txtr launch on the Book-Fair in Frankfurt

[Harry001]

that will be a flop - Germany, or better most of the germans - are not ready for ebook readers.
even if this txtr is (if if if) a good product, they will kill it with the subscription. nobody will pay a monthly fee just to have their files stored on the companys server!

thats one of the reasons i choosed a sony and not a kindle

btw - was never able to get something from the sony store to my psr 505 - but who need that anyhow. is there really a conection from the store to the reader? i doubt it!

keep reading
harry

[geneven]

The demo looked suspicious to me. There was an awful lot of talk and not that much demo. The device was changed at least once during the demo -- why? Page turning looked cumbersome. No dictionary was demonstrated -- that's a nice Kindle feature. In the beginning, it took an awful long time before the first selection of books was displayed.

And what's with a title "The Ambiguity of Control"? Anyone reading that book?

[Godzil]

Originally Posted by noonscoomo

almost everything... yes.
There is some code related to DRM and some specialized code driving the Seiko/Epson Display controller which will be closed. But we will provide a fully documented API to almost everything. We WANT you to write your own applications, you will not need to hack the device to find out where JTAG is or the serial port for accessing the boot log and so.
There will be a developer website where we explain everything and give samples.

The sample and official Epson S1D13521 Framebuffer code for Linux is under the GPLv2

[BlueMonkey]

Originally Posted by Harry001

they will kill it with the subscription. nobody will pay a monthly fee just to have their files stored on the companys server!

The subscription is not obligatory - so if you don't need to sync your private documents via EDGE, you don't have to pay any subscription fees. And syncing via WIFI or USB doesn't need a subscription - also surfing the txtr ebook store is free any time without subscription.

Also: They announced the device will be without simlock - so you could insert other cards into the txtr reader (which could be interesting for everybody outside of Germany, as the data-service via EDGE will be only available here for the moment, Switzerland and Austria are to follow in 2010).

And regarding the Source Code: You already noticed how fast page turning is on the txtr reader - I guess this is the reason why they don't open ALL the code. They really spent much time on making it that quick

[Harry001]

hi blue monkey,

if you go to heise.de, the online forum and watch what the people in the forum think and talk about ebooks and ebook reader, you will know, that this kind of medium is not widely accepted in germany. the readers are too expensive, the books are expensive too and most of the people think they are just junk.

but suprisingly - almost none has ever held one in his/hers hands and never read a book on them.
most think, its just like reading a long pdf on a computer/laptop screen.
thats my 2 ct
keep reading
harry

[lee1234]

i can't wait to buy one of these device!

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Harry001

hi blue monkey,

if you go to heise.de, the online forum and watch what the people in the forum think and talk about ebooks and ebook reader, you will know, that this kind of medium is not widely accepted in germany. the readers are too expensive, the books are expensive too and most of the people think they are just junk.

but suprisingly - almost none has ever held one in his/hers hands and never read a book on them.
most think, its just like reading a long pdf on a computer/laptop screen.
thats my 2 ct
keep reading
harry

Germans, in general, are less interested in technology than Asians or Americans. However, that doesn't mean nobody will be interested! But a few 100,000 Germans buying ereaders next year is definitely an achievable target for the whole market, not just for one brand.

[CommanderROR]

Germans are a bit behind on ereading technology, but if I look at the amount of ereaders on display at the bookfairs in Leipzig and Frankfurt this year I think this might change. A major stepping stone will be when german ebooks finally become available because most germans don't read english books that much...

[Godzil]

Hoooo the txtr is not CE compliant, the CE logo is a "China Export" not a "Confirmitée Européenne"... By the way I doubt that the FCC logo is a real one, but I'm not an "expert" on this.

And I don't found the txtr so speedy as some people say. We don't know if the show us real books, on not just pictures of text. And I really dislike the "button", the guy have to do it 5 or 6 times to get the "page" to get it right the first time, not really user friendly.

The most time consuming task on a reader is not the screen refresh, but the text reflow and calculation. until we have something that can do it more speedier than the screen (and even the iMX31@531Mhz is not enough powerful for this) you will not be really bothered by the screen speed.

ePub is a complex format, and ADE SDK is not currently really well optimized for small devices like liseuses.

[hansl]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Germans, in general, are less interested in technology than Asians or Americans. However, that doesn't mean nobody will be interested! But a few 100,000 Germans buying ereaders next year is definitely an achievable target for the whole market, not just for one brand.

