New Newspaper-Like Digital Reader is Size of...

5:05pm UPDATE: Wired magazine blogged it better than the Times, giving the new digital reader a more thorough look (rather than just a look ahead).

Per the New York Times, the famed E Ink technology (as seen in Amazon's Kindle, Sony's Reader) is being trotted out in a new product from Plastic Logic. Whether catering to newspaper readers who dislike reading the Times on the paperback-size screen of the Kindle, or pandering to the large-print contingent reluctant to embrace the web, the unnamed digital lovechild of E Ink and Plastic Logic is about the size of 8.5x11" copy paper and promises to read more like a newspaper.

While there are some interesting suggestions about future implementations and developments of the product (the e-book business seems to be built entirely on promises of futuristic functionality and behavioral targeting), the banging of this drum sounds strikingly similar to what we've heard before: read your newspaper/book/documents without all that pesky paper-ness! Given that this new digital reader is -- at best -- of equal portability, it seems that it would find a nice, dusty home on my desk. And the thought of propping this up next to my Mac so I can read what I already access (for free) on the web makes my little pea-brain hurt.

In short, it sounds like a desperate (but not unwarranted) move by the publishing industry to suture a worsening wound in its revenue and readership. Though I'm a huge fan of the direction of the technology, I'm going to reserve my excitement for when someone has a more palpable and beneficial proposition in the digital reader space.

FYI: Also worth a read (and pertinent to my fellow Gatherers), from Sunday's NYT Magazine: how microblogging (Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and even Gather) creates an 'ambient awareness' to your social clique, and is potentially growing your capacity for relationships. Read I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You.

Comments: 6

Paul M. Sep 8, 2008, 12:20pm EDT

Yes, someday all this great stuff will happen with digital technology. When will then be now?

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Sarah (is happy to be near a T.V.) G. Sep 8, 2008, 12:29pm EDT

Ah... what will they think of next? More useless crap to keep us thinking we need to buy more useless crap.

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Desire Hendricks Sep 8, 2008, 1:27pm EDT

Thanks for the story lead.

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Richard Frisbie Sep 8, 2008, 1:41pm EDT

Thanks Chris,
I like to keep up with the technology. I look forward to a paperless future. For now . . .

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Chris Steib Sep 8, 2008, 5:13pm EDT

Jenn - nothing should be print-only. That'll lead not only to the inevitable death of the print property (which is unavoidable), but will crush the online property as well. Many companies are doing it the other way: digital exclusives to drive people from the traditional property to online. And people have come to expect ads, as much as they've come to expect not paying for anything, so subscription will be hard old-school model to introduce to new audiences.

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New Newspaper-Like Digital Reader is Size of Paper, Seemingly Redundant

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