Comments on: A New E-Reader

By: Stefanie

Stefanie — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:29:12 +0000

Emily, I’d think they were talking to readers, but sometimes I wonder. I hope that more variety will mean more innovation. The Cool-er sounds interesting.

Litlove, maybe you can pull some strings and get one of the e-readers and give us a review?

Dorothy, I’m glad to see experimentation. Hopefully it means that eventually someone will get it just exactly right.

Danielle, I’d like a little bigger screen, I don’t think thinner is better, I’d like be able to use memory cards (Kindle 1 had this but Amazon changed this), and I’d like to be able to share books. We’ll get there eventually.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Sun, 31 May 2009 01:15:13 +0000

I’m probably not the audience for these readers since I think I’m not ready to set aside my books at all yet, but I know you read both paper books and eBooks. What would you like to see them do? I’m so behind the times, but this touch reader sounds like those phones they are always touting that do everything with the touch of a finger. Are they just riding the wave of its popularity? I do think you are right that they are coming at the question from the wrong end. Are not the people who design these machines readers themselves?

By: Dorothy W.

Dorothy W. — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:34:32 +0000

Litlove’s explanation of what happens makes sense, but why in the world don’t they go about it in a more logical way? Anyway, it’s interesting to see all the experimentation going on, and I’m very curious to see how things progress.

By: litlove

litlove — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:48:27 +0000

My husband nearly worked for Plastic Logic, and their founder (well, ex-founder now, I think) is a fellow at my college and I’ve sat with him at lunch (he is very nice). This is the problem – scientists come up with something and look for an application. Then they tell us we want it. It would be so much better the other way round, but things aren’t likely to change just yet.

By: Emily Barton

Emily Barton — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:49:01 +0000

My sentiments exactly: I keep wondering why it seems that nobody is asking those of us who read books what WE’D like to see in an e-book reader. (They must be, really, right? How could any company justify putting money into such things without conducting focus groups. They just must not be listening.) I’m hopeful, though, that with all these companies playing around with it, someone will eventually hit upon the perfect thing for me. Yesterday, I read about the Cool-er, which allows the reader to share books with up to four friends.