e-readers
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The Web Isn’t Nirvana (But You Can Get All Their Albums For Free)
On February 26, 1995, just about twenty years ago, Newsweek published an article by Clifford Stoll called “Why the Internet Won’t Be Nirvana.” In it, Stoll provides a litany of faults to be found in the nascent web. Although there’s…
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Reading Incompetent
Are we right to be nostalgic for a time before the internet when we could just read? Katy Waldman, writing for Slate, wonders if we might be misremembering things. I also realize, typing this confession of pathological distractibility, that I may…
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E-Reader App Roundup
Sure you love old-fashioned books, but sometimes they’re too bulky to carry on the bus, or you don’t want to devote valuable bookshelf real estate to something you’re not sure you’ll like. For those times, there are e-readers—or, when your…
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The Biological Challenges of E-Readers
Traditionalists agree: There’s just something about good old-fashioned paper-and-glue books that e-readers can’t recreate. According to this Scientific American article, that “something” may be the way our brain processes written words as physical objects in “a kind of physical landscape.” Although…
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How to Look Like You’re Reading Something Smart on the Bus
You’re a reasonable reader. You like the aesthetics of an old-fashioned paper-and-glue book, but you’re not averse to turning the virtual pages of an e-reader either. If that description sounds like you, here’s a DIY project you might like: making…
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A Library Without Books
This should be interesting: a judge in San Antonio, Texas, is opening a library without books. Or rather, there will be books, but only digital ones, which patrons can read on e-readers in the library or at home. Since “[t]he…
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Books Are Greener Than E-Readers
“One e-reader requires the extraction of 33 pounds of minerals. That includes trace amounts of exotic metals like columbite-tantalite, often mined in war-torn regions of Africa. But it’s mostly sand and gravel to build landfills; they hold all the waste…
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Notes on E-books and Readers
The big news this week was the iPad announcement, including the tech-world’s dismissal of it. (Fraser Speirs addresses that nicely.) But there’s a lot more happening in the world of e-books. For example, NASA just opened an e-book section and…
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Error Correction or Information Control?
Great piece by Anthony Gottlieb over at The Economist on one potentially big upside for e-readers over books–the ability to correct errors in real time, without the expense of pushing out a new set of copies. From a purely fiscal…