Comments | bridgetester: [ethics, technology, books] eBooks & Japanese Immigrants

bridgetester

[ethics, technology, books] eBooks & Japanese Immigrants

Oct 17, 2006 09:29

Trying Again to Make Books Obsolete
David Poguehttp://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/technology/12pogue.htmlRead more... )

2006october, technology, ethics, books

Comments 10

pallas__athena October 17 2006, 15:21:33 UTC

I think that e-books might become a nice complement to regular books but not taking their place, at least not any time soon. I think they need to work on getting them cheaper since they save resources.
I like to try one, but not sure if I can ever give up the paper books.

bridgetester October 18 2006, 13:15:11 UTC

Well, strictly speaking, this is an separate ebook reader, which people have been trying to make and publicize for a decade or two now. If you want to try ebooks for free on your computer, I suggest Project Gutenberg> or Baen Free Library.

zesty_pinto October 17 2006, 19:38:56 UTC

Hmm, a new flux of Japanese Bohemians(probably not the appropriate term, but that's all I could think of)? This could prove to add another interesting niche to a city already growing with artistic history.

As for the ebook thing, I personally think the problem lies in convention. Sony can probably do it if they follow the same tactic as they did the PSP when they offered movies. Inundating the market in the right angle with the right people is a cost-intensive process that I think only they could hit right. At least they know the right angle to approach it to: college students.

bridgetester October 18 2006, 13:18:31 UTC

I'd say they'd need to have color screens, used on a per-book basis, and support more formats (txt, doc, rtf, html, pdf, palm doc, ms reader, etc.)

zesty_pinto October 18 2006, 13:31:26 UTC

Personally, I think if they do it, then they'll try to localize it into something with less potential pirating issues; maybe as an encrypted file that can only work with its particular reader, or in a specially-sized disc. If they have ROM-type flash cards, then I could definitely see them work on that angle by making ultra-thin ones that only hold a book and could be stored on, say, a ring of keys.

bridgetester October 18 2006, 13:34:26 UTC

Oh yeah. I'm not saying any company will build one without format restrictions, just that companies have been building those for ages without any commerical success.

I don't see much point in single-book electronic devices.

Thread 5

The question is... montecristo October 18 2006, 03:29:30 UTC

If she was "making it" in New York, why'd she go back to Japan?

Re: The question is... seiryu_16 October 18 2006, 04:11:31 UTC

She wasn't allowed to stay:

"Like the majority of the nearly 475,000 Japanese who landed at Kennedy and Newark airports last year, she was officially a tourist. In her allotted 90 days in the United States..."

Really interesting story. I've heard DJ Keoki stuff, too - I think I've even played some at a dance. Very quality.

They need to offer MORE for LESS. orb2069 October 18 2006, 21:01:55 UTC

...like the movie industry did with DVDs. More material, better picture, more durable, smaller, and (nowadays) cheaper, to boot.

Most of the commercial eBooks I've seen offer less, for nowhere near little enough to offset the lack of a paper book I can resell to recoup some of my cost. Combine that with having to re-learn/install a (Third! after Plucker and CSpotRun) reader, and it really isn't worth the bother.

At least Sony isn't totally soaking this thing in white-hole style DRM, like the Rocket eBook or the eBookman, which, after seeing the hoops people have had to jump through to put content on a PSP, is kind of good news.