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Hardware

First Folding-Screen e-Book Reader 152

Posted by chrisd from the foldable-humans-are-next dept.
MJArrison writes "Yahoo is carrying a Reuters story about a laptop that isn't much more than a foldable LCD screen. It's very small screen 6.7"x5" appears to be a strange black on green monochrome, so it better be cheap. It's made by Samsung and will be launched in Korea first." It's a start; I can't wait for them to integrate an IBM 701cs style camber for both screen and keyboard. T. adds: Rather than a general-purpose laptop, it looks like this is being pushed as an specialized device for reading e-texts.
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First Folding-Screen e-Book Reader More

First Folding-Screen e-Book Reader

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  • Yay, Monochrome (Score:2, Insightful)

    by youngerpants ( 255314 )
    Havn't we come a long way since the 70's. I'll stick to my stinkpad thank you very much
    • and do you have any 32bit colour novels?
      • Colouring books and porn ;)
        • heheh I know what you mean.

          The thing why they are monochrome is (in fact must be 256 gray tones) is, high DPI. The avarage,most crap print book is 600 dpi. You can't sell (if you can anyway) a 72 or 120 dpi e-book reader to those book readers.

          Therotically monochrome display should be 3x higher DPI than colour one since no need to have 3 different "pixels" to display a colour (RGB), just a black pixel with illumunation control would be OK. In DTP business since years,there are some monitors are monochrome but produces unbeliavable resolution/dpi , they aren't normal in general,some are even exactly A4 sized.
      • and do you have any 32bit colour novels?

        Yes. Well, I dunno how many bits are involved, but they certainly have color. On the other hand, for an illustrated version of a novel -- like this one [powells.com] -- maybe I'd prefer the dead-tree version anyway. On the gripping hand, many textbooks and references are in color, and it'd be great to be able to have those in an ebook.

      • How about this novel [fantagraphics.com] or this one [thecrowsloft.com]?

    • Monochrome is practical (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RobinH ( 124750 ) on Wednesday April 24, 2002 @07:33AM (#3400315) Homepage
      What's so bad about monochrome for an eBook reader? All of the books I read are certainly printed as black text on white paper. Why on Earth would I want to display different paragraphs in multiple colours?

      If you want to create a commercially successful product, you have to choose what features are included and which are left out. For instance, if I compare two cell phones, and one has a colour screen for $100 more, then I'll likely choose the monochrome one if all the other features are identical. The colour screen gives you zero added value, so why bother? Perhaps elitist techies will pay the extra money for the cool factor, but I imagine that this device is trying to target more practical consumers.

      Perhaps if you were interested in picture books... then maybe I could see it.
      • What about students (a major predicted market for the technology) needing biology, geography, history, physics, etc. texts? What about medical/pharmeceutical reference books? Even most newspapers now publish (at least a section or two) in color.

        Sure, I may not need it when I'm reading the latest King novel, but I bet there are plenty of real books on your bookshelf in color-- for good reason.
    • What's more important is how this monochrome screen behaves - if it's readable from almost all angles and has very little light requirements to be readable, it wouldn't matter if it was monochrome or not. Most books are in monochrome anyway.
  • for something that would appear to be quite pricey, surely you wouldn't be buying this before ebooks became even a _little_ bit more mainstream. Even then, wouldn't a software ebook reader suffice? Personally I think ebooks detract from everything that's good about reading a book. (err, novel that is)

  • Dead Tree Society (Score:4, Insightful)

    by guinan ( 191856 ) on Wednesday April 24, 2002 @06:24AM (#3400143)
    This technology will probably have many interesting and innovative uses, but will ultimately fail to replace the paperback.

    Reasons:

    * Books are readable in bright light with very little eye-strain. LCDs aren't.

    * You don't have to worry about the batteries dying when you are at a particularly engrossing section.

    * Many e-book vendors have crippling levels of copy-protection.

    * Books are cheap: dropping a book into the bathtub is annoying, but its not going to put you out a few hundred dollars.

    That said, I think this is neat as a note-book (think spiral) replacement for students: especially if they implement a graffiti - type input system.
    • * Books are readable in bright light with very little eye-strain. LCDs aren't.

      I'd be more worried about reading in 'normal' light. Staring at backlit things just doesn't cut it - someone needs to come up with a computer screen that isn't 'lit' - any ideas?

      * Books are cheap: dropping a book into the bathtub is annoying, but its not going to put you out a few hundred dollars.

      Also, the upfront cost of this is high, to little benefit - who is gonna think 'i want to spend x dollars on this' when they could spend $5 on a book. Also, if you lose / get a book stolen, it ain't then end of the world.
      • Relfective LCDs [ibm.com] have been on the horizon for a while, they will change the behaviour of LCDs in well-lit environments.
      • Fair enough about the batteries, although hopefully while you read there will be nothing eating current except a low speed refresh of the LCD.
      • Copy protection... vist alt.binaries.e-book, they will help you with that :-)
      • Yes, the Bath Problem is a killer, its true.
      • They have water proof portable walkmans. We have had the technology since the 80's. If such a demand was truly significant I'm sure we would of seen a water proof PDA by now at least.

