Cory Doctorow: "Hardware ebook readers are a dead end"

[moz]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

I presume this means you must save them one page at a time?

Yeah, I'm sure I could script around that but since I read them one page at a time in the browser it's not enough of a hassle to be worth fixing.

The magazines I really care about are both toe in the water mode - if they sell a decent number of subscriptions this way they will start looking at what people actually want from the electronic edition. Peter Eland (editor/owner of VeloVision) assures me that he will be releasing the back catalogue in accessible format when he can (older editions were often hacked together for printing so there is no "one file" master that he can publish from), probably as complete jpegs with the text also included as text. I expect most of those magazines to add a "buy all our back issues on CD/as a zip file" at some point.

The e-mag that does annoy me is ReNew, the www.ata.org.au magazine that is currently available as an annual CD of pdfs or monthly paper , but not as monthly pdf.

edit: I think is marks me as an early adopter - willing to pay for things that kinda work, but to me at least are better than the alternative. Sure, the average punter would not put up with the sort of nonsense that I do, and would definitely not be having email conversations with the source of the material, but unless we go through this stuff we won't get to a decent end point. I want "eVelovision" to succeed so that I can later buy New Scientist the same way (in a way that suits me, in other words). The more I help, the more influence I have on VV, and hopefully the more it therefore succeeds and gets copied by bigger magazines.

[Jeff Duntemann]

Before personal computers became commonplace, there were "dedicated word processors," which were special-purpose computer/storage appliances targeted at (affluent) offices. Xerox made one (I worked there at the time, midlate 70s) and it was well received in its day. There were similar dedicated payroll appliances and programmable scientific calculators (IBM's 5100 from 1975 was almost a personal computer) and other things that were basically 1-trick ponies that worked because of engineering cleverness and specialized hardware. All were gone within ten years because general-purpose computers got better and better while still getting cheaper and cheaper through expanding markets.

I think Cory was arguing against the current generation of dedicated readers, which are similar 1-trick pony engineering compromises that allow the reading of ebooks on something that'll fit in your pocket and not suck its battery dry in three hours. Those will eventually go the way of those Xerox dedicated word processors.

What we probably will see is convergence in two directions: Toward a thin, light, Letter/A4-sized tablet on the high end for general-purpose field computing, and a handheld cell/reader/music player device for limited-function pocket portability. A clever company like Apple could create something like a thin Air-style Macbook tablet with a slot in its side that would accept an iphone-like cell with ebook reader and music player ability. When in the slot, the cell handheld would provide cell-network access to the tablet a la Kindle. When the phone rings, you push a button and pop it out of the tablet (or leave it in and hit the tablet's "speakerphone" button) and if you want to leave the tablet at home you can still read books on the cell. The two are actually functional facets of the same overall computing system, and should be designed to be separable parts of a single hardware unit.

We're maybe 3-5 years away from a mature implementation of that, but most of us will still be here then. The Kindles and Sony Readers of 2008 will be museum pieces at some point. They're milestones, not roadblocks. We will do better, and soon.

[BJN]

I'm reading my first and last book on my Sony PRS-500. It's disappointing in so many ways I don't know where to start.

-The poor contrast display is substantially inferior to ink on paper. The handling of typography at various magnifications is poor, especially for extended character set letters. The "page" size is tiny compared to a paperback. I crank up the magnification and I'm treated to several pagelets and lots of paging button pushes as a result.
-The promise of a page display that requires no power to maintain the image is totally lost on this device. You have to turn it off and that means wiping the zero current draw image from the display. The reader uses power even when turned off and the "off" life without charging is annoyingly short. I've read here that there's a way to really turn it off but that that means a long reboot and I assume lost session settings.
-The Sony bookstore selection is pathetic. I bought the reader with the idea of consolidating field guides for birding, geology, river information, etc. in a handy single device. Bad idea. I can't even view pdfs on this thing reasonably if they're not formatted to the reader's page specs. The zoom for pdf reading isn't sticky so dealing with letter size pdf documents is a PITA.
-I can stuff a paperback into a bag and never worry about crushing it, having the power cube for it, or worrying about its remaining charge. I can drop a paperback without a care. The reader is a prissy piece of electronics to handle with care.
-Since I can't put what I want into the reader, perhaps it could earn its keep doing something else useful? Nope. Other than an extremely poor MP3 player, it offers no other utility. No thesaurus, no calendar, no handy reference function of any kind.
-The reader's interface is lame. I realize the new model is somewhat improved, but this isn't a device that's brilliant in its single function.

