I have been testing electronic book readers since the not-so-heady days of NuvoMedia's Rocket eBook and Rocket Reader, and I'm happy to report that the latest generation, the $300 Sony Reader and the $400 Amazon.com Kindle, are undeniably superior. Nonetheless, the general public has received these new e-book readers with profound indifference. Even though I am both an avid reader and a serious tech junkie, after the initial thrill of testing a cutting-edge product passed, I also found these new e-book readers dull. The reason is that their makers are trying too hard to mimic old-fashioned books, when digital readers could be so much more.
Part of the disappointment is my fault, or at least the media's fault. Since the first model rolled off the factory floor, we have compared e-book readers to books. How does it feel in the hand? Is the screen legible? Can it slip easily into a briefcase? Would you curl up on the couch with it? As a result, designers and engineers have been desperately trying to perfect these features. And they have made some progress.
The E Ink display that the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle use is very cool. The screen is filled with small capsules containing charged pigment. When the charge applied to each capsule is adjusted, the capsule appears as black, white, or one of several shades of gray. Turning pages requires power, but once a page is up, the E Ink stays in place without drawing down the battery.
The black-on-gray display looks very newspaper-like, but without the inky smears from your fingers. The screen is fine even for prolonged reading. Over a weekend, I read half of William Gibson's Spook Country on the Kindle, and the experience was pleasant. The Kindle is probably the best e-book reader on the market right now. Yet my ambivalence remains, because as good as the display looks, simply replicating the printed page on a handheld screen lacks ambition. I want more.
If I am going to carry around a digital device, I want to do everything--play music, download videos, surf the Web, send and receive e-mail--not just read books. The printed book is best for presenting lengthy text to the reader, so why try to reinvent a technology that has been around for thousands of years? Invent something new instead.
To be sure, e-book readers have some advantages over paperbound editions. First of all, you can store hundreds of books in a single device, whereas paper is pretty much limited to one copy per, well, copy. You can adjust the size of text on the fly. (For those of us with failing eyesight, this alone could justify the purchase of an -e-book reader.) They are also much greener than traditional books. After all, it takes a lot more gasoline to ship a book across the country than it does to download it. Of course, e-books cost less, too, but don't expect publishers to pass much of the savings on to you anytime soon. Fundamentally, these latest e-book readers are digital devices acting like dead trees.
There is a long and tragic history of new technologies and media merely imitating what came before. Early television programming consisted of radio programs with pictures. It took years for the television industry to explore the possibilities of broadcast media and learn how to tell stories visually. It succeeded when it stopped trying to be radio and learned just what broadcast video could do. This is why a new medium rarely kills off the old one. TV didn't kill radio. The Web didn't kill newspapers. They do different things.
Limited Reading Material
E-book readers primarily give you access to limited reading material. The Sony Reader takes you to its Connect service, where you can buy books. The Kindle takes you to the Amazon store. Both services let you upload unrestricted PDFs, but they don't make it easy.
A real digital reader would be an open-access device for all sorts of content. Web pages. RSS feeds. E-mail. It would also play video and audios. Why not? Flash memory is cheap enough. All the content you can get online needs to be accessible from that device. And if you can get it free online, it needs to be free on the device.
There are some positive signs. The Kindle comes with a built-in EV-DO modem.And Amazon has gone beyond books, offering select blogs and even The New York Times. Unfortunately, if you read the Times on the Kindle, it will cost you $14 a month. If you read it online, it is free. Amazon also charges for blogs. Bad idea, guys.
The Nokia N800 Internet Tablet comes closest to being a real media reader. It has a conventional LCD display, so it has only about four hours of battery life. Even so, it gets you online. For that matter, why not just make your laptop your e-book reader? When I talk to e-book publishers, they say that by far, most e-books are read on PCs , not on dedicated readers.
The Kindle is a great e-book reader, but until its capability grows beyond the book, my digital reader will still be my laptop.
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February 11, 2008 6:40 PM
It's a conundrum - try to make the eReader too much like a book and it has to be as large as a umpc - and then why have a special purpose device? http://www.booksinmyphone.com takes a different angle on the problem: take a device everyone already has and turn it into the best eReader it can be. I think the result works very well, you end up with a library you can wield one handed.
