WEBVTT - How E-books Work

0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880
<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.800
<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:14.280
<v Speaker 1>tech stuff from how stuff Works dot com. Hi, everybody,

0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:16.640
<v Speaker 1>welcome to the podcast. My name is Chris Polette. I'm

0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.319
<v Speaker 1>an editor here and How Stuff Works sitting next to

0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:23.320
<v Speaker 1>me as usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, Chris.

0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.000
<v Speaker 1>Download any good books lately. As a matter of fact,

0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:31.800
<v Speaker 1>I have, Well, I didn't expect that to actually work well.

0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:34.279
<v Speaker 1>As you can tell, we're going to talk about electronic

0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:37.760
<v Speaker 1>books today or e books, right. Um. I think we

0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.879
<v Speaker 1>were inspired to do this because we, uh, we just

0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:45.080
<v Speaker 1>recently put an article up on our website that somebody

0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:49.000
<v Speaker 1>who wrote that that would be yeah, about the Amazon

0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.440
<v Speaker 1>about the self promotion. Yeah, yeah, I wrote an article

0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:54.760
<v Speaker 1>about the Amazon Kindle. But before we get into e

0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:58.640
<v Speaker 1>book readers, because I mean that's really just part of

0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:02.240
<v Speaker 1>the story, I guess we can talk about e books themselves. Um. Now,

0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:04.560
<v Speaker 1>of course, electronic books, that's just it's a book in

0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.360
<v Speaker 1>electronic format, so that you read it with an electric

0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.000
<v Speaker 1>an electronic device such as a computer or an e

0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:14.440
<v Speaker 1>book reader or an iPhone or whatever. Right, it's just

0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.000
<v Speaker 1>it's an electronic device that can access this sort of

0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:22.959
<v Speaker 1>file and display it. And they were kind of it's interesting,

0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.520
<v Speaker 1>it's actually kind of slow to catch on, um, considering

0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:29.080
<v Speaker 1>that you know, we we we really got the Worldwide

0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:33.959
<v Speaker 1>Web back in what like essentially and uh, and it

0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:36.759
<v Speaker 1>was all text back then, there were hardly any graphics

0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:41.559
<v Speaker 1>and uh. And yet the idea of using the Internet

0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:45.520
<v Speaker 1>to distribute books took a while. Um. There was a

0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.600
<v Speaker 1>lot of a lot of publishers kind of dragging their

0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:50.880
<v Speaker 1>feet on the whole issue. And in fact, I remember,

0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:52.800
<v Speaker 1>back in two thousand you may remember this as well,

0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:56.840
<v Speaker 1>Chris Um. There was a very famous author who kind

0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:01.360
<v Speaker 1>of made a splash about trying to do an electronic

0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:06.919
<v Speaker 1>book publication UM strategy that hadn't really been done before.

0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.639
<v Speaker 1>I'm talking about Stephen King. Do you remember this at all? Um?

0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:15.880
<v Speaker 1>Actually knowing? Okay, So back in two thousand, he first

0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.480
<v Speaker 1>he released and a novella, which of course is longer

0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.400
<v Speaker 1>than a short story but shorter than a novel. It's

0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:26.119
<v Speaker 1>called Writing the Bullet And he really published that electronically

0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:31.360
<v Speaker 1>so you could download that and read it, you know, whenever. Um.

0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:33.800
<v Speaker 1>And then he decided he was going to try something new.

0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:38.239
<v Speaker 1>He was going to try and publish a book chapter

0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:42.079
<v Speaker 1>by chapter, offering each chapter up for download for I

0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:43.920
<v Speaker 1>think it was originally I think it was a dollar

0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.440
<v Speaker 1>or a chapter. And uh, he said that he was

0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:51.800
<v Speaker 1>going to monitor how many people downloaded the book, and

0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:56.320
<v Speaker 1>as long as seventy of the people who downloaded the book,

0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.640
<v Speaker 1>we're paying for the book. He would continue to write. Okay,

0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.360
<v Speaker 1>now I'm starting to remember that now, and if it

0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:08.560
<v Speaker 1>dipped below, game over. He stops. So first chapter comes

0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.840
<v Speaker 1>out and apparently he does more than of the business,

0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.160
<v Speaker 1>and so people actually pay for it. And uh, then

0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.600
<v Speaker 1>the second chapter comes out and dipped a little bit.