That's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. Germany is seldomly selected as a test market as it doesn't have hundreds of millions or even billions of potential buyers not because Germans are not interested. So we techno geeks have to pave the way for the regional industry a bit. But if then industry think that they can sell established technology without really innovative features for early adopter prices from 2 years ago, I think they're in for failure.

hansl

[K-Thom]

Germans love their electronic gadgets if there's some sort of added value to it: convenience, potential to arouse envy, coolness factor.

Since most Germans don't read that much, a reading device doesn't strike a chord in them. If I read one book during the holidays and one during Christmas days, I don't need a dedicated reading device.
A dedicated reading device still is seen as rather needless or a waste of money, so you won't arouse envy with it. If a German buys something expensive, it's to tease the people he knows. So what's the idea of possessing something hardly anyone around you is interested in?
Last: coolness factor. Let's face it, most reading devices are not cool. The iPod is cool, the iPhone definitely is, a flat screen TV is cool, a brand new car definitely is - a b&w device just for reading isn't.

As down-to-earth as we Germans usually are, we need an emotional reson to buy an electronic gadget. And most Germans are very emotional about "them books", even if they don't read them.
Germany still considers itself to be "the land of poets and thinkers", and so you'd rather find a remark like "Goethe would never have touched this!" instead of "hey, that's a new turn towards reading!"

Considering this, the txtr is up for some hard times ...

[HansTWN]

Goethe would never have touch this, I love it! Though I am not so sure it is true. That gives me an idea, perhaps change Txtr to Goethe-Reader! That will shut them up.

[StanByk]

Quite a lot of stereotypes in your post... or are you being sarcastic?
Being Austrian and having lived in Germany for a long time I don't think "The Germans" are any different than for instance people in the UK, where I have been living for the last 8 years.

Originally Posted by K-Thom

Germans love their electronic gadgets if there's some sort of added value to it: convenience, potential to arouse envy, coolness factor.

Since most Germans don't read that much, a reading device doesn't strike a chord in them. If I read one book during the holidays and one during Christmas days, I don't need a dedicated reading device.
A dedicated reading device still is seen as rather needless or a waste of money, so you won't arouse envy with it. If a German buys something expensive, it's to tease the people he knows. So what's the idea of possessing something hardly anyone around you is interested in?
Last: coolness factor. Let's face it, most reading devices are not cool. The iPod is cool, the iPhone definitely is, a flat screen TV is cool, a brand new car definitely is - a b&w device just for reading isn't.

As down-to-earth as we Germans usually are, we need an emotional reson to buy an electronic gadget. And most Germans are very emotional about "them books", even if they don't read them.
Germany still considers itself to be "the land of poets and thinkers", and so you'd rather find a remark like "Goethe would never have touched this!" instead of "hey, that's a new turn towards reading!"

Considering this, the txtr is up for some hard times ...

[KleinRobinson]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

Germans love their electronic gadgets if there's some sort of added value to it: convenience, potential to arouse envy, coolness factor.

Since most Germans don't read that much,

...

Dude. Seriously. You shouldn't generalise. Germans don't read that much? Yeah, I can see it says Berlin on your profile, but still - lehnst du dich da nicht ein bischen extra-weit aus dem Fenster? Simply not the truth. That's like an american saying "Most of us are lazy couch potatoes".

It's not like I feel offended. Maybe just slightly so. Got used to reading crass overstatements about Germany this, Nazis that. So this is just mildly confusing.

I bought this PRS 505 device so I can read whatever I want without having to carry a ton of books. Like you, I suppose. And like some of my friends.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by KleinRobinson

...

Dude. Seriously. You shouldn't generalise. Germans don't read that much? Yeah, I can see it says Berlin on your profile, but still - lehnst du dich da nicht ein bischen extra-weit aus dem Fenster? Simply not the truth. That's like an american saying "Most of us are lazy couch potatoes".

It's not like I feel offended. Maybe just slightly so. Got used to reading crass overstatements about Germany this, Nazis that. So this is just mildly confusing.

I bought this PRS 505 device so I can read whatever I want without having to carry a ton of books. Like you, I suppose. And like some of my friends.

Relax (auch ich bin Deutscher), even the grand master of marketing, Steve Jobs, said "people just don't read anymore". And he was referring to Americans. I suppose it definitely is true for most countries, the average person today reads less and watches more TV or surfs the net. That obviously does not apply to members of this forum.