4 ms·

We had books, but then we thought, what about screens. Then we had screens but we thought, what if screens were more like books. Then we had book screens and we

We had books, but then we thought, what about screens. Then we had screens but we thought, what if screens were more like books. Then we had book screens and we thought, what if the screens we made to look like books were more like screens.

kevmo314 2y ago
Next up: a kindle with physical pages, each page is a screen!
- entropie 2y ago
  It might also fold!
  - thimabi 2y ago
    Come to think of it, a foldable Kindle would be very nice! And not just because it has the format of a book. The portability of a Paperwhite combined with the note-taking ability of a Scribe… there’s probably a market for that. Edit: also, holding the device semi-opened, hands on its back, seems much more comfortable than holding it by the bezels as we currently do.
    - chipdart 2y ago
      > The portability of a Paperwhite combined with the note-taking ability of a Scribe… there’s probably a market for that. There are already erasable notebooks that allow you to scan your notes and send the document to a storage of your choosing. Even BIC sells one of them.
  - dredmorbius 2y ago
    The industry's got you covered: <https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/readmoo-to-launch-the-worlds-first-foldable-e-reader-featuring-8-inch-gallery-3-display https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/readmoo-to-l...> <https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/10/21361545/folding-e-ink-reader-prototype-note-taking https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/10/21361545/folding-e-ink-re...> (I'm not even remotely saying this would be a Good Thing. I recently saw my first foldable smartphone. And it was broken.)
jacurtis 2y ago
Similarly, I saw someome on social media yesterday post about buying "Monopoly Go" boardgame at the store. The box says "Based on the popular mobile game". The joke was the same, we had a board game, then we made a mobile video game based on the board game, now they are selling a board game based on the video game that was based on the board game.
- samplatt 2y ago
  In this case there's the extra meta joke with Monopoly originally being created to show how capitalism is bad.
  - zahma 2y ago
    More so when you realize that capitalism drove everyone’s attention capacity into the ground, so activities like a full-fledged board game or reading a book are things of the past.
Funes- 2y ago
I get the joke, but color has been present in books (manuscripts, before the invention of the printing press, even) basically since their inception, many centuries ago, so just adding color wouldn't make these devices more similar to screens as much as it would make them more akin to... well, books. Just look at these marvels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript.
- mirekrusin 2y ago
  Color was present in cave paintings.
  - Funes- 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - Funes- 2y ago
    Where exactly in parent's post are cave paintings mentioned, instead of explicitly just books and screens, whose specific relationship is what the tongue-in-cheek comment is about? Your post makes no sense, other than trying to be a "gotcha!" one and failing at it.
- thaumasiotes 2y ago
  Here's a book a little closer in time to the invention of books: https://cdn.britannica.com/25/83825-050-F8826674/Anubis-Egyptian-Book-of-the-Dead-dead-c-1275-bce.jpg https://cdn.britannica.com/25/83825-050-F8826674/Anubis-Egyp...
  - TZubiri 2y ago
    100% not a book as it's not movable. Might be a scroll or a codex, but it might even be on a wall.
    - thaumasiotes 2y ago
      It's a bunch of sheets of paper, or more likely part of a scroll. You can see the grain clearly in the image. > it's not movable I don't know what to say here. This is obviously false. Why did you say this? What do you think is the difference between a "book" and a "codex"? Why do you think ancient texts are divided into "books"?
yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
Well... Yes, we'd ideally like the best attributes of both at once. What of it?
mertd 2y ago
Sorry but this is a bad take. The active light on "screens" is stimulating, causes eye strain and keeps you awake. The two technologies are not the same.
- hollerith 2y ago
  This again! Kindles have lights, too. On my old Paperwhite, the light could not be turned off. Although it could be dimmed, my iPad's backlight can be adjusted to be much dimmer than the Paperwhite's is capable of.
  - pta2002 2y ago
    The Kindle's light is much more diffuse than the iPad's though, much closer to just having a reading light on, which you'd need anyway for a physical book.
    - hollerith 2y ago
      The Kindle's light comes from a ring of linear LEDs that goes through a plastic sheet called a diffuser -- same as the light from an iPad. In the iPad the diffuser is behind the image whereas in the Kindle, it is in front of it, but why is that better or "more diffuse"? >much closer to just having a reading light on First of all, that contradicts the evidence from my eyes, but second of all, even if it were true, you'd have to persuade me that reading an old-fashion paper book with a reading light is any better at helping me get to sleep at night than reading from an iPad. I'm not buying that one either mainly because a reading light is going to throw more light onto the ceiling, where of course it gets reflected down again, and neuroscientists know (and the Scandinavian tradition "knew" in practice decades ago) that light from the top of the field of vision is more disruptive to sleep than light coming straight into the eye or from the sides or bottom of the visual field.
      - tiltowait 2y ago
        The eReader manufacturers have done a great job of marketing the alleged benefits of their front lights, even though they’re simple LEDs like everything else. I look for any actual studies on the subject every couple of years and come up empty. (I do prefer an eReader over a tablet, but I don’t think the light is magically better.)
djtango 2y ago
Reading code and documentation with an eink screen is tantalising. I have no interest in lugging around tomes and tomes of manuals anymore. When I was in uni and school I'd regularly lug around 15kg+ of textbooks. I love buying physical books but the freedom and flexibility of having ink-like screens is still a bonus. Especially for things like reading contracts which I find miserable on a screen
potatoman22 2y ago
The dialectics of e-ink
ErigmolCt 2y ago
That's a perfect summary of the strange evolution we've had with reading devices!
NoGravitas 2y ago
Honestly, my only use-cases for a color eBook reader are comic books and House of Leaves. And I'm not sure if a 7" screen is really big enough for comic books (pretty sure on my Nexus 7 it was better to read comic books half a page at a time in landscape mode than a whole page in portrait).