0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:21.160
<v Speaker 1>I think it actually hits seventent but then went ahead

0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.120
<v Speaker 1>and did the third chapter, fourth chapter. As I recall,

0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.160
<v Speaker 1>he doubles the price. Now it's two bucks for the chapter,

0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.960
<v Speaker 1>but he also doubles the output, so it's about twice

0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:32.000
<v Speaker 1>as many pages as you would have received in one

0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.200
<v Speaker 1>of the previous installments. Um. I think it only got

0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:38.600
<v Speaker 1>up to six chapters, and then it stopped in in

0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:42.600
<v Speaker 1>two thousand. Uh and since then there's been no progress

0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:46.680
<v Speaker 1>on the plant, just the name of the book. UM.

0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:51.240
<v Speaker 1>So that experiment kind of fizzled, but I think it

0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:56.360
<v Speaker 1>laid the groundwork for the electronic books uh industry that

0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:58.880
<v Speaker 1>we see today. It's just that it was one of

0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:04.040
<v Speaker 1>those early tempts that didn't quite make it. Now there

0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.200
<v Speaker 1>have been other publishers who have tried different experiments like that,

0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:12.520
<v Speaker 1>and usually I think it's based on the the will

0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:15.680
<v Speaker 1>of the author trying to you know, get the experiments started,

0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:20.480
<v Speaker 1>people like Corey doctor Oh especially. I think the most

0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.640
<v Speaker 1>recent effort, to a Little Brother, it did pretty well

0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.440
<v Speaker 1>after making it available on you know, for free on

0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:31.640
<v Speaker 1>digital download, It's still sold a lot of copies. Neil

0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:35.280
<v Speaker 1>Gaiman has also offered some of his work um online

0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.799
<v Speaker 1>for free. My wife's gonna kill me because I forgot

0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:39.440
<v Speaker 1>the name of the author, but the author of the

0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:44.680
<v Speaker 1>Dresden Files um. He always or seems to always uh

0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.040
<v Speaker 1>offer up the first few chapters of whichever novel has

0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.400
<v Speaker 1>just come out for free, so that it's essentially you

0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.440
<v Speaker 1>can get a chance to get hooked into the story.

0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:55.560
<v Speaker 1>Now it's just the first few chapters, so you still

0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.120
<v Speaker 1>have to go out and buy a copy of the book.

0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.880
<v Speaker 1>But it has been a very effective way of of

0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:05.360
<v Speaker 1>getting new readers. Yes, he wouldn't if you will Butcher, Yes,

0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.600
<v Speaker 1>Jim Butcher, thank you, thank you. Yes. Now my wife

0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.640
<v Speaker 1>will only name me instead of kill me. Well, you know,

0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:14.960
<v Speaker 1>I'm also a fan of the books. She she's the

0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:16.800
<v Speaker 1>mega fan, and I'm also a fan. But there are

0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:18.599
<v Speaker 1>other ones as well who do the same sort of

0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:22.200
<v Speaker 1>thing that they authors either put up an entire book

0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:24.520
<v Speaker 1>or part of a book as a way to but

0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:27.640
<v Speaker 1>not but that's still usually a way to sell the

0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.159
<v Speaker 1>physical book. Yeah, it's it's sort of a way to

0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:34.880
<v Speaker 1>whet the appetite being offers. A science fiction publisher offers

0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:39.080
<v Speaker 1>free books UM for download UM from time to time,

0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:40.680
<v Speaker 1>and a lot of times those are the first in

0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:46.240
<v Speaker 1>a series. UM Tour, another science fiction fantasy publisher did

0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.760
<v Speaker 1>that not too long ago, And when you asked me

0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:50.640
<v Speaker 1>the question, it hadn't been that long ago that I

0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:57.159
<v Speaker 1>downloaded six or seven e books from there, UM and UM. Actually,

0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:02.040
<v Speaker 1>at one point McGraw hill, the educational publisher, was offering

0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.280
<v Speaker 1>something that they called beta books. Now, last time I

0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:06.719
<v Speaker 1>went on the site, I don't think they're doing this

0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:08.480
<v Speaker 1>the same way they used to, but they were offering

0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:12.200
<v Speaker 1>UM pre printed versions of the book. The point was

0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.080
<v Speaker 1>it was in beta, it was unfinished. Um, if you

0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.800
<v Speaker 1>had a correction that you saw, you know, hey, wow,

0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.160
<v Speaker 1>this thing is completely wrong. What you mean to do