      • Re:Dead Tree Society (Score:3, Informative)

        by Ryan Amos ( 16972 )
        The GameBoy Advance and GameBoy Color both used reflective LCDs, and both with poor results. Yes, they're cheaper than normal LCDs because you don't need a backlight, but they're also horribly dark and the contrast is awful. The cries of bloody murder over the GBA screen should be evidence of this. On top of that, the things are fragile as hell, the only reason they work well in the GBA is because they're buried far below the casing. Reflective LCDs are a good idea, but they often need their own external light source in order to be usable (which defeats the purpose.) Hopefully nobody in their right mind would use one in an eBook thing.
        • The GBA screen has a beautiful picture when used in daylight. I bought mine in the winter, and played (and cursed) under artificial light for three months. Then a couple of weeks ago the nights became lighter with the season, and I was able to sit next to the window to play it. I couldn't believe how vibrant the colours are and how sharp the image, in Golden Sun.

        • The reflective LCD used in the Sony Clie is marvelous. Perfectly readable in high-light conditions, and has a frontlight that makes it readable under just about any condition.

          Now, if only I could read it while wearing polarized sunglasses...

    • This is exactly right. Electronic books are the answer to the question nobody asked. One of the first things said in the article is:

      will be ideal for Internet users reading online novels

      This is the only thing it says about the internet in the whole article? How is this relevant? The ONLY advantage one of these has over a book might be weight and ease of storage.

      For those of us who only read one book at a given time there is very little advantage. Those folks who have houses filled with books might like it because it is easy to store more books, but those folks just like having books so there is not even an advantage for them.

      • Re:Dead Tree Society (Score:2, Informative)

        by Phong ( 38038 )
        The ONLY advantage one of these has over a book might be weight and ease of storage. For those of us who only read one book at a given time there is very little advantage.

        Not so! If you have a good ebook reader (which are, unfortnately, rare at the moment) I think you'll find that there are plenty of advantages. For me I much prefer to read a book on my Rocket eBook whenever possible. Here's why:

        • Ergonomics. Paper books are much less convenient to either hold open (especially a paperback) or keep from flopping around (like a hardback when reading in bed). With my ebook reader I can sit it on the table while I eat, put it on the arm of the sofa while I recline with my feet up, etc. and it works much better than a paper book (just tap it periodically for the next page).
        • Lighting. With a (good) ebook reader, I don't need to turn on a lamp in the room to get really good illumination and contrast. The Rocket eBook excells in this area, and this is the main reason why I continue to use it and not some newer reading hardware.
        • Searching. I often read multi-volume episodic fantasy, and it is really convenient to be able to search for a particular character name or event. For instance, there was this one book where a character's name got mentioned late in the book, and the only previous mention was way back in the prologue. I needed a reminder of who exactly this person was, and a quick select/search-backwards answered that question quickly and easily.
        • User-selectable fonts. I don't require a large font for reading (yet), but it's nice to know that if/when I do, all my books will still be readable.
        • Non-destructive markup. I never markup my paper books, but on an ebook it's easy to underline something or make a note, find it later (searching is easy), and then remove/hide it when I'm done.
        • Longevity. As long as I'm not using a high-encryption ebook (which I never buy), my books will last a really long time without getting stained or torn or mangled. And for those that like to read in the bath, I hear that putting a reader in a zip-lock bag is a great way to keep it from getting wet. (In the future ebook-reader prices will be both affordable and the hardware will probably be water resistent, so even the reader will have longevity and/or easy replacability.)

        So, in summary, I have come to love reading ebooks, primarily because I found an ebook reader that was of a high enough quality and versatility to make the reading experience better. I'm still hoping for a lighter reader with higher resolution and at least grayscale if not color, but for now, I'm enjoying the advantages that I get from my Rocket eBook.

    • Re:Dead Tree Society (Score:5, Insightful)

      by fwc ( 168330 ) on Wednesday April 24, 2002 @07:44AM (#3400350)
      I can't see anywhere else better to attach this, so I'll stick it here.

      I have an RCA eBook. I'm starting to get to the point where I prefer to read via the ebook vs paper. The reasons?

      * The ebook is readable in bed without any external light to disturb my significant other.

      * I can read the hundreds (if not thousands) of books available for free on the internet from project Gutenberg and the like.

      * I can load up 72MB worth of ebooks into the unit and as a result, not have to worry about not having something to read.

      * It has a dictionary built in which is very helpful when you come across that word you go "what the heck is a ....."? You just click on lookup and then the word.

      * Although I haven't used it this way, you can do notes and annotations into the ebooks.

      On the battery issue, I chose the REB1100 because it has 20-40 hours of battery life. I think that 20-40 is conservative.

      I saw someone else mention that color was needed. Although I can think of some cases where color would be nice (biology texbooks, art textbooks, etc.), for "paperback" reading, give me a good readable monochrome screen any day.

      The main gripes I have are related to the slightly flaky usb support, the lack of a slightly dimmer backlight selection (20% is too bright for reading with the lights off at night), and the @#*$ publishers which think that they can sell an encrypted ebook usable only on this device (which might have a couple of year lifetime) at the same price that a paperback (which I can loan and share and keep) sells for.

