What is Digg?139 Comments
- robbiedo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+111I completely disagree with the article on two accounts. One the author conflates the ebook failure with ebook reader failure. The two are not the same.
First, no one has created the a desirable ebook reader. Sony is getting closer with the newest one, but it isn't color, and there is no back light.
I use my Dell Axim x51v primarily as an ebook reader. I have read hundreds of books on it. I like holding it one hand; I don't have to bend the spine to keep it open without holding it. I don't get food stains on the pages when reading and eating. The screen is very high resolution. I can read it in the dark. It is more comfortable to read on the Axim than it is most books, especially paperbacks.Who likes the paper and print quality of the basic mass market paperback?
My second issue with the author is ebooks. The problem with commercial ebooks is availability, price, and lack of a standard multi platform format. Personally, I think Mobipocket is the best, the desktop application will allow you to convert just about any document into a quality ebook. Unfortunately, the Mobipocket store does not have a particularly wide selection of ebook, and the price for back catalog ebooks is ridiculous.
Frankly, I think the publishers prefer that ebooks do fail, it cuts down on the potential for piracy. Look what happened to the record industry.
Unfortunately, the only way to get a good library of ebooks is through illegitimate channels. I own most of the ebooks in hard copy, so the legality of what is on my Axim causes me minimal concern
- Jrr6415sun, on 10/12/2007, -1/+60No matter what the disadvantages are... I would love to see a world where I can carry around one small, light ebook instead of three ***** huge text books to all my classes. Apple needs to do what they did to the music industry, to books.
- KMye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+42I think e-book readers will start to put a serious dent in market when they're essentially a sheet of flexible, touch-sensitive electronic paper paper, probably with a wireless web browser integrated as well...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+40"Likewise, do people want to "curl up" with a battery-operated plastic screen?
The obvious answer is no."
speak for yourself oldman :p - newstart, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19I also do not agree with this article. I have about hundreds of research papers in pdf format that I need to read. I tried reading them using a desktop, then a laptop then finally a tablet pc. But all of these devices just made my eyes really tired and weak.
This problem just made me appreciate the good old paper books. But its not practical for me to print hundreds of pdfs. Thats why I am looking out for a really good ebook reader. Sony Reader with its e-ink technology is a step in the right direction. But it is expensive and does not support color. So any company out there listening to me? If your product is right you can invade this space like Apple did with iPod in the MP3 Player market - Hamletlere, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20@edzieba+ 1 digg
"When will ebooks overtake real books? When you can:
View them on a dedicated (and cheap) reader or a normal PC or even on a phone (why a phone? People love to do inconveniant stuff on their phones. Sure the screen is tiny, but that doesn't stop millions of people buying incredibly expensive phones to play tiny videos or act as awkward PDAs)
Buy an ebook, and use it wherever you want. This means; A standard and open format, and no DRM.
Buy ebooks in parallel with (or before) dead-tree editions."
These eBooks exist. I am an avid SciFi and Fantasy reader, and for the past four or five years, I have exclusively bought eBooks from the publisher Baen. Their eBooks are:
1. Non-DRM'ed.
2. Cheaper than paperbacks ($4-$6, depending on the newness of the book)
3. Available in just about any format (MobiPocket, MS LIT, RTF, HTML, etc.)
4. Redownloadable if you lose it.
5. Request that you treat the eBook as you would a paper book... if you give it away, delete your copy.
They also have an excellent free library (http://www.baen.com/library) where you can download books they publish for free. This is usually the first few books in a series, and used to promote new authors and to get people interested in existing series. I also bought a hardback book (8th in a series) from them, and it came with a CD including every other book in the series in eBook formats, plus a goodly selection of other eBooks.
They are also, as far as I know, one of the ONLY publishers to make a profit on eBooks. All in all, I now own about 150 eBooks, and every single one of them is published by Baen. They've been the only books I've bought in the past 5 years or so (with a couple of minor impulse-purchase exceptions). Looks like it's working out for them.
