Bookmachine self-contained printer
Yet another technology that could potentially render actual bookstores obsolete, the Book Machine is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A user browses through books by "author, title, subject matter or publisher." Once they have made a selection the book text is sent to the machine via satellite and the whole thing is printed out in standard-format softcover in three to five minutes, basically turning the whole book browsing and purchasing process into an ATM transaction. This kinda solves a lot of problems posed by the current model, (nothing really ever goes out of print, since it's all digitally stored on a server somewhere) without ebook "problems" such as DRM, piracy and the fact that an ebook still isn't a "book" but seems kind of radical for either book purists or publishers to get behind.
[Via TRFJ]
