Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

How to Survive the Next Wave of Technology Extinction
New York Times ^ | 02/13/2014 | Farhad Manjoo

Posted on 02/13/2014 5:47:26 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Don’t mock the beleaguered Nook owner. That could have been you.

Five years ago, when the nation’s largest chain of bookstores released an e-reader that it promised would best Amazon’s Kindle, could you blame the poor souls who bought in to Barnes & Noble’s vision of the future? In 2011, Consumer Reports proclaimed the Nook the best e-reader in the land, saying it surpassed the Kindle in just about every way. Well, that sounds pretty definitive, doesn’t it? No wonder your aunt bought you one for Christmas.

Things haven’t played out well since. After failing to douse Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble has spent the last year refashioning its Nook strategy, and with its recent reductions in e-reader staff, the Nook’s end looks nigh. If you own a Nook, the fate of your books may now be up in the air. Sorry, you bet on the wrong horse.

The Nook’s fate isn’t unusual these days. Technologies have always gone belly up, but tech extinctions may become even more common over the next few years. We’re living through an exhilarating and mystifying time in the tech business, when every established brand and business model — from the Windows PC to the whole idea of selling software and hardware for a profit — is suddenly under assault.

Today, five behemoths — Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft — plus a dizzying array of start-ups are competing to win every dollar and minute you spend in tech. While each of these companies offers differing sets of technologies sold under widely varying business models, they all share a common feature — trying to hook you deeply into an ecosystem of interconnected technologies.

The trouble arises when you are sold on a tech ecosystem that doesn’t prosper.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: obsolescense; technology
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 last
To: SeekAndFind

Book are collectables e-readers are a sos that will die over time.


41 posted on 02/13/2014 9:21:14 AM PST by Vaduz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: woodbutcher1963
My wife has an IPAD, it almost never gets used anymore. She also has a desktop and my son has a laptop.

I have an iPad 1 that I have used for several years. Most of my reading is still done with books, as I read a lot of non-fiction history stuff with maps, etc. However, I do have a lot of books on my iPad that can be read with the Kindle, Nook or iBooks apps. I also read digital comic books on it. I like the iPad for comics because it is almsot the size of a regular comic book. I also use if for most of my surfing like you do with your Kindle. I can surf in bed, sitting ouside enjoying a cigar, etc.

42 posted on 02/13/2014 10:34:25 AM PST by Sans-Culotte (Psalm 14:1 ~ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
buy a turntable and some records

Don't forget to buy a stash of needles that are compatible with that turntable. <^..^>

43 posted on 02/13/2014 10:39:04 AM PST by grania
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: CJ Wolf

I have found many older books already falling apart. Bindings dry out, pages become brittle and foxed, cover boards warp. Paperbacks decay faster. Store them in an outbuilding and they will mold.

All my eBooks are also online and I can access them even when my Kindle is not working because I spilled coffee on it. If I once bought a paper book from Amazon, I can now also download a digital copy for free.

I buy thrift shop and clearance books now so I have something to read in the tub and pool, where I cannot take my eReader. I then give them to someone else or toss them.

I was once avidly pro-dead tree and lukewarm on digital. Now, it has reversed.

It is just the same process I went through with writing. I will never willingly go back to a typewriter, even a *smart* one. Even if I could still find ribbons for them. I love word processors. They are superior to every other form of writing and I have been writing for 60 years. I can barely even read the handwritten things from way back when. Not just due to the handwriting, the paper has decayed.


44 posted on 02/13/2014 10:45:15 AM PST by reformedliberal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: PieterCasparzen

Would you take your computer to the beach?

Right tool for the job I say. A kindle paperwhite fits in cargo pocket shorts, doesn’t mind a little sand and is perfectly readable in full sun, even if you are wearing polarized glasses.

The only device I have not found a purpose for are general use tablets, I have another device that does what ever function better.


45 posted on 02/13/2014 11:05:13 AM PST by dangerdoc (I don't think you should be forced to make the same decision I did even if I know I'm right.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
I've had a nook color since they first came out. As an electronic book, it works really well. I've liked it and been really pleased how it has held up over the years. On the other hand, I just got a new tablet, and it wasn't a Nook HD. Why? Well, I wanted it to have more capabilities, than just being a book. Also, my old nook couldn't read kindle books. At all. The only way to get the kindle app installed on my nook was to root the thing, and all the hassels that entails. So, when I was looking at upgrading, I could have purchased a Nook HD, because from what I understand, it does allow you to install the Kindle app.

