Legal Research

eTextbooks

What will an eTextbook look like?

According to the New York Times:

Devices to Take Textbooks Beyond Text

Newspapers and novels are moving briskly from paper to pixels, but textbooks have yet to find the perfect electronic home. They are readable on laptops and smartphones, but the displays can be eye-taxing. Even dedicated e-readers with their crisp printlike displays can?t handle textbook staples like color illustrations or the videos and Web-linked supplements publishers increasingly supply.

The eDGe has an e-reader screen on the left and an LCD screen on the right for color displays.

Now there is a new approach that may adapt well to textbook pages: two-screen e-book readers with a traditional e-paper display on one screen and a liquid-crystal display on the other to render graphics like science animations in color.

The dual screens are linked by a central processor so that, for example, a link on the e-paper display can open on the color screen.

A two-screen device called the eDGe will be released by enTourage Systems in February for $490, said Doug Atkinson, vice president of marketing and business development for the company, based in McLean, Va."

Read the full article here.

Imagine an eTextbook with colour illustrations, video, web links, etc. Imagine highlighting, taking notes, marginalia, and dping simple tasks like sending e-mail or linking to elearning. Hmmmm.

I just like the idea of lighter backpacks!

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on December 15, 2009 (boomark / email).