0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:22.239
<v Speaker 1>is here? Or there's a type of in this page,

0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.400
<v Speaker 1>you could actually contact McGraw hill and let them know,

0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:27.640
<v Speaker 1>which was kind of a different thing. But you still

0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:31.720
<v Speaker 1>got access to that content, which was, you know, pretty cool. Yeah,

0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:36.000
<v Speaker 1>but most of these are offered in PDF format or um,

0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.599
<v Speaker 1>you know, the Windows Reader format, which has been the

0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.400
<v Speaker 1>sort of the de facto the two de facto standards

0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.839
<v Speaker 1>for for e books over you know, the course of

0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.840
<v Speaker 1>the bookdom mainly because most people are reading them on

0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:54.000
<v Speaker 1>their computers until the Amazon Kindle came along. Really well

0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:57.279
<v Speaker 1>sort of, Oh you had other e book readers before,

0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.719
<v Speaker 1>but I don't think they had the same sort of

0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.160
<v Speaker 1>They didn't get the same sort of press or adoption

0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:08.240
<v Speaker 1>rates as the Kindle, although it's arguable whether or not

0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:10.920
<v Speaker 1>the Kindles even had a really high adoption rate because

0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:15.640
<v Speaker 1>hardly anyone ever seems to see them. Well, Um, the

0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.560
<v Speaker 1>two I first came in contact with him, We're talking

0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:22.560
<v Speaker 1>more than ten years ago, um, are the Rocket Book

0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:27.640
<v Speaker 1>and the Soft Book, both of which were very early designs.

0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:32.040
<v Speaker 1>They basically supported text, and they had LCD screens. UM.

0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:36.760
<v Speaker 1>And uh, they probably would seem more primitive to those

0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.360
<v Speaker 1>familiar with the Amazon Kindle because you had to hook

0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.280
<v Speaker 1>him up to your computer. Um, you know, the battery

0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:46.680
<v Speaker 1>life was twenty hours. You know. Stuff like that really

0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:48.920
<v Speaker 1>just didn't catch on, even though some of them, one

0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.400
<v Speaker 1>of them had a leather cover, uh to design, and

0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:53.400
<v Speaker 1>one of them was actually the size about the size

0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:57.320
<v Speaker 1>of a paperback book. You'd think maybe, you know, some

0:07:57.360 --> 0:07:59.720
<v Speaker 1>people would buy it, but it really just didn't take off.

0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:01.480
<v Speaker 1>I'm and in a matter of fact, you may those

0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.960
<v Speaker 1>of you listening may never have heard of these just

0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.840
<v Speaker 1>simply because they just didn't get depressed. And I well,

0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:11.560
<v Speaker 1>I think it goes beyond just the I think it

0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.120
<v Speaker 1>goes beyond just the press issue. UM. I think for

0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:20.880
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people, particularly of our generation or older, UM,

0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:25.320
<v Speaker 1>it's hard to imagine replacing the experience of reading a

0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:30.240
<v Speaker 1>physical book with an electronic version. Um. There's certain things

0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:32.920
<v Speaker 1>that you just associate with reading. You associate that the

0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.400
<v Speaker 1>feel of the paper or even the smell of a book,

0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.079
<v Speaker 1>and they seem like kind of silly things to talk about.

0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.080
<v Speaker 1>But I think I think for some people it really

0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:43.480
<v Speaker 1>is part of what they associate with, you know, reading

0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:45.840
<v Speaker 1>a book, and if you don't have that, it doesn't

0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.200
<v Speaker 1>really feel like you're reading. Um. Also, things like the

0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.760
<v Speaker 1>l c D screens they tend to to cause a

0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.520
<v Speaker 1>lot of eye strain, so after you were it's just

0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:57.520
<v Speaker 1>like if you've been staring at a computer all day long.

0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:01.960
<v Speaker 1>Do you have any idea what that's like, Chris, Yeah, yeah, yeah,

0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:04.719
<v Speaker 1>I do too. And after you've been staring at a

0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.440
<v Speaker 1>computer for a while, you do get ice train, you know,

0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:10.160
<v Speaker 1>your eyes get tired. And that was part of the

0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:12.960
<v Speaker 1>problem with some of these earlier e book readers as well.

