Where do I begin? Yes, I'm a newcomer to this area and this blog is all about sharing my opinion on ebooks and the like, but there's something wrong when you have to RESET an e-reader so you can continue the reading experience. There's also the slight problem of RECHARGING the e-reader and when you are busy, you don't really notice that battery button going down. I haven't received any WARNINGS that I've got 10 minutes left or something and don't start me on the POWER the Sony PRS-700 consumes if you use the backlight! The REFLECTION can be problematic and the FILE FORMATS distort. I had a business e-book on project management. Picked it up free somewhere on the net. The format was in PDF and was so incredibly small that when I enlarged the font size on the Sony, the entire thing became UNREADABLE. Then there's ebooks I've purchased in proprietary formats like mobipocket that are NOT TRANSFERABLE. The ebook portals are still in their infancy and NEED BETTER SEARCH FUNCTIONALITY. The content can be LIMITED or DELAYED so as a consumer I don't have the choice I would like to have. Very frustrating people!!!!
That's the ramble for today but keep in mind, I'm READING on an e-reader and on the computer. I'm discovering new works and old ones, and LOVING IT! I'll do what's right with ebook readers another day. :-)
The current e-ink readers are still very much first generation. I'm not sure that e-ink really has much of a future anyway. Some of the new LCD screens are beginning to rival e-ink's energy efficiency and they're as good if not better quality.
ReplyDeleteYeah IT staff at work believe there are other devices, particularly smaller laptops, that will be a better read in the future. The Sony and the Hanlin have been interesting experiments todate and I'm still enjoying reading on them apart from the points listed above.
ReplyDeleteBTW don't tell Prime View International e-ink doesn't have much of a future! Wasn't E Ink Corporation sold to them last month for something like $200 million? The press release at the time was interesting “The ePaper display module market will grow to over $3 billion by 2013." and “The market for electronic book devices such as the SONY Reader and Amazon Kindle is forecasted to grow from 1.1 million units in 2008 to 20 million units in 2012" and then another topic of interest (see Ebooks and the green movement post") “The world is searching for green technology that saves energy and cuts waste and still provides an outstanding experience,” said Scott Liu, Chairman and CEO of PVI, “E Ink’s electronic paper meets those needs, especially in electronic publishing and mobile displays. The people in both companies will unite to provide the world’s best digital reading experience and that will benefit all our customers and end users.”