[nate @ Nov 18th 2007 5:03PM]

What's this about listing battery life in hours? The beauty of e-ink is supposed to be that it's measured regardless of time and only uses power during refreshes (in this case, page turns)

[blinkcowz182 @ Nov 18th 2007 5:06PM]

It is probably that integrated ev-do card that checks for updates to blogs,
checks your email, etc that kills the battery. Still, 30 hours is
pretty good.

[jamma @ Nov 18th 2007 5:29PM]

yeah 30 hours is enough to read...one reasonably large book at a time. When it runs out, you then got home and charge it.

Alternatively, you could buy a paper book, read it, take it home when it's finished and buy another, without paying the extra $400.

Unlike music, which is listened to repeatedly by people several times, books are read once or twice, left for ages, and read again when bored.

Books also take lot longer to finish than, say ,an album for example, and thus you do not need to be carry more than one at any given time.

I really therefore cannot see the advantage of this, especially since it really isn't more portable than a book, is more fragile, and costs $400, before buying any books for it!!


someone help me understand the point please..

[max andrews @ Nov 18th 2007 6:19PM]

Well if they're smart about it they'd have two power units, one for the display and one for the EVDO stuff, so when the evdo drains the battery you can at least still read your existing books for days/weeks on end. If they allow the evdo drain the full battery rendering the device useless in 30 hours, it's a POS.

[Drew @ Nov 18th 2007 6:34PM]

Jamma hit the nail on the head. I can't possibly see how this can work. It's hard to justify spending that kind of money for something like that.

[Reader @ Nov 18th 2007 7:18PM]

Jamma, I agree with you on all points. This is probably just an attempt to get into the market first. Some day reading books like this will be more common than paper, no doubt in my mind about that. Possibly in 10 years when this thing costs 20 bucks I'll get one.

[zabador @ Nov 18th 2007 8:52PM]

@Jamma
If it were possible to get college textbooks on this thing that could be a rather interesting neiche this would be appropriate for, even at that price tag -

this semester alone i spent $700 on text books - not to mention they are heavy as hell to carry around campus so if i could have spent $400 on that and just bought each text for $30or w/e they'd charge (because lets face it, even an e-textbook is going to be sadly over priced) over the course of a single semester let alone a 3 year program the savings could rack up really quickly

[nate @ Nov 18th 2007 9:07PM]

College textbooks is an interesting idea, but it seems like it'd be hard to replace the physical aspect of thumbing through pages to review or look for a particular thing. Then again, while typing this, it occured to me that a built-in search function could be even better than just thumbing through. Interesting idea.

[Nipponese @ Nov 18th 2007 11:28PM]

Jamma, I believe the biggest advantage to this kind of product is the distribution system. You can purchase a book on the whim online and after uploading the content to your reader, immediately start reading on your reading couch. There are also many free books you can obtain online (legally) and read them on this reader. I have been reading downloaded books on my laptop but this sure beats the cumbersome experience of that.

[Jkswiss @ Nov 19th 2007 4:39AM]

I have the Sony PRS505, which, btw, looks a whole lot better than this monstrosity. Guttenberg press makes it well worth the price, as I can curl up in bed and read it just like a book. It looks just like what words look like on an inexpensive paperback novel(the background isn't that white, kinda dingy). Ebooks failed on notebooks and desktops because it hurts the eyes and who wants to curl up with a laptop or sit at a desk to read a book? Not so with these.

Hundreds and thousands of free books. Not to mention, if your so inclined, you can get more modern releases off of various sites.

[Wwhat @ Nov 19th 2007 8:04AM]

30 hours is ridiculous for an epaper device, it should be at the very least be 300 hours.

[nate @ Nov 19th 2007 6:18PM]

Yea, so, I just heard on NPR that there's an easy switch on the back for EV-DO, so that should help some, they said you should get "weeks" without it on, which is still time (doh!) but better than 30 hours ;)