itwire.com.au— Google is plotting to do for books what the iPod has done for music: make them purchasable by download to a portable access device. Could civilisation as we know it be under threat?
Jan 21, 2007View in Crawl 4
"lose physical contact with books???" Um... anybody ever hear of audible.com??? Besides, digital audio books have been coming out on CD for almost twenty years. Get over it. Almost nobody has time to read books any more.
For me, PDA screen isn't quite big enough to be comfortable to read on, regardless of resolution. Either the text is to small or there's not enough text on a single "page". Plus reading against a backlight is a bit uncomfortable for most people - this new e-paper that has the reflective properties of regular ink and paper would solve that though.Ideally, a flexible e-paper design would be, overall, twice the size of a single paperback book page and roll up to something about the size of a cigar. You could unroll it to half size (one page from a paperback) for one handed or confined spaces use, or all the way for a tablet like view of either 2 pages in a paperback, or turn it to a portrait size and use it for magazines, comics, etc. that have a larger format.Which brings me to the best use of ebooks - comics. Printing (especially high quality and/or prints that a comic requires to look its best) is expensive for comics when you consider 1) there's a pretty small audience and 2) it's being done monthly for most authors as opposed to yearly or every other year (it's cheaper to do one big book than a bunch of little ones). A good ebook could open up the comic market even more allowing both smaller indie/self published works to distribute at very low cost and also allow the big players (DC, Marvel, etc) to take more chances on different books. Plus instant downloads, simple subscription models, more freebie trial issues or small samples would just be plain good marketing. It's tough to shell out $4 for a new comic property (the $4 isn't the issue, it the fact that there's a lot of new product out there and that you're then looking at $4/month for each you want to keep reading) but a $1 download and a $10 annual subscription would be a pretty good deal.
I am happy to see that their will be an alternative to what is currently out there. There was the Microsoft Reader but because of the need to register a device a hundred ways it has sucked. Then there was Adobe Acrobat which sucks up memory and isn't very convenient when navigating. I hope Google kicks everyones ass in this department.
vkipermanJan 22, 2007
"lose physical contact with books???" Um... anybody ever hear of audible.com??? Besides, digital audio books have been coming out on CD for almost twenty years. Get over it. Almost nobody has time to read books any more.
stonekeeperJan 22, 2007
<a class="user" href="http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/reader/">http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/reader/</a>
mrgreen4242Jan 22, 2007
For me, PDA screen isn't quite big enough to be comfortable to read on, regardless of resolution. Either the text is to small or there's not enough text on a single "page". Plus reading against a backlight is a bit uncomfortable for most people - this new e-paper that has the reflective properties of regular ink and paper would solve that though.Ideally, a flexible e-paper design would be, overall, twice the size of a single paperback book page and roll up to something about the size of a cigar. You could unroll it to half size (one page from a paperback) for one handed or confined spaces use, or all the way for a tablet like view of either 2 pages in a paperback, or turn it to a portrait size and use it for magazines, comics, etc. that have a larger format.Which brings me to the best use of ebooks - comics. Printing (especially high quality and/or prints that a comic requires to look its best) is expensive for comics when you consider 1) there's a pretty small audience and 2) it's being done monthly for most authors as opposed to yearly or every other year (it's cheaper to do one big book than a bunch of little ones). A good ebook could open up the comic market even more allowing both smaller indie/self published works to distribute at very low cost and also allow the big players (DC, Marvel, etc) to take more chances on different books. Plus instant downloads, simple subscription models, more freebie trial issues or small samples would just be plain good marketing. It's tough to shell out $4 for a new comic property (the $4 isn't the issue, it the fact that there's a lot of new product out there and that you're then looking at $4/month for each you want to keep reading) but a $1 download and a $10 annual subscription would be a pretty good deal.
icanruleJan 22, 2007
I am happy to see that their will be an alternative to what is currently out there. There was the Microsoft Reader but because of the need to register a device a hundred ways it has sucked. Then there was Adobe Acrobat which sucks up memory and isn't very convenient when navigating. I hope Google kicks everyones ass in this department.