      On that last point, I will say that there are some publishers out there that have figured out that encryption is not good. In fact baen books have figured out that giving away books [baen.com] is a good way to improve sales, even of the books you are giving away!

      I really think that quite a few of the naysayers out there about the ebooks haven't had one to play with.
      No,
      attempting
      to read
      a book on
      a palmpilot
      doesn't count.
      You need
      a big enough
      screen
      to be
      able to
      get more
      than two
      readable
      words on
      a line.

      Having a decent number of words-per-line and page is a good thing. It also helps if you have enough resolution to set a serif font which is easier to read. The other thing is that the REB has done well is to be ergonomically designed so that the page advance button is right under your thumb when you hold it. This is the other major problem when trying to use a palmpilot as a comparison - the advance buttons are definately not under your thumb when you hold it in a comfortable reading position.

      On the device mentioned in the article, it looks like this screen helps increase the viewable area. If this is the case, then I think it will definately be an improvement. I'm not sure about the color though - except I do recall from my early computer days that green was somehow determined to be easier on your eyes than white. Perhaps someone else can come up with a reference.

      • Re:Dead Tree Society (Score:2, Interesting)

        by KingFoo ( 175702 )
        Don't knock ebooks on the palm, with current eBook software (I like WordSmith and TealDoc) reading books is nice. I've got all the features that you mention, plus I've got an organizer, for a lower cost than your typical eBook hardware. As far as scrolling is concerned, autoscroll is very easy on the eyes. Also, in defense of color, when the device is in color, you start to get options like ClearTypeTM or FineTypeTM (sub-pixel font rendering) which makes the book much easier on the eyes.
      • You're right, except I've found that it's quite easy and pleasant to read a book on my palm. Admittedly you do end up reading only about 8-10 or so words per line, but it's not like it's painstaking reading - and as far as the 'advancing under thumb' you can solve both these problems by getting a reader that supports horizontal use. Throw in a clie or one handera and you surely can get 20 words (or 40+ if you go for a similar-to-standard palm bitmap font) and still retain the scrolling under thumb.

        One main thing I really *really* do like about reading 'ebooks' (convert to txt then palmdoc) on my palm is that I can do it anywhere anytime - I plunk down waiting for a meeting to start, I can fire up a book... I'm sitting on 'the can', I can fire up a book and relax (always a good mental state to be in during that exercise)... those ebook readers, while nicer screens and faster, definately don't have the convenience factor down.

        Realistically, you can't get a device *much* bigger than a palm IIIxe or so and expect people to actually carry the device (in pocket or on holder on belt) - so for people like me who like to have it always available, those 6inch wide ebook readers will never find themselves in my possession. [well, unless it's given of course :) never refuse hardware]
      • Sounds interesting but unfortunately I read entirely too fast for something this small. And the price is a little high for something that simple. And the ecrypted stuff bothers me. I've always wished that books came with a cd rom version (technical books that is for quick access), if I owned an eBook reader I'd like to be able to buy the paperback and download a copy of the eBook if I wanted.

        All in all though when the price comes down I may try one, even if I am a bit of a bibliophile. There's definitely something to be said about owning the dead tree version. My copy of GEB looks good sitting on the coffee table ;)
      • I've never read on a dedicated e-book reader. Maybe if I had, I would love it so much I wouldn't want to go back...but for now, my Clie 415 with 64 meg Memory Stick is a wonderful friend and companion. I can stuff literally dozens of books in my pocket, so I'm never without something to read.
    • I agree. I just don't "get it". When will these guys give up on the eBook idea. How many have tried and failed?

      You can buy a book for 5 or 6 bucks, set it on a shelf and never have to worry about losing it, or have it get over wrote by another one etc...

      And there is something about holding and reading a book - that a computer just can't replace. I don't know what exactly it is - but I just hate reading manuals online. I still buy the books (or at least print them out).

      They are "pushing" new ideas at us that we don't really want. I hope they soon "get it" :)
      Duke

      • I agree. I just don't "get it". When will these guys give up on the eBook idea. How many have tried and failed?


        They'll get it right eventually, and it will be a HUGE hit. However, for eBook readers to take off, they have to have the following features:

        1. The have to be as small, light, and durable as your average paperback book
        2. The display needs to be similar in quality to a page of paper
        3. They need to be capable of reading plain old HTML content (ideally, the 'viewing software' would be a web browser). Ideally they would have a wireless Internet connection, but just downloading content from a PC would probably suffice for a while.
        4. Oh yeah, and not too expensive either (

        And there is something about holding and reading a book - that a computer just can't replace.


        That something is a lightweight, portable, durable, and extremely readable display. LCD screens can't replace that. But electronic paper displays can, and hopefully will.

      • Re:Dead Tree Society (Score:2, Interesting)

        by murdocj ( 543661 )
        I agree. About the only use for ebooks that I can see is not reading "books", but magazines and newspapers. Books we may keep forever, but most of us try to get rid of newpapers and magazines ASAP. Seems like an obvious application for ebooks, particularly if it was easy to save out the few articles that you care about. But for some reason (maybe no $$$ in it?) I never see this come up when people talk about ebooks.
    • There is no reason an LCD can't be readable in light. You are probably thinking of backlit LCDs. Try looking at a digital watch or Gameboy Color sometime. Not only do they look absolutely perfect under light, they only work under light. IMO, this is the only way a real "electronic book" can be successful. It must be a non-backlit LCD, so that you still need a desk lamp or whatever to read it. No eye-strain whatsoever.

