Ikea Heralding the End of the Printed Book?

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Sometimes it’s not the big signs that hold the most impact on trends, but the little unannounced ones that hold the most weight. The printed book has been around en masse since the Gutenberg Bible, but the recent surge in eBooks has severely cut into the volume of books printed. Ikea has taken the trend to heart and is now designing furniture to meet the demand of its customers and no longer taking paper books into consideration.

When’s the last time you saw a casette tape rack sold outside of Odd Lots? What about the formal “stereo cabinet” with plenty of room for records? What about Virgin Megastores?
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this is cool and i'm eager to see what the design. on a side note, books are a pretty low target on my list of things i'd like to see fade into the past....i'm really sick of putting buying dvd burners to put in pc builds, then only using them once to install the mobo drivers (not that it's even necessary for that).
 
I don't ever want to see books disappear. That scares me to death. I like the idea of Kindles and the like as convenience and complementary devices but not replacements. Ever.
 
Less books being printed = less trees being cut down = cheaper wood for Ikea :p

Also its environmentally friendly!
 
I am only 24 years old and I love books!!! How can I show people how nerdy I am with a Kindle? "Nice Kindle" "Thanks". Not as fun as, "Why the crap do you own so many sci-fi books?!"
 
I don't think the fascists will like it much either. After all, a Kindle bonfire just isn't the same as a big pile of burning books! :D

Seriously though, paper books need to stay around. Electronic readers have their place, but paper books should never disappear entirely.
 
Phoenix333 said:
Seriously though, paper books need to stay around. Electronic readers have their place, but paper books should never disappear entirely.
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Kindles can die, books can't.

What else is there to do when the power is out?
 
[UPS] Sorce;1037740072 said:
Kindles can die, books can't.

What else is there to do when the power is out?
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that's a big deal...if the power ever went out for more than a couple hours, i'd be really bored. i bet some of the folks in san diego got a little scared last week when the power was off for 12 hours.
 
Reading a physical textbook is much more bearable than reading a 1000 page .pdf or an e-book. 'Nuff said.
 
jm0990 said:
this is cool and i'm eager to see what the design. on a side note, books are a pretty low target on my list of things i'd like to see fade into the past....i'm really sick of putting buying dvd burners to put in pc builds, then only using them once to install the mobo drivers (not that it's even necessary for that).
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It's just deeper, probably as deep as the Expedit which is deep enough to allow you to use both sides to store books. If you go into Ikea's enough you'll see that they are constantly phasing one product out for a redesigned or newer product. I'm not familiar with that one to know if it's stable without the cardboard in the back so everything may not be lost.
 
[UPS] Sorce;1037740072 said:
Kindles can die, books can't.

What else is there to do when the power is out?
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Are you familiar with the battery life of a Kindle?
 
OP20 said:
Less books being printed = less trees being cut down = cheaper wood for Ikea :p

Also its environmentally friendly!
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Books ground up to make new wood for Ikea.= Soylent Billy!!!:eek:
 
Yeah, and before we know it, businesses will stop using paper, and credit cards will completely replace paper money.

Paper will be around for a long, long time.
 
Books will be around for many many lifetimes still.
Printing, Binding, etc. tech may change but the concept of a physical book with pages will probably last forever.
 
HOCP4ME said:
Yeah, and before we know it, businesses will stop using paper, and credit cards will completely replace paper money.

Paper will be around for a long, long time.
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Indeed. The term "paperless office" was coined in 1975. Reality check: Computers crash, and the IRS doesn't take excuses. That's why paper will never go away. As for paper books... computers crash, batteries run out, and libraries are free. It's also a lot easier to loan a book to a friend than to loan your Kindle.
 
There are fewer bookshelves not because of the advent of eReaders but, because fewer children are learning to read. I don't mean decoding the letters to make words, I mean actively seeking knowledge from books. Our schools don't teach it anymore. Parents don't teach it anymore due to work and thinking the schools are doing it. I don't believe books will ever disappear but, I do believe more books will be read on eReaders than books in my lifetime.
 
[UPS] Sorce;1037740072 said:
Kindles can die, books can't.

What else is there to do when the power is out?
Click to expand...

Yes they can (and do). This is why stone tablets are the untimate recording media!
 
[UPS] Sorce;1037740072 said:
Kindles can die, books can't.

What else is there to do when the power is out?
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You get a solar charger, and charge your Kindle... of course! :D :cool:
 
[UPS] Sorce;1037740072 said:
Kindles can die, books can't.

What else is there to do when the power is out?
Click to expand...

You DO know that even reading hundreds of pages at a time, a Kindle's battery lasts for weeks. I know this because i own one. I read an entire fantasy trilogy comprising of over 2000 pages over the course of a month and still had more then half my battery life left. The e-ink display only uses power when it's changing pages.
 
I personally hope we eliminate all paper media. I mean, how else will we be able to censor things on the fly when we don't like it. Think of the children!
 
What we need is those flexible always on OLED screens like the newspapers in Deus Ex HR that constantly update every day. Now if only we could figure out that infinite energy thing.
 
NickJames said:
What we need is those flexible always on OLED screens like the newspapers in Deus Ex HR that constantly update every day. Now if only we could figure out that infinite energy thing.
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Yeah, great stuff, until some 4chan idiots hack it and everyone sees the same "once seen, cannot unsee horror" one morning.

You can have my paper books when you pry them from my cold dead hands.
 
For traveling my literati ereader is fantastic I can take as many little books as I want to distract me from sitting next to Bertha on the plane. However for real informational reading I prefer a physical book. I just can't see studying an electronic textbook.
 
Reading for pleasure? Sure, electronic is convenient and easy.

Reading for reference? Hell no. It's so much easier to grab a book and flip it to the page you need. I have access to a big online library of technical books, and even with dual display it's quicker to use a paper copy.
 
I still prefer real books and I'm with good company since most peopel in Star Trek seem to as well. Despite having their PADD's Picard and the others mostly read real books and stick to PADD's for work related stuff.
 
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