I eagerly look forward to the arrival of a decent electronic paper device. I await the day when I can just have one magazine at home, be able to sync it up to my computer, and download content into it.
No more waiting for magazines to arrive in the mail. No more recycling piles of magazines and newspapers. Just one magazine made of electronic paper with updateable content.
Sure, there are other ways that I can download magazines and content in the meantime, but most of them lack the easy portability of a magazine. Just leave it opened to the page that I want and get back to it in a day or a week. It will still be where I left it. Nothing to boot. No files to remember the names of (and paths to.)
When I first heard about the Sony Reader last year, I briefly thought my wait might be over. You see, the Reader only uses power when it charges the content onto the page. After that, the content just sits there where you left it, awaiting your return.
Unfortunately when I had a chance to handle a Sony Reader at Borders, I was less than impressed. It was big and kind of clunky. It was vaguely reminiscent of the hand-held Space Invaders game that I had in about 1980. Sure the technology inside is a whole lot better, but it was still lacking in design.
Back to waiting.
And then on this week’s TWiT (#98), Leo Laporte and friends talk about an e-paper rumor involving Hearst Corporation’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer converting over to electronic paper in the next two years. Regrettably they say that Hearst has denied going to e-paper, but it is still possible that it is in the works.
Back to waiting, again.
