Link

Recent news is that eBook at Amazon are outselling Printed books. While I found that eBooks were a more convenient option to buying printed books, especially with good handy eBook readers around, Free Software guru Richard Stallman has called on consumers to reject eBooks until they “respect our freedom”.

And here is the link to the PCPro News article

Link

After a few rounds of filling up my wooden bookshelf & stashing away old books to make way for new, I bought a Kindle. I’ve read more books in recent days than I used to read a few months ago.

Not discounting the novelty factor of the new Kindle, I definitely can see the convenience it brings - portability, long battery life, easy on the eyes display and the ability to quickly find something that suits the mood of the hour. I can see why e-books are outselling Printed books at Amazon.

Said all that, there is a lot of ground to be covered by e-book readers and e-book publishers. Here are some of the things I wish will improve in the future:

1. I wish my kindle was much quicker - I want to turn pages as quickly as I’d turn in a normal book.

2. All published e-books are not on par with their printed counterparts, (light fonts, bad images etc.)

3. I wonder why I cant choose the music/songs I want to play? Is it hard to give some basic play list management, display of the song being played and the ability to move back & forth between music files?

4. It may be too much to ask for but, a touch screen display would be lovely.

5. E-Ink in color would have brought alive my books of birds, animals and children’s books.

But I still Love my Kindle and I can imagine the future to be brighter.

Quote
"Axioms for 21st Century Media
• The present is functionally obsolete.
• For planning purposes, the short-term future IS the present.
• Planning for the short-term is not a strategy. It’s like navigating solely by what you can see.
• There is no map, and the future is not predictable. • Consequently, shoot for standard formats (XML, RDF, etc.) and build products and systems to be adaptable and inter-operable.
• Don’t build your future on a rock. Build your future on a surfboard. We’re not on dry land anymore.
• Proprietary systems are rocks. Open Source systems are surfboards.
• Own your data.
• Think databases, not documents.
• Unstructured data has a value that approaches zero as it ages.
• Structured data is too formal to describe the messy world around us.
• Semi-structured data looks like the Goldilocks Zone for news media.
• The One With The Best Tools Wins.
• Web 1.0 is to the Web as rotary phones are to telecommunication: Rotary phones still work, but they’re irrelevant to what comes next.
• The challenge is: Build tools that give humans superhuman abilities.
• Technology is just evolution by non-biological means."

Xark!: Axioms for 21st Century Media (via joeybaker)

Tags: media thoughts