He was not exactly sure what caused the malfunction.
“I guess I dropped [my bag] on the subway,” MC junior Jimmy Joyce said. Reaching in between notebooks and folders in his backpack, Joyce came to discover his Kindle sporting a black spot on its screen. It was a point of no recovery. His virtual bookshelf, holding classics texts for a Western Cultures course, had vanished.
“I lost it in a battle with gravity.”
A desktop crashing seemed unthinkable years ago, especially students. Today, we shutter at the thought of losing our course materials and favorite novels via e-readers. To avoid destruction, companies are working to ensure that their e-readers do not crash.
Some e-readers, however, are easier to work than others.
Apple tech. representative, William, appeared somewhat skeptical of the iPad’s iBook and Kindle applications, reiterating almost robotically that they are “very nice.”
“Anything you purchase can be synced to your iTunes,” he said.
When backing up the latest cd, iTunes does not appear terribly problematic. What happens when a Dan Brown novel replaces a track from a new cd? How do customers back up a book verses a song?
“It depends on what item you’re looking at,” William said regarding the size of purchases. He suggested that users buy USB drives or cds to ensure that their books will live on virtually, but books are not exactly small files that call for a cd.
“If you lose all of your info, you can request a re-grant from iTunes,” William said as if the option is completely hassle-free.
Willaim did assure that a dysfunctional iPad is not very likely.
“Generally, they work just fine. There are no viruses that affect the iPad” he insisted.
Amazon is proving that virtual reading is the new message with the Kindle and its crash-safety techniques.
Erica, Amazon customer service associate, explained that with the purchase of a Kindle comes a free program, Kindle for PC. With this program, users are able purchase books once (and only once) and save them to their Amazon account. In the event of Kindle disaster, all users’ books are saved on their desktop or laptop.
“There are literally millions of people who do not have to call,” Erica said, “Any sort of inconvenience is very rare.”
With a hint of confidence, Erica said that she only receives about two calls daily with complaints of completely dysfunctional e-readers.
“The biggest problem is just remembering to turn on the wireless connection.”
Crashing seemed to be the least of Amazon’s concerns, as they are working
to increase search options on the Internet via Kindles.
“If they [the readers] are wondering if there’s another book like this, they can just search,” Erica said, disregarding reading without Internet options.
Much like Amazon, Barnes and Noble is working to make their e-reader, the Nook, crash-proof and technologically efficient.
“With our e-books, they’re saved in a library that’s on our server,” digital support manager Odell Gram said of the Nook. He claimed that he has never received any complaints of lost files.
He believes that many customers seem to be transitioning well into this new method of reading.
“They are the new walkman… like the iPod when it first came out. It’s a craze like that.”
Gram, however, has not joined the millions of e-reader customers in this phenomenon.
“I’m warming up to them,” he truthfully admitted, “It’s taking some time, but technology is soon going to be in every factor of our life.”
Time will have to tell when classic novels, like the ones Joyce had on his Kindle, will be available solely through e-readers.
"I prefer books because I like the feel of paper," Joyce admitted, "[But] the Kindle saved money."