Philobiblon

I’ve been saying for some time now that there was going to be soon a “Sony Walkman” moment in the invention of electronic readers for books, newspaper etc. By that I mean the moment when a new gadget suddenly perfectly synchs with the zeitgeist and not only does almost everyone have it, but everyone’s behaviour changes. (Yes, OK, I could call it the iPod moment, but sometimes I like showing my age.)

It has taken a bit longer than I predicted (I think a few friends might pin me down to when I said “five years’ time” about seven years ago), but the new Amazon Kindle looks like it is getting mighty, mighty close… particularly for newspapers with its instant GPRS (or the American equivalent) updates – an interesting technical challenge for editors – if people want the latest news, as on the website, but in traditional print layout.