I’m writing this post from an iPad, I’ll write a longer comment about the sustainability problems and possibilities of this device. But I wanted to make a short entry on my experience of using it as an ereader (electronic reading is one of my interests).
Positive:

• The screen is gorgeous, the colors crisp and the viewing angle is good. The size is perfect for documents.
• Interactivity allows to do things as searching an unknown word in the dictionary, or copy it to your notes program.
• iBook program and store are neat and easy to use.

Negative:

• The screen is a normal light-emitting and it’s too tiring for comfortable long time reading
• It’s quite heavy and difficult to hold in one hand, for instance for reading in bed.
• Having internet allows multitasking and makes focusing in reading more difficult.

So after some use it confirms the expectations I had: the iPad is perfect for reading magazines in color and articles and documents. That together with the text editor and email make it a killer education/work device. But for reading books, the e-ink based devices as the Sony or the kindle are still the best option.

As seen in timesonline (via engadget) asus confirmed the release of a cheap double sided e-reader. Would it be an explosion as the netbooks? In the picture it can be seen that it have color screens and in the article is mentioned: Whereas current ebook readers have monochrome screens, the Asus would be full colour. It doesn’t specify which type of screen technology, but if it isn’t e-ink or equivalent it just misses the whole point of an e-reader! Without it it is not comfortable to read a whole 1000 pages book on it, nor sit outside in full sun. I will call this a tablet optimized for web reading, but maybe it’s probably the beginning of hybrid reading devices. Let’s see how it keeps developing.

Amazon has presented a 9.7″ e-reader, an optimal size for reading PDF documents and newspapers / magazines.

Of course, as the smaller Kindle, it cannot be connected to a computer and rely on the wireless network to get the documents. And working in USA only. So I still do not see it as a solution for researchers / professionals.

More on my opinions on the future of reading.

Via Engadget

Picture from Wired.

Wired has made a worth reading review of the new Kindle version, with a 8 over 10 and quotes as “Kindle 2 brings books closer to e-nirvana”

I really like the concept of the kindle, and the fact that it’s computer-independent. I think that’s the trend to watch for, the internet of things. Going mobile without actually needing a computer behind.

My ideas about e-reading

Pattern Recognition, originally uploaded by It’s a mobile world.

People usually ask if I have adapted to read electronically, it seems to look like a big step to leave paper behind.
But my opinion is the advantages are so big that the reverse adaptation is more difficult. I have loaned Pattern Recognition from William Gibson from the library, a book I wanted to read for some time. And well, it is heavy, I get tired of holding it, I can not take it with me for commuting (I could but I would it’s not that easy), I lost the bookmark at night and have to look again the page I was reading.. Well at least is from the library so I don’t need to take it with me in the next moving..

On the other side, the most negative aspect of electronic books I have found is the impossibility of sharing with your friends and family. Now just because there are not so many people using e-readers and then because copyright protections. I miss that social aspect of sharing literature objects.

Well, it seems that this blog is just about electronic readers, I’m sorry about that! but there are so many exciting news about it recently.

Recently I was talking about a e-reader adapted to academic needs, A4 documents and so on. Here it comes, by Plastic Logic supposedly early in 2009.

Who doesn’t want one? Our offices would look so much nicer without all the paper “kipple“…

Seen in NYT regarding its newspaper capabilities. Also tipped by Björn Hedin, regarding its academic possibilities.

I have seen a lot of news in mainstream newspapers about e-paper lately, a good sign, it seems that new readers as the Kindle are breaking the e-reading curse. The last new I read in El Pais (via Tech Crunch) is that Amazon is planning an oversized version of their Kindle for textbooks. Schools and universities are the more obvious application area for e-readers in my opinion. Heavy textbooks with a limited use time, kilos of printed articles. Think the environmental benefit of one kindle vs all the textbooks any kind of student (university, high school, primary,…) needs. A possible LCA study, anyone?

I will keep an eye on this. I read most articles in my Sony Reader, but the transformation from PDF A4 to the reader size is not optimal, neither its horizontal view is. Personally I think that a specific reader for the academic environment would be a killer device for the electronic paper.

Reading in the sun, originally uploaded by It’s a mobile world.

I’ve owned a sony e-reader for more than half a year now. Keeping the content in electronic format is one of the ideas for a more sustainable lifestyle, and electronic readers can greatly reduce  the paper consumption from newspapers, novels, office documents…
I’ll be posting my experiences with reading without books, the benefits and the problems that need to be solved.
But as a teaser, a picture in bright sun of the reflective e-ink screen compared with a regular LCD screen.