The Glade 4.0

Pretty amazing.

I don't. It'll have all the same problems as LCD displays. It's luminescent, not reflective.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

He probably just means flexible screens, not particularly the fact that they're AMOLED.

For extended reading, a display needs to be non-reflective, not backlit, and have good clear text. I'll bring my own light source, thank you. =)

Flexibility is a cool gadget, but I don't see how it brings value as a 'book' replacement. In fact, I could see it being a detriment.

To me, it's just another crazy, relatively useless 'feature' that will only serve to drive up the cost unnecessarily.

Yep, the toys are nice, but the book is in no danger of being replaced this decade.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

The Kindle has already replaced books and to act like it can't achieve the same result only serves to make your life less convenient. I'm sure flexible screens will be combined with e-ink tech to produce flexible, updatable newspapers, magazines or the like -- if they can be released before the market is dominated by tablets or other mobile devices.

A friend of mine, my age, loves his Kindle and even has it read to him when he's working around the house or long trips in the truck. I'm not convinced I will ever be willing to replace my walls of books, many long out of print, with such a device. Supplement perhaps, but not replace.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Lenas,

I'm not sure who your comment is directed at, but for the record, the Kindle, Nook, etc... are all great e-readers, and many people, myself included, have already accepted these as acceptable replacements to *some* printed books.

The only point I was making is that I don't think making the screen flexible is going to add any significant utility to e-readers/tablets in such a way that it is going to accelerate the demise of printed books, but will increase cost (unnecessarily).

Perhaps making the screen foldable (flat) and durable enough to withstand living in your hip pocket would a nice value add...

It was directed at Mike.

Regarding the cost of these screens/devices versus books... I'd think price point would be on the electronics side, especially considering the insane price point of some (academic) books.

I guess my ultimate point is, unless someone already has a bookshelf in their house, they're probably never going to get one. I know I wont. In my mind, physical prints of books are a think of the past.

I just bought three new bookshelves, Billys, from IKEA. Medium Brown. I was tired of the books stacking up all over the place.

As I finish remodeling the house I'll probably be making room for another trio of them.

I was amused looking at a friend's Kindle and seeing no difference in the price point on the books I was at the store buying and the books on the shelf. At least the physical books have a resale value, for now.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

These particular price points have nothing to do with paper and ink. Academic textbooks are a criminal racket that profits by price-gouging a captive market.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

All I need is to convince the bookstore to be fine with the 13th edition instead of the 14th edition and our students could save thousands every semester!

Friggin new editions. The extra $100 is not worth some minor new exercises for a few chapters!

That's why the publisher stops printing the 13th edition and buys up all of the existing copies it can get its hands on.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Amen to that. My text books this semester ran me close to $400. And that was just two of them. Luckily the other 4 were 15 bucks each.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Yar.

Had I bought all my books new this semester, it would've topped $600. As it is, I skipped out buying one entirely, and haven't yet bought a second, which I will soon need for no other reason than to have the ability to "Do Problems 13, 14, and 15 on page 67."

I'm pretty sure the #1 option I'm leaning to there is sneaking into the bookstore and surreptitiously taking a picture of page 67 with my phone. That or leeching off of a classmate, though I don't like the situation of "hey I wanted to be cheap but I'm glad you're not, so please enable my cheapness by letting me use your book for a minute."

And the $40 registration fee at this homework website so this other teacher doesn't have to come up with her own homework makes me sad, too. Granted the website is pretty quality, but it's not worth $40.

You could offer to go halfsies with a classmate.

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