For information and discussion about Oolite.
https://bb.oolite.space/
The reason I limit it is that I would never agree to read books on an LCD display. I've tried it and it strains my eyes to no end. E-ink reads like paper and is comparable to a real book in that regard.Diziet Sma wrote:Restricting your definition of e-book reader only to devices using e-ink seems unnecessarily limiting, IMO.
True ... but the "Paperwhite" (I suppose the "Less Like A Damp Newspaper Than Before" was too long a brand nameWolfwood wrote:They did release Kindle Paperwhite after the Fire tablets and they are working on colour display e-ink readers for their next release. It seems clear that they know that avid readers would not consider reading from LCD displays, but they are serving both markets...
) isn't really a new generation - it's basically the same device with a built-in light. Colour e-ink, too, will have to come on a lot. Colour e-ink readers have been available for a good long while now, but still, no major manufacturer has taken on the technology. The real problem, as with monochrome, is white: without a good white, the colour is always going to be muddy. The fact that they haven't made any real progress with white in monochrome e-ink readers suggests to me that this is a real technological barrier. It might get broken, of course, but there may not be enough money in it to make it worthwhile: they already have excellent colour screens, for tablets, and you need light-emitting screens to show video. 
Thanks, DH, that's really interesting ... in the end I think/hope that this will be the source of Amazon's downfall (or at least its transformation into a healthier, less monopolistic sort of entity which might occasionally pay some tax). Not necessarily this project, although it looks interesting - but the speed of market change in general and the cleverness of the ideas out there.DaddyHoggy wrote:I'm on Twitter with my Writers Group and what's clear is that there are lots of projects (I don't want to say anti-Amazon so they're Alt-Amazon) springing up that will offer e-book alternatives and methodologies to the Amazon approach (the most recent is: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/as-you-read).
I may be misreading something here, but it sounds like you're describing what already exists: Amazon Marketplace.Disembodied wrote:For such a vast internet company, they seem to be welded to the 20th century. For physical goods, they act as a retailer: they buy in bulk from suppliers, have the items transported from the supplier's warehouse to their own, where they're unpacked, shelved, picked, repacked and finally sent to the customer. What they should do is act as a trusted middleman, and put suppliers and customers in touch with each other. Like eBay, they should sit in the middle and move the information, not the actual stuff, and take a cut on each transaction. This customer orders from Amazon / Amazon orders from supplier / supplier sends to Amazon / Amazon sends to customer stuff is so wasteful it hurts, leaving profit margins so razor-thin that it's barely worth anyone's while - including Amazon.
Not exactly. Most of the resellers - at least in the book trade, which is the one I know best - are not the original suppliers: they're other retailers. Where those retailers have become successful, e.g. The Book Depository, they have been bought up by Amazon and operated as subsidiaries.BuggyBY wrote:I may be misreading something here, but it sounds like you're describing what already exists: Amazon Marketplace.