Everything in the Land of Nerdy is a buzz right now over the quickly improving quality of e-books.
Sony and Amazon, the two main e-book manufacturers and industry whips of the technology are both readying new e-book players. Sony?s latest Reader, the eloquently named PRS-700, uses a touch screen display that allows users to turn pages with the flick of a finger, weighs 10 ounces, stores 350 books, and the battery lasts about 4 hours. Bothan spies recently stole pictures of Amazon?s upcoming Kindle 2, which appears to carry a smaller design than the original, is fitted with a petite control panel, and sports wireless EV-DO connectivity.
Though e-books are buzz worthy items and worth the lives of many Bothans, actual sales figures have been well below the hyped anticipation.
Forecasters predicted that the e-book industry would generate $25 billion in revenues by 2008, a bit higher than the $30 million in actual revenue the industry made in 2007. To date, e-books have been a hit in the research community, where doctors and scientists can easily reference journals, publications, and papers to read on the go. Apparently, e-books are best suited for readers who have a good number of small publications to read, which are difficult to tote around.
I doubt that the e-book is going to replace your favorite Fabio novel to take to the beach for all sorts of reasons. I like to think that paper is a heck of a product ? paper is light, portable, erasable, flexible, and pretty darn cheap. I also believe that most people like to keep the books that they have read and mount them for public display on book shelves ? much like a big game animal hunter hanging water buffalo head in his living room.
A pile of read books on the shelf makes us look smarter and it will be a while before we are willing to presume that others think we are smart without showing obvious evidence.
Sony did show off its latest invention that I know is going to be worth $25 billon ? its ultra thin OLED television. The company first unveiled its Organic Light Emitting Diode television at this year?s Consumer Electronics Show and I instantly fell in love. The 11 in screen measure 3mm in thickness or about the same size as three credit cards. The screens Sony touted earlier this year were encased in stands and did not fully display how amazingly thin they truly are. Earlier this week, Sony showed the second generation of its OLED technology that inspired dreams of watching hockey games on wall paper televisions.
Source: dvice.com
