The future of e-books lies with a format that's at least as easy on the eyes as paper. All of the current screen technology used is more tiring that paper, once they get something figured out that's even or better THEN e-books will take off, but not one minute before.It's coming withing the next five to ten years. All the necessary technologies exist in the lab and will eventually be perfected. LED displays that can be printed on flexible sheets, transparant LED displays -- all things that need no backlight.
And the kicker will be scalable fonts for us ageing baby boomers. Instant large type.
I suspect that audio readers are coming in five to ten years. I suspect that it just a matter of time before there is a standardized format for encoding voice inflections. Famous actors will then licence their voices to "read" any book published in the encoded format.
If I had a dollar for everytime somebody said something cool was "coming within the next five to ten years" I wouldn't have to work. Wired had a story on some cool e-paper that was supposed to usher in e-books YEARS ago. Whatever the technology is when it gets here I'll check it out, but I'm not believing any predictions about something coming in "five to ten years".
I am a pre-boomer ('43), and had an ebook reader, and enjoyed it, but found it limiting. So, abandoned it for the Palm515, and love that. Easy to hold in bed, and read when dh is asleep, and I am not...
I find downloading much easier, and have the choice to read on my computer screen or my palm.
But!!! I love to listen to books on my iPod as well. This leaves me free to sew, knit, cook, quilt, etc... I also find that since I am too fast a reader, that listening forces me to slow down, and concentrate on details that I otherwise might have missed. I aslo can listen to books in bed when I have trouble sleeping, without disturbing my husband, and find that it makes it easier to go back to sleep, by taking my mind of my stuff, and listening to a really good yarn!
Again, when downloading an audible book, you can also listen over the speakers on your computer, and several members of the family can listen together... and another option is the ability to burn the books to cds, so you can listen to them on any cd player...
Any of you interested please go to the following link and sign up. You can download free software to listen to an audible book, and they have listening devices that can be purchased through them. A week or so back, I think they were offering a $100 discount on an iPod.
Any freeper here who signs up and puts my user name down in the proper spot helps this lil ol granma out a lot, and if you stay signed up for 3 months, it really helps! Sp, please do not forget to put in my user name, which is the same as here...
jacquej
and the link?
http://www.audible.com/adbl/store/welcome.jsp