Someday the e-ink displays will live up to their promise. Then I'll buy a UMPC with a decent size and resolution display to serve as my "reader" and a universe other functions. Cory's right.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by BJN

I'm reading my first and last book on my Sony PRS-500. It's disappointing in so many ways I don't know where to start.

-The poor contrast display is substantially inferior to ink on paper. The handling of typography at various magnifications is poor, especially for extended character set letters. The "page" size is tiny compared to a paperback. I crank up the magnification and I'm treated to several pagelets and lots of paging button pushes as a result.

The page size problem is caused by the wya that particular ebook was formatted. It sounds like you got it from Sony. Try one of the ones here. They're much better as well as free.

-The promise of a page display that requires no power to maintain the image is totally lost on this device. You have to turn it off and that means wiping the zero current draw image from the display. The reader uses power even when turned off and the "off" life without charging is annoyingly short. I've read here that there's a way to really turn it off but that that means a long reboot and I assume lost session settings.

Yes, you are technically correct. But you be seeing a 3 week battery life. If you aren't getting it, then the battery could be defective (or you haven't charged it properly).

-The Sony bookstore selection is pathetic. I bought the reader with the idea of consolidating field guides for birding, geology, river information, etc. in a handy single device. Bad idea. I can't even view pdfs on this thing reasonably if they're not formatted to the reader's page specs. The zoom for pdf reading isn't sticky so dealing with letter size pdf documents is a PITA.

Yes. No argument, no debate. The Sony ebooks store is indeed pathetic. That's why a lot of us don't buy ebooks there.

-Since I can't put what I want into the reader, perhaps it could earn its keep doing something else useful? Nope. Other than an extremely poor MP3 player, it offers no other utility. No thesaurus, no calendar, no handy reference function of any kind.

Yes, you can put what you want on it. Start a new thread and ask for help.

-The reader's interface is lame. I realize the new model is somewhat improved, but this isn't a device that's brilliant in its single function.

It does, indeed.


If you want to give the Reader a second chance, just ask for help.

P.S. If you decide to return the Reader, then I think you should consider the Cybook or the Amazon Kindle. Most of your gripes are fixed by one or the other.

[Vesper]

Originally Posted by tompe

Yes, but I heard Cory argue (at Worldcon 2007 in Yokohama I think) that devices with multiple functions will probably not succeed as book readers since most people will be distracted by email or other stuff that they can also do on the device. Personally that is totally true and I see the lack of other functionality on my book reader as a great advantage.

Perhaps for some... My TX was bought with a single purpose - to read. All those other things were icing on the cake but it was used 99% of the time for that single one. Since I bought Cybook... well, let's just say that it's collecting dust somwhere

DrS

[sanders]

Originally Posted by radleyp

NatCh, two more things: I am a lawyer and I pretty regularly send Amazon a variety of legal documents to convert (from word and pdf, text being readable on the Kindle without conversion), so I quite agree with your view that lawyers find a Kindle-like device very helpful; and with the keyboard I can make notes (I can understand that some would prefer the ability to handwrite them, but this works fine) and indeed have twice taken notes at a meeting (that requires me to set up file beforehand), the downside being that I cannot load them back onto a computer.

Have you looked at the iLiad? It sounds like this would be the perfect device for you.

[Richard Herley]

Originally Posted by TheJohnNewton

Ideally any file should be useable on any reading device or reading software. Short of that every file type should be convertable to plain text or some standard format to avoid the whole orphan issue. There really is no excuse not to have this today.