As you might have noticed, I have become an *extremely* loyal customer of theirs, because in my opinion they treat me right, and I love their attitude.
Additionally, they have a SciFi/Fantasy eMagazine they publish every couple of months, giving new authors a place to show what they can do. Some of the stories have been hit-or-miss for me, but I found a lot of new authors I like through this method, and am looking forward to novels coming out of them. - DarkYang, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16I also do not agree with the article for the same reasons as robbie, I read ebooks (which unfortunately I got illegally, but I do have the actual hardcopy versions of the books) on my Toshiba Pocket PC e355. Reading it on there makes it easier to read my books, I don't have to lug around my huge, 800 page books, and if I finish one when I'm away from home, I don't have to wait to get home to get the next one.
However, between PDF and the Microsoft Reader format (.lit), I find the .lit files easier to read. The pages go together very nicely and the book is not limited by pages, as it doesn't really have pages... Each chapter of the books are just put together so that no matter what text size you read it at, it just adjusts the amount of pages. Also, the .lit files are a lot smaller (in my experience) than the PDF files.
I will admit however, that at times, I much prefer to sit down and read an actual paper book instead of reading it on my PDA. - Skeuomorph, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I recently bought the Sony Reader, and have a read a dozen fiction and half a dozen non-fiction titles on it in the past month.
I'm a bound paper traditionalist (or thought I was), with my own personal library of several thousand books. I read extremely quickly; it takes me about an hour to read a typical bestseller. I fly a lot; and taking enough books to keep me busy uses up too much volume in my carry-on. And it's hard to turn paper pages when standing in line dragging a carry-on with the other hand.
Sony Reader fixed all these problems. The form factor is smaller and lighter than most bestsellers. Even without a memory card, it carries a hundred books. Page turning is ergo-easy with the same hand that's holding the book. Battery life is shockingly good -- on my last trip, four novels in four days took less than 1/4 of the battery.
Reading is a pleasure after you get past the "it's not a book" mentality, and that took me about halfway through the first novel. From that point on, I could read as fast with this as with paper. The contrast is fine, the resolution as good as newsprint, and I haven't seen a single bestseller on the airport racks that needs "color" so I'm not sure why that would be an issue.
I also enjoy many of the other UI touches, like reading history, bookmarks that "fold down" the top right corner of the page, one handed control of everything I need, the slimness to fit in pocket of laptop bag or carry-on, and even the brushed suede or red leather custom covers that give it a more old world tactile look and feel when carry it around or holding it in your hand. Feels like a bound bible, just thinner and lighter.
The only negative is that the Sony Connect store selling their proprietary format wants "hardback" prices for e-books. Buying the specials or collections gets around this, but the selection is limited. So, I guess it's a good thing it also handles .rtf, .doc, .pdf, .txt, and several audio formats (txt, lrf [and lrx], pdf, rtf, bmp, gif, jpg, png, mp3, and aac) in case you want to listen to audio books. It even has a landscape mode to make viewing full 8.5x11 PDFs easy.
Long story short, I thought I'd hate this, but was compelled to try it because of the inconveniences of traveling with a half dozen paperbacks. In less than a month, I'm sold, and far prefer to carry this around with me. Sure, it's early technology, but it already challenges all my assumptions.
One last note: another comment said, "You don't want to curl up with an e-book." I'd have thought the same, but I've changed my mind. The speed and ease of reading is the same, but this is *more* comfortable since it only requires a single hand. Paperbacks take two hands, and that's less comfortable when you're trying to fall asleep. - ElbridgeGerry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14|-@fareed
|--Why do you write your comments
|---with this weird
|----line thing
|-----to the left?
|------Just wondering.
|-------Cheers. - kenvsryu, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16E-books aren't bound.