      Batteries should not be an issue either under these circumstances. Ever noticed how long your TI graphing calculator can run? A heck of a lot longer than your PDA.

      As for cost, considering that all we want in an ebook is a monochrome non-backlit screen, my guess is this would be very cheap.

      This leaves copy-protection as the main obstacle.
    • I've been reading a couple of books (for instance, all of Asimov's foundation trilogy) on both a laptop and a CRT recently. It wasn't too bad. The laptop, especially, was about as comfortable as reading a paperback edition would have been.
      I set the font to Times New Roman, 18pt, white or light gray on black. A white background strains the eyes after an hour or so of reading, but the white on black was extremely comfortable.
      Using either cursor down, page down, or, usually, simply space or the mwheel to scroll was quite easy to use either, you do that just as automatically as you would turn pages in a book. And, in stark contrast to cheap paperback books, you don't have to use brute force to hold the book open - I hate that.
      The LCD of the laptop was especially comfortable to use for two reasons. First, the sub-pixel rendering really does wonders when reading a book, the font is more smooth and easier to read. Second, of course a LCD's non-flickering display is always more comfortable to look at than a CRT, especially since my CRT only refreshes at 80hz (a refresh rate of 100 or 120hz might be much better, I don't know).
      The weight wasn't a problem, really, I didn't mind holding the LOTR books either, which, of course are still far lighter than a laptop. But really, the size was a bigger problem. I just ended up having the laptop on my knees - oh right, I forgot to mention, I used the laptop to read in bed, of course.
      In both cases, it was nice to be able to read without any other artificial light, and really, I read for hours and experienced no eye strain at all (I did watch out for it). Battery power and longevity wasn't a problem either, the laptop runs for about 3 hours, but I just had it plugged in anyway. I don't usually read a novel in places where there is no power sources, I also don't read books in a bathtub.
    • I've always been sceptic about this kind of applications.

      But when i saw this thing i started to see potential. The display sucks (green?), but the look and feel of the overall product is great.

      It opens like a book and it has the lay-out of a book. That's a MUCH better idea then the PDA style eBooks you see today.
      You can sit down with this thing and hold it with both hands like a book. And it's big enough to read from a reasonable distance.

      If they would replace the display with an eInk-like display [slashdot.org] (looks like real paper), i could be convinced to use it. Especially if the fonts would be anti-aliased and if i could surf, read email with it.


      This thing combined with e-ink would rock!

      * Books are readable in bright light with very little eye-strain. LCDs aren't.
      eInk is readable in bright light. + backlighting is probably possible for under-the-covers-reading

      * You don't have to worry about the batteries dying when you are at a particularly engrossing section.
      According to the eInk site [eink.com] a display can run upto two years on two AA batteries

      * Books are cheap: dropping a book into the bathtub is annoying, but its not going to put you out a few hundred dollars.
      These books could be made so that if you close them they are water and shock resistant.

    • One more: I can stuff a book into a jacket pocket easily. Cost of folding your ebook reader aside, I bet it's not nearly so flexible.

      • Yes but can stuff 100+ books in your jacket, suitcase (for going on holiday)?

        You only have to carry one of these and it can (or should be able to) hold a lot of books.

        And it isn't that much bigger than a paperback.
        • Y'know, I like to read, I can't possibly imagine taking 100 books on a holiday. Guess you have more interesting holidays than me...:-)

          Point taken, though. I could see, say, going on a business trip to install some equipment, and taking 100+ manuals and such...that would definitely r0ck.

    • "* Many e-book vendors have crippling levels of copy-protection."

      And dead tree books are easy to copy? Sure, if you want to photocopy each page and bind them together, but then with a reflective LCD, you could do that with an eBook as well, setting the reader upside down on a photocopier.

      I hate copyright enforcement as much as the next guy, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that books are like MP3s.

      If anything, eBooks are better in this capacity because you can get free copies of non-copyrighted works through Project Gutenberg. Try getting a free copy of Shakespeare at the bookstore...
    • While you did say 'many' and not 'all' vendors of ebook have crippling levels of copy protection, I'd like to put in another plug for a publisher that has gotten this e-book thing right. Baen.com [baen.com] offers some for free on their site. /. had a link to them a week ago I think. I've read through their site, and have come to the conclusion that I really appreciate their philosophy. It's nice to find a publisher that doesn't think we're all nothing but thieves.

      I've leeched several books from their site since hearing about it, and have found 2 new authors that I'd never have tried out that I've added to my 'authors to check for whilst browsing bookstores' list.

      Your point about dropping it in the bathtub is well taken. I haven't seen any that would survive extreme conditions very well. I wonder if the army has a 'militarized' version of Palm... unfortunately, the'd cost $5k each...

    • Books are cheap: dropping a book into the bathtub is annoying, but its not going to put you out a few hundred dollars.

