Samsung shows off e-book readers you can doodle on
Digital marginalia
CES 2010 Samsung briefly whipped out its alternatives to Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader: the E6 and E101 e-book readers, both of which not only offer wireless connectivity but can be used as notepads too.
Screen size separates the E6 from the E101: the former has a 6in E Ink panel, the latter a 10in one. Both also sport stereo speakers built into a slide-out panel that is also home to the device's navigation controls - well, beyond the two page-turn buttons on the front.
There's a slip-out electromagnetic resonance stylus too, which allows you to scribble notes and drawings - or rub them out, if you flip the pen round.
Wireless support extends to 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0.
Samsung said it will release the two e-book readers in the US in "early 2010", and we hear that they'll arrive in the UK in March. We can't say how much they'll cost when they do but, as a guide, US punters will pay $399 (£249) for the E6 and $699 (£437) for the E101. ®
COMMENTS
Yes, make it cheap
There's non need for manufacturers of ebooks to charge huge amounts for the basic device, as the income model will be on the continuing sale of books.
I'd rush out and buy one if they were cheap enough, < £100, and not £99.99.
The problem is.....
A lot of these companies dont seam to realise that the best and i mean best ereader they could make has the following specs
Thin
Light
Big screen (at least same size as a standard paperback book)
Easy to use menu
Minimal buttons(On/Off, Back, forward, up-down-left-right, confirm, cancel, menu) Think like a game controller
SD card slot or similar
And that's it, no flashy touch screen, colour or sound. No wifi or connectivity. No flashy tech at all you no basic...like a BOOK
o yea and make it cheap
Any company that makes that ereader will take over the market, hint hint to anyone reading this that is in that industry.
Some people want a simple electronic book not a tablet, not a pda, not a multimedia device just a simple electronic book.
Someone will get the idea eventually and they will take off.
One born every minute
So the cheap one costs the same as about 50 books*. And I have to pay to download the books. And I can't read it if if there's bright sunshine on the screen. And it has batteries which will go flat. And I can't buy a new book if I'm somewhere with no internet connection. In what way is this useful?
*or 500 books bought from a charity shop
One more feature...
be able to open a book from any source, amazon, B&N, waterstones, PDF whatever.
The book may be dying, but these devices ain't pullin the trigger...
I still stand by my prediction that these e-readers won’t catch on, beyond the early adopter levels. They're too low-tech. However, I do think that in the near future, someone (probably Apple) will no doubt soon release a tablet to beat all tablets (I’ll probably camp out overnight again like I did for my iPhone). The trick with these things, much like The Guardian has recently proved with its iPhone app, is it’s all about the user interface.
For the reproduction of both books and newspapers on electronic devices, the key for designers is to not re-create the same interface that the reader has with paper. That is impossible. Paper feels too good. It’s too tactile, too romantic. Instead the only way to beat paper is to make the interface more fun, more interactive. Readers need to prefer digital to paper. Environmental concerns won’t cut it here.
I blogged about it at (see link below) earlier today. I don't think any of these devices will become at all mainstream, but I do believe that an all singing, all dancing device will replace paper eventually.
It's just got to be more interesting than paper, not try to replicate it. The doodle feature is a step in the right direction, but too small a step at that...
http://www.chameleonpr.com/2009/12/17/the-newspaper-is-dead-long-live-the-news/