- fareed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12|-- Distribution is easier with e-books - You get the book you want in matter of minutes no matter where you are.
|-- Production is cheaper with e-books - no need to buy huge printers or raw material and no need for machine operators.
|----- Production is environmentally friendly - No air polluting trucks driving around delivering books to each and every bookstore, and the trees remain untouched.
|-- Use is more versatile - Read it on your laptop, PDA or tablet PC. Print the whole book if you want, or print just a segment of the book. - rompom7, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15Nice things about an electronic book
- does not need to be made from any materials.
- can be made even cheaper, because the printing process is just cut out of the equation (no inks, paper or printing process).
- can be reread, copied (you don't need to part with the book to give it to someone else), given away (just delete after copying).
- can't actually be dropped, no matter how hard you try (you can't drop an electronic file).
- requires electricity to read, but less than an incandescent bulb (which you would use to read a real book) if you are using a blackberry or laptop, no matter what time of day. - TexanPsycho, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14@robbiedo:
"I like holding it one hand;"
What books do you read? - GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I love being able to hold whole libraries on my laptop. When programming it's nice to know I have books available on nearly every language and technology imaginable. My father works as service manager for a company supplying excavators and they used to have vans full of nothing but huge technical manuals, now they just take a laptop.
There is a false dichotomy surrounding the argument. The best solution isn't ebooks or dead trees, the best solution is both. I still have all my favourite books in dead tree format but there are uses cases where ebooks are more practical.
We will see ebooks expand but the normal book will always exist. - krinthekuz, on 09/16/2008, -3/+11and no dumbass is going to pay for some $200+ ebook reader that is gimped by drm. a drm'd ebook costs virtually the same as the actual book but you can never sell it, lend it, or give it away. some ebook formats even prohibit the number of pages you can print in a day.
while i think the pdf format is rather crappy for ebooks (ever look at a pdf on a PDA? it's either too small or requires way too much scrolling) and html is better, there should be some html-ebook specs that only allow a few tags (img, a name/href, strong, h1, h2, h3, i, p, br) and embeds images into the file. as it stands, ascii and html are pretty much the only ways to go for pda usage. - williamdyer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9We're all relieved to know you won't be writing books.
- autodata, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7One huge problem for paper books: extremely low data storage. I'm a voracious reader whose entire career has been spent working in libraries and I'm beyond sick of needing to lug around multiple volumes, in some cases huge volumes, just for information that would sit in electronic form in my pocket along with an entire library of other ebooks. Compare taking just a paper version of the huge Programming Perl, which barely fits in my bag on its own, with the possibility of taking the entire O'Reilly library in your jacket pocket.
- edzieba, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6When will ebooks overtake real books? When you can:
View them on a dedicated (and cheap) reader or a normal PC or even on a phone (why a phone? People love to do inconveniant stuff on their phones. Sure the screen is tiny, but that doesn't stop millions of people buying incredibly expensive phones to play tiny videos or act as awkward PDAs)
Buy an ebook, and use it wherever you want. This means; A standard and open format, and no DRM.
Buy ebooks in parallel with (or before) dead-tree editions. - r81984, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Mike Elgan is a jack ass and a very uncredible writer, he should be fired.
He states that no one will curl up with an e-book and people prefer paper over ebooks. This statement has no backup studies or proof, its just his crappy opinion.
I can tell you that I love ebooks. I would rather read from my laptop screen that lights up then words on a paper. Also ebooks can instantly become audio books which can be read to you as you drive long distances.
If college textbook makers created ebooks instead of paper books, I would buy them over the paper ones every day.
The only reason people like this bash ebooks is they are getting paid by the book companies, if every book was electronic then we would have the BIAA (book inudustry association of america) suing eveyone for downloading copies of the books for free.
In my opinion ebooks are much better and easier to read than paper books. (you can search, you can quick scrolll, you can convert to audio, you can even print if you choose for much cheaper at a kinkos on 8 1/2 x 11in paper than a very small 5 in sized paper) - inlove, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6E-books won't fail. Anything that can be pirated, has a bright future.
