And just what significance does e-ink, pen tablet technology and the iLiad product have in relation to the idea of a bookless future?
And why cannot MobiPocket.com sieze the moment? This is indeed a turning point.
Perhaps, the turning point is about to be attained.
Now, it is March 9, 2007. And announcement is pending of the soon-to-be MobiPocket Reader for the Irex iLiad Reader.
Just how well MobiPocket is implemented for the many features of the iLiad remains to be seen. But seeing is much better using the eInk technology of the iLiad Reader. And the only real news will be if Amazon.com as owner of MobiPocket announces acquisition of the Irex Technologies iLiad Reader product. We have to believe that the Sony Reader missed the mark in its product offering.
eInk is a technology that just cannot wait. Understand it better by reading "The Bookless Future." David A Bell is a very acclaimed academician who has a new book appearing in January, 2007
The First Total War. And he writes enthusiastically of his experience using an iLiad.
Bell has firsthand experience with the increasing need of reading e-text from his role in academia. So, about 18 months ago, in May of 2004, he wrote of his experiences with e-books. A really great article tying together many of his experiences with e-texts, the second part appeared this past August. The Irex Technologies, Inc.'s iLiad is his choice, but more important are his persuasive comments regarding the "The Bookless Future."
The articles can be found in The New Republic (www.tnr.com). Or save PDFs of the two articles here:
Read Part II first to enjoy the author's strong praise of the iLiad...
The Bookless Future, Part II
Then, enjoy the perspective of writing of more than 18 months earlier:
"The Bookless Future," Have it in Acrobat Reader pdf format
here
About the Author
David A. Bell is professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. A recipient of Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships, among others, he has written for The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, Time, and Salon. He lives in Baltimore.
Editorial Review
World War I has been called "the war to end all wars," the first time combatants were mobilized on a massive scale to ruthlessly destroy an enemy. But as David Bell argues in this tour de force of interpretive history, the Great War was not, in fact, the first total war. For this, we neaed to travel back to the era of muskets and sailing ships, to the age of Napoleon. According to Bell, it was then that warfare was transformed into the hideous spectacle that seems ever present today. Indeed, nearly every modern aspect of war took root in that time: conscription, unconditional surrender, total disregard for the rules of combat, mobilization of civilians, guerrilla warfare, and the perverse notion of war fought for the sake of peace. The revolutionaries were leading "the last crusade for universal liberty." A war for such stakes could only be apocalyptic—and terribly bloody.
With a historian's keen insight and a journalist's flair for detail, Bell brings this period to life while keeping an eye on our own "war of liberation" in Iraq. The parallels are astonishing, making this vivid narrative history as timely and important as it is unforgettable.
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