The main reason I didn't is because I just don't have a whole lot of faith that B&N is going to be supporting this device even just 3 years from now. Who the hell knows what will happen to the online store, and the books I've purchased there? Fortunately, the "encryption" on the Nook epubs is trivial to crack, so I've been able to convert all my purchases to epubs that can be read on any device, so I won't lose anything if they decide to pull the plug on the nook or the nook app. (BTW, the nook app doesn't work worth a damn on my new tablet).

If anyone is looking for a Nook Color that's in great shape, freepmail me. :-)

46 posted on 02/13/2014 11:30:39 AM PST by zeugma (Is it evil of me to teach my bird to say "here kitty, kitty"?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Flycatcher

You need to move to Arizona. We never change our clocks because the world is always on OUR time...


DST is just a tool to herd sheeple .....


47 posted on 02/13/2014 1:44:53 PM PST by S.O.S121.500 (Had Enough Yet ?............................ Enforce the Bill of Rights............ It's the LAW !!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I got a Sony Reader so I sympathize with Nook owners.


48 posted on 02/13/2014 4:04:33 PM PST by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dangerdoc

Personally for me, regardless of “where”, I only have use for a whole, normal computer.

I could buy a “ruggedized” computer if I was going to be in the mud, sand, snow, etc. But I don’t have use for that.

I don’t want a special purpose ‘puter. All I do is program and surf the web for programing and some other tings like news, weather, FR, reading stuff.

I also can’t stand small screens and I need a full keyboard, so to me the netbook size is as tiny as I can go.

just me, tho.


49 posted on 02/13/2014 5:45:07 PM PST by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: PieterCasparzen

Dear PieterCasparzen,

The article devoted itself to the devices used and sold to read books, only.

I retorted in kind. An electronic device to read digitized print is by no means a BOOK! They have a shelf life of a battery, in that the market moves onto the next ‘reading gadget’, leaving you and your device in the dust, in the time for an AA battery, these days, to lose power.

I don’t care about your ipad. I won’t spend the money on one. I am a retired journalist of the printed word, and a published short story writer, first draft in ink. I was first published in 1964.

(*) Yes, my question was a serious one. Books cannot discharge their nonexistent electrical supply; fall, break and shatter the life of the human from whose hands it slipped, and memories gone; books cannot be superceded - ask any Christian, Jew, or insane Mohammedan, but not a Jehovah’s Witness - in their confusion, they thought it better to write their own, therefore fallable.

Good night!

I was doing fine without a (*) smartphone, until the phone company dropped the sort of signal I was using to communicateErgo, that was my ‘battery life experience’.


50 posted on 02/13/2014 7:27:54 PM PST by Terry L Smith
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Nook HD+ is a good product, especially if you don’t need anything with camera. Check its specification, and compare that with other tablets. You wont find anything better with its screen size and resolution. Note I only talk about HD+, not the regular B&W Nook. B&N decided to focus themselves on the book-side of the business rather than on the technological side. They will still have Nook but will have somebody else made it for them. And it’s not the first time a good product becomes victim of bad company policy.


51 posted on 02/14/2014 12:20:45 AM PST by paudio (Liberals teach Whites about guilt and shame much better than Christian churches do...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: paudio

Someone needs to figure a way to install Linux on it. lol


52 posted on 02/14/2014 12:22:01 AM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Terry L Smith

Sorry if that sounded like I was “anti-book”, which I’m not.

I had to trace back here to figure out who was replying to what (after getting some sleep).

Yes, I’m with you - I included you on my post #39 to support you !

My personal feeling is books are always there, as you say. Then, when it comes to ‘puters, I want full control over any machine that I buy.


53 posted on 02/14/2014 7:49:26 AM PST by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: discostu

Calibre lets you strip DRM, make backups, restore to device, convert formats. Very useful app.


54 posted on 02/15/2014 12:48:56 AM PST by Fire_on_High (RIP City of Heroes and Paragon Studios, victim of the Obamaconomy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: PieterCasparzen

Dear PieterCasparzen.
(Every time, since the 1980’s version of “Dune” made the screen, I hear ‘Pieter’ and i get that guy with those huge eyebrows in mind.)

As you wrote:
“Sorry if that sounded like I was “anti-book”, which I’m not.

I had to trace back here to figure out who was replying to what (after getting some sleep).

Yes, I’m with you - I included you on my post #39 to support you !

My personal feeling is books are always there, as you say. Then, when it comes to ‘puters, I want full control over any machine that I buy.”

Thank you, and I agree, on computer/laptop/tablet full control.
.


55 posted on 02/18/2014 11:09:09 AM PST by Terry L Smith
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-55 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson