Ebooks are glorious things... but as long as the electronics companies are thinking "let's make it as much like a paper book as possible, and then people won't care about the things we *can't* do that paper does" they're kinda doomed. People who embrace the new media want it to max out its *new* features, not pretend to be the old medium.
Doesn't matter how much it "looks like paper;" it doesn't feel like paper, and that's a bigger hurdle than they want to admit. And it's a screen; some people's eyes are just not happy with reading on lightscreens. Not having a book cover & blurbs to look at when grabbing one to read in the morning was a bigger hurdle than I expected; it's gotta be a complete turn-off to some people.
And that whole concept of 1 buyer = 1 reader is going to continue to block the ebook reader market. Paper books don't work that way, and the more it looks like paper, the more obvious it is that you don't buy "a book" from them, you buy "the right to read a book."
The Kindle will crash if you can't transfer your books from Version 1.0 to Version 2.0 when it comes out. As it is, the problem of "damn, I grabbed my husband's memory card by mistake, and I can't read any of these books" will stop people from recommending it.
I am amused that their listed prices for Kindle books are compared to hardcover prices, not paperbacks.
The screen is digital ink, much more like the printed page that an LCD or the like. If it was just a touch more open... But for that I can get a OLPC XO, and I'd much rather have that.
Doesn't matter how much it "looks like paper;" it doesn't feel like paper, and that's a bigger hurdle than they want to admit. And it's a screen; some people's eyes are just not happy with reading on lightscreens. Not having a book cover & blurbs to look at when grabbing one to read in the morning was a bigger hurdle than I expected; it's gotta be a complete turn-off to some people.
And that whole concept of 1 buyer = 1 reader is going to continue to block the ebook reader market. Paper books don't work that way, and the more it looks like paper, the more obvious it is that you don't buy "a book" from them, you buy "the right to read a book."
The Kindle will crash if you can't transfer your books from Version 1.0 to Version 2.0 when it comes out. As it is, the problem of "damn, I grabbed my husband's memory card by mistake, and I can't read any of these books" will stop people from recommending it.
I am amused that their listed prices for Kindle books are compared to hardcover prices, not paperbacks.
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