Could a better Kindle have come from a design student in Australia than from the Amazon pros?
Nedzad Mujcinovic, winner of a design award at Monash University, come up with the Livre, the e-book concept above. I actually prefer the Sony Reader’s looks. But I love the idea of a multitouch interface to simplify matters for users; just keep on mind that this would have significantly jacked up the Kindle’s $400 cost. Click here for a full-sized view. In Engadget‘s words:
“The system uses an e-ink screen overlaid with a touch surface, thus forgoing the multitudinous buttons of the Kindle for an ultra-simple, gesture-based input scheme. Pages can be turned by sliding your finger from corner to corner, though double- and triple-finger gestures will advance the book by ten and 50 pages, respectively. Most notable for real book fans is the inclusion of a leather stitched cover, meant to evoke the look and feel of the device’s analog counterpart.”
So, gang, what do you think?
“LIVRE is the book of the future!”
Book of the future, indeed… because the current generation of eInk technology does not have the refresh speed to be able to make a touch screen interface anything close to a satisfying experience. Design students don’t have to be tempered by the reality of actually producing the product.
Now assuming future technology, I’m not sure about the oversize rubberized case, for holding comfort, and would probably lean towards a larger rollable display for carrying comfort.
Jim, thanks for your helpful thoughts. Totally agree re current limits of E Ink. But an LCD could be used, even if that bulked up the reader due to the battery requirements.
Meanwhile as a PRS-505 owner, I’m looking forward to Sony’s release of the firmware update with the new software from your company. Any new details you or anyone else there can pass on? David (who knows this is outside the thread but can’t resist)
It is probably a safe bet that Amazon is and has been exploring touch screen interfaces as well. The smart Amazon engineers will have studied the iPhone and all competing eBooks as well as available concepts, and Jeff Bezos bursts into their offices every Tuesday with some new ideas to ponder. Eventually, not the lack of ingenuity, but the cost of components at a given time determines what features companies can offer. Thus, at the Kindle price range, all competitors are basically offering the same: a 6 inch eInk display with buttons, connected to ARM powered PDA hardware, with differences only in the number and layout of the buttons, and the effort they have put into the UI. (The only exception is the iLiad, which uses Wacom input and a larger display, at twice the price.) However, Amazon already managed to use its tremendous leverage to secure a data deal, and it offers its platform to deliver services to the device, which is a very valuable aspect.
We can expect Amazon to enter the market with a next generation Kindle, using a touchscreen and a larger display, as soon as the cost and availability of components permits it.
Well for current screen technology the iRex illiad seems to have done a fairly good interactive touchscreen. Or at least I didn’t see any complaints about the responsiveness in the Ars review – http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/iLiad-review.ars , but I haven’t had the chance to play with one myself, because of the pricetag. And the hybrid screen from the OLPC would also have some promise (using the LCD to drive a UI, but using the eInk for display and maintaining battery life).
For your other question, the work is ongoing, but there’s nothing new I can pass about release dates etc.
Good concept, although barely innovative. Major issue is with e-ink refresh rate at this point, which makes it not very suitable for highly interactive UI (such as page turning a few pages with a flick)
Batteries, batteries, batteries. It’s nice to dream about a multitouch LCD e-reader, but not at the expense of a 4 hour battery life. Multitouch e-ink? Sure, sign me up. But if we’re dreaming, why not *really* get creative? Core77 had an e-reader design challenge last Fall with some truly innovative designs.
Thanks to Preston for the link to the Core77 Design Blog. The “1 Hour Design Challenge” resulted in some surprisingly elaborate submissions.
I read that when Radio Shack was going to debut the TRS-80, they had an internal debate about wood-grain vs. putty monitors. They were going with wood-grain but they were out of stock.
I think the ‘make it look like a “real” book’ thing is a similar diversion. The goal should be to make a reader that makes reading enjoyable. Books look they way they do because form followed function. eBook readers function (somewhat) differently, so they’ll look somewhat different.
I still want a folding reader that lets me expand it to fit the environment I’m in (smaller on the train, larger on my desk) but I do understand that folding eInk displays are not on the current plan.
Oh, I also want it for $50.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
Rob,
The foldable/rollable eInk device are closer than you think. If you believe the press release the Phillips Readius is supposed to launch mid 2008 . It goes from 2″x1/2″ closed to about 4″x6″ open. This is not as large as I would want, but they are aiming at the cell phone/eBook reader, and it’s still pretty good for a 1.0 of a concept
http://www.polymervision.com (sorry about the overuse of Flash site).
I didn’t see any hint of pricing, however I strong suspect that this will cost more than $50.