kevmo314 2y ago

Next up: a kindle with physical pages, each page is a screen!

entropie 2y ago
It might also fold!
- thimabi 2y ago
  Come to think of it, a foldable Kindle would be very nice! And not just because it has the format of a book. The portability of a Paperwhite combined with the note-taking ability of a Scribe… there’s probably a market for that. Edit: also, holding the device semi-opened, hands on its back, seems much more comfortable than holding it by the bezels as we currently do.
  - chipdart 2y ago
    > The portability of a Paperwhite combined with the note-taking ability of a Scribe… there’s probably a market for that. There are already erasable notebooks that allow you to scan your notes and send the document to a storage of your choosing. Even BIC sells one of them.
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  The industry's got you covered: <https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/readmoo-to-launch-the-worlds-first-foldable-e-reader-featuring-8-inch-gallery-3-display https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/readmoo-to-l...> <https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/10/21361545/folding-e-ink-reader-prototype-note-taking https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/10/21361545/folding-e-ink-re...> (I'm not even remotely saying this would be a Good Thing. I recently saw my first foldable smartphone. And it was broken.)

jacurtis 2y ago

Similarly, I saw someome on social media yesterday post about buying "Monopoly Go" boardgame at the store. The box says "Based on the popular mobile game". The joke was the same, we had a board game, then we made a mobile video game based on the board game, now they are selling a board game based on the video game that was based on the board game.

samplatt 2y ago
In this case there's the extra meta joke with Monopoly originally being created to show how capitalism is bad.
- zahma 2y ago
  More so when you realize that capitalism drove everyone’s attention capacity into the ground, so activities like a full-fledged board game or reading a book are things of the past.

Funes- 2y ago

I get the joke, but color has been present in books (manuscripts, before the invention of the printing press, even) basically since their inception, many centuries ago, so just adding color wouldn't make these devices more similar to screens as much as it would make them more akin to... well, books. Just look at these marvels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript.

mirekrusin 2y ago
Color was present in cave paintings.
- Funes- 2y ago
  [flagged]
- Funes- 2y ago
  Where exactly in parent's post are cave paintings mentioned, instead of explicitly just books and screens, whose specific relationship is what the tongue-in-cheek comment is about? Your post makes no sense, other than trying to be a "gotcha!" one and failing at it.
thaumasiotes 2y ago
Here's a book a little closer in time to the invention of books: https://cdn.britannica.com/25/83825-050-F8826674/Anubis-Egyptian-Book-of-the-Dead-dead-c-1275-bce.jpg https://cdn.britannica.com/25/83825-050-F8826674/Anubis-Egyp...
- TZubiri 2y ago
  100% not a book as it's not movable. Might be a scroll or a codex, but it might even be on a wall.
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    It's a bunch of sheets of paper, or more likely part of a scroll. You can see the grain clearly in the image. > it's not movable I don't know what to say here. This is obviously false. Why did you say this? What do you think is the difference between a "book" and a "codex"? Why do you think ancient texts are divided into "books"?

yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago

Well... Yes, we'd ideally like the best attributes of both at once. What of it?

mertd 2y ago

Sorry but this is a bad take. The active light on "screens" is stimulating, causes eye strain and keeps you awake. The two technologies are not the same.

hollerith 2y ago
This again! Kindles have lights, too. On my old Paperwhite, the light could not be turned off. Although it could be dimmed, my iPad's backlight can be adjusted to be much dimmer than the Paperwhite's is capable of.
- pta2002 2y ago
  The Kindle's light is much more diffuse than the iPad's though, much closer to just having a reading light on, which you'd need anyway for a physical book.
  - hollerith 2y ago
    The Kindle's light comes from a ring of linear LEDs that goes through a plastic sheet called a diffuser -- same as the light from an iPad. In the iPad the diffuser is behind the image whereas in the Kindle, it is in front of it, but why is that better or "more diffuse"? >much closer to just having a reading light on First of all, that contradicts the evidence from my eyes, but second of all, even if it were true, you'd have to persuade me that reading an old-fashion paper book with a reading light is any better at helping me get to sleep at night than reading from an iPad. I'm not buying that one either mainly because a reading light is going to throw more light onto the ceiling, where of course it gets reflected down again, and neuroscientists know (and the Scandinavian tradition "knew" in practice decades ago) that light from the top of the field of vision is more disruptive to sleep than light coming straight into the eye or from the sides or bottom of the visual field.
    - tiltowait 2y ago
      The eReader manufacturers have done a great job of marketing the alleged benefits of their front lights, even though they’re simple LEDs like everything else. I look for any actual studies on the subject every couple of years and come up empty. (I do prefer an eReader over a tablet, but I don’t think the light is magically better.)

djtango 2y ago

Reading code and documentation with an eink screen is tantalising. I have no interest in lugging around tomes and tomes of manuals anymore. When I was in uni and school I'd regularly lug around 15kg+ of textbooks. I love buying physical books but the freedom and flexibility of having ink-like screens is still a bonus. Especially for things like reading contracts which I find miserable on a screen

potatoman22 2y ago

The dialectics of e-ink

ErigmolCt 2y ago

That's a perfect summary of the strange evolution we've had with reading devices!

NoGravitas 2y ago

Honestly, my only use-cases for a color eBook reader are comic books and House of Leaves. And I'm not sure if a 7" screen is really big enough for comic books (pretty sure on my Nexus 7 it was better to read comic books half a page at a time in landscape mode than a whole page in portrait).