0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.440
<v Speaker 1>They used the same sort of technology that you would

0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.839
<v Speaker 1>find in an l c D computer screen. And UM,

0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:24.480
<v Speaker 1>so yeah, that I think I played a factor into

0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:28.720
<v Speaker 1>the whole slow adoption rate as well, where yeah, you

0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:32.120
<v Speaker 1>have the availability, but the technology just didn't appeal to

0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:35.840
<v Speaker 1>people quite as much. Yep. And I think that's why

0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.640
<v Speaker 1>the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle, which are the

0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:43.400
<v Speaker 1>current generation of e book readers. Um, that's a big

0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:48.440
<v Speaker 1>part of it is. Uh, this little company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Inc. Yep.

0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.800
<v Speaker 1>I love the inc. I actually have. I I don't

0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:56.200
<v Speaker 1>have an electronic book reader. But I have messed with

0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.800
<v Speaker 1>the Sony Reader in a Border's bookstore, um, which is

0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.640
<v Speaker 1>one the retail outlets that you can find them in.

0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:05.640
<v Speaker 1>And you should at least take a look at it,

0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:11.199
<v Speaker 1>because the INC is completely different from l C. D UM. Basically,

0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.880
<v Speaker 1>inside the display of a Sony Reader or an Amazon Kindle,

0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:18.560
<v Speaker 1>what you have are little capsules, and inside the little

0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:22.280
<v Speaker 1>capsules are more little capsules that are floating in a liquid.

0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.720
<v Speaker 1>Um on on either side of the larger capsule is

0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:33.360
<v Speaker 1>uh an electronic um yeah, an electrode and uh yeah,

0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:36.960
<v Speaker 1>which is the funny name for them. It's okay, I

0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.800
<v Speaker 1>just wrote the article, Chris, It's all right, all right.

0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:42.559
<v Speaker 1>Um So, what happens is you put a positive or

0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:46.200
<v Speaker 1>a negative charge and it draws the little capsules inside,

0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:48.640
<v Speaker 1>which have pigment in them, to one side or another,

0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.160
<v Speaker 1>and you can actually, uh by fine tuning that charge,

0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:56.160
<v Speaker 1>you can actually make different shades of gray or black

0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.440
<v Speaker 1>or white, and you form pictures and letters. And that's

0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.280
<v Speaker 1>how that's why it looks like INK, I mean really

0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:07.120
<v Speaker 1>kind of is INC. And uh so it it's designed

0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.800
<v Speaker 1>so that there's no backlight to these screens. Um. So

0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:13.839
<v Speaker 1>it looks to your eye kind of the same way

0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:15.400
<v Speaker 1>as what if you were looking at a piece of

0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.319
<v Speaker 1>paper with ink on it. It's really remarkable the similarity.

0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:20.320
<v Speaker 1>I mean, if you've ever looked at it, did that

0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:22.280
<v Speaker 1>experiment in science class where you had to look at

0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:24.880
<v Speaker 1>a piece of newsprint under a microscope, you could see

0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.240
<v Speaker 1>that it's you know, made up of tiny little dots. Yeah,

0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:29.640
<v Speaker 1>it's the same principle, really. Yeah, it really works very

0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.920
<v Speaker 1>very similarly. And the the nice thing also is that

0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.600
<v Speaker 1>it takes less energy to run one of these devices

0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.240
<v Speaker 1>than it would for an LCD screen because it's not

0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:43.440
<v Speaker 1>powering a backlight. Essentially, it only needs to exert energy

0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.079
<v Speaker 1>whenever you're changing a page, when you're changing an image,

0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:49.280
<v Speaker 1>Like if you're not just changing a page, but if

0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.000
<v Speaker 1>you were like increasing the font size or whatever, it

0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.280
<v Speaker 1>would have to exert some it would have to exert

0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:58.360
<v Speaker 1>some energy in order to to make the change visible.

0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.600
<v Speaker 1>But between those it doesn't have to use up any electricity,

0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.679
<v Speaker 1>So you have a battery charge that lasts a longer time.

