Check out the amazing Plastic Logic Reader:
Very cool shit.
But there’s a demo lesson to be had here: When you’ve got a product that does something amazing, don’t waste 40 seconds talking about it. Just show it! The best demo is a usage demo, especially if you’ve got wow factor. Explain it later (...or maybe you won’t have to explain it at all).
Surely, the demo at the Plastic Logic site doesn’t make the same mistake. Nope. It’s even worse! Two minutes until the good stuff. Hey guys, we know what paper looks like. Get on with the show.
Matt
on 11 Sep 08That device is pretty amazing. Good form factor. I think the presentation was fine for the setting, but not necessarily appropriate for the website.
Ricky Irvine
on 11 Sep 08Indeed! Very cool product. Painfully boring presentations.
Paul Leader
on 11 Sep 08Now that is what I’ve been waiting for. The Kindle is a great idea, but it misses the fact that the single most important feature of any reading device is the screen. Everything else is surperfluous. I don’t want keyboards and controls, I want a big screen. In fact, I want a device that is all screen.
Make me an A5 size one of these, and reduce the size of the margin area and they’ve got themselves an instant sale from me.
They could do with watching a few Steve Jobs product demos.
Paul
Mike Rundle
on 11 Sep 08I want a 4×6’ version to hang on my wall that displays artwork, RSS feeds, weather, or anything else that I dream up.
JL
on 11 Sep 08I wondered when e-ink was going to get in my hands as a big tangible product. Only been reading about it since 2005, though reading this article [wikipedia], it’s been around a lot longer and I just heard about it then when Phillips sold the tech.
Learn something new every day… if only it didn’t displace memories I needed…
George
on 11 Sep 08How much will it cost?
I definitely would buy this, although correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it black and white display?
Ben
on 11 Sep 08“Can you twirl it?” I don’t want to be redundant and just agree with the show-don’t-tell comments. I do… But what the heck was that? Is that a feature of the device? It just seemed so… strange. I mean—we saw it before: It was thin. I get it. Weird. Cool tech.
And, yeah, can I give it a feed on a machine that it can see over wireless and have it display whatever is pushed to it that way? I, too, want the picture frame with blogs rotating into it.
Jacob
on 11 Sep 08For that, get a Chumby. http://www.chumby.com/
But this is indeed amazing. Sorta the opposite of enterprise tech – really awesome product, really bad salespeople. :-)
Josh S.
on 12 Sep 08My thoughts exactly. Who wants lame acting? If your product is good, just show it!
This looks exactly what I’m looking for, except with the Kindle store and a Word Processor for writing.
dusoft
on 12 Sep 08Nothing new about it. Just another e-book reader based on e-paper/e-ink. that flashing (black screen) is very bad for reading longer texts. i always turn it off on my bookeen e-book reader.
Simon
on 12 Sep 08@Paul Leader Agree with the Steve Jobs comment. It’s not until you watch something like this that you realise just how slick the Apple keynote product announcements are. The building of anticipation, the grand reveal, a supporting word, phrase or image on the screen behind, talking about it a technical product a way my mum would understand. This made a very exciting product look distinctly average.
Don Schenck
on 12 Sep 08That video should NEVER have been released.
Bad video quality, exceptionally poor sound quality, and we want, as Elvis sang, “A little less conversation, a little more action.”
And have some fun, for cryin’ out loud! A little humor goes a l-o-n-g way when selling something. Throw in a Calvin and Hobbes somewhere along the way. Sheesh.
Thibaut Sailly
on 12 Sep 08The Plastic Logic website presentation is a pain to watch, sure. I’m with Matt (comment #1) : it’s not a product presentation for visitors of a web site, it was done for a live audience during an event. Dear Leader takes his time too to reveal new products in such context.
As for the charming lady on the youtube link, waiting 40 seconds while listening to her and watching the product in her hands is still something I can cope with… Patience is a virtue.
Visually way more appealing than the Kindle.
Anonymous Coward
on 12 Sep 08Dorks.
DanGTD
on 13 Sep 08Anybody knows how much will it cost? Or it’s not decided yet, given the shipping date in 2009 ?
DennisSC
on 13 Sep 08I guess I’m a bit of a luddite when it comes to e-books, but it seems to me, as has already been mentioned above by different people, this needs to be either much bigger (for an changeable art display) or much smaller—so that it’s as portable as a book.
To me, they still haven’t topped the actual Gutenberg technology. I’m sure they’ll get there eventually, but until then…
Dan
on 18 Sep 08This post also applies to conference demos. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched an audience primed for Representative X from Company Y to demo hotly anticipated software product Z, and the guy spends the first 10 minutes standing in one place talking about how amazing the product is, with nothing on the 30-foot projection screen except an empty desktop with a toolbar on top. No documents, not even a PowerPoint slide, just a talking head and a big dead screen. Seen it happen over and over.
If you’re going to demo, and you want to impress…please just start doing something wow-worthy with your product right away.
Henry
on 18 Sep 08I’ll buy one of these today, the right size for my metro commuting. One page at a time is what I want to read. No more, no less.
This discussion is closed.