      Same with a paper organizer, but millions have opted for a PDA. The reason is power and flexibility - there's a point where the rising benefits of the high-tech solution outweigh the costs associated.

      I think e-books have a while to go before this turning point is reached, but it'll happen.
    • You can't speed read [icebreaker.net] a paperback.

    • Books are cheap: dropping a book into the bathtub is annoying, but its not going to put you out a few hundred dollars.
      I don't know why on earth everybody thinks that the ability to read in the tub is some kind of "paper book killer app." In my experience, quite the opposite is true.

      Dropping a PDA or e-book reader in the bathtub is annoying but won't put you out a few hundred dollars either--assuming you had it in a sealed, trustworthy ziplock bag (I suggest the kind with the "gripper zipper" that closes verifiably) the way any sensible person would use such a device around water. Go ahead, try it--it's even easier than reading a paperback in the tub, as you can easily work the page-turning controls through the bag and you don't have to worry about getting water spots on the pages.
  • ...I'm guessing the initial price won't be that cheap. Interesting how after years of improvement in visualization, we're back to green monocrome.
  • I was just thinking how much I'd prefer reading ebooks from either my nice Dell Latitude or Compaq iPaq.

    Then I thought about people with impaired vision trying to read Crime and Punishment off an iPaq.

    The contrast of green/black should help make out text (I think I'm right in saying colour blindness wouldn't be affected by these colours - doesn't green get translated as white?) and with the large, familiar folding screen, you should be able to use nice big, clear lettering.

    Perhaps a headphone socket for built in text-to-speech synthesis and bingo, a completely accessible eBook perfect for blind/colour blind/partially sighted people.

    Chris.

  • potential sales (Score:5, Funny)

    by devnullkac ( 223246 ) on Wednesday April 24, 2002 @06:31AM (#3400155) Homepage
    Samsung sees potential sales of flat panels for electronic books at 24,973 units this year.

    Very precise estimate. Is this a conversion from sort of metric unit count?

  • Green? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rbeattie ( 43187 ) <russ@russellbeattie.com> on Wednesday April 24, 2002 @06:31AM (#3400156) Homepage
    In my humble opinion, these things need to be part of an ebook before they catch on.

    COLOR. High resolution. Backlight. Portable (ie lightweight). Long battery life.

    Don't get me wrong, ebooks will be a part of all of our lives within the next decade. Kids won't be lugging around text books for much longer. I've read quite a few ebooks on my Palm and it's not great, but shows the concept really well. Especially when I read Spanish eBooks, because I can instantly look up a word that I'm unfamiliar with using a dictionary package without having to grab another book, losing my place, forgetting the word, etc. Copy-paste-lookup-return->keep reading.

    I already spend most of my reading time using the web. No more newspapers or magazines except maybe on Sundays... Decent portable readers or even M$ Mira devices will erase these last dead-tree vestiges from my life alltogether. (Horrible as M$ may be, they've got a good idea with Mira.).

    Okay, that's it.

    -Russ

  • i dont think a screen has the same appeal as a good book, its just to clinical, and how the hell can i fold the corner over to mark my PAGE!! arrrrrgggggg

    give me a good book anyday.........
    *returns to reading Douglas Adams : The Salmon of Doubt ;-)

    .sig : Bad commnad or file name

  • LEP? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by tjensor ( 571163 )
    Hmm - could this screen use Light Emiting Plastic technology? I read somewhere some time ago (memory... failing...) that light emiting plastics had been developed, but only in Green so far (which could explain the choice of colour). The advantage was that they would be much cheaper to produce than LCD displays, as you dont get a ridiculous failure rate in the manufacturing process.

    • Re:LEP? (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There are such things as Light Emitting Polymers, sometimes called PolyLED or OLEDs. They are available in an orange-like red, a nice green, and more recently, a nice blue. Blue had the worst useful life, green had the best, so it took a while to get them all so they would work for a reasonable amount of time (50,000 hours? don't quote me on that).
    • Google furnished me with this Link [bbc.co.uk] [bbc.co.uk]. LEP Stands for Light Emiting Polymers, it turns out. Doesnt really help with working out if this is what they are using though.
  • I like the idea, but the screen looks awful, I can't imagine it's better to read black letters on green background.
    Maybe it's again time to check the ISO 9241 book regarding standards for ergonomic design of workstations, etc
    From all these years of creating computers, we should have learned a thing or two and I can't image that black on green is it. :)
    It is so important to the sucess of a product like that(and the whole concept) that reading a book doesn't put more of a strain on you eyes than a normal book. Because otherwise I'd stick to normal books no matter how many virtual books I can carry in my luggage.

    Now let's get back to the good old yellow text on a blue background.
  • I'm glad to see that digital consumer electronics are finally starting to take off again. A few years ago, the only market-safe products were game consoles, but now we have cellphones, PDA's, DVR's, and now e-book readers. Think about how nice it would be not to have to lug a shitload of textbooks around. I'm looking forward to the day when these kinds of devices are ubiquitous, and people are trading e-books as easily as mp3's. It's time for information to be free.