0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.800
<v Speaker 1>In fact, the Kindle Amazon claims the Kindle can last

0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:11.600
<v Speaker 1>for more than a week on a single charge. If

0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.160
<v Speaker 1>you're just you know, reading books if you're not using

0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.319
<v Speaker 1>the wireless capability. That's We should probably also talk a

0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.960
<v Speaker 1>little bit about the differences between the Kindle and the

0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:23.120
<v Speaker 1>and the Sony book Reader. The Kindle is a wireless

0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:29.040
<v Speaker 1>device and it uh it works really well with Amazon's

0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.839
<v Speaker 1>Electronic bookstore, so you can purchase books directly from your

0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.960
<v Speaker 1>Kindle and have them download straight to the device. You

0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:39.280
<v Speaker 1>don't have to sink it with a computer. Um. You

0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.680
<v Speaker 1>can connect it to a computer and transfer files over

0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.600
<v Speaker 1>from the computer to the Kindle, but it's not necessary

0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:49.680
<v Speaker 1>for the Kindle to work. Uh. The Sony one is different.

0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.640
<v Speaker 1>You have to sink that with your computer. But on

0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:54.599
<v Speaker 1>the flip side, the new version of the Sony e

0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.200
<v Speaker 1>Reader has a touch screen, which the Kindle does not,

0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.400
<v Speaker 1>and you can even change pages by swiping your finger

0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:03.920
<v Speaker 1>across the screen, which to a lot of people that's

0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.160
<v Speaker 1>that's so much more attractive than pushing a button. Um.

0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:09.280
<v Speaker 1>For one thing, it kind of brings back that feeling

0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.280
<v Speaker 1>that you're reading a book, you know, you're turning a page. Uh.

0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:14.920
<v Speaker 1>For another, the Amazon One of the criticisms that the

0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:19.400
<v Speaker 1>Amazon Kindle has a has had over the brief period

0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:23.800
<v Speaker 1>of its life is that the button placement is such

0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:27.000
<v Speaker 1>that if you pick up a kindle, you're almost guaranteed

0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:29.640
<v Speaker 1>to accidentally turn the page because the buttons are on

0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:31.040
<v Speaker 1>the side of it, so you don't you know, you're

0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.080
<v Speaker 1>trying to put your hands in such a way where

0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.360
<v Speaker 1>you're not covering up the screen or smudging the screen,

0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:37.600
<v Speaker 1>but that means you're touching the sides. That's where all

0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.400
<v Speaker 1>the next page or or previous page buttons are found.

0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.880
<v Speaker 1>And they're large, so it's very easy to accidentally hit

0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:45.679
<v Speaker 1>one of those and then next thing you know, you're

0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:49.480
<v Speaker 1>on the wrong page. Um. So yeah, they each have

0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:54.040
<v Speaker 1>their own merits and their own drawbacks. UM. I think

0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.240
<v Speaker 1>they're both, from what I've seen, very good devices. I

0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:01.079
<v Speaker 1>think they're both also probably a little more expensive than

0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:04.440
<v Speaker 1>the average consumer would care to spend for something that

0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:06.480
<v Speaker 1>they would think of, Hey, this just this just lets

0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.320
<v Speaker 1>me read books. Um. The Kindle I know is I

0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:14.400
<v Speaker 1>think three right now, and that's all unless you use

0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:18.280
<v Speaker 1>Oprah Winfree's coupon, in which case it's it's three oh nine.

0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:22.400
<v Speaker 1>Oprah Winfree uh called the Kindle her favorite gadget recently,

0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:26.520
<v Speaker 1>and I'm sure that gave a nice boost to Kindle sales. Um.

0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:28.760
<v Speaker 1>The Sony one I think is a I believe the

0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.360
<v Speaker 1>new one is going to be four hundred. Well, um,

0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.920
<v Speaker 1>but that's you. You bring up an interesting point because

0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.720
<v Speaker 1>neither of these is just an e book anymore because

0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:44.040
<v Speaker 1>they both um, they both handle a variety of files. Um,

0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:46.680
<v Speaker 1>and both of them play music, right. Um you can

0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:49.440
<v Speaker 1>listen to uh MP three's on on either one of them,

0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:51.600
<v Speaker 1>so you can listen to an audible book on your

0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:57.920
<v Speaker 1>book reading device. UM. And uh you know, the Kindle

0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:03.040
<v Speaker 1>can download our s feeds and uh you can also

0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:06.720
<v Speaker 1>get newspapers and things on their teams. So yeah, I

0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.720
<v Speaker 1>mean it's uh, these are much more sophisticated than those

0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:13.960
<v Speaker 1>those very early e book readers. UM. And talking about price,

0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.920
<v Speaker 1>that's one of those things that people who are particularly

0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.320
<v Speaker 1>critical of the e books I think UM really point

0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:23.880
<v Speaker 1>out is you know, hey, I got to spend three