February 11, 2008 10:08 PM
I've wished for an e-book reader with all my favorite books for years. I've avoided buying one for several reasons. If I already own a book, why pay for it again, often paying more that I did the first time? If I don't own it already, why pay more for an electronic copy with copy-protection than I would for a paperback I can freely take anywhere? I usually wait for paperbacks to come out, but most e-books stay priced above the cost of hardcover editions even after the paperback is available. If the reader breaks, do I loose all of my books? I don't have to replace the batteries in my paperback. I can go to the bookstore and read a sample of the book before deciding to buy it, whereas most e-books either don't allow this, or limit the sample making it hard to judge. I could replace my entire library for the cost of the reader.
What could e-book manufacturers and publishers do to get me to buy a dedicated reader? Price it within reason. Offer an easy backup method. Give a credit for e-books to offset the reader price. Price e-books within reason. Perhaps offer a discount for re-purchase of a book in e-book form. Allow for the transfer of e-books to future platforms and software. Price battery replacements and repairs within reason. Perhaps offer reading software to enable use as audiobooks. Match the feel, smell, and comfort of a paperback. Include the time needed to read , or perhaps offer speed reading training software.
February 12, 2008 6:29 PM
Even as a dedicated book junkie I refuse to get into the restricted DRM'd world of most book-reader devices. The example of the music industry is all too close - subscription services that "disappear" overnight, taking your music library with them.
But I would love to be able to carry textbooks etc. around without breaking my shoulders. Maybe an IPhone type device, or a cut-down UMPC? My old Cassiopeia would be ideal - with a big memory boost and usb connection + phone-type web browser. The irritating thing is that none of this is "cutting edge" technology - just a re-combination of various devices that are out there now.
March 6, 2008 12:33 PM
I've been buying ebooks since about 1995 or so. My reader? first it was a palm os device then pocket pc. My current one is a 3 year old Toshiba 800. It reads books (mobipocket reader is my current favorite software) and does so much more. There are books for free in many places and currently I'm reading "No Country for Old Men" from Fictionwise.com for about 1/2 the price of the hard copy from Amazon.
April 19, 2008 8:57 AM
The ebook could also go further than a traditional book by allowing searchable annotations; copying and pasting passages would also insert a footnote with a citation in standard styles.
I agree that an ebook reader has to be a multifunctioned device. Carrying around a multitude of single purpose devices creates clutter and goes against the spirit of mobility.
May 8, 2008 10:15 AM
The E-reader idea, I think, is a great idea in concept, but like Dan says, I want more! I realize the battery problem must be met before more can be done - I'm setting my hopes high for OLED's - there are Television sets (albeit small ones) that use the technology - why not a handheld? Part of my problems are capability (can they read something I downloaded off the net? Can I convert one of my old Palm books to the new format?) and definitely cost. In the past I did carry a big library with me everywhere I went - I had a great little HP iPaq - color screen - wifi - played games, music, and let me read books, plus it took an SD card, so I could swap my music and books whenever I wanted, without a specialty cable. Unfortunately my iPaq broke, and with it, I lost the capability of reading almost all of those books, anywhere but on my desktop. Now I carry a much older Sony Clie' (Palm OS) which works great, but the hotsync technology is old and clunky and rarely works for me - it's e-reader software works great, but it has limited functionality in that the only books I have for it are older than dirt - nothing newer than 20 years. Then i have another problem - my PDA doesn't have a case, so i risk scratching the screen when it's in my pocket, or it requires that I wear a shirt with a pocket. I also have to juggle the PDA with my cell phone, which I keep in my pocket also. So here's my quest - a PDA with color screen, wifi, games, music and e-reader potential - including Microsoft Word document editing capabilities, along with tremendous battery life AND - here's the kicker - cell phone service and a low price. I can tell you right now folks - ain't never gonna happen. These so-called smartphones just keep going up and up in price. HP's nearest equivalent is $500 - some of Nokia's reach over $1,000 & the iPhone? No wifi - no e-reader that I know of & only on AT&T.