RE: "The Elusive E-book"

I think E Ink or some other technology is the answer. 
 
Reading for hours on a computer screen is tiring to the eyes. 
 
E Ink has the distinct advantage of being very, very easy on the eyes. 
 
Awhile ago, a company started showing off there E Ink technology. I can't find the citation at the moment but it was a cell phone with a "roll-out" E Ink like screen. The screen unfurled to a 5 inch wide screen if I remember correctly for you to read whatever you wanted. When done, it rolled (or wrapped?) back out of the way and was a standard cell phone.
 
The company claimed to be bringing it to market this year. Haven't heard much else about it though.
 
I doubt that will be the homerun of a device we are all looking for. But it shows at least some progressive thinking on the subject. What if all cell phones of the future had some sort of larger E Ink screen that stowed out of the way?
 
Still, my money is on the kind of E Ink devices we have now from Amazon, Sony and the like. I think people "get" that device concept, at least those who are looking to "get" it.
 
Everyone else either doesn't read at all to "get" *any* kind of reading device investment or don't realize they do read more than they think and would probably benefit from some type of e-reading device.
 
Give folks a *relatively* inexpensive, smart looking device that lets them get the latest paperback everyone is talking about at the office easily onto that device and we are all off to the races.
 
Or, at least, out of the starting gate.  
Aaron J. WalkerPublisher
http://www.walkbroadpublishing.com


To: ebook-community-hHKSG33Tihig7M29m/[email protected]: [email protected]: Thu, 8 May 2008 08:29:50 +0100Subject: Re: [ebook-community] "The Elusive E-book"




From: "Robotech_Master"On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 9:07 PM, joseph harris <[email protected]> wrote:>> Which leaves the interesting question: To what extent has the> stand-alone ebook a future?We still don't have the ideal reader for ebooks-something that is easy toread, easy to use, cheap, and durable. Ebooks are still in their "earlyadopter" phase.I know I wouldn't buy a Kindle, and I *like* reading ebooks. It's just tooexpensive.Remember when mp3s and other digital music were the sole province of"pirates" and warez sites? Then along came the iPod, and boom-suddenly Appleis the number one or two music store in the USA.Until there's a device that is to ebooks what the iPod was to mp3s, printedbooks are in no danger, and it doesn't really matter whether ebooks aregiven away free or not-the 
 price of the device for entry is so high that thedifference between adding zero bucks to that price and adding five or ten ortwenty bucks to that price to buy a book to put on it is trivial. We haven'tgotten that device yet.Give it a decade or so for cheap epaper to become a reality, and then we'llsee. Or maybe two decades. Or who knows, maybe even never?-- Chris Meadows aka | WWW: http://www.terrania.us | Somebody help,Robotech_Master | ICQ: 5477383 AIM: RoboMastr | I'm trapped [email protected] | Skype, Gizmo: Robotech_Master | a sig [email protected] | Yahoo: robotech_master_2000 |Chris,I think that the question here is less about ebook reading devices, and more about human ebook readers. Despite some of the intensity here about readers and text files and so on, for mo
 st people I reckon the monitor on a desktop or a laptop is going to remain the best digital reading device for a long time.I often see the comparison to music, in copyright as well, but I don't think it stands as template for book publishing. The most important difference is a business one. the music world is dominated by a few giant concerns that guard their product fiercely. The giants in books are looking to join google and amazon in screwing authors.Now though I think good epaper could change that to a degree, I can do no better than join you in 'maybe even never'.Joseph Harris  






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