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Tuesday, December 20, 2005
iRex Announces an ePaper Device
iRex has announced an ePaper device that moves us one step closer to the device I envisioned in my first and second posts on digital publishing.
In my opinion, this is still a long way from “the tipping point.” However, this is the third such device I have seen in the last two weeks. I think this reflects an acceleration in this kind of hardware development. It will likely take several more attempts, but eventually someone will get it right. It’s only a matter of time.
Technorati Tags: books, ebooks, future, publishing, technology
December 20, 2005 at 06:58 PM in Books, Cool Gadgets, Web/Tech | Permalink
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Comments
I'm tremendously interested in the intersection if paper and bits, and I think it will come via digital paper, rather than devices like iRex 's. Digital paper will remove the requirement that each reader will be some significant % of a PC. Instead, it will be simplified down to a ePrinter and ePaper. ?
Posted by: Matthew Cornell | Dec 20, 2005 8:06:41 PM
Welcome back to blogging. We missed you! ;-)
Posted by: FMF | Dec 20, 2005 9:57:16 PM
I think you are very much on the right track - the specific nature of the disruption to traditional publishing will not easily be predicted by anyone, but that there will be a major disruption should be inarguable. It is still surprising that so many intelligent people in our industry won't accept this notion. As you say, no one predicted itunes. It's certainly fun to try to predict the device that will do it for books. My own vote is for the holographic book, or some other technology we have not seen yet. Instead of bemoaning the end of the book as we know it, the publishing industry should be focusing on the huge opportunity ahead of us and remembering that what makes the book important is the content, its presentation, and making it available to the reader, not its literal container or delivery system (imho).
Posted by: David Wilk | Dec 21, 2005 1:36:48 AM
Did a similar change happen in the industry when they introduced paperback books? I mean, when you look at "classic" libraries, the books are all hardback. I don't know when they started making paperback books, but as I was reading one yesterday, I wondered if the industry felt a similar shift when that came out as you say it will when e-books come out. Just wondering...
Posted by: Tana | Dec 22, 2005 7:20:22 AM
I hope they plan ahead and design it for use with RSS feeds.
Posted by: Dave Koss | Dec 22, 2005 4:17:23 PM
Here another tablet/ebook type device, similar to the dual-screen book you envisioned a few posts back:
http://www.estari.com/proplus1520m.cfm
My take: too expensive and (most likely) too heavy. A nice idea though ...
Posted by: Julian Seidenberg | Dec 30, 2005 9:14:16 AM
Not to mention this:
http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/29/sony-to-announce-us-e-book-reader/
Which actually looks quite promissing.
Posted by: Julian Seidenberg | Dec 30, 2005 9:30:55 AM
