Sony, he will be able to sell you the sony!

I also think that okay, the remark about dispatching the husbands was funny, however like mentioned,some people just want to read books (be it romance or fiction or whatever); not everyone likes science,and just wants to read.
If I'd be using an ebook reader to read science it's only obvious I'd do the whole research myself (which I am doing, and why I chose the prs-505 for my specific needs).
Not all are scientific minded, and not all have the time to spend researching online. Especially not those having businesses or kids.

I can 100% agree,and correlate to Rhadin. My wife is great in shooting photo's, but knows little of which brand of camera she uses.
I make sure she's got the best of the best we can afford, simply because it takes me one day to know what she needs, and it takes her a whole week only to see the basic differences between models and lenses.
She just takes the pictures, something I've not found the time for learning...

[desertgrandma]

Well, Pro-digit where do I start.
You don't care for the Kindle design, thats okay. I like it....You love your Sony, thats good too.

Now, no "salesman" talked me into the Kindle. It sold itself by the informational video on the home page.....I'm not talking Jeff Bezo's or any of the celebrities listed. Just the informational one. I am so glad I saw and bought it then, because unfortunately, had I not done so, I guarantee I would have never gone near it once Oprah got her claws into it.
The reason people are 'glorifying' it so much is because thats the way they really feel. If you don't feel that way about yours, thats sad!
Just look at the people over on the Amazon Kindle discussions page. One person bought TWO and then realized there was no whispernet coverage in her area. Didn't have the sense to check it out on the Amazon site first. Thats the Oprah mentality I hate. People will take what she says, buy a product, or book, not even beginning to wonder if there is any information missing that may be important.
As for the Whispernet, I think its amazing to be able to download books any time or place I am. Since I don't travel much, I don't worry about being out of coverage area. I don't use it for surfing the 'net, thats what I have a laptop for. The dictionary is awesome.
Asking help with a device you own, or wondering which one is the best for you, is not a bad thing. We've all done it enough.
Not even attempting to know what you are buying is the problem.

And by the way......a really good salesman would sell the customer whichever one best suited them, not which one pays him more, because he knows that customer will be back. Good salesmen are hard to find.

[Scythe]

When I have to explain what it is, I typically describe it as an electronic form of a book, both visually and physically. Then I have my wife produce it from her purse, since it travels everywhere.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

You have to remember that there really are plenty of people who are not tech-savvy, nor do they want to be, so they're looking for non-tech explanations. You don't tell these people how cellphone towers work... you just tell 'em it works like their phone, but you can use it anywhere.

I usually start by explaining what an e-book is... that is, a book turned into an electronic file (like a PDF or an MP3 file), that can be read on a computer and similar devices. Then I say that an e-book reader is a dedicated device optimized for reading e-books, portable, usually with a superior screen, and capable of carrying hundreds of books in its memory.

I pause there, to look for signs that their eyes are glazing over. If so, I stop there.

If not: I add that there are multiple brands of readers, and multiple e-book formats, and that they are not always compatible, so your choice of reader may be determined by who you want to buy e-books from. I also add that devices like PDAs and cellphones can also read e-books, and can often read multiple formats, so they might be an option if they want to read e-books... especially if they already have one, and they are okay with small screens.

Another eye-glaze check here. (This is where my wife's eyes go milky-white, for example.)

If there is still no glaze, I ask a bit about what they like, get an idea of how much tech they're comfortable with, and get into individual brands. If they seem uncomfortable, I go no further than telling them about the Kindle and Sony readers. And when I get tired of talking, I recommend MR to them.