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E-Reader Technology Moving in the WRONG Direction Soapbox time, and I’ll make it brief because it’s a simple point I want to make. After the holiday success of digital ink products, e-readers have started to receive some attention.  This week is CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and e-reader concepts are the talk of the town.  The ideas going forth with ereader development are complex, in-depth, and what’s most important: stupid.  That’s right.  They’re completely idiotic. I just  received my first ereader, and it’s great because it accomplishes the following: 1. — I can transport my library anywhere I go. 2. — E-ink allows my eyes to relax, and my brain to focus on the long-form text I’m delving into. There, that’s it.  That’s why I needed it.  Now I can peruse a 2,000 page novel, research mythology, literary terminology, historical facts, etc when engaging in my favorite passtime, that passtime being fiction writing. I can do it at the bar, I can do it at the library, I can do it on a front porch, and I can do it in bed.  I can take my writing and reading away from the big glowing computer screen that begs me to click on social media sites, cartoon blogs, and SNES emulators.  It’s a God-Send.  My e-reader works as it should, and my laptop works as it should.  A perfect marriage. Tech developers do not get it. Just check out these prototypes above.  One company wants to have e-readers connected to social network sites, another group is pushing to have a ‘tablet’ adjacent to an e-ink screen, and these tablets in and-of themselves?  What is the point?  I like this keyboard thing attached to my screen.  It makes typing pretty damn easy. Now, here are the things I’d LIKE to see, assuming e-readers continue any kind of success in the marketplace: - better writing in the margins - a cleaner more professional design - faster load speeds What are the issues with my wants?  They aren’t FLASHY! enough, they don’t WOW! the consumer.  So be it.  I got an e-reader so I could read and acquire many many books without crowding up my already cramped New York City apartment.  I do not need e-readers to read the books to me (A concept being cooked up by Singularity nut Ray Kurzwell) and I don’t need them to help me play some crack-head version of Taito’s Bust-A-Move.  I just need the content, the mobility, and the paper-ink emulation. — Anderson

E-Reader Technology Moving in the WRONG Direction

Soapbox time, and I’ll make it brief because it’s a simple point I want to make.

After the holiday success of digital ink products, e-readers have started to receive some attention.  This week is CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and e-reader concepts are the talk of the town.  The ideas going forth with ereader development are complex, in-depth, and what’s most important: stupid.  That’s right.  They’re completely idiotic.

I just  received my first ereader, and it’s great because it accomplishes the following:

1. — I can transport my library anywhere I go.

2. — E-ink allows my eyes to relax, and my brain to focus on the long-form text I’m delving into.

There, that’s it.  That’s why I needed it.  Now I can peruse a 2,000 page novel, research mythology, literary terminology, historical facts, etc when engaging in my favorite passtime, that passtime being fiction writing.

I can do it at the bar, I can do it at the library, I can do it on a front porch, and I can do it in bed.  I can take my writing and reading away from the big glowing computer screen that begs me to click on social media sites, cartoon blogs, and SNES emulators.  It’s a God-Send.  My e-reader works as it should, and my laptop works as it should.  A perfect marriage.

Tech developers do not get it.

Just check out these prototypes above.  One company wants to have e-readers connected to social network sites, another group is pushing to have a ‘tablet’ adjacent to an e-ink screen, and these tablets in and-of themselves?  What is the point?  I like this keyboard thing attached to my screen.  It makes typing pretty damn easy.

Now, here are the things I’d LIKE to see, assuming e-readers continue any kind of success in the marketplace:

- better writing in the margins

- a cleaner more professional design

- faster load speeds

What are the issues with my wants?  They aren’t FLASHY! enough, they don’t WOW! the consumer.  So be it.  I got an e-reader so I could read and acquire many many books without crowding up my already cramped New York City apartment.  I do not need e-readers to read the books to me (A concept being cooked up by Singularity nut Ray Kurzwell) and I don’t need them to help me play some crack-head version of Taito’s Bust-A-Move.  I just need the content, the mobility, and the paper-ink emulation.

— Anderson

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Tags: lit tech
  1. sagatrope posted this