I don't know about anyone else, but 80% of what I use my PDA for is reading e-books. It's so much more convenient than paper! But even I have to admit that LCD screens are sometimes not as nice as they could be.
Which is why I've always been interested in the Phillips E Ink technology. But recently Sony announced that they are actually going to release a device with an E Ink screen, in "late April". Yes, this year!
I use my PDA more for reading than anything else, but I do use it for many other tasks as well. While I'm glad to *finally* see a product actually come to market with this display, I'll probably hold out for a while and see what other neat ideas they can bring out of the technology.
I would love to see a regular PDA with an E Ink display choice, inplace of LCD. E-Ink says that a color version is coming soon, but what I really like is how nice the display is on the eyes, and the ability to easily read in bright sunlight (right now I always have to crank up the brightness on the LCD, and I still find myself squinting a bit). It probably wouldn't make sense for gamers, but for static information lookup and eBook reading, I think the visual and battery characteristics of this display is ideal.
But then again, I'm the type of guy who still has an old paperwhite VGA monitor in my basement.
While the PPC is nice for reading books (I never, ever, ever read a paper book) the screen is just a bit too small and the res too low. If they made one the size of a paperback with just a screen and two buttons, and sold it for a $150 - I'd get two!
The future holds great promise for us Ebook addicts, my friends.
I use my ppc for reading maybe 60% of the time - I just don't have the patience for paper books any more, even though I do think paper books are more cozy and romantic and everything else, but also less practical. In a way that makes me sad and melancholic :cry:
Aaaanyways, Sony will probably sell their e-ink ebooks in a proprietary format (what else can you expect from the MS maker!), which means that the books you buy might only work on this device. If they offer a conversion tool, that's a different story. The technology is absolutely amazing!
Paper books are more cozy, but still they can't be read at night in total dark
Which is exactly why I switched to ebooks, when I'm tired I just switch my ppc off and :zzz:
I actually also like that on the ppc you don't have to flip pages, easier to read in bed.
Same here. I read at night with the lights off and the backlight set to low. I haven't touched a paper book in six years, and I like it just fine.
I agree that a library of nicely bound, hardcover'ed books does look pretty nice and cozy, but our whole attitude towards them is changing. Books increasingly aren't things you put on shelves and dust off once or twice; you absorb its knowledge and toss it. That's what I do with my E-books. Make it, read it, delete it. Poof, it's gone. I read several books a month. If I bought all of them in paper form, I'd have to sleep outside in the shed - my house would be filled from floor to attic with books. Whereas, if I wanted to, I could store *every book I've ever read* on a 512 mb SD card; just about the size of a postage stamp. 8O
Just ten years ago, this would've been science fiction. In another ten, fifteen years our kids will be asking us, 'what's that big thing on the shelve with that thin stuff with letters on it?' Librarys as we know them will be more like warehouses, storing books in climate-controlled vaults; their knowledge and wisdom safely stored on a single PC; containing the sum of all knowledge of mankind...
In another ten, fifteen years our kids will be asking us, 'what's that big thing on the shelve with that thin stuff with letters on it?' Librarys as we know them will be more like warehouses, storing books in climate-controlled vaults; their knowledge and wisdom safely stored on a single PC; containing the sum of all knowledge of mankind...
:jester: Naaah, our kids and their kids and many generations of kids to come will know what dead tree books are. I doubt they will ever disappear completely, no matter how much ebook reading increases in future.
Children's books alone will make sure that does not happen. My nephew is 2 and crazy for books, but whenever he approaches our ppcs we have to make sure we're faster. He can't even handle the poor paper books correctly, so good thing they are cheap to replace. :mrgreen:
Sony's upcoming E-Ink device
Linear Mode
