Negroponte On OLPC's New Path, Plans For XO 3 122
waderoush writes "After laying off staff and splitting the organization in two, Nicholas Negroponte and the One Laptop Per Child effort may be hitting their stride again. In an interview with Xconomy, Negroponte says he has a new model for getting XO laptops to kids in Gaza and Afghanistan — and reveals more ideas about the planned XO 3 tablet and the future of books. 'Paper books are really dead — they're gone. And they're not being killed by tablets, they're creating tablets,' he says."
Re:I like paper books (Score:3, Interesting)
I imagine though, that this is how the apocalypse starts: we all convert to ereaders, and a galactic EMP knocks out all our electronic literature.
Someone is going to be horribly dissapointed (Score:3, Interesting)
> 'Paper books are really dead -- they're gone. And they're not being killed by tablets, they're creating tablets,' he says.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the /. home page...
Oxford University's Bodleian Library has purchased a huge £26m warehouse to give a proper home to over 6 million books and 1.2 million maps
Paper books are not dead yet (Score:2, Interesting)
Um, just yesterday I ordered a paper book for myself. About 2 weeks ago I loaned a whole box of books to someone (I'm expecting them back in January) and my university booklist threatens to take the rest of my money.
I don't think paper books are dead at all.
I know someone that has a tablet, and I've fiddled around with it for a while. It's not nearly as good as a physical paper book. I usually spread my books out while reading so that I can compare things, and a tablet would not allow that. The tablet I saw just doesn't have the reading space that my books have. It being smaller and so on. I'm sure there's tons more reasons why paper books are still better than tablets.
Tablets are pretty cool things though. They could replace books one day, but goodness knows they'll get locked down like so many other modern devices. At least I am certain that my physical books will always belong to me, and that I won't get sued for using it in a study group where everyone can see.
Really? (Score:3, Interesting)
Do people really take such over the top wheedling seriously? And why would an otherwise pretty sharp guy say such a narrowminded blindered thing? Books are doing just fine, despite the coolness factor of OLPC or tablets or handhelds. People like them, use them, buy then, and keep them. And 100 years from now they'll still have them, unlike most digital ephemera. We're still working on getting good conversion of writing to text, but preserving writing on paper was mastered a few thousand years ago.
Re:Exactly: Paper books are like vinyl records (Score:3, Interesting)
Or like radio, yeah, remember how TV killed radio?
You can't watch TV while driving a car, but you can listed to radio just fine, which I guess is one of the main reasons why radio still exists. I haven't listened to radio outside a car in ages. Same with VCR and cinema, different tools, different purposes, just with a bit of overlap.
eBook vs paper books on the other side is different, same job, same requirements, really no fundamental difference. eBooks still have to become a bit faster and cheaper to fully compete with regular books, but once there, there is really not much reason left to get a regular book.
Re:I like paper books (Score:4, Interesting)
I like both too, but for technical reasons.
With an e-book, I can tap a word and get a dictionary entry for it. And I never run out of bookmarks. And I can read in the dark.
Not to mention carry 250 books in my pocket.
With a real book, I most of all never have to worry about whether the format it's in will be supported ten or twenty years down the road. The only hardware requirements are eyes and hands, and the only software requirement is a brain, neither of which will go out of style in my lifetime.
And I can lend it to whoever I want, or even sell it.
Finally, depending on the paper quality, it has other uses too, which an e-book never will be able to help with.
Re:Focus! (Score:3, Interesting)
Have you ever looked at the software? There is still a lot of areas that are simply incomplete. The button to view source for example still hasn't been implemented as far as I know, the pressure sensitive areas left and right from the touchpad that can be used for writing with a pen remain unused as well. I haven't seen a good book reading application for the thing either and the whole Journal still feels like an unusable mess.