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eeksock
03-26-2004, 12:21 PM
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!

Check it out:
http://eink.com/news/releases/pr70.html

The screen is absolutely beautiful:
http://eink.com/news/images/SONY_Reader_1000EP.jpg

I personally would love the higher DPI on a PDA, and don't mind the lack of color. It sounds like the battery life would be very good too.


eeksock

Xianfox
03-26-2004, 03:06 PM
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.

Zack Mahdavi
03-26-2004, 03:43 PM
Wow, I remember reading about this technology a couple years ago. It's exciting seeing a ready-to-release implentation of it!

Any idea on the price?

eeksock
03-26-2004, 04:15 PM
According to CNET, the device will be about $375 USD. That's actually pretty reasonable for a first generation device. http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5178854.html?part=rss

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. :)


eeksock

bjornkeizers
03-27-2004, 06:55 PM
I'd love to have a device like this..

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.

xendula
03-29-2004, 11:10 PM
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!

abid786
04-06-2004, 04:26 AM
I say that device is overpriced:)

Anyways, I agree with the last poster. Paper books are more cozy, but still they can't be read at night in total dark:)

Abid

xendula
04-06-2004, 07:21 PM
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.

bjornkeizers
04-09-2004, 10:34 AM
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...

xendula
04-09-2004, 02:11 PM
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:

Zack Mahdavi
04-09-2004, 02:20 PM
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:

Hahaha.. very well put.. :)

bjornkeizers
04-09-2004, 08:45 PM
We'll see, we'll see... fifteen years is a long time. At my school, most of the students already carry laptops... and PDA's are getting cheaper all the time. In ten years, everyone will have one, linked wirelessly to computers or direcly to the net. You can then buy books or check them out of a on-line library. In essence, you'd have a library in your hand, containing every book out there.... And since these devices are (of course) cheap to make and very durable and don't even require a powersource... well, see where I'm going with this?

These devices will do to books and papers what Email is doing to handwritten letters, delivered by a friendly mailman...

foebea
04-16-2004, 10:48 PM
I am waiting for this online repository to open up and get formatted.
I want my device to wirelessly sync up overnight with the major database of recent stuff, and then get news flashes or flagged message board posts as they occur sent to me. Maybe we could call it The Guide in rememberance of DNA. I miss that crazy briton :cry:

But anyways, I use my current ppc for reading all the time. I have about 100 books from gutenburg on there right now, and a bunch of other more recent books. I get in maybe 2 hours a day reading. I also make use of audible.com for a little over a year now, for the books I want to get read as quickly as possible, or for road trips.

PPCs really are great for this type of thing, and with great free programs like µbook out there, i can control the font size and amount of screen space taken up to get the most out of 1 screen before having to press a button, or just set it to scroll the page. I'd like to see a dead tree book do that :D
</rant>

Kevin C. Tofel
04-24-2004, 06:01 PM
PLEASE tell me that this (http://www.brighthand.com/article/E_Ink_Ebook_Reader_Debuts_in_Japan) Brighthand article is wrong.

It confirms the $375 price tag of the LIBRIe e-book device by Sony. It looks beautiful. Looks like I'll never see the device though. The problem I have is the following quote from the story:

"All the ebooks for this device come from Sony. They are only about $5 each, but expire after 60 days. "

I figured this would a propriatary ebook format, but the books will EXPIRE????. There is no way as a consumer that I will plunk down $5 for a vapor-library. I'm paying to view the content for my personal enjoyment at a time of my personal choosing....not within a time limit! :evil: If this is Sony's approach to DRM, shame on you Sony! I'll stick with my Palm Digital Reader on my PPC!!! 8)

I'm hoping this story is wrong....if not, any thoughts?

KCT

xendula
04-26-2004, 09:15 PM
Yep, Kevin, incredible but true. I found this on Teleread (http://www.teleread.org/blog/)

Sony Librie: $5 e-books vanish after 60 days

I love what I've heard about the sharp-as-print screen of the Sony Librie. But Japanese readers will have to pay as much as $5 per book for Librie-format files that vanish after 60 days. This is a most consumer-hostile business model. At least here in the States, people typically want to own books they can't get for free at public libraries. Further details from the New York Times (reg. required):

Sony plans to begin selling the reader next month in Japan for about $380. Users will be able to download electronic books for less than $5 each from a Web site set up by Sony and a group of Japanese publishing companies. At least initially, the works will be rented rather than purchased and thus will disappear from the device after 60 days. The idea of renting the books is a concession to publishers who are worried about unauthorized copying.

Sony says it will wait to see how well the Librié sells at home before deciding whether to offer it in the United States and Europe.
Hmm. Next month? I'd been thinking that the Librie would reach consumers in April. Oh, well. The cosmos has waited long enough for E Ink hardware for e-books, and what's another few days? Best of luck to Sony with the Librie--but another business model, please, especially for us here in the States. Otherwise U.S. consumers may shun the Librie the way they did the Gemstar hardware. Ritzy tech is no excuse for old-fashioned consumer ripoffs. I just hope that if the Librie bombs in Japan due to the stupid rental model, this won't prevent the release of U.S. and European version of the hardware. Will Sony's marketers take this into consideration at all?

Detail: Can't the Times grasp the implications of forcing the rental model--at any price--on readers? This is a great example of the disconnect between newspapers and the public.

xendula
04-26-2004, 09:22 PM
I would not buy a device that brings yet another proprietary format to the market, but I would definitely not buy a device that only lets me rent content. And for 5$ you should own the book!

BUT, Sony might offer a (free?) conversion tool, we will just have to wait and see.