Charles Davis writes “Full story at BBC NEWS.
A new gadget could spell an end to books as we know them.
Researchers at Hewlett Packard have developed a prototype electronic book
which can hold a whole library on a device no bigger than a paperback.”
Fluff?
We have heard all of this stuff before from other e-book display vendors. I am skeptical of any story that also calls books outdated. How can they be outdated until something replaces them? How many people will actually buy such a device?
Why not do research on electronic paper?
Again?
And the battery life is…………
whatever. If I can’t put the thing in a pocket or replace it for less then $10 when I spill coffee on it, it won’t make books obsolete.
readers like this one are simply doomed tech. They are kind of cool and advanced looking, but the mass appeal just isn’t there.
Re:Fluff?
Well, yes, but:
a. The other dedicated ebook vendors are pretty much kaput. This one doesn’t really exist yet, making its chances MUCH better
b. Hpaq/Comlett has to find something to get people interested, now that the HP Way is gone.
c. They’ve hit on the way to sell a “book killer”: imitate a book. Of course, those who aren’t besotted with technology might ask something silly like, well, “Why not just buy a book?”
(Just to forestall comments: I’m not arguing against the usefulness of etext on multipurpose devices for purposes other than reading a book start-to-finish, but this HP thingie is Yet Another Dedicated Ebook Device–this time with an “electronic finger,” yet.)
So funny I could cry …
My first thought on this story was “wow, at last one of the big guys in the industry is going to build something; maybe this time it will be worth having”. But no, HP seem to have no idea at all. As others have pointed out, why build something that mimicks a book when you can just have the book. Simulated page-turning? Give me a break. Nobody cares about that stuff. We care about features which add VALUE, things that can’t be done with a traditional book.
And the author is also clueless. The comment about computer screens causing eye-strain is sooo 1990’s. Today’s monitors and LCD screens cause no more eye strain than reading from paper.
Of course, what we really want is a tablet PC that doesn’t cost more than a Palm or Ipaq. The concept of a dedicated device for reading books is DEAD. We want one device small enough to carry but big enough to read, that does everything our PC does. HP, get back to us when you’ve built THAT.
Re:So funny I could cry …
Preach it!