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$260 Foxit eSlick eBook Reader Makes Its Way to Cheapskate Readers
Foxit eBook Reader Wins on Price, Skimps on Connectivity

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ripfire
03/30/09

In reply to $260 Foxit eSlick eBook Reader Makes Its Way to Cheapskate Readers
$260? Still too expensive. Besides, I'm already using Foxit on my WinMo.
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DarthSensate
03/30/09

In reply to $260 Foxit eSlick eBook Reader Makes Its Way to Cheapskate Readers
$260 is fine for early adopters... I guess. But I have ZERO interest in spending that kind of money on an ebook reader even if it is an MP3 player as well. This format ebook reader, paper back size/portable, will quickly be replaced with cell phone intergrated ebook software... with or without "smartphone" OS.

The other market for ebook readers will be educational with larger screens and annotation and search functions, I see that being the true market for webpad or tablet format light computers.

And, so far, "they" have not released the technology for color that will make the comic book, sorry, "Graphic Novel", market explode for ebooks. Not to mention the other market for color image publications (wink wink nudge nudge).
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weatherman
03/30/09

@DarthSensate: I don't think you get what it's like to read on an ebook. I have a cell phone that I can read ebooks on, and have read tons of ebooks on PDAs from my first Palm III up to the Nokia N810. The experience of reading on a PDA or cellphone can be fine, but it cannot compare to an epaper device - the screen is much more readable, especially in sunlight, it's larger and it's much easier on the eyes. The battery life is also much longer - weeks instead of hours. That's why even though I have multiple devices that I could read ebooks on, the Kindle is what I end up reading on most of the time.

As for this idea that graphic novels and comic books are going to be the content that pushes mass adoption of ebook readers, I'm not so sure. Yes, there are a lot of people who read comics and graphic novels, but my guess is that they tend to want to keep them as collectibles much more than most book readers want to collect books. And the demographic is very different - my guess is that it would have to drop in price significantly to be attractive to most of the comic market (which, despite having adult fans is still mostly a youth market).
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ki.cz
03/30/09

In reply to $260 Foxit eSlick eBook Reader Makes Its Way to Cheapskate Readers
I think that ebooks could take a step in either direction and either become a complete failure or a total success.

I hope they fail miserably, because they are lame as shit. This isn't like music, where people want to cycle through a bunch of albums at once. You're probably only reading one book at a time.
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David Beckford
03/30/09

As some one who has to carry at least 3 books with me when ever I'm away, this @ki.cz: As some one who has to carry at least 3 books with me when ever I'm away, ebook readers would save me space and weight.

Also, being able to carry around reference materials would be useful to me.
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Daniel Grinton
03/30/09

@David Beckford: Not to mention the added benefit of being able to save a tremendous amount of shelf space and use backup options to protect your collection from fire, floods and other damage.
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Daniel Grinton
03/30/09

@Daniel Grinton: Hell, let's take it further. The idea that newspapers could start putting out subscriptions in cheap PDF format would drastically cut the cost of printing if eBook readers get cheap enough.
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weatherman
03/30/09

@Daniel Grinton & Talryyn: the Kindle already does handle subscriptions to newspapers, and that's where the real advantage of ebooks comes in. Every morning I get the New York Times delivered automatically to my Kindle. I don't have to hook it up to a PC or do anything - I just wake up, grab the Kindle and go. It costs about half of what it would cost buying it at the newstand or getting home delivery (actually, including the Kindle price, it's about the same for 1 year of buying the actual paper). It's convenient, it's cheap and it's completely ad-free.

There are lots of other periodicals available for the Kindle as well, including the Wall Street Journal, Fortune magazine, Time Magazine, the Economist, USA Today, US News, MIT Technology Review.... about 25 different US newspapers and 25 US magazines so far.

I don't think there's any two ways about it; Kindle (and like devices) will ultimately replace paper periodicals. Whether they replace paper books is another matter and will likely take a lot longer.

NOTE: people who don't have a Kindle can get most of these periodicals web versions on their device by using Calibre.
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weatherman
03/30/09

In reply to $260 Foxit eSlick eBook Reader Makes Its Way to Cheapskate Readers
An ebook reader without a good library of paid content, like Amazon and Sony both have, has very limited use. Unless you're looking to pirate books, you're stuck with creative commons licensed materials, stuff from companies like Fictionwise that allow some works to be downloaded without DRM, and stuff that's past copyright. But if you're fine reading Sense and Sensibility over and over and over, I suppose this device will be just fine. But from my perspective the added cost of the Sony 505 (at $299 list) or the Kindle (at $359 list) is worth it over this device just for the access to content and other features they offer.
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EqualOpportunityCrasher
03/30/09

@weatherman: You can go to the Gutenberg Project and download over 28,000 books for free.
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weatherman
03/30/09

@EqualOpportunityCrasher: that's what I meant by "reading Sense and Sensibility over and over and over"
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strider_mt2k
03/30/09

In reply to $260 Foxit eSlick eBook Reader Makes Its Way to Cheapskate Readers
E Book readers are practical?

Oooookay.
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discounteggroll
03/30/09

In reply to $260 Foxit eSlick eBook Reader Makes Its Way to Cheapskate Readers
harriet's an eye-catcher even in monochrome

time to shower. For $260 and knowing it came from the same people who produce the kindle, it seems justifiable to save the $ where it would otherwise be wasted.

I would have thought amazon would have had some kind of NDA or related contract in place resisting competition from the people who create their own product...
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$260 Foxit eSlick eBook Reader Makes Its Way to Cheapskate Readers

Foxit eBook Reader Wins on Price, Skimps on Connectivity

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