Comments on: Ebook Readers

By: Davids Cheap Ebooks

Davids Cheap Ebooks — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 01:22:06 +0000

I like that last comment. I usually fall asleep reading ebooks on my laptop it is easy to take to bed unlike the desktop.

By: Azriel

Azriel — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 03:30:12 +0000

*L* i know of 2 people who DO fall asleep with an ebook reader of sorts..
i bought a NEC 790 several years ago off ebay. it take CF cards & pc mcia cards, (and various adapter using the first 2 options), and really, is pretty cool. The (then) price was bout $120 or so w/shipping.
it reads any file out there that i use on a regular basis. text, html, word..pdf even. i can play games, draw, take notes(it hs a touch screen). as i was saying many is the night have i have fallen asleep literally, on my side cradling this thing in my arms reading. i can change the background to black w/ green font. as white with black print gives me headaches.

so why would anyone pay a so much monmey for something that has such limited functionality?

well thats my 2 cents worth..
Happy holidays!!

By: Book Still Readable - Decades Later! | Garrick Van Buren .com

Book Still Readable - Decades Later! | Garrick Van Buren .com — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:16:41 +0000

[...] “If youâ€™d have told me then that by 2007 the state of the art would barely have advanced beyond that of 1998, Iâ€™d have wept openly” – Dave Slusher1 [...]

By: Ebook Detractors Live On : Evil Genius Chronicles

Ebook Detractors Live On : Evil Genius Chronicles — Wed, 09 May 2007 03:40:35 +0000

[...] Frequent correspondent Derek sent me this link to an article stating that ebooks are doomed. I suppose I could do some point by point contrarianism, but nine years after I left my job at Intel to go work at an ebook startup I just don’t have that much energy for a real comprehensive job of that. I’ve had the same arguments so many times that it wears on me. In fact, I made a lot of these points just a few months ago. I will dispute of of them: Likewise, do people want to “curl up” with a battery-operated plastic screen? [...]

By: mike dunn

mike dunn — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 11:55:59 +0000

no worries dave, didn’t comment for the link love, rather to join the conversation…

one other comment – while i’ve been using my reader on the train, i get looks of curious looks, but no one has asked me about it yet, so it’s either commonplace enough that folks know what it is or its the typical “no one talks on the train to the apple” syndrome

By: dave

dave — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:17:23 +0000

John, the problem with the $650 price point is that its up into the cheap laptop range. I agree that textbook prices are out of control. My wife is a college professor and the numbers she tells me boggles my mind.

Mike, Doh! I even remember reading that but I forgot to link to it. Sorry!

Perry, thanks. I’ll add that to the body of the post.

By: perry the aarchitect

perry the aarchitect — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 18:51:44 +0000

There is a review by Wade Roush of the Sony e-book reader PRS-500 in the latest MIT’s “Technology Review” magazine. He seems to think the technology is ripe for the mass market even if the cost isn’t yet.

I don’t have a link to the article as I read it in the actual paper magazine but I’m sure you can find it online without too much trouble.

By: mike dunn

mike dunn — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:58:59 +0000

hey dave, i posted on this right before xmas (i received a sony ereader as a gift) – http://weblog.glemak.com/nomadic_audio/2006/12/my_new_ebook_po.html

so far the experience as been good, especially the ability to take one device out while commuting that allows me to both listen to a podcast and read whatever i’m in the mood for…

i’ve been able to bring in any ebook format i’ve wanted to, i have a 1 gb sd loaded up w/ gutenberg, fictionwise and direct from cory doctorow stuff – plus some rss feeds (limited and static)…

i have also been able to put my own stuff on the unit, .txt, .pdf and .rtf mostly (word .doc importing is not clean yet for me but some of my co-workers do it seamlessly already)…

while i wasn’t considering putting up my own money for it – i am glad i have it now and can recommend it (see my disclosure in post of course – i am loosely “connected” to eink though that hasn’t influenced my pov, other than i get to see many more eink applications & devices than most)…

as for john’s comment – totally agree, textbooks are way to expensive, being able to access them digitally and at a lower cost should be a priority for academia…

By: John

John — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:52:45 +0000

You say the price is ridiculous, but try this on for size. I would gladly pay $650 for an ebook reader with e-ink if that meant the price of publishing was drastically reduced.
Take, for instance, text books. I have been in college for 7 years. (Hey, you don’t plan on these things, they just happen!) In that time, I have watched the price of books skyrocket. I have also watched the edition cycle spin out of control with new editions release sometimes every semester (or around 6 months).
If text book writers could cut the middleman, ie: publishers, prices could come down 70% and still let the writers get their full share they are getting now. One semester would nearly pay for the book reader.
I agree with you on the Sony issue. I wouldn’t buy an ebook unless it could take standard formats, and allowed anybody to create content for it.