will e-books ever take off?

[R3MF 0]

every year or so there is another attempt to launch the e-book market, as if it were new, and every year it fades into obscurity.

i believe this is because books are perceived as the ultimate convenience, pick it at your leisure, leave it on the shelf, loan it to a friend, do whatever you like with it. this stands in stark contrast to the restrictive DRM to be found in encrypted e-book formats.

well here is the latest attempt from sony and waterstones:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news....ck.html

if you feel you would like to voice an opinion, comment under the linked article and make your voice heard.

i would also like to hear your thoughts here.

for myself, if i could buy e-books from amazon or waterstones in pdf format i would jump at the chance, but we need the big guns to change there tune and follow the music industry with unencrypted mp3 tracks.

[Shashman 0]

I can't see it taking off (or should that be, "I hope it doesn't take off"?).

Call me old fashioned, but I don't like it. As that person says in the article, I like to have books on my shelves. I like taking out a book on the train or wherever, I like being able to give books to friends and family. I like that I can spill something over my book, or drop crumbs all over it, or get it covered with sand at the beach, without worrying my £199 piece of plastic with circuitry is gonna fry.

[mr burns 132]

+1

Having to sit in front of the damn pc to read a book is totally shitty too.

[Shashman 0]

The article is about a 199GBP electronic e-book reader, so sitting in front of the PC isn't the issue.

[mr burns 132]

Article? What article? .... got me there

I still favour real books over some high end skylab crap.

Books just cannot be made better and should stay the way they are

[Shashman 0]

Plus you'd never get that feeling of satisfaction after finishing a 900 page brick of a book!

[Placebo 29]

I read books on my HP Ipaq RX3715 PDA, wife and I both have them, bought about 3 years ago when we were in the Czech Republic, awesome device, I also listen to audiobooks on it whilst biking around

[SHWiiNG 0]

A while ago, i saw a thin plastic with black pigment inside that responded to a current running through parts of the plastic membrane. this creating a picture.

I think there was an example where they used it to view a E-book.

I think those applications are quite good, but my eyes cant take reading off a screen for too long

[kavoven 4]

I love my books all the way and I'll never change to any electronic device as long anything is printed on paper!

[POPKA 0]

I always look for ebooks but can never find the ones im looking for.

[Deathstruck 375]

Well I was recently reading the Witcher at my mobile phone (yeah )...but still, I prefer normal books, so I just bought them(all of them)

[Balschoiw 0]

Personally I would welcome a suitable hardware platform

to read books and papers on.

For sure i like regular books but if you travel alot the weight of books is a factor and if i take my books on a vacation they often suffer much. Even if you have some books that you read more often you will often buy them twice or more as they disintegrate or look ugly after a while.

The hardware solution should be a tough one though. Unscratchable, water-resistant, UV-resistant, Clear display that has no problems displaying readable text in bright sunlight, longlasting battery, low weight, shockproof and as big as a small book.

I also can imagine that transferring books to ebooks could have another benefit. Illustrations. If you look at older books they often came with drawings or illustrations for the story. You hardly see such anymore today. Maybe this would be another gadget to make such ebooks more interesting. I can even think of little computer renderings for scenery shots or ambient sounds for the story. Imo there are big possibilities for things like that.

Btw, the ultimate prototype is already there

I´d buy it anytime

[Daddl 10]

I bought quite a few ebooks over the last few years - first for an old Windows CE pda, then for my first Symbian smartphone, and so on. The good thing: I can still read all of them on my newest smartphone (nowadays running Windows Mobile 6.1), whenever I feel like it. They are great when travelling, as I can take them all with me anytime without having to decide in advance what I might feel like reading soon. Still, I would never buy an extra device just for those. And at home I prefer paper to bytes anyways.

So they are a good alternative to having to raid the airport /train station's bookshops, but no replacement to the RealThingâ„¢. They are cheap and easy to take with you wherever you go. Just make sure you can use them on different devices and never tie yourself to a specific platform (like the Kindle or the new Sony product).

[Dwarden 1125]

they will take off if they ultimate cheap, reliable, content is cheap and reliable and easy to get, easy to use and so on ...

so no DRM crap in first place

1000 hours batery lifetime with probably solar or EM powered charging

anyway i want that transparent map from movie Mars

[Balschoiw 0]

Wish granted Dwarden

Rollable display

[Placebo 29]

Looks interesting, wonder what the launch price will be......

[MehMan 0]

Indeed, that's something I'd go for too!