- doshindude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5they need to make more ebooks available....currently I don't really see any I'd want to read.
- vanker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Have you seen e-ink? It looks exactly like text on paper. We're there, but we just need better ergonomics on the next Sony Reader. I absolutely love mine, but it's not a perfect device. It needs to be cheaper with better locations for the page turn buttons.
- tehbored, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The price of digital books doesn't necessarily matter so much because there are tons of books which are either in the public domain or have expired copyrights, and you can get most of those on Google. Also, while it's true that people do like paper books, people also like bringing books with them when they go places. And paper books take up much more space than e-books.
- GMorgan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5No audio leaves much implicitly which is no good for a lot of tasks.
- goodoldharris, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9It may not happen for a long long time, but eventually e-books will displace paper books entirely, or almost entirely. When they do, they won't be anything today's e-books at all. They will have all sorts of advantages over paper books. Advantages that nobody has dreamed up yet. The writer is thinking very short term in assuming that the flaws of today's e-book technology won't be solved. If he said "E-books won't replace paper books in the near future", he'd have a point.
- hackmyballs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5When Apple creates a beautiful reader and eBooks are sold on iTunes for 99cts.
ktxby - turrican, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4e-books won't fail, and probably will probably become the preferred method of reading. The technology just hasn't worked itself out yet.
However, real books will likely never completely go away, either. - qwertydvorak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@ jrr6415sun: i have to agree with you there, and if they are smart, they will start with the academic books market. just like you said, it would be nice to take that to class instead of bulky books. with the high cost of college textbooks, it would easier justify the cost of the reader device. just like anything else, once you start using it at a younger age for your reading purposes, you will carry the habit on throughout life.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Rather presumptuous... It's a stretch to forecast "failure" when the technology is not aimed as a "replacement" for the old paradigm.
The widespread adoption of any technology is always limited at first by the development of new applications. E-books do not "replace" paper books so much as allow people to read books in more ways. Unless you are William Burroughs, the only one way to read a traditional book is one word at a time, cover to cover, and all the content is static. E-books are can be electronically highlighted and cross-referenced live, summarized/abridged (great for busy people), cut 'n pasted or clipped into a digital notebook (incredible for research), spoken aloud (for accessibility - and hey, sometimes nice for a change, or multitasking), visualized (can you imagine the potential of populating a fictional book with images from Flickr or maps from Google Earth as you read?), or updated with new editions (let's see your average Kansas high school textbook do that) - and the most exciting uses don't exist yet!
How about e-books with live video? History texts that put Microsoft's Encarta to shame? Interactive "choose your own adventure" books? Animated children's books? Puzzle books that track your scores online? Books that tally who else is reading them, and alert you when someone nearby so you can talk about the book together? Serial novels that are written live from the suggestions of readers? Cookbooks that contain databases of nutrition and health information?
The possibilities are endless... especially as wireless Internet becomes ubiquitous. I think it's fair to say that around that time, the average non-fiction book will become fairly obsolete, except as a nice collectible - the way some people collect favorite DVDs even though they could rent it 2-4 times for the average purchase cost, or download it online. I could see glossy picture books still being good sellers, but why would you buy an encyclopedia these days when there's Wikipedia? A "book" will be defined as a "packaged production of content", rather than simply "text". The "value" of a book will be access to "information made fun and sexy", rather than a dusty volume of stitched paper and cardboard. Real books will exist primarily as nostalgic keepsakes.
Similar arguments were originally made about digital music. Many viewed trading MP3s on IRC as the "pirate's substitute" for real albums - now many people have music libraries that would be impossible to effectively use and enjoy in hard copy, along with streaming music services like Last.fm. Like vinyl records, there will always be a "time and place" for paper books. But as hardware and availability become more cost-effective and convenient, the "sentimentality" of a "good book to curl up with" will more than likely give way to the incredibly versatile and functional appeal of massive libraries of digitized content. - rushiku, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"The End"
Since when do 8 year olds write articles for Computer World? - roberri, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I believe a major reason e-Books haven't taken off are the multiple, incompatible DRM-schemes used by vendors: You can buy an e-Book and there's no guarantee that it will work on your Reader.
