TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

News Babble Watch: What’s wrong with these words used with this picture in an e-book article?

By David Rothman

“The new breed of electronic books use a screen that is non-reflective and can be read outside in bright sunlight or in a dimly lit train carriage. The black and white text, combined with a high resolution of approximately 170 pixels per inch, gives an appearance similar to newspaper. This is the key to the success of the electronic reader—it is practically indistinguishable from the medium it replaces, yet just below the surface it’s infinitely more versatile.” - CNet’s Crave Web site.

The TeleRead take: So the forthcoming Panasonic, the machine at left, shown with a glowing high-res LCD, can be lumped together with E Ink without a discussion of the differences in the two display technologies. That’s what is wrong. The other two machines pictured, a Fujitsu and Sony, do use E Ink.

Meanwhile here’s an idea for the people behind the Panasonic brand. They can change the term “LCD” to “LC Ink” and thereby catch up with E Inkers in the hearts of old-fashioned journalists. Whatever you need to turn on the newsies. At least, the Panasonic is off to a good start on that front in other respects.

The U.K.-based Crave babbles on: “Remarkably, Sony doesn’t show any signs of understanding how big this market could be. Its lacklustre release schedule was particularly puzzling (the Sony Reader has only just gone on sale in the US, with no definitive UK release date). It’s beginning to look like either Panasonic or Fujitsu will steal the cake.” I hope Crave doesn’t mean the pictured Fujitsu—only a prototype. What’s more, the Panasonic LCD machine will debut only in Japan, not the States, giving Sony plenty of time to catch up in the U.K.

As for the headline over the present article, what else could Crave use but “Ebook reader will be literature’s iPod”? Wait. That isn’t enough. The Crave site knocks Microsoft for creating the Zune rather than an e-book device. Crave, I love your enthusiasm, and maybe you Brits can like e-books more than the typical Yank does so far.

One more nit: I’m amused by the use of “non-reflective.” The whole point of E Ink is that such displays reflect light–not necessarily actual images–rather than glow, thereby making them easier on the eyes.

The good news: You don’t have to be Cory Doctorow to understand the horrors of today’s DRM. While merrily mangling other basics, Crave sizes up this situation well: “There is, of course, the looming shadow of DRM (digital rights management) restrictions—although, for the moment, the Sony offering will display standard PDFs and the iLiad is essentially DRM-free.” That one sentence, even if it lacks mention of Sony’s proprietary BBeB format and its DRM option, makes up for all the malarkey elsewhere in the article. Crave is accurately depicting DRM as a threat to readers.

Reminder: No infallibility claimed at this end (the above headline originally appeared with a word missing). Atrocities are inevitable on deadline—one reason why online newspapers and news blogs should include comment areas, so readers can set us scribes straight. Crave, to its credit, has such an area. So far, however, the only comment related to the e-book article is the following: “Think S. Jobs has figured it out?”