[Balschoiw 0]

I´ve seen a little report on flexible displays yesterday. It´s quite impressive what they are working on currently. A scientist for example was holding a transparent A4 size sheet that had a film running on it while he was bending and flexing it.

They plan to build cellphones that are only a few mm´s thin with these displays as the display could be made the body of the cellphone. This would mean that you can change the look of your cellphone easily by adjusting the gfx displayed on the folia.

They also showed a concept of an alarm clock that bent itself and flashed when alarm was going off.

In the longrun the folia-displays will replace current technology totally. Be it for TV´s, monitors, cellphones, PDA´s , etc.

Another thing interesting for mobile media of any kind are pocket laser beamers. They are not bigger than a box of cigarettes and by the nature of their technology they can project a steady and sharp picture on every surface, even a waterfall or any background you can think of. As the laser light doesn´t diffuse as easy as regular focal light the means of useage are very flexible while the energy consumption is very low. Think of your cellphone for example. In a few years there will be a laser beamer embedded that enables you to read or watch anthing you like on every surface available.

[Daddl 10]

I think the epaper-like displays are really the way to go in all mobile devices, as they only require energy while changing the display, but remain stable afterwards without any additional energy consumtion. At the moment I'm using a HTC Diamond Touch smartphone to read ebooks and surf the web while traveling. Thats quite comfortable, but the display sucks the batteries empty way too quickly. Not really the way to go if you're further than a few hours away from the next plug.

What I don't like (as stated before) is the approach kindle and Sony are taking in that you can't read the ebooks you bought on other devices. For years I've been buying my ebooks at http://www.fictionwise.com/ - with the distinct advantage that they offer the books for multiple plattforms and in multiple formats - and once you bought a book, you can redownload it for any plattform (and as often) as you like. As I said before, I started reading them on an old HP Pocket PC, then later on a Symbian smartphone, and nowadays I read them on a Windows Mobile phone. If I had an IPhone or something else, I'd be able to read them with that, too.

So the books I bought 5 years ago still work for me although I have a completely different plattform nowadays, and they most likely will continue to do so for the forseable future. I don't think the same is true for the proprietary ebook services like the new Sony reader. It's the same as with music downloads - as long as you're not free to use them on whatever device you want (and thus are able to preserve the investment with changing technologies) ebooks will lack compared to a traditional book that will still be readable even in a 100 years from now.

[walker 0]

Hi all

This is the kind of electronic paper we need to see for e-books to take off.

http://www.gizmag.com/go/4908/

And here it comes!

You can buy a copy of Esquire Magazine with the worlds first newspaper published with an E paper display!

Cost $5.99 order your copy now limited numbers only 100,000.

Quote[/b] ]Esquire magazine unveils cover with electronic ink

By KRISTEN A. LEE – 4 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Although readers keep shifting to the Internet, Esquire magazine's editor is sure print isn't dying, and he aims to prove it Monday by unveiling a 75th-anniversary issue with a cover that features electronic ink.

"For the last couple of years I've been in search of ways to do something that shows that print is a particularly vital product," said Esquire magazine's editor-in-chief, David Granger. "I really do think that print is the most exciting and rewarding medium there is."

A 10-square-inch display on the cover of Esquire's October 2008 anniversary issue flashes the theme "The 21st Century Begins Now" with a collage of illuminated images. On the inside cover, a two-page spread advertising the new Ford Flex Crossover features a second 10-square-inch display with shifting colors to illustrate the car in motion at night.

The displays, which Granger said have boosted advertising in the issue, were developed by E Ink Corp., a Cambridge, Mass., company that also supplied the electronic paper technology for the screen of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader.

The technology for both products uses micro-capsules of ink that are controlled by an electric charge. Unlike the Kindle, the magazine's display is not linked to a wireless network, so it cannot be updated.

Scott Daly, a Dentsu America Inc. executive who oversees media buying for Canon, Toyota, aigdirect.com and other companies, said the concept is a needed shot in the arm for the newspaper and magazine industry...

http://ap.google.com/article....32C1VO0 As usual follow the link for the full article

Kind regards walker

[Dwarden 1125]

e paper is way to go with correct approach the 'magazine' can be enriched with way more content in original style (articles/news) and also more ads

then if the paper allows 'motion' you can implement videos and even further with link of e.g. bluetooth 2.1 music and ofcourse constant updates of the 'paper'

still the key points remains and until that frontiers are met it's just niche market ...