- Smills, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yes, ebooks use a different type of display that is similar on your eyes to looking at a book. Not that books don't hurt your eyes after a while.
- dusanmal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Same situation with me and if any of manufacturers read this (they should) I find two important advantages that need to be incorporated: size (and resolution with it) and color. I find iRexiLiad much better sized for scientific papers in PDF (about third larger than Sony eBook). In other aspects industry is right on target. Both eBook and iLiad that I have seen are orders of magnitude easier to read for long times vs. typical computer screen and that's why I see it in my near future. Another problem that I hope will dissappear on its own (evolution-like) are proprietary formats and clumsy drm attempts.
- vanker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Go to a sonystyle or borders store and hunt down the Sony Reader. The e-ink screen looks exactly like text on paper and causes no eye strain. It's a bit too expensive right now (at $350) but the screen is just incredible. I love mine.
- autodata, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3For probably about 10 years I've been printing up articles from online to read on the train or at lunch and it's such a colossal waste of paper. I desperately want a suitable reader to put html, text docs or pdfs on.
- bchow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3
I don't agree with the article at all.
I used to think that books are here to stay. Now I'm not that sure.
Last year during the christmas holidays I read a full 400 page book on a small 1.3kg fanless
laptop (Panasonic CF W2) at screen resolution 1024x768. Parts of it on bed, on the living room
couch and in the kitchen.
The experience was quite nice. The weight of the laptop compares to some of my bigger hardcover
books. The running time of the battery is 4 hours and covers my reading time without a break. Beeing
fanless the laptop made no noise. Plus: Having not to carry around books means a lot to me.
It's very much like my first mp3 player. The Creative DAP Jukebox was a clumsy device the size of
a portable CD player with a battery that didn't last long. But it was fun enough to be used. A decade
later mp3 players have great battery time, sound acceptable and mp3 is killing the CD business.
Until recently fanless laptops with decent displays have been rare. This will change within the next
decade. IMO the author should just attempt to read 2-3 full books on a current fanless laptop and then
reconsider his opinions. - schnitzi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3What an utterly ridiculous article. The author's arguments are:
1. Ebooks are expensive (and apparently, that can never change)
2. Everyone already has alternatives (and we know that these alternatives will always and forever suffice)
3. People *like* these alternatives (and thus apparently will never consider using anything else in any context)
I'll bet this guy's great-grandfather argued that the phone will never catch on, because people love talking in person, and can send messages by telegraph.
Printed books have their advantages. But so do ebooks. And to pretend that the former's advantages will forever win out is just being a Luddite. - Bamborzled, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@proghead
That's the eBook reader. And It's not like they can perhaps make the reader... more durable? What an amazing concept! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3loads of ***** there. I HATE stupid people who are so scared of change. Ebooks are for real! They work!!
I read 1 ebook/day. From George Martin to Austin freeman to stephen king . Any book anytime I want!!
Virtually any book available for free in any format .
irc://irc.atomic-irc.net:6667/ebooks
irc://irc.undernet.org:6667/bookz
irc://irc.nullus.net:6667/bookwarez
irc://irc.team-scorpio.com/scorpio-e-bookz
Information is and should be free for all. Period! - compaqdrew, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I also completely disagree with the author. The author employs a wide range of logical fallacies, everything from equating ebook advocates with 1950s fortune-tellers to his main argument, which is "people like real books better" (not making this up).
