Word: e-book
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...Adam R. Gold’s Nov. 30 comment on the Amazon Kindle e-book reader (“Stick to Harcover”), he glosses over the biggest problem with the new gadget. All books that are bought through the Amazon store—which is, of course, the only practical way to read full books at all on the device—come crippled with DRM (Digital Rights Management Software). This is the same type of software that is included on most tracks purchased through the iTunes Music Store. This is “copy protection?...
...fair, Bezos deserves a lot of credit. In giving the e-book a facelift, his team made some impressive improvements that put Kindle light-years ahead of its predecessors...
...most basic improvement is its screen: Just like sitting in front of the computer all day, reading on previous e-book readers was a surefire way to get a headache. Kindle’s cutting-edge “e-paper” screen dispenses with the problem, reflecting light the same way as ink on paper. The ability to download books over the Internet directly from the machine (as opposed to connecting to a computer to get new content) also means that getting new books is even easier than using the library...
...also a pain. The oversized page-turn buttons make it difficult to touch without paging halfway through your summer reading. Copy protection also makes it difficult, and in some cases pricey, to get books you already own on and off of your machine. PDF support is nearly nonexistent. And though Kindle’s 90,000 book selection is an improvement over past e-book readers, it is tiny relative to Amazon’s inventory (or Widener’s, for that matter...
...principle, of course, e-books are good for society—they save trees and promote reading in a trendy, new gadget form (particularly necessary for a generation already more comfortable reading newspapers online than in print.) It can’t be long before this form of reading catches on in a big way, especially as the range of books available in e-book form broadens. But even if the market does take off soon, Kindle won’t be leading...