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CrunchPad: Potential e-book reader, too—not just a webpad
July 4, 2009 | 9:07 am
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By David Rothman
Hey, Mike, congrats on the latest publicity that your CrunchPad is drawing. So what do you think of throwing in e-book reading software, with the books stored on a memory card? Probably wouldn’t add that much to the cost of the CrunchPad.
This isn’t the first time we’ve made such suggestion, and others are also thinking in those terms (though I think the Pad should include ePub, not just the PDF just mentioned). What say, Mike? You may have mentioned E before for the pad. Care to come up with some specifics if you haven’t already? And maybe even work out deals with retailers selling ePub books? Why not offer the Crunchpad with pointers to free sample books from publishers, not just public domain works alone?
Details: Image is of Prototype B and may not be the latest. Price goal still appears to be $300 or under.
Back to the future: In many ways the CrunchPad overlaps with my original TeleRead vision. I was more text-oriented. But even eons ago I was hoping for a multimedia approach.
Extra related: Firefox headed toward fancy e-book capabilities?
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Comments:
Unfortunately for us ebook fans, the way I read it this is ONLY intended to be a web browsing device. They want to simplify the design and make it cheap by concentrating only on web browsing. For every one of us who wants ebook capabilities there is someone else who wants media player functions and another looking for MSOffice. Here are some quotes from a recent NY Times article:
Mr. Arrington said the CrunchPad would be different from netbooks, the mini-laptops made by companies like Acer, Asustek and Dell that my colleagues have written about. Many of those have small keyboards and offer more capabilities than just a browser, like running Microsoft Word.
The additional applications bog down the performance of netbooks, Mr. Arrington said. “Most people will find it works as good as a netbook or better,” he said of the CrunchPad.
He said it will also be different from the tablet computer that Apple is rumored to be building. He has speculated that an Apple tablet could run iPhone applications and be $500 to $1,000. “I’ll buy three of those, that sounds awesome,” he said. “I don’t intend to be the Pre for the iPhone,” he said. “This is very different from what they’re doing.”
The article is at:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/apple-acer-arrington/
Thanks, Michael, but I still wonder if, via clever programming and design, e-book capabilities could be very cheap. David
David, since it is running Linux and a Webkit-based browser, I’m sure that someone could add ebook functionality. All it takes is someone with the programming talent and the willingness to make it happen.
From Bill Smith:
Not to get up on my own personal soapbox *again* but please note that the CrunchPad does read HTML ebooks without any special software. Just start it and open the webpage or stored file.
Bill Smith, http://www.BillSmithBooks.com
(posted for him after the anti-spam Dobermans did their thing on the wrong comment.)