Espresso Book Machine!

kayray · Post by **kayray** » July 31st, 2007, 5:38 pm

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/31/ny_public_library_gi.html

Very cool. Very, very cool.

Full article here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/6/prweb534914.htm

Starlite · Post by **Starlite** » July 31st, 2007, 5:57 pm

Awsomeness!!!!!!!!!!!

luciburg · Post by **luciburg** » July 31st, 2007, 6:31 pm

What a great service.!!!!!!!!!

thistlechick · Post by **thistlechick** » July 31st, 2007, 6:42 pm

heh... that's funny... my first thought was "What a horrible waste of paper!" =)

magtutudlo · Post by **magtutudlo** » July 31st, 2007, 7:12 pm

I am

speechless.

This would be a wonderful thing.
...Not wonderful enough to move to a big city, though.

TBOL3 · Post by **TBOL3** » July 31st, 2007, 7:51 pm

Sweet, but my internet cable does everything I need.

Rowen · Post by **Rowen** » July 31st, 2007, 11:52 pm

Cool! But at the same time thats a lot of paper, and I wonder how they're covering the costs of all that paper?

Planish · Post by **Planish** » August 1st, 2007, 1:03 am

So, where does the coffee come out?

Oh, I see. It's a play on words - Es press o.

I still think a decent paperback-sized flat-panel electronic book machine would be the way to go.

magtutudlo · Post by **magtutudlo** » August 1st, 2007, 10:32 am

Planish wrote:I still think a decent paperback-sized flat-panel electronic book machine would be the way to go.

Yes, but where would you find one?
I've only seen PDAs do that, and they are too small.

ExEmGe · Post by **ExEmGe** » August 1st, 2007, 11:36 am

Yes, but where would you find one?

At the risk of becoming a bore on the subject - Sony Reader! (Or, I believe some others)

Planish · Post by **Planish** » August 1st, 2007, 6:32 pm

ExEmGe wrote:
Yes, but where would you find one?
At the risk of becoming a bore on the subject - Sony Reader! (Or, I believe some others)

No backlighting. Granted, backlighting tends to drain batteries, but someday there will be a low-power backlight that will not cost the moon. Even an optional wall-wart power would be nice for backlighting sometimes.

If the blank areas of the screen were a nice white instead of grey, I be more willing to try it without backlighting. There would probably be a lot of third-party front-lighting accesories for it, like the iPod hardware add-ons you can get now.

time.com wrote:For instance, there's no way to turn the page with your right hand. Owing to its origins in right-to-left-reading Japan, the two sets of page-turning buttons have been located on the left hand side; reflexively, readers of Roman script want to turn the page on the right. It takes some getting used to. Still, because there is a directional pad on the right, my guess is that this could be fixed with a simple software update.

If they transferred the navigation functions to the screen itself, like the touchscreen on an iPhone, that would save a bit of real estate and permit a larger display (or smaller outside dimensions).

slate.com wrote:The Reader works well for plain-old, front-to-back reading. As long as you don't do a lot of flipping back and forth, the device won't let you down. But it doesn't have a search function, nor will your book's index or table of contents be hyperlinked to the pages they reference. So, ironically, it's significantly easier to find information in a paper book than in its digital equivalent.

Ooh - that's a bit of a deal-killer for something that uses modern digital technology.

So it's almost there. Something like the Apple "Newton" series of PDAs, which died before Palm devices took off.

Cori · Post by **Cori** » August 2nd, 2007, 12:07 am

I don't quite see the obsession the geek-reviewers have with backlighting. Not a single one of my paperback books has it, and we all get along okay. Moreover, I've never had a PDA I could read comfortably outside in bright sunlight. That's a feature the reviewers almost never mention. ("Nasty suns! It burns, it burns!") I think it'd change the battery life (currently) so dramatically, as to make it not very exciting at all. At the moment, I can charge via USB as I load up a GB of text, and then read it for a month in Darkest Peru, with nary a worry.

I was expecting a white screen, but I find the grey very comfortable for long-term reading ... it's the same with books, I find reading on aged-brown or cream tinted paper much easier than some of the newly bleached-to-heck stuff.

Totally agreed about the book navigation -- it's counter-intuitive to have a mini-joystick and not be able to use it for page turning. You can flip through the book by chunks, using the number keys, and there has been speculation about using those as letter entry points (like a mobile phone) for a text search feature, but still very hypothetical. Though for me, that simulates far better how I access a paper book, than Ctrl-F which I use online. It'd be very nice to have both ... but I just don't search my books often enough for a single word or name to make it a deal-killer.

Andy, had you picked up the tip about navigating Menus yet..? If you push and hold the menu button, it takes you up to the top level from wherever you are. Rather handy.

ExEmGe · Post by **ExEmGe** » August 2nd, 2007, 1:51 am

Andy, had you picked up the tip about navigating Menus yet..? If you push and hold the menu button, it takes you up to the top level from wherever you are. Rather handy.

No. That sounds useful although it might encourage me in the bad habit of swapping from book to book. By the way, is it safe to upgrade the software? I see some chap had severe problems.
I'm not sure about the page turning question. I tend to hold it (and any other paperback) with the spine in my left hand so in fact the turn button falls just right for the thumb. It means I can hold a cup (or glass) in the right hand without having to put it down, as with a normal book, to turn the page.
I'll be eating alone in a restaurant today so I'll see how it merges with the vindaloo. At least I won't have to use the salt and pepper pots to keep it open!

Cori · Post by **Cori** » August 2nd, 2007, 3:12 am

I upgraded my software without problems. However, some people swear the battery life problems come from that most recent upgrade. (And, when I say battery life, it's down from 3 months on a single charge to 2 months or whatever ... not a big deal in use, just hugely annoying that they messed it up and haven't unmessed it immediately.)

I'd check MobileRead to see what the good points of that update were, and if they're relevant, then go for it.

I've been terrified of bricking mine, but so far, no problems that a solid poking of the reset hole with a paperclip couldn't fix.

Starlite · Post by **Starlite** » August 3rd, 2007, 5:10 pm

See a movie of a similar book machine:

http://www.ondemandbooks.com/perfectbook.mov