e-ink and... DRM by Sony

[PA]

Eyes still favor paper over a screen. But maybe not for long, with such tehcnology as e-ink. The first commercial eBook (I'm talking hardware here) with an e-ink screen is finally out! Only... you can use it only to read Sony's own DRM-protected PDF files. A whooping choice of 400. Not only that, but those who compared DRM to renting are finally made right, as those files disappear from the eBook 60 days after you "bought" them (for about $2 apiece).

http://www.dottocomu.com/b/archives/002571.html

Crap. I was really waiting for the first e-ink eBook to get out. But as it stands, obviously, it's completely useless. Happily, Sony doesn't own the technology, so we'll see better in the future. Light as it is, and working on 4 AA batteries at it does, it could make for the ultimate RPG tool, among other things.

Could.

 

[Cergorach]

First of, this is an old article (2 months), second the source code of this little beauty is available on the sony site and it's linux driven. What does that mean, sony made the hardware, we are free to develop our own software...

One problem though, i can't find this thing outside of japan, or on a site that's in english and sells to people in europe... *sigh*

 

[Turanil]

Eyes still favor paper over a screen. But maybe not for long, with such tehcnology as e-ink. The first commercial eBook (I'm talking hardware here) with an e-ink screen is finally out! Only... you can use it only to read Sony's own DRM-protected PDF files. A whooping choice of 400. Not only that, but those who compared DRM to renting are finally made right, as those files disappear from the eBook 60 days after you "bought" them (for about $2 apiece).

Self destructing PDF files that you paid 2$ (that is, the price of a novel book when you don't count the paper and printing costs) is totally RIDICULOUS. It's even insulting for the customer. Sony will not bring this robbery to Heaven (I mean: the heavens of capitalism where you get millions of dollars). Nonetheless, still a couple of years, and we will get such hardware able to read not only PDF, but any sort of file.

Nonetheless, you gave me a valid reason to NEVER BUY ANY PRODUCT FROM SONY!!

 

[trancejeremy]

I think for ebooks to hit it big, they'll have to be supported somehow in a handheld gaming machine. But I'm not sure how likely that is, because if you can send ebooks to it, you'll likely be leaving open a doorway for pirates to exploit.

 

[PA]

I think for ebooks to hit it big, they'll have to be supported somehow in a handheld gaming machine. But I'm not sure how likely that is, because if you can send ebooks to it, you'll likely be leaving open a doorway for pirates to exploit.

Nowadays, in Japan, few people have a digital camera because their cell-phones fullfill that fonction (and the quality is good enough to satisfy most needs). So yeah, all the same, I can see a handheld game machine fulfill other functions. But right now, e-ink is only in black and white, and the refresh rate is waaay too slow for games; on the other hand, it's second only to paper as far as readability is concerned. So I'd rather bet on e-ink helping to make eBooks popular, above all if they manage to mix them with PDAs, by improving on the refresh rate.

And we need a dicebot, of course.

 

[Hypersmurf]

This isn't really a General RPG topic, so I'll shift it to the Off-Topic Forum.

-Hyp.
(Moderator)