Trying Again To Make Books Obsolete - New York Times
This is one of the only devices in the last couple of years that I am really aching to have. I've been waiting for the E-Ink display technology for a long time and despite the quirks, $350 seems very reasonable.
The last device to get me this excited was the HP TC 1100. A compact yet fairly powerful tablet PC. Initially it was a lot of fun. But after a while I stopped using it. The software didn't take advantage of the touchscreen, the handwriting recognition wasn't very good and it was never practical in a meeting which is what it was designed for. The device was too clumsy and heavy and got hot so you couldn't hold it for long periods of time and so in the end I decided it didn't offer enough to justify the effort in using it.
As excited as I am about the Sony Reader, I doubt it will replace books any time soon. It seems the traditional medias die very slowly - reading and writing have had a long time to mature and are very entrenched and hard to digitise. In contrast recently created medias, the Audio cassette, VHS Tape and even Cd's and DVDs are dead or dying.
2 comments:
ot really convinced by the electronic book idea. You can take a book anywhere, if you can get on top of battery life you may be onto a winner, but all the time I don't have to plug in my books halfway through reading them then they will win hands down.
Peter,
Thanks for your comment ;-)
This is one of the e-Ink display’s big advantages. The image is maintained without using power and there is no need to turn the device off - ever. You only use power to "turn" a page. The battery will last for 10,000 page turns.
Micky
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