February 20 2010 • 9:49 AM
By:
Mike Rankin
Tools of Change Warm-up II: E-Readers, E-Textbooks, and E-Bibles
As I pack my suitcase for the trip to New York and the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference, I am already getting a bit overwhelmed (or is it e-verwhelmed?) with the amount of cool stuff flowing into my inbox, Twitter feed, etc. Here’s a trio of interesting articles on e-books/e-readers:
The Boston Phoenix shows how e-Bibles are some of the most dynamic and interactive e-books/apps available, incorporating chat, translations, maps, etc.
Dailyfinance.com looks at the potential of the iPad to finally bring widespread digital textbook adoption to colleges and universities.
WIRED has its list of the 5 Things That Will Make E-Readers Better in 2010.
That’s it for now, gotta go find my e-toothbrush.
With HP (and others) looking to undercut Apple’s pricing while having more & better features in their slates than the iPad, Apple can only become responsible for widespread adoption of slates if they overshadow the competition marketing-wise.
That said, I think that as long as the screens aren’t too shiny (unlike most recent notebook screens with their high-gloss finish) all slates should be great for reading. Just look at how much time we spend reading on the web each day, and hardly anybody complains about eye strain now.
E-readers won’t go away, but if slate manufacturers (including Apple) do this right, e-readers will need to seriously drop in price if they are to survive rather than become (stay?) a niche product.