I couldn't agree more, with this and your whole post.

That is what ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is all about.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Also agreed... though, for the purposes of formatting an e-book, HTML is actually a better universal format choice than ASCII.

[astra]

Originally Posted by tompe

Yes, but I heard Cory argue (at Worldcon 2007 in Yokohama I think) that devices with multiple functions will probably not succeed as book readers since most people will be distracted by email or other stuff that they can also do on the device. Personally that is totally true and I see the lack of other functionality on my book reader as a great advantage.

Could not say better myself.

That's why I love my Sony Reader and if not Sony then I would go for CyBook Gen3 but never for Kindle.

[TallMomof2]

The problem with current all-in-one devices is that you sacrifice battery life and weight savings for size, the larger the screen the worse the battery life and the heavier the device. If you go small for longer battery life and lightweight then the screen is too small for me to read comfortably for long periods of time.

I carry around a cellphone and PDA all the time and add my dedicated ebook reader if I'm planning on reading. I could combine the cellphone and PDA but I have to give up an excellent network for cool phones. Network coverage is more important to me so I carry separate devices. Plus, I can read on my PDA in a pinch. That was my only ebook reader for years before moving to eInk.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I understand the desire to avoid converging devices... that's why I keep my PDA, MP3 player and cellphone separate. For me, the PDA does a fine job for book reading, so I don't need a dedicated device just for that.

On the other hand, a superior dedicated reading device that did the tricks I mentioned earlier (color, e-magazine subscriptions, storage, clipping, etc) would be a dedicated device I would be willing to get. But I may just get a UMPC or tablet PC to do the same job, if such a dedicated reader doesn't come along first.

[TheLongshot]

One thing that also bugs me about his comments is that he talks about the casual reader. Really, the casual reader is probably not going to want something like this anyways, since they may only have the occasional paperback. But, for someone like my wife, who often takes multiple books on trips, something like this is a godsend.

I'm also a guy who used to read eBooks on a PDA (Sony Clie) and there are some things I miss about it (the small size, the scroll wheel), but I like my Sony Reader in its own way.

Jason

[nekokami]

Cory Doctorow has generally maintained that ebooks won't replace print, as well, and I think he's wrong on that score. But I generally agree with him that the market for dedicated ebook devices is limited. Not non-existent (and he didn't say that), but limited. There will probably always be some people who prefer a single-function ebook reader, just as there will be some folks who need large-screen desktop computers, but I think the larger market will be in some kind of mini-tablet "internet appliance" that can handle books, magazine articles, web 2.0, etc. with minimal power usage.

[NatCh]

I really don't expect paper books to go away entirely, but I see them as likely to get scaled back significantly. Of course, that's based on nothing but my own theorizing, so salt to taste.

[Azayzel]

Wee! Looks like he stirred up a virtual hornet's nest here! I too agree that he is way off the mark in stating that dedicated eBook readers will never make it. The simple fact is that while some people want to sit still and be comfortable where they're at, technology is still going to move forward.

I have to wonder what the first nay-sayers of paper said when switching from writing on animal skin... "No way man, there's no way paper's going to catch on, it's too hard to make and won't last as long as these here animal hides!" or even try imagining the shift from rock to... err, you get the idea.

I think the main sticking point (or two) really boils down to the price. Case in point, everyone saw how fast Tiger Direct sold out of the Sony Reader last year when it was offered at $100 a unit. It literally sold out within a few hours. People will buy these provided the price is right and they can get the books they want for the price they want to pay.

That is the other big issue, the pricing scheme of digital books. While we have been fairly educated time and again about how much money goes into a PB vs. an eBook, the average person is where we were at when we first posed the question of "Why are they so friggin costly compared to "real" versions?" Regardless of how schooled we've been, I still believe they shouldn't cost most than half what a PB costs or a quarter the HB version; which I'm sure that's what the lay-person thinks too. So... get the price right and it will take off like it's supposed to, just look at the whole digital-music scheme.