This is all codswollop. Sure, ebooks will be slow in coming because of the format wars (heck, mp3 players are finally getting their non-DRM act together) and the younger generation is less passionate about Mark Twain than the newest Nine Inch Nails album. Sure, ebook readers are expensive, and sure, you only save $1.25 buying an ebook as opposed to a paper copy (if even that). But give it five years. The free market has a tendency to sort these things out. After Apple conquers music and movies, surely the restless engineers that gave us AAC and h.2whatever and DIVX can figure out a way to display ASCII text. - roodammy44, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think we're ignoring the larger considerations of e-books (as people have with music).
Now distribution will be free it will allow people to finally get rid of publishers and put up literature that they wrote themselves.
No need to send in manuscripts and hope you get a chance, you let the people decide what's good and what's not.
Of course, you won't end up with many people worth hundreds of millions of pounds from selling books, but is culture all about the money? - Tarnum, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Information by itself is free and not copyrightable.
However, we are talking about literary works, whose authors deserve our patronage. $5-10 are not that much for a new and interesting book. Especially if the money go to the author, not to some multinational corporation. - DuffyDirect, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i know they're not ebooks (are they?) but the books on google books have essentially saved me the trouble of buying text books on college (didn't buy one senior year) because a great deal of research is published online.
I hate paper books. You can't read with a fan on (I like having fan coverage 24/7) and it reallly isn't comfortable or practical to read a book on a flat surface until you've gotten like half way through the book! (when you're in those first crucial pages you need to hold the book open) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The main problem I see with this article is that the author really concentrates on the "feel" of books, much the same kind of thing was said when CDs came out hoping to replace vinyl records. It’s definitely is still said about digital music.
But I'd love a dedicated e-book. I don't really like reading books at my computer (large CRT) or even on the laptop (better screen for reading), but if there was an affordable well made (must be slim and light, with little DRM feature) when I would consider one.
I really hope something good comes from all this development. - slugicide, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2...and there's the library aspect: instant checkout from home. No waiting for a copy of the book to become available. No overdues. No books no longer in the system due to damage or 'theft'. E-books are made for the library, man!
- vlurk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A very promising product featuring Fujitsu "Electronic Paper" technology was diplayed at the last CEATEC: it's pretty much like Sony e-Ink except that it does have colors. Link: http://www.akihabaranews.com/fr/news-12521-CEATEC+-+Fujitsu+Electronic+Paper+e-book+reader.html Oh, and it is touch sensitive also. ;)
I read somehwere that the product has been released in Japan, although very expensive at the time being: http://blogs.pcworld.com/digitalworld/archives/2007/04/black_white_ebo.html
It might be the product that geeks like us are waiting for. As it runs Windows CE 5.0, compatibility with a lot of ebook formats is already assured. Oh, and this thing has a wifi adapter too: it will probably replace cheap (not powerfull) tablet pcs very well. But who cares: most of us already own a powerfull laptop. ;) - rideagain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3two words: html, and pdf.
The standards are already there. You can download a number of books in these formats. Even a company as evil as Sony recognizes that, and their Reader can read pdf files. - KibibyteBrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@robbiedo Ebooks threaten publishers a million times more than digital music threatens labels. Most bands do not have the skill or means to produce their own recordings or market them. Authors, however, could just type up their books, submit them to an iTunes like service, and call it a day. And we all know from internet establishments like podcasts and newegg that products put in an easy to search and organize database with user comments market themselves. No need for traditional publishers.
- optigon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think, while I am a dead-tree book junkie, that eBooks offer a lot that you can't get out of a dead tree book. Like previous commenters have stated, you don't have a Ctrl-F function for dead-tree books that make reference books handy. But there are other possibilities as well. Like, think of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books for kids. Think of how much more interesting they can be with an e-Book. There is also the aspect of having a book that simply has links, instead of so many books that have references to webpages, or eTexts that reference websites that can remove dead links.
There's a lot of potential there that isn't just a mimicry of the dead-tree style. It's just that the medium that makes the public happy isn't there yet... Well, that and just getting people to ***** read is a miracle in itself. -
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