What is the future of eBooks? 6

[ebook88]

A few questions first:
What do you think is the future of eBooks?
How do you think it will benefit or probably cause problems in our lives?
Do you think it will be the next IT revolution, why?
How can IT professionals benefit from eBooks other than reading novels?
I'll appreciate your replies!

According to a newspaper report in HK, e-Texbooks will be launched in China this September where about 3 million students from Primary and Secondary schools will benefit from this initial project.

 

[svanels]

Photocells won't work either in the artic, because the days are short and the nights are long. Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr

 

[ebook88]

The days are much longer during summer - but I was thinking about the temperature.(It was kind of silly what I had suggested - for nobody's going to read out in the desert or in the icy cold weather of the Artic. I was thinking about Cameras when I wrote that. )I was thinking that many electronic stuff don't work at extreme temperatures.

Anyway, for normal use, photocells can extend the life of batteries. People can only read when there's light. And that light can be used to power the batteries. I don't know how that would work but if calculators can run on light, probably, future eBook devices can also. eBook88: Guide to Electronic Publishing

http://www.ebook88.com

 

[Sleidia]

Hello.

I haven't read the whole thread (sorry), but what I want
to say is that e-books are unbeatable on two points:

1) you can bring hundreds of them with you where ever you go.
2) You can find (ctrl-f) any word/sentance in milliseconds
compared to books.

Thus, e-books are a gain of time & space.
The problem is that nobody knows how to sell them and
that e-books devices are not fully available yet.
Once those two conditions are fullfiled, the explosion
will start.
I hate to brings my books with me when I travel. It's so heavy. I wish all books are available in pdf format really soon.

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[petermeachem]

I haven't read all of this huge thread, but I do get the distinct impression that there is a tiny bit of advertising going on.
I wouldn't dream of doing anything of the sort of course. Peter Meachem
peter@accuflight.com

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[ebook88]

Thank you Sleida and petermeachem for your points.

Quote:"I haven't read all of this huge thread, but I do get the distinct impression that there is a tiny bit of advertising going on.
I wouldn't dream of doing anything of the sort of course." petermeachem, please be a little more specific - if you have read the whole thread, you would have noticed that there are more negative feedbacks about eBooks than positive ones - and some came from me as well.

eBook88: Guide to Electronic Publishing

http://www.ebook88.com

 

[shiningblade]

Peter,

I think ebook88 is right. You are going to have to be more specific about the tiny bit of advertising going on. I cannot see it at all, it must be buried beneath the whole lot of advertising going on. ;-)

Jude

 

[aexley]

Have just read a fair portion of this thread and would like to add my own thoughts.

Just going back to the comments on eBooks in the Artic or throwing one across the room and even the comment about eyestrain. I believe that these are just simple (in terms of straightforward and well defined) technical issues. We all know that materials and technology are advancing all the time and I don't think it's unrealistic to assume that it won't be too long before 'shatter-proof' really means 'drop off a building and it still works'. Isn't just a case of as yet uninvented construction methods and materials? Maybe I'm projecting too far into the future and I've underestimated our technological capabilities but I don't think so. The same goes for battery life and tired eyes. These are technological issues that will probably have to be resolved before eBooks could ever hope to replace pBooks.

I don't think that we are so attached to paper as to not be able to discard it in 90% of our reading lives. We once used scrolls you know.

 

[GrafSpee]

True, paper has a very, very long legacy dating back to ancient Sumeria. Now we are trying to kill it off with one new technology? It's not going to happen, at least for a while.

Paper has been proven. I believe that vinyls were used as an example; how long were vinyls used, or cassettes for that matter? Very short periods of time. Look at how quickly they were replaced! Paper is one of the few things that you cannot improve upon.

Who uses paper? Everyone in the world! How many people in the world have computers? A small, elite portion, that's who. eBooks are for an even smaller, more select portion.

How long will it take eBooks to fully catch on in the US? 20-50 years. The world? 100+ years.

 

[svanels]

I fully subscribe the statements of GrafSpee, for us who are daily working with computers it are trivial things, but most people in the world have never touched a computer.
Two years my company existed 20 years, and as an aniversary gift every employee could buy a computer financed by the company with cd-writer, dvd 17" screen etc.
I still get calls like "the status bar disappeared" because the kids meshed with the computer, or the speakers are not working animore (mute). Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr

 

[aexley]

Thank you svanels and Grafspee for your comments and I have to say I agree with you both on certain points. Yes, our love of paper goes back an awfully long way. You mention cassette and vinyl as technologies that tried and failed to replace paper. What I would say is that these technologies failed because the advantages they had over paper were minimal and the technology required to use them was unwieldy. I am not necessarliy arguing for eBooks in their current form. What I am trying to put forward is that the concept of portable electronic media, with all the features that have been mentioned previously, replacing paper is not only feasible but, all other things being equal, inevitable.

On svanels point I would say that this too is only a matter of time. You're right a large proportion of the planetary population has never touched a computer but I would hazard a guess that over 95% of the planet has either seen or heard of one. 50 years ago most people didn't have a car but they would have heard of it.

A more-or-less free-market civilisation, such as we have (for better or worse), can only move forward and an inevitable result of this is that those who do not possess something today may do tommorrow. It's just a matter of time.

 

[carlow]

I think that like with all It things a lot of fuzz goes around and afterwards the people who invented the technology will be surprised of the use the customer will give to their inventiion. Take the succes of sms with the gsm portable phones.

I agree with all the people who say that paper will have a long live. But in a lot of fields the ebook technology and in my view especially the pdf based ebooks with a good and user friendly interface will have a certain future. Specially when I think of study books, Business to Business communication, and so on. What the real future of ebooks will be is very depending of the spreading of the technology. If the technology is spread and people get accustomed with it, the use and the possibilities will follow.

grillhouse

 

[ebook88]

Thank you so much to everybody who have taken time to respond to this question! Many interesting aspects, pros cons of eBooks have being brought up in this discussion which I couldn't have imagined. What about the technical aspects of eBooks? If you have used one yourself, how do you feel it could be improved (the technology side)?

Thank you once more for your time and contributions!!


eBook88: Guide to Electronic Publishing

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