0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.600
<v Speaker 1>or four h dollars for this machine, and on top

0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.760
<v Speaker 1>of that, I'm paying full price for the books because

0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:34.000
<v Speaker 1>in the bookstores, essentially you're not really getting a discount

0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.080
<v Speaker 1>at least not much of a discount on on electronic

0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.600
<v Speaker 1>books themselves. So UM, you know that's something that you

0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:43.520
<v Speaker 1>have to to weigh. Now there are conveniences too. You

0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.480
<v Speaker 1>can take a whole library full of stuff in your

0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:50.920
<v Speaker 1>backpack and it doesn't weigh anymore than the electronic reader. Um,

0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:53.080
<v Speaker 1>which is nice if you're going on a trip or UM.

0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.080
<v Speaker 1>You know, they've been talking for a long time about

0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:59.680
<v Speaker 1>students who could download textbooks. You could have a stack

0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:02.160
<v Speaker 1>of xbooks and not have to worry about it. Are

0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:06.320
<v Speaker 1>people who use a lot of literature, like UM, physicians

0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:08.720
<v Speaker 1>or lawyers who are going to have to carry lots

0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.360
<v Speaker 1>and lots of documents and lots of books for reference.

0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.640
<v Speaker 1>This is a great thing for them. Um. Then again,

0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.480
<v Speaker 1>those materials, I'm not sure how much of that is

0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.000
<v Speaker 1>available because it seems like the majority of this stuff

0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:24.920
<v Speaker 1>I've seen is entertainment. Right. Yeah. The the kindle can hold,

0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:27.920
<v Speaker 1>according to Amazon, up to two hundred titles, so when

0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:29.600
<v Speaker 1>you think about that you can carry it's the same

0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.320
<v Speaker 1>as being able to carry two hundred books wherever you go.

0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.520
<v Speaker 1>And there's a capacity for smart cards, so you can

0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.680
<v Speaker 1>hold even more than that. Really and um, and not

0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:40.960
<v Speaker 1>only that, but you can delete the stuff that's on

0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.520
<v Speaker 1>your kindle and it actually still exists on a on

0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:47.880
<v Speaker 1>a online cloud. Computing kind of UM account, so you

0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.600
<v Speaker 1>can always download it again for no additional charge because

0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.360
<v Speaker 1>you've already purchased the book. So yeah, you've got this

0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.920
<v Speaker 1>potentially unlimited library that you can carry around with you

0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.000
<v Speaker 1>because since again since it's wireless, you could always download

0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:02.200
<v Speaker 1>a book that you already purchased and to lead another

0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:07.560
<v Speaker 1>one whatever you want to do. UM. So the convenience

0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:11.520
<v Speaker 1>factor definitely is there. The question about the price is

0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.840
<v Speaker 1>a big one, the price of the individual books UM.

0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.800
<v Speaker 1>From a publisher standpoint, uh, I'm sure it has to

0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:23.840
<v Speaker 1>be a little frightening because theoretically an author could bypass

0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:28.679
<v Speaker 1>a publisher completely and self published and allow, you know,

0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:32.560
<v Speaker 1>sell these electronic books on his or her own website. Now,

0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.280
<v Speaker 1>the author would have to pay for hosting services and

0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.400
<v Speaker 1>probably for bandwidth as well as people downloaded the book.

0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.480
<v Speaker 1>But on the other hand, the author would get to

0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:45.080
<v Speaker 1>keep pretty much all the profit. I mean right now,

0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.920
<v Speaker 1>I can tell you from uh, from my own experience.

0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.119
<v Speaker 1>I'm the son of authors, both of my parents that

0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:57.440
<v Speaker 1>are published authors and uh son of two authors actually,

0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.920
<v Speaker 1>but uh, the others do not get to keep a

0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.800
<v Speaker 1>percent of the profits from their books. Actually, the percentage

0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:07.480
<v Speaker 1>is very small in comparison to them to what the

0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:10.080
<v Speaker 1>public publisher gets, and they don't get to keep the

0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:16.639
<v Speaker 1>copyrights either. And because they've publisher the now you can't

0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.120
<v Speaker 1>sit there and call the publishers necessarily like big, mean,

0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:23.880
<v Speaker 1>greedy people because they're they're very real costs associated with publishing.

