KINDLE, NOOK, QUE, and APPLE TABLET: The Future of Reading

 

In what ways can e-readers change how we use content which was print-born?

 

  1. Take apart the binding – e-books might in the future mess with display in ways books cannot, such as simultaneous side-by-side or overlapping display of multiple pages.
  2. Annotations off-page, Folders to organize books
  3. Metadata stored in device alongside the book: access to the organization of the book’s content, notes you’ve made (annotations off-page as afmt)
  4. Book content alongside other screens simultaneous

 

 

Though I agree with my friend MarsGirl (MarsGirlonTwoWheels Blog) that the print book is preferable to most readers - at least at this point in the transition and interaction between print culture and digital culture - I’d like to look into what’s ahead for print-to-digital medium book translation and also the possibilities for digital-born books.  At this point in the transition, print books still kick e-readers to the curb in terms of usability, affordability, portability, durability (less hardware to break, and no OS) and will continue to dominate until digital-born content gets more of a start.  It took print 500 years to take hold and develop into the medium we enjoy today - we’ll see how long it takes diginarrative to evolve into its own art form in its own medium.

 

 

More interesting developments, then I’m off to do dissertation today….

So there are problems with B&N’s model, imo. 

1.  WiFi - Need to have a WiFi hotspot to download content!  They are pushing for you to visit the physical store a lot for incentives and just to fully use it - example book giveaways unannounced, you have to be in the store with your Nook to get them.  Also can only browse fulltext of a book in-store! Not cool, imo.  The point is to do away with the store.  It’s the net.  This is meant to become a multi-use media reader.

2.  Cost of Titles - B& N’s e-book titles consistently run a dollar to five more than Amazon’s, and you cannot sell them back used.

3.  Documents - The reader lets you look at certain types of documents - I think pretty much only PDFs - so many other documents will need to be converted first.

4.  The more I look at it, the more it feels like someone’s idea of a "chick e-reader", and I like the paratextual elements of my books to have a more everyperson feel - like something a man or woman might like to be seen with.  Yes, there’s a certian amount of visual cachet to my books as signifying objects, and this reader in some of its many outfits is pretty, but not carrying as much intellectual cultural cachet.

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Perhaps I’d Better Begin my Survey of E-Book Readers with a Basic Kindle.

I’m looking into Kindle not as a means of doing academic work - readers won’t be there for another year or two (exception of Apple, but that’s too bleepin expensive) - I’m looking into studying how e-book reading changes your reading experience, and what we might try in terms of maximizing a new medium for print-based content and reading.  In other words, what could the "book" to come be like? "Unbound" is a word many are using to describe the escape from the print format.  Very apt.