Didn't ask for big things this year. I decided to wait on that Sony e-book reader to see if it really catches on so I didn't get any major electronics.
It's for the best. If I got one I'd have to buy e-books for it.
I did get an iPod AV cable because I never could make the trick with a camcorder AV cable work--you're supposed to be able to cross the yellow, red and white connectors but I always got a scrambled mess.
Cheap but thrilling - now I can watch the Aquaman pilot on my living room TV.
Apparently I will be reading Hannibal Rising, too. It was on a list of potential gift books I gave Christine a while back.
I was a little more excited by The Shadow of Frankenstein, a paperback, part of a new series of Universal film tie-ins. It pits Henry Frankenstein-told you it was based on the movies--against Jack the Ripper.
5 comments:
Good snags. I think you'll find Hannibal Rising a quick read. I got money from my mom and spent that on books, and they should start arriving pretty soon. Am looking forward to it.
I've played with the Sony eBook reader at the Sony Metreon (did you visit while in SF?) and it's pretty sweet. The display is nice, it's INCREDIBLY thin, and definitely desireable...but in the end, a new format and an expensive, relatively single function device spells disaster. I generally buy Microsoft Reader eBooks...and they're very nice on my Tablet PC and my Windows Mobile PDA phone. The PDA phone looks to be the perfect eBook reader for it's combined functionality. The separate reading device market may have already passed by...but it is sweet...
I didn't get by Soney Metreon while I was there, just the Apple Store on the tech side of things.
I'm kind of torn. I go with a pretty basic cell phone and read some books on my iPod. "Ipod Library"--which I'm fortunately enough to have-- will convert just about any format to work in iPod notes.
But something like the Sony seems like it would be a good idea for me as e-books would take up less room. If it truly seems to catch on I may spring for one.
As an aside, Microsoft PDAs and PDA phones used to come with Microsoft Reader in ROM...with the latest release of their software they dropped Microsoft Reader. You can still download it and install it on your device, but it's no longer part of the OS. Micrsoft's decision was based on the fact that so few customers used it. Sigh.
About 5 years ago my brother-in-law bought my sister a Rocket eBook reader for Xmas. She loved it, up until the new book availability began to dwindle and the device was dropped. Now it makes a very servicable paperweight.
That said, I've read many books on my PDA phone -- in fact, I bought Hearts in Atlantis when it came out in hardcover. A few days later, I found out it was also available as a Microsoft Reader eBook (priced the same as the hardback). Guess what? I bought the eBook, too. The reading experience was awesome.
It would certainly be in the publishers' best interest to go the eBook route...in fact, it would make sense for them to subsidize eBook readers, like cell phones. Imagine how much MORE money they could make if rather than shipping 2 million copies of the next Stephen King tome, they could post a file on a server and let us pay for that...the profit possibilities are mind boggling! Subsidizing the hardware (i.e., buy a $200 gift certificate from Amazon and get a Sony reader for $50) could turn the industry around.
Microsoft Reader on the desktop will even "read" the book to you, if the publisher allows that funtionality, using text to speech technology...
Can you tell I love eBooks?
That's interesting about the Microsoft Reader. You make a good point - it's almost worth publishers while to give away readers the way providers give away cell phones. That might be what it takes to get the e-book to catch on.
The "read aloud" feature sounds like my kind of thing.
So many cool gadgets so little time.
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