  • 24,973 (Score:2, Funny)

    by MjDascombe ( 549226 )
    How the fsck did they arrive at 24,973? Who are the 27 awkward bastards who stop it being 25k? Any why not approximate anyway?
  • I thought it's obvious that in electronics, you do things a bit differently from Gutenberg's style. For example, black on white isn't very good on CRT like it is on paper, though many web designers still insist on that. Fortunately this one doesn't have that problem.

    Still, if eBooks don't catch on, I don't see how a folding screen would help.

    • I don't know. I'm pretty hostile toward "web-usability" experts, but blask on white is the easiest to read to me, and I'm sure for most people. It's the ulimate contrast, all colors on the absence of color. Any other combination means that both the text and the background contain elements of each other so will blend, even if only slightly.
  • I wonder how long it will be before somebody has linux running on one of these things.

  • The Real Deal (Score:2, Interesting)

    by shine-shine ( 529700 )
    When they come up with Electronic Ink [howstuffworks.com] on Power Paper [howstuffworks.com], sing me up.
  • How long until someone installs a *nix on it and turns the thing into a web server?
  • Samsung sees potential sales of flat panels for electronic books at 24,973 units this year.

    'nuff said. Did they get their accounting department to design the thing aswell?

    p.s. dont let Dymitry get his hands on one of these babies....

  • Proof of Concept (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Nomad7674 ( 453223 )
    I agree with the other posters that I do not see this taking off as a pure e-book - after all none of the other e-book systems have really made it into the mainstream. But if you coupled in a grafiti-style system, this kind of thing could easily replace laptops for on-the-go professionals who do not need the full power of a laptop, but do want more than a Palm offers. Attach this thing to a wireless modem and you can surf the web with considerably more screen real-estate than a Palm or PocketPC, but without the bulk of a laptop.

    I have an old Norand tablet PC and say what you will about their useability for some things. For surfing the Net on the couch, they are EXCELLENT!

  • Paper-like screen (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The screen they have there doesn't look too bad, but what I really want is a computer screen that is like paper. I dislike looking into a light source, it makes my eyes feel funny :(. A screen should emit no light of its own, it should reflect/absorb external light. It should be as easy to read as paper, from all angles, and should be relatively thin. The only difference to paper is that it should be able change what it displays. When will they release a display that is so nice on the eyes?
  • Samsung sees potential sales of flat panels for electronic books at 24,973 units this year.

    nice prediction!!! how the hell they do that!!! ;)
  • From the article

    "Samsung sees potential sales of flat panels for electronic books at 24,973 units this year."

    Where the hell does someone get such number ?

    I mean do they have some little man hunched over a 10 key in their market reasearch department saying.....click....click....zzzztttt.....click... . lick, YEP BOSS ! Our POTENTIAL Market is 24,973 units, how many of those we will sell I cant say , but thats EXACTLY how many we COULD sell ?

  • There is no market for standalone e-book readers. Integrate Palm device, mobile phone, e-book reader with a small keyboard and colour screen. I'd also strap it to the lower arm with a landscape screen and shortcuts for one-handed typing. After that all else will look pants.
    • All else will look what?

      Trousers aside, are you suggesting some sort of Dick Tracy / bionic arm affair? I can't see it, myself. I wear jackets when I'm outside, short sleeves inside, and a watch.

      It does sound familiar, though. 2001, maybe? I can picture guys typing on their arms...

  • Foldable? Why not use it for size? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by BlueOtto ( 519047 ) on Wednesday April 24, 2002 @08:20AM (#3400477)
    When I first saw the news item, I thought they meant it was foldable so that it could be packed very small and made to be pocketsize. This is not the case. Looking at the picture, all that they used the 'foldability' for was to make it more book-like - two pages. I think that is a wasted use of the technology - they could have just as well used two LCDs to accomplish the same thing (maybe they did). Regardless, it's not anything astounding, imho.
    • It's considerably cheaper to manufacture two small screens rather than one large one. As the area of the screen increases, certain factors, such as errors in the material, dramatically increase cost.

      Personally, I like this design. It provides a comparatively large viewing area for a (hopefully) low cost. The two screens instead of one idea wouldn't work for any other device, but for a book it makes perfect sense!

      Hopefully that offensive green color won't be a problem.:)
    • This is not a foldable LCD. That would be cool, but this is not foldable. This is two LCDs mounted edge-to-edge along a hinge. I suspect the 'breakthrough' is an LCD with virtually no border (along one edge, at least), so you can put them next to each other with very little gutter. But they don't try to use it as one display; they put one page on one screen and the next page on the other, like a book. It reminds me of the LeapPad [leapfrog.com].

  • I think the only time eBooks will become mainstream is when technology allows a full colour screen to play DVD quality video, show static text, and everything else your iPod, PC, TV, Tivo, etc does.

    Can't be too far off - just look at the laptop market - 5 years back you were considered cool if you had one at all - now every bastard has at least 2!

    Why invest in a single use device? Multi use devices are on the way.
    • Can't be too far off - just look at the laptop market - 5 years back you were considered cool if you had one at all - now every bastard has at least 2!

      Oh, so that's why I don't have a laptop -- my parents were married!

  • Remember! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Captain Large Face ( 559804 ) on Wednesday April 24, 2002 @08:47AM (#3400592) Homepage

    If you fold up an eBook, do you have to remember what page you were on, or can you buy an eBookMark?

