[LINK] Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing ?Nook? E-Reader

[Craig Sanders]

On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 04:38:50PM +0200, Kim Holburn wrote:

> [...] and B&N I assume know exactly what you've bought from them.  So
> much for privacy.

that's one of the biggest concerns to me.  and it probably "phones
home" with a list of all installed documents, whether purchased
from B&N or not.

> Nice reader though.  I wonder if you can put other e-books on it (non-
> Barnes & Noble books) like for instance books from the public domain
> and read them?

it supports epub and pdf formats, so yes.

and, like others in the field, they have a huge library of free
PD e-texts.

> http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/barnes-nobles-kindle-killing-dual-screen-nook-e-reader-leaked/

it's a LOT more tempting than the kindle.

i'd like an e-book reader, but i'm still going to wait for another
generation or two. preferably something based around the open-source
OpenInkpot[1] software - Then i can be sure that the device is working
for my benefit alone, and not acting as a spy for some corporation, and
that installed documents won't just be deleted as with the recent fiasco
with Orwell's 1984 on the Kindle, and if it can happen for commercial
reasons it could also happen because some government issued an order to
Amazon, B&N, or whoever to auto-delete (or worse, subtly alter) files
matching the hash value of documents from, say, wikileaks.


[1] http://openinkpot.org/


i'd also prefer to have one without all the built-in comms, just a USB
interface...i don't need constant wireless access to the internet or
phone network in an e-book reader, and i want all communication with the
outside world (with e-book shops and the device's manufacturer, etc) to
be under my control, to happen only when I initiate it, and only sending
the information I choose to send.


I also think that $9.99 US for an e-book is too much for a virtual
product. the author needs to be paid for writing and the publisher
needs to be paid for editing and paying advances to the authors etc,
but the majority of the cost of a physical book is the printing,
shipping, and storage costs, as well as the markup for 2 or 3 layers of
middle-men...and even with all that, the average physical book costs
around $15-$25 new.

and that's for a physical object you can hold in your hands and do
whatever you want with - read, lend, give away, sell, even toss it on a
bon-fire.

with all that eliminated, i can't see any reason why an e-book should
cost even $5.


craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>