0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:27.879
<v Speaker 1>I mean, you're talking about using hard uh materials to

0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.200
<v Speaker 1>create books. So you're talking about paper, and you're talking

0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:35.920
<v Speaker 1>about ink, and you're talking about a the actual printers, distribution, marketing, marketing. Yeah,

0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:38.920
<v Speaker 1>all of these things are just money, right and UH,

0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.320
<v Speaker 1>now e books takes a lot of that and eliminates it.

0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:44.480
<v Speaker 1>You don't have to worry about production costs as much.

0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:46.480
<v Speaker 1>You have to worry about hosting, and you have to

0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:50.000
<v Speaker 1>worry about bandwidth. Uh, marketing can be a lot more

0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.199
<v Speaker 1>simple when you're using just electronic versions of marketing. You know,

0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:57.040
<v Speaker 1>social networks things like email, Twitter or newsletters, that kind

0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:00.800
<v Speaker 1>of stuff. Um, it has the potential to really kick

0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.280
<v Speaker 1>publishing in the pants, which I think is another reason

0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:08.480
<v Speaker 1>why we see the e book phenomenon taking longer than

0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.600
<v Speaker 1>you would imagine it would take. Because I don't know

0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:13.639
<v Speaker 1>that a lot of publishers are really eager to jump

0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:15.959
<v Speaker 1>on that train. Just yet, there's still a little wary

0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.080
<v Speaker 1>of where this is going to go. Sure, and for

0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.920
<v Speaker 1>good reason. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there are plenty of good

0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.800
<v Speaker 1>reasons from a business perspective to be a little nervous now, granted,

0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.159
<v Speaker 1>if they can find a way to capitalize on that,

0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.080
<v Speaker 1>to monetize it. Um. First of all, I don't think

0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.840
<v Speaker 1>that physical books are ever going to go away. Uh.

0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:35.679
<v Speaker 1>They just have to make sure that they are able

0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.520
<v Speaker 1>to balance it out just right so that they produce

0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.439
<v Speaker 1>enough physical books to meet that demand without overproducing and

0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.320
<v Speaker 1>then operating at a loss. And also a way to

0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.000
<v Speaker 1>monetize the electronic books so that it makes sense from

0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:52.760
<v Speaker 1>a financial standpoint to offer both. Um. If they can

0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:54.919
<v Speaker 1>find that, then you know they've hit the holy grail.

0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.720
<v Speaker 1>Which is what's interesting is this doesn't apply just to

0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:02.600
<v Speaker 1>to publishing. You could say that online distribution, I mean,

0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:06.399
<v Speaker 1>that's going to be the future of delivering entertainment and information.

0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:10.680
<v Speaker 1>It already is to a large extent here. But you're

0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:12.959
<v Speaker 1>you're not just going to see this in the journalism

0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:15.719
<v Speaker 1>and publishing. You're going to see it in television because

0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:18.880
<v Speaker 1>and it's already happening in television and music, movies. All

0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.199
<v Speaker 1>these things are are looking at online distribution as the

0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:25.040
<v Speaker 1>next big thing, and it's either the next big scary

0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:28.320
<v Speaker 1>thing or the next big this is awesome. We're all

0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:32.280
<v Speaker 1>really filthy rich thing. I'm for the last one. I

0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:35.520
<v Speaker 1>would uh yeah, I would not object to being filthy

0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:40.040
<v Speaker 1>rich right now, you're just filthy. Yeah. I hear that.

0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.200
<v Speaker 1>I hear that wealth is a burden, but it's one

0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:46.520
<v Speaker 1>I'm willing to bear. All right, then, well, I guess

0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:50.439
<v Speaker 1>we've pretty much covered this topic from from start to finish.

0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:53.680
<v Speaker 1>I think cover to cover, cover to cover, nice good one.

0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.639
<v Speaker 1>I think it's time to turn the page. That you

0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:59.320
<v Speaker 1>were ahead, You were ahead, and now you're behind again.

0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:01.960
<v Speaker 1>But if you want to learn more about e books,

0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:03.960
<v Speaker 1>you can read lots of articles such as how the

0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:06.840
<v Speaker 1>Amazon Kindle works. That's gonna be lie at how stuff

0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:09.800
<v Speaker 1>works dot com and we'll talk to you again really soon.

0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:13.879
<v Speaker 1>But more on this and thousands of other topics. Visit

0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:17.120
<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think.

0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:24.399
<v Speaker 1>Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.

0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:27.080
<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:28.600
<v Speaker 1>It's ready, are you