Could e-books receive a major boost from touch screens?
Touch screens could make e-book devices easier to use—since they could show a number of menu options at once, speeding things up along the way.
And speaking of Touch, the New York Times yesterday carried a piece headlined Turning Point for Touch Screens, and there is follow-up discussion at Slashdot. The iPhone and iPod Touch are just two examples of the trend. Consider Dell’s Latitude XT, the convertible tablet shown here, which also lets your fingers do the walking, so to speak.
With more and more interactive apps like Facebook making it to mobile phones, this could well be a standard feature in time. Ideally improvements and costs drops will follow. I’d like to see the technology allow greater accuracy without as much need for auto-correction.
No, I don’t see touch screens as optimal for extended periods of typing. But what about less demanding uses such as keying in Web addresses? Or using the dictionary function of an e-book?
Just remember, the easier and more useful are e-book devices, the more demand for the technology.
Related: Techmeme roundup.
August 25th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Your forgetting something those gizmo’s wont be called ebook readers or marketed as ebook technology since they able to do way more then the kindle will ever do. This is a big conceptual issue, almost any general purpose computer today does text flawlessly and in something like 15 different ways. and the screen techknology compared with people getting used to LCD screens means tha eye strain becomming less og an issue every 3 year cycle.
In the end this leads to almost zero demand for dedicated ebook technology. where people are given the option. word does DRM more efficient and with less hassle then microsoft reader for instance. and PDF’s are being circulated and read on screen. and no one is calling that ebook technology. People are going to read off screens they do today but the market for “ebook technology” will probably remain a niche. It’s the laserdisc vs VHS debate all over again i think.
August 25th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Actually Daniel, I agree. “E-book” gizmo is in the eye of the beholder. My iPod Touch is MY gizmo. Thanks for encouraging me to clarify myself here—although the photo of the Dell tablet seemed to send the same message. Of course I think that BOTH dedicated and nondedicated gizmos will benefit from Touch screens. Thanks. David