    • > If you fold up an eBook, do you have to remember what page you were on, or can you buy an eBookMark?

      You fold the corner over, duh.

      ryan

  • E-Texts are a publisher's dream and that's it (Score:3, Interesting)

    by xtal ( 49134 ) on Wednesday April 24, 2002 @08:57AM (#3400669)

    The only place these things exist are in the wild fantasies of book publishers, and maybe in the heads of the RIAA if they have sound that can be hijacked. They're just a vehicle to get strict content controls on published media.

    The only thing I reference electronically is API references and other programming documentation, and then only if it's occassional, otherwise I'll get a paper book and/or print the damn thing. I can scribble on paper. Paper never runs out of batteries. Paper is easily replaced - hard to beat a 600dpi printer and 500 sheets of paper for $5. Paper is easily readable in crummy light. I can fold paper up into bits and take it with me.

    These devices date back to the early 90's if not before then. They've never taken off, because it's damn near impossible to compete with paper. Contrary to popular belief, paper is even environmentally friendly - anyone who thinks that these gadgets are hasn't been informed about the nastiness of semiconductor manufacturing, which makes a pulp mill look pleasant. A single tree - or maybe two or three, if you use a lot - will provide a lifetime supply of paper. Burn it when you're done and plant another tree. The futility of trucking back old paper is the subject for another rant.

    E-texts make sense if you distribute the PDFs and then have them printed on demand from there - A lot of the references I use are available on PDF, and I'll print just the sections I need (and scribble all over them), and I can truck the PDF's around with me on my notebook just in case I need them. That's not the model that these guys are looking for.. and pdf's aren't going to cut it for most novels, I want something I can hold in my hand and put on my bookshelf.

    "The next generation will use these.. blah blah", is a load of hooey too. I'd rather my kids use plain old crayons and newsprint spools to scribble all over and break than one of these. Even in schools, I just can't see pouring over a monitor trying to learn something complicated - the interface just doesn't match my paws.

    Instead of wasting money on crappy e-text screens, how about peopel work on organic LEDs or other technologies that can let me afford dual 24" or 30" wide-aspect monitors for my desktop.

    • "When I was back in school, I had to lug six 3000 page textbooks up seven flights of stairs (or wait an hour for the elevator)..." will be a story I can tell my grandkids [and this story is actually true].

      If you can invent a device that allows me to eliminate waiting in line for two hours buying textbooks at the campus book store, I'll get it.

      If you have a device that will make my backpack 50 lbs. lighter, I'll get it.

      E-books are the perfect solution for high-school, college, graduate, and medical/law/professional students who are encumbered by weighty dead-tree textbooks. Forget how nice it would be to look up any word in the book in an instant, or leave marks that you can later remove, the simple fact that one small ebook can hold all of your texts (and notes) is a seller, IMHO.

      Further, there are ways that electronic texts could win over paper, mostly by leveraging their electronic advantages. Textbook authors could add some interaction to their example problems/illustrations, perhaps allowing users to step through solving them, which would be one advantage over paper texts. Second, self-tests at the back of the chapter could really be improved [over flipping to the back of the book and back for the answers]. Third, there exists the potential to display 3-dimensional models that would allow users to view complicated structures by rotating them in 3-space, which would be great for chemistry/biology/physics/medicine texts (among others, I'm sure). Add in animations, and well, I think I've made my point. Anyway, I don't think dead-tree books will go away, but ebooks could find their niche with some innovative thinking.

      Why this product fails to provide COLOR is beyond my thinking. It seems they think they have a replacement for paperbacks, and I really don't think they do. So, I agree with you wholly that this product is not targetted at the right audience, but I disagree that there isn't a market for them, and that they can't compete with paper.

      Completely unrelated: if I mention that the sales estimate is silly, do I get modded up too?

      • I'll buy some of what you're saying - lugging EE texts to school was a chore. I don't ever want to see a backpack again, actually. I stand by what I said though - an etext would be a great reference, and useful for inschool activities - assuming you had extra batteries - but when it comes to crunch time, I want my paper edition to beat on, and any of the problems I'd be working on are all going to be on paper, too. It's too hard to ballpark circuits in a cad tool.

        Ebooks -have- a niche. My point was this device isn't it. Get a notebook and a PDF browser.

    • I read e-books all the time. Sometimes I even use my laptop to read them while I am utilizing the accomodation. A cheap e-book reader which could handle a wide range of formats (at least text, lit, rtf, and pdf) would be very high on my list of purchases.

      However, to the best of my knowledge, no such beast exists. I'd have to get a sony or GRiD laptop with the flip-over screen to get the PDF capability, and that puts you well out of the price range. ($75 max, realistically. If I take it places with me, it's going to get banged up...)

    • I would venture to suggest that the main reason dedicated e-book devices haven't taken off is that there isn't all that much you can do with them other than read an e-book...and in some cases, you can't even read any e-book you want, only the ones you buy from the manufacturer. Thanks, but no thanks.

      Now PDAs, on the other hand, have a zillion uses...including e-reading. And those have shot right through the roof sale-wise, and there are apparently enough people who enjoy e-reading on them to keep at least a half-dozen major and who knows how many minor PDA-compatible or PDA-only e-book vending sites in clover.

      For instance, I've been in correspondence with Lee Fyock of PDA-only e-book site Palm Digital Literature (nee Peanut Press) [peanutpress.com], and while he can't reveal figures, he can tell me that business has been very good. Note that Peanut has been around for several years now, is adding new titles and authors constantly, and has been viewed as such a desirable property that it's been bought out not once but twice, the second time by Palm itself! That doesn't sound like strictly a publisher's dream to me.

      I don't see Peanut, or Alexlit [alexlit.com], or Fictionwise [fictionwise.com] , or Baen Webscription [webscription.net], or any of the others as being in any danger of shutting down soon. So, clearly, there's more to this e-book thing than some people seem to think.

      (Oh, and as for e-books being strictly a vehicle to impose content control, that's not necessarily entirely true either. See the Baen Free Library [baen.com], Prime Palaver #6.)
  • The picture shows a book with one page on each side of the hinge. So who cares if it's a folding screen? Might as well have two separate screens. Or is that what it really is? If so, this is misleading - I want to know if you can show one big picture and see no dividing line.
  • Anyone here old enough to remember that series of "futuristic computer" videos that Apple did in the late 80's? This thing looks just like it.

    Maury
  • I could see this being an interesting development for comic and manga artists, but as for me personally, my eyes are bad enough from the time i spend at my desktop. the last thing i need is for another computer device to replace what i do in order to get away from the computer (ie, reading a book)
  • I thought the eBook thing became commercially dead when a zillion sites started selling them and almost nobody was buying. Why are hardware manufacturers still trying to cram this down our throats when the good old paper versions are still the preferred medium?

  • I used to champion paper, but. . . (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Fantastic Lad ( 198284 ) on Wednesday April 24, 2002 @11:28AM (#3401490)
    Once I picked up an old Dell latitude for chump-change, I began toting it around the house, treating it with as much respect as a Fisher-Price toy, or one of those old Bell Rotary phones. Indestructable. --I was downloading mountains of reading material and using the thing like a book.

    It really IS convenient, cross referencing is doesn't involve stopping in the middle of a passage and then going, "Shit, I guess I have time on Tuesday to head down to the library, cuz I don't have a copy of N title."

    My only complaints with the lap top were:

    -Too heavy & awkward, buttons in the wrong place for when I'm reading on the sofa, in bed, on the toilet.

    -It's nice to have a keyboard just in case I want to take notes, but I think the awkward-value outstrips the usefulness. A keyboard should be attachable, or should fold away and be completely un-obtrusive when not in use.

    Lap tops are typically designed for maximum comfort when they sit on a table. Lounging in bed makes them really difficult. Pivot software doesn't take into account that a laptop control mechanism has a fixed physical position, (DUH! --Way to make your software 'user-friendly' guys. Hint to GUI programers: ALWAYS provide an 'advanced tab', underwhich EVERY option imaginable is provided even if those options will be of no use to 99% of users!!! The 'user-friendly' philosophy of giving the minimum number of options because of fear of confusing the computer illiterate is the single most infuriating philosophy of the last 20 years, bar none!)

    So basically, it looks like the guys over at Samsung are finally on the right track here.

    But let me make a final point:

    Just like books didn't put an end to theater, and film didn't put an end to books, and television didn't kill film, and the internet hasn't killed any of the above, digital books will NOT replace the hard copy.

    While projects like the Gutenberg are cool, they are subject to massive change and instability. On the extreme side, -as Fascist State has more than enough power to shut down the internet in an entire nation, to regulate content according to the whims of a few. A nuclear strike or a handful of comet hits could make my digi-book not work, either through an EM overload pulse, or simply by destroying the electrical power infrastructure.

    Digital Information can be great, but it requires a whole pyramid of layering support technologies, all of which must work perfectly. The pyramid needed to keep paper funtioning is much smaller and much more easily maintained. If worst comes to worst, I can make my own paper and get a bunch of clerics to hand-copy stuff with feather pens.

    I just wish that books were printed on acid-free paper. A sixty year life-span on your average sheet of typing paper is pretty lame!


    -Fantastic Lad

  • Sorry, but a folding screen is not new... They ALL fold; this is one of the first to unfold.
  • every Ebook I have found sells horribly and usually ends up in BesTBuy on clearance for 1/3rd the price and they still dont sell..

    why? the stupid content control... You want to make it impossible to copy a commercial E-BOOK fine. go ahead, but if your hardware will not let me upload my own texts, guttenberg books, or other books (Hey, maybe I want to read that Movie-script my deadbeat brother in hollywood sent me.)

    they dont, not without special hacks, cracks, Leet D00d software etc... well the general techno-public.. the people that would buy these items dont want to screw with that, and we dont want to spend $299.95 to read only your companies books.

    make an Ebook that will display and allow me to read any txt file I throw at it (rtf support would be great too!) plus read those super protected,triple key protected e-books you buy (and they better cost 1/2 the printed version plus be easily backed up by me) you might have a ebook reader that would sell.

    Until then most of us use palm pilots and the project guttenberg reader.

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