I am grateful for receiving a color NOOK for Christmas and to avoid writing a review of a device with superficial experience, like many reviewers, I have decided to hold off writing a review of this device until I have adequate usage of it. Now more than 6 months of usage reading many technical eBooks I believe I have enough experience to write a review.
This review is from the usage and perspective of a reader of technical materials. Reading technical materials is very different from reading a novel and hence it is important if you are thinking of getting one of these devices, either NOOK or other similar device, make sure you have a good idea of what kind of materials you will be reading. Try it out with a DRM-free technical book.
If you are planning to use it to read technical materials, I will definitely not recommend you to buy a NOOK (color or not) for the reasons I list below. As a previous owner and long time user of a Fujitsu Tablet, I am no strange to this kind of keyboard-less device.
With no apology to Barnes & Nobles, I have not bought one single B&N DRM controlled eBooks for obvious reasons and probably never will. I bought all my DRM-free watermarked eBooks from InformIT, which is a great site for technical eBooks because you can get both ePub and PDF format for the one price; I can put the ePub version in my NOOK and the PDF version in my notebook. That's the wonderful benefit of using DRM-free books. This allows me to test the NOOK and to find which format is the best.
Here are the reasons why I believe a NOOK is a unsuitable reader to handle technical materials:
1) The extremely primitive and incapable user-interface is one of the root cause of problems elaborated below. It makes a mockery of having large storage capability allowing one to carry many books with you when the interface is so primitive that you cannot open several books at the same time, like you would with a physical books on your desk, and returning to the page you left off. This is a severe and fundamental oversight in the design.
In reading a novel, you will not never be reading several at the same time darting from one to another. Hence the ultra primitive user-interface is adequate for that purpose but is totally inadequate for anything else. It is a joy to use my PDF XChange-Viewer to read the PDF format of those eBook on my notebook.
2) Even overlooking the problem mentioned in 1) above and reading just one book (ePub format) is also very frustrating. There is few technical book not containing notes (endnotes, footnotes, or bibliography) and all have provided hyperlinks to them. While it is so convenient to press the hyperlink to jump to the destination, you only have a few seconds of window of opportunity to jump back to where you came from. This is because the back button on the top middle of the screen disappears after several seconds. The time it is allowed to stay around is not even configurable but there is a setting to enable animate page turning.
Surely the developer of this device is not serious and placing animation ahead of functionality. Once that back button disappears, you have no way of bring it back. Returning to where you came from is a major hurdle. I often keeps a piece of scrap paper with my NOOK for jolting the page number.
3) Following on from 2), one wonders why someone would prefer to provide a slider bar to go to the required page when an edit box will be more functional particularly these touch device is so imprecise to allow one to move one page either way. Unless you remember the page number when you press that hyperlink, you will have a hard time finding your way back. As a result, it is a very frustrating device to use. I do not have such issue when reading the PDF on my PC as I can jump to a particular page by entering it into the text box.
It is definitely a sad case of cuteness trumping over functionality.
4) Its ePub reader cannot magnify diagrams at will and this is not only annoying but downright dysfunctional when reading technical materials full of diagrams and charts. Its PDF viewer can magnify but its ePub reader cannot.
5) Because it cannot retain your place in several books, it is very frustrating when using the NOOK as a device to replace physical books. You can do this comfortably on a notebook but not on NOOK.
I definitely will not recommend anyone to buy a NOOK to read technical materials.
Showing posts with label eBook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eBook. Show all posts
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Borders' demise - sad - what'll happen to those DRM eBooks?
When a bookshop of this size filed for Chapter 11, it is always a sad affair not only the disappearance of a place for browsing books but also for those staff that work there.
I can see those shops in Australia closing because it is just not as competitive as buying from Amazon, even including paying for postage and handling fee. This is also true even way before Australian dollar reaching parity with the USD. Furthermore, the technical books in those shops are old and are there only as a token gesture. The best part of a bookshop is for browsing and flicking through pages that often stirring up the impulsive buying. If there aren't any new materials why visit them?
I am more interested to know what will happen to those customers' DRM controlled eBooks managed by Borders if it finally closes down? Perhaps this is a warning to these operators - Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and others that use DRM - you, the bookshop, won't be there forever and my copy of "Gone With the Wind" physical book is there independent of the existence of the shop/enterprise that sold me the copy. They are actually paid for in full by your customer identical to a physical item. It is not yours!
I do not totally subscribe to the theory that eBook kills Borders
I can see those shops in Australia closing because it is just not as competitive as buying from Amazon, even including paying for postage and handling fee. This is also true even way before Australian dollar reaching parity with the USD. Furthermore, the technical books in those shops are old and are there only as a token gesture. The best part of a bookshop is for browsing and flicking through pages that often stirring up the impulsive buying. If there aren't any new materials why visit them?
I am more interested to know what will happen to those customers' DRM controlled eBooks managed by Borders if it finally closes down? Perhaps this is a warning to these operators - Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and others that use DRM - you, the bookshop, won't be there forever and my copy of "Gone With the Wind" physical book is there independent of the existence of the shop/enterprise that sold me the copy. They are actually paid for in full by your customer identical to a physical item. It is not yours!
I do not totally subscribe to the theory that eBook kills Borders
"Electronic book publishing is going to destroy the major chains. The sort of high volume disposable fiction which is their stock in trade, will migrate almost entirely into electronic form over the next 10 years."There are regular reports that eBook costs more than their hard cover version. Move over, having used a NOOK for several months for reading non-DRM controlled technical eBooks. I can tell you that it is a real struggle to use those eBook readers when one needs to constantly flick between several of those books; they can't handle managing several opened books remembering their locations, etc. Reading a novel is fine but using them for technical research or investigation, give me a stack of physical books anytime or running them on a PC/Notebook.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Are bookshop ripping us off with eBook?
At the moment I am looking for a couple of technical books and since the fad these days are eBook, I am going to evaluate whether or not eBooks offer real advantages.
Remember, a physical book needs paper, inks, printing press to produce it, bookbinding to bind the pages, warehouse storage facilities and transportation. The costs associated with these processes are not insignificant.
eBook, on the other hand, does not require any one of those processes. In fact, it is rare to produce a physical book without electronic manuscript in one form or another that can readily be converted to eBook format, if not already done so. It is well known in electronic products - be it software or computer games - the reproduction cost is almost zero. I have left out the royalty to the author and merchant's profits. It is not unrealistic to assume that the royalty is the same between eBook and physical book. So any cost savings must be due to the above associated costs to reproduce the physical book.
Hence, eBook should be a lot lot cheaper than physical book. Not quite as the comparisons shown below demonstrate that it in fact has negative economic benefits. The tables below show the book prices without inclusion of handling and shipping cost.
The savings are not uniform and are from book to book, from bookshop to bookshop, ranging from a pittance of under $3 to $14.
Some physical book, despite all these expensive production & storage costs, is cheaper than eBook. Amazon's price for the second book is cheaper than Barnes & Nobles' eBook version. They must be more expensive 1's and 0's used by Barnes & Nobles than those inks and paper used by Amazon!
Now clearly someone is taking advantage of the latest fad to charge for something that cost zero dollar to produce and reproduce.
The above figures are just pure price comparison and now consider the real economic disadvantages of eBook:
In my opinion, eBook merchants are definitely taking advantage of current hype and fad to over charge the customers and in my mind, it offers more restriction than physical book and preventing book owner from disposing them in a second hand market, which can return considerable amount to the owner.
In fact, it is not uncommon to find eBook costing more than its hardcover versions. The debate whether eBook should cost so much is raging on the Internet and no end in sight if consumers are willing to pay for the hype & fad.
Remember, a physical book needs paper, inks, printing press to produce it, bookbinding to bind the pages, warehouse storage facilities and transportation. The costs associated with these processes are not insignificant.
eBook, on the other hand, does not require any one of those processes. In fact, it is rare to produce a physical book without electronic manuscript in one form or another that can readily be converted to eBook format, if not already done so. It is well known in electronic products - be it software or computer games - the reproduction cost is almost zero. I have left out the royalty to the author and merchant's profits. It is not unrealistic to assume that the royalty is the same between eBook and physical book. So any cost savings must be due to the above associated costs to reproduce the physical book.
Hence, eBook should be a lot lot cheaper than physical book. Not quite as the comparisons shown below demonstrate that it in fact has negative economic benefits. The tables below show the book prices without inclusion of handling and shipping cost.
| Bookshop | eBook Price | eBook Protection | Book Price | Savings | Used Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | $28.79 | DRM | $42.89 | $14.1 | $31.52 |
| Barnes & Nobles | N/A | N/A | $43.99 | $0.0 | $33.99 |
| infomIT | $39.59 | Watermarked | $49.49 | $9.9 | N/A |
| Bookshop | eBook Price | eBook Protection | Book Price | Savings | Used Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | $35.19 | DRM | $42.89 | $7.7 | $42.06 |
| Barnes & Nobles | $43.99 | DRM | $46.71 | $2.72 | $33.05 |
| informIT | $39.59 | Watermarked | $49.49 | $9.9 | N/A |
The savings are not uniform and are from book to book, from bookshop to bookshop, ranging from a pittance of under $3 to $14.
Some physical book, despite all these expensive production & storage costs, is cheaper than eBook. Amazon's price for the second book is cheaper than Barnes & Nobles' eBook version. They must be more expensive 1's and 0's used by Barnes & Nobles than those inks and paper used by Amazon!
Now clearly someone is taking advantage of the latest fad to charge for something that cost zero dollar to produce and reproduce.
The above figures are just pure price comparison and now consider the real economic disadvantages of eBook:
- For those using DRM, even the owner cannot print out a diagram or pages after all it is something you have paid for. At least you can run the physical book over on a photo copying machine or scanner. Does that pittance in savings enough to compensate for the lost of freedom to use the things you have bought?
- Loss of second hand book market. While the above used book prices are indicative, nonetheless, there is a market for used copies and that you can participate without restriction. All eBooks bar you from that market and their form of compensation is only a pittance. Even allowing a discount of 50% for used copy, you can sell it for more than the saving you can get from eBook.
- You can't even share part of the book or form a syndicate to buy a book. At least in a physical book, no one forbids you from tearing the book apart to share it. You can tear out pages to lend to others or to give it away. You have total freedom. But not so with eBook. Amazon generously allows you to have 6 devices but they need your access code to your account. Barnes & Nobles has this lend it facility for only 14 days.
- No one can take the physical book away from you as long as you have paid for it. Not so with eBook. Even if the bookshop does not have any rights to sell a physical book, so long as you have paid for it and walked out of their doors, that book is yours and they can't take it away.
- How soon does the eBook savings recoup the investment cost of a eBook reader? The only outlay for a physical book is your bookshelf cost if you want to store it that way. The floor is perfectly good free storage space for books.
In my opinion, eBook merchants are definitely taking advantage of current hype and fad to over charge the customers and in my mind, it offers more restriction than physical book and preventing book owner from disposing them in a second hand market, which can return considerable amount to the owner.
In fact, it is not uncommon to find eBook costing more than its hardcover versions. The debate whether eBook should cost so much is raging on the Internet and no end in sight if consumers are willing to pay for the hype & fad.
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