What's an e-book without the e-ink? So very much, according to
Creative, who just dropped word of an upcoming "MediaBook" device (which will undoubtedly look
nothing like this mockup above). It sounds a bit more like a PMP to us, with "video, pictures, text and services," and a "media-rich experience" on the table, but Creative is also apparently working with publishers for content, with an obvious emphasis in Singapore sources, where Creative already does e-learning work. There's no word of what it'll look like, but it'll be a large touchscreen of some sort, so it sounds like we've got another slate on our hand. Any differentiation might come from having
Zii under the hood and Creative's own particular approach to content for this device, but there's not really enough to get excited about at this point.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted Nov 1st 2009 2:50AM
im sick of these ebooks.... has anyone ever bought one? they dont interest me at all.... (why im posting here)
i agree, I haven't seen a single one or know anyone with one here in Ottawa, Canada. I just don't see a market for it at all, and there shouldn't be one. The 'market' wants something that can read books but also be used to fully browse the web, get their email, listen/watch their media and even have some apps (app store).
I own a Nuutbook (made by South Korean company Neolux [I live in South Korea]). I love it. As for people wanting a device that does everything, not I. This is a book, and that's all. It can play music (poorly), view pictures (in B&W), and get newspapers/magazines (I don't care). For me, it's an expensive book. However, living abroad, it can be difficult to get books. Fortunately my two favorite (only) genres are Classics and sci-fi/fantasy, both readily available on torrent sites.
As for who owns one, that's hardly an argument. Who owns a subscription to Times magazine? I can count them on one finger, of all my friends, families, and acquaintances. 30 years ago, who owned a PC? 10 years ago, who owned an mp3 player? The market is new. Granted, I doubt eReaders will catch on like PCs or mp3 players, but there's definitely a market. I think they'll be really good for students. New technology + eduction = almost always win.
The people who want to use an e-reader are really hardcore/fast readers. Not me, but my wife definitely falls into the category. She can read a 500 page book in a few hours (seriously). She went abroad and took a whole suitcase of books with her (many for her work... she's an anthropologist) but many just for entertainment...If she could slam all her books and pdfs onto one of these things and take it with her she would save a lot of headache... So basically your good old fashioned book worm..
I take my Kindle DX on the train ride to work everyday. I see several other people on the train who own Kindles as well. Several people at my workplace also own Kindles. When I go on vacation, I take my Kindle on the plane and have my whole library of books and magazines with me.
If there is a market for regular books, then there is a market for electronic books. Your worldview seems to be limited by your own tastes and preferences.
What's wrong with an e-book? The idea is genius, and they do just what they should. Imagine a future free of all these different magazines to buy an drag around to read.
The idea of browsing the web and getting to read all sorts of information in PDF is pure genius, and also environment friendly.
This is wok and woll
Creative can make great products when they want to. This looks promising.
Still waiting on the consumer Zii Egg...
Creative seems to 'uncreative', what have they actually done the last 10 years? the soundcard market is gone and mostly useless, pros are getting higher end stuff and everyone has integrated audio now, their 'mp3' players have sucked for ages and now they're releasing an ebook reader and trying to confuse people with the 'Wii' branding from Nintendo?
It's been pointed out to the righteously uninformed several times when the name comes up, but Creative have owned the Zii name for almost a decade...long before the Wii was in the imaginations of Nintendo. It stands for Zen 2. So that's that.
Now...what exactly do you want Creative to do? Invent a new device? We listen to music, we read books we watch videos we look at pictures. What else is there? Apart from inventing a new and unheard of form of entertainment/information these mediums have devices to pretty much cover them all. All that's left is convergence.
Apple didn't invent the cell phone, the media player, the computer or anything else...but they converged the hell out of those things. Don't hear anyone complaining.
Umm I owned 3 Zen MP3 player and none of them sucked. They were extremely affordable and reliable + they had like a bazillion file formats accepted.
Prepare yourself. You will be sick for a long time to come.
hey engadget chill with the flash! i cant load
If you're using Firefox I would highly recommend the plug-in called "Flashblock".
Or NoScript.
Firefox hasn't crashed since I installed that.
What have they done? They were the first to market with a 256,000 color mp3 player, LONG before Apple. They are usually the first, or among the first, to push forward with more colors and higher definition on their PMPs. They were the first to market with a 32gb flash-based mp3 player. They had an mp3 player on the market 2.5 years before Apple. They dominate the PC audio market.
So, what have they done? Nothing important...
It seems they just aren't creative any more.
I wonder who are the target audiences that the dude in the ebook is supposed to attract...must be you boys.
I'm not impressed. Why is it that in most e-readers the display occupies not even 50% of the real estate? I'd like mine 9" diagonal for an 8" screen, please. And yes, then I even settle for grayscale.
You tard that image is a photoshopped Kindle.
It is not a picture of the actual device. It is supposed to be a humorous mock-up. the picture is actually a Kindle. Knowing Creative, and that they are almost certainly going with an LCD screen, I would guess that it will be nearly all screen and very little bezel.
It will probably end up far more like the mystery Apple multimedia slate rather than an real e-book.
Oh and the reason the devices have smaller screens are due to both navigation and cost. The Kindle, like most ebooks does not have a touch screen, combine that with people wanting to take notes and make searches and you end up with a full qwerty keyboard or panel like the Nook.
If you add a resistive touchscreen like Sony did you end up with another layer of plastic over the screen that reduces contrast and adds glare, thus diminishing the impact of e-ink. Capacitive touchscreens haven't been tried yet, but I think that has more to do with people wanting to take notes or annotate with a stylus vs. their fingers
So far the only "touch" integrated e-ink device that has not comprimised the screen quality is the iRex DR 800SG. They put a Wacom digitizer under the screen that relies on a special stylus. Making navigation exclusively stylus (fingers wont work), which will be a real turn-off for many if not most consumers. That and the thing is not exactly cheap.
So the lack of a sexy minimalistic device is due primarily to navigation issues on a high latency screen that is not easy to make touch friendly
Creative, please focus on the Zii. I'm getting kind of tired of my iPod touch 1st Generation. I need a new PMP to play with. That is as close to an iPod touch, but better. And not an iPod touch. Or Zune HD. That runs the Android OS.
Basically, the Zii. Please Creative.
No thanks I'll stick to my iphOne.
Reader I's free on it yawn. Next.
@ word
I wont be the first to down rank you
@ EminiSP
Why did you down rank 'world'?
I hate to see products splintered off for each function. I'd rather carry a small tablet with a good screen and do everything on it rather than having an MP3 player, a Video player and an E-Book reader.
I am intrigued by Archos new Android Tablet (although its screen is very small) as well as Dells and Apples rumored devices.
I want e-ink and only e-ink. My eyes can't take anything else for hours at a time, which is how I read.
Agreed agreed agreed. I want something that can replace the 100 pounds worth of books in my backpack. I really do think this will be good for students, some of my fellow students can barely carry all the books that need without falling over.
That guy on the e-book picture: complete douche-bag.
"thanks to everyone who sent this in"
...how about thanks to epizenter.net who broke the news...
...tools...
all these e-book readers better sell as much as they can, before the new apple tablet is out. Seriously i think that's gonna kick some net-book and e-book butt.
If this is anything like the creative zen, the battery life will be 1 hour (and it will die if you haven't charged it within a month), and they will require you to install crappy software like rhapsody to sync your e-books.