Looking around, eBook readers devices seem to have automatically mean one that uses E-Ink technology. The notable ones that caught my eyes are Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Ebook Readers and the latest entry to the market, Barns and Noble's nook. To get an idea of the best possible I can get from these E-Ink devices, I have decided to compare the latest version of them. And this is a summary of my findings:
Now, if you are not in US, then the "best possible" (latest) models are not available to you! Their previous models are (except for Barns and Noble which is only available in US). But at least you can have an idea of what is coming next. All is not lost, even the hardware might be less advance with earlier models, the service you get differs from country to country - in the UK, Sony has announced a partnership with local libraries, so you can borrow books from Library on their reader.
Should I buy eBook Readers? Maybe not (yet).
Once I have read that these ebook readers devices have revive the habit of reading, well, at least in the UK, I think I am seeing loads of people reading news paper, books and magazines in the paper format, in contrast, I have only ever saw one person using such device... So I think printed materials still have their attraction, especially because their tactile quality is still not replaceable by digital version (the ease of turning, skipping pages). Moreover, there is no DRM terrorising the books, you can read your book anywhere you carry it to, which ever bag you carried it in, you can lend your book to your friend (and he can just forget to return it altogether!). In terms of robustness, you can drop your book and it will not smash, occationally you can drop your book into water and you can always air it dry. Last but not least, you can change your book shelf without loosing all your books (if you have been using Kindle, then your books are stuck with that hardware)!
But the idea of e-book is a good one and, in my opinion, will probably take off one day when it can:
- Integrate the reading of all forms of published matter (magazine, news paper, books, blogs) into one hardware device - an interesting one for the commercial world to fight over wrt business model...
- Allow a library amount of books to be carry around but weighing only like one - I'd say we are already there.
- Support most languages - as oppose to the current support on only Latin characters.
- A purchased book should not vanish unless you conciously bin it - Amazon has remotely deleted users book with refund on a recall! While companies are so busy protecting their properties, why should our properties suddenly vanish?!
- Turning, scanning, skipping pages should not be obscure and should be instant - now that's what I call a basic idea, all the fancy stuff is nothing if the basics of reading a book cannot be done...
- Books should be portable to different devices, even when you switch the brand of eBook Reader device - that would be down to enforcing ePub (or any future) standard is being use!
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I like the look of the Kindle, though the Apple tablet out soon might be the best option as a multimedia device... if we can afford it :S
ReplyDeleteI am definitely getting myself an iPad at the second update :P I can only think all the animosity towards it is purely a reflex reaction to the hype. I see it as a portable extension of a desktop PC which would allow me to write, read, listen to music etc on a good sized screen without having to carry a bulky laptop.
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