-Caveat Lector- >From Slate.CoM > > > browser > > I Have Read the Future: At dinner. In a taxi. On the > john. With my electronic book. > > By Jacob Weisberg > > > Since the launch of Slate nearly three years ago, we've > joked about how you'd know when online magazines were > ready for mass consumption. It would be when you could > take them, like print magazines, to the bathroom. Well, > I'm here to tell you: I've read Slate on the john. > > Among the other places I have been reading Slate, > Salon, an electronic version of the Wall Street > Journal, and the e-texts of various novels and short > stories, in last couple of weeks: > > Aloud to my wife in a car at night > In a taxi, again at night > While brushing my teeth > On a plane without an overhead light > Standing on the subway > In bed > While eating Chinese food with chopsticks > > These are situations in which reading is ordinarily > either awkward or impossible. They present no > challenge, however, to my new favorite gizmo, the > Rocket eBook. I'm not what you would call an early > adopter when it comes to consumer electronics. I don't > have a DVD player, an MP3 player, or a Palm Pilot. But > I'm ready to blow $499 on a Rocket as soon as I have to > send my demo model back. This chunky little device, > which weighs just under a pound and a half, actually > deserves that overused epithet "revolutionary," because > it has the power to change something as basic to human > civilization as the way people read. > > A lot has happened since I wrote about e-books and > libraries last fall. You can now actually buy two > different models. One is the Softbook, which at $299 > appears less expensive than the Rocket but actually > costs more because you must commit to spending $479 on > books over two years as part of the package. The > Softbook is a writing-tablet-size screen with a leather > cover that gives off what someone must have imagined to > be the musty scent of an old book (but is actually the > smell of a new shoe). The Softbook's one big advantage > is that you don't need a PC to use it. You buy books > directly from Softbook and download them into the > reader via a phone line. But the Softbook has two big > disadvantages. The first is that it's poorly designed. > The screen is hard to read, navigating text is clumsy, > and the whole device has an unbalanced feel. The second > drawback is it doesn't work. After reading a bit of > preloaded text--The Sea Wolf, by Jack London--I > couldn't download anything else, and my Softbook soon > purged its preloaded content as well. The only other > person I know who has a Softbook reports a similar > failure. > > By contrast, the Rocket, which is made by a Silicon > Valley start-up called NuvoMedia, is ergonomically > sound, with the pleasing heft of a folded-over > paperback. The screen is superb, and you get a choice > of large or small print as well as a variety of > lighting settings. You can orient the text horizontally > or vertically and position the grip for left- or > right-handed use. And because it doesn't need to be > held open, you can read the Rocket one-handed. In fact, > you can even prop it up and read no-handed if you're > eating something greasy or shaving. All you need is one > clean finger to click the "forward" and "back" buttons > that move the text a page at a time. The battery lasts > for some 30 hours before needing to be recharged. And > while the process of getting stuff to read on the > Rocket is a bit involved, it actually works remarkably > well. First, you load the Rocket software onto your PC. > Second, you register your eBook and get an ID and a > password. Third, you go to the Barnes & Noble Web site, > which is (but won't be for long) the exclusive > distributor of Rocket-formatted content, and make your > e-purchase. Fourth, Barnes & Noble sends you an e-mail > message with a Web link that allows you to download > what you've purchased into the "Rocket Library" on your > PC. Fifth, you transfer your book from your PC's Rocket > Library to your Rocket, which has 4 mb of memory > (enough to hold 20 medium-length novels). The only > hitch I encountered in this procedure was that Barnes & > Noble took a few hours to e-mail the link I needed to > download books I bought. (I understand that this is not > an uncommon problem.) Instant gratification is an > important part of the appeal of e-books, and I found > this delay slightly maddening. > > There are other drawbacks of the sort you would expect > from any infant technology. Barnes & Noble stocks only > 524 eBook titles at present, an unfortunately large > number of them in the business and self-help > categories. You can buy Endless Referrals: Network Your > Everyday Contacts Into Sales and Life Without Stress: > The Far Eastern Antidote to Tension and Anxiety (which > would seem to cancel each other out) but not Uncovering > Clinton or The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Recent > publications are gratuitously overpriced. The discount > price of Angela's Ashes is $10.40 in paperback, $17.50 > in hardcover, and $20 for the eBook edition. > > This makes no sense when you consider that the > publisher has eliminated such expenses as paper, > printing, binding, warehousing, distribution, and > "returns." Another advantage for publishers is that > because a book is encrypted for a single user, it can't > be copied, forwarded, or resold. So, why are publishers > setting e-book list prices so high? Because they fear > e-books, even as bookstores, including a sizable group > of independent shops, embrace them. When you think > about it, though, their positions might well be > reversed. > > If e-books become a real alternative to p-books, > publishers stand to gain by eliminating most of their > fixed costs and by being able to keep everything in > print forever. They might even envision cutting out the > middleman, namely the bookstore. If I retailed books, > I'd be worried. This, however, is only one scenario. > Martin Eberhard, the CEO of NuvoMedia, thinks > booksellers will remain part of the process. "When's > the last time you went shopping for a Simon & Schuster > book?" he asks. And it might be established authors who > would try to do an end run around publishers. "It's not > clear who gets disintermediated," he says. > > The really good news is that readers can > disintermediate both publishers and booksellers and get > thousands of books and magazines free. Just last week, > Rocket released a beta version of software that lets > anyone upload texts to its site, creating a kind of > open-source library. The site offers Hamlet, the Art of > War, and Aesop's Fables, among other titles. But more > significantly, the Rocket eBook lets you download any > text-based content from the Web or your hard drive. > With the Rocket software, I downloaded Daisy Miller, > Our Mutual Friend, and some other fiction in the public > domain from the Project Gutenberg Web site before a > transcontinental flight. Another feature I love is that > you can find remembered passages by word-searching > these texts. You can also highlight words and look them > up in the pre-installed Random House Dictionary, though > it didn't have "arras," which James Wood used in last > week's discussion of Vladimir Nabokov in Slate's "Book > Club" (it means "tapestry"). And I figured out how to > download the full weekly text of Slate in one go by > converting the Slate on Paper Microsoft Word file to > the HTML format. (Late-model word processors allow you > to use the "Save As" function to save documents in > HTML.) > > E-books are going to evolve. They will get lighter, > their screens will get more legible, and their > batteries will last longer. Soon, they may do what a > related device called the Audible can do, and actually > read to you, either via sound files or text-to-voice > software. E-books may converge with other handheld > devices. You can use the newest palm-sized organizers > as talking books or readers--though you wouldn't want > to read a novel on one, at least not yet. Most > important, e-books will get cheaper. They may even be > given away, or sold at a token price with content > purchase agreements or subscriptions, on the model of > cell phones. But I have no doubt that they're coming. > And when they truly arrive, I predict that the Rocket > will be remembered as a landmark: The first > demonstration that reading a "book" didn't require > paper, ink, or even an overhead light. > > _______________________________________________________ > > SLATE -- your smart take on the week's news, politics, > and culture (http://www.slate.com). > > E-mail delivery is for SLATE subscribers only. If > you're not a subscriber and want any of SLATE's e-mail > deliveries, try our four free week trial period and > subscribe now at > http://www.slate.com/subscribe/papers.asp. Or call > (800) 706-3330. > > Subscribers can add or delete themselves from any SLATE > Delivery by > > > > > going to our e-mail services page at > http://www.slate.com/code/reg3/emailservices.asp and > checking or unchecking the appropriate boxes. See SLATE > Member Services at > http://www.slate.com/code/reg3/memberservices.asp for > additional information about and help with our e-mail > services. > > This delivery powered by Exactis.com > http://www.exactis.com > > Copyright (c) 1999 Microsoft and/or its suppliers. All > rights reserved. 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