One advantage the print newspaper has over the online publication is its portability, but that’s about to change. Belgian newspaper DeTijd is going digital with a device called the iLiad eReader from iRex Technologies. In a three month trial, 200 users will be reading online news without having to use the computer. But I can’t wait until the technology hits closer to home.
The iLiad eReader would be beneficial to a group you might not expect: New York subway riders. People read on the go and that’s why many pick up a paper. It’s not easy lugging around a laptop.
However, paper newspapers are a costly problem – especially when people leave them lying around train stations. In New York, the MTA reports that free newspapers add more than 15 tons of trash a day to the subway system than in 2004. It’s spending $6.4 million more this year to clean stations and tracks –- and the payment's coming out of your taxpayer pocket and rider fare. With the iLiad eReader and a multimedia card, it would be possible to carry digital news with you and leave the potential fire hazards behind.
Ivan Pereira @ Sun, 04/02/2006 - 9:32pm
It sounds great that there is a way to experience digital news the old fashioned way. The only thing that bothers me is the fact that this technology could make writing for the news less special.
From what I understand from the news story on the iLiad reader, articles would appear as links so that the reader could pick and choose articles. So a "front page" is useless. With a regular paper, reporters fight and wrok hard to make their story the front page, and as a result the reader usually gets a lot of well-written stories. With less incentive, writers might not work as hard. Seems a bit of a stretch, but it's a possibility.