LISNews: Librarian News

Wayne MacPhail Takes A Look At his new Sony eBook Reader... "And, I have to say, holding a little silver book that contains a shelf full of fiction and research, it does feel like I'm living in the future. The fact that that future is 100 per cent DRM-free makes it taste pretty sweet. "

E-book readers like the Kindle may be getting better, but still fall short of the usability of paper books. You can't turn or flip through pages, or compare different documents as you would with paper. A new prototype with two displays can do all that - as the video here shows.

The two leaves can be opened and closed to simulate turning pages, or even separated to pass round or compare documents. When the two leaves are folded back, the device shows one display on each side. Simply turning it over reveals a new page.

An electronic textbook Web site is launching a smelly e-book after finding college students like to be able to smell their books.

A survey of 600 college students conducted by pollster Zogby International found that 43 percent of students identified smell, either a new or old smell, as the quality they most liked about books as physical objects.

Over at Computer World David Dejean Says Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle has turned a long underperforming category of tech gadget -- e-book readers -- into an overnight hit, and in the process has boosted interest in electronic paper display (EPD) technology. The Kindle and its rival, the Sony Reader 505, both boast e-paper displays that look unnervingly like printed pages and consume next to no power. However, today's EPDs -- and today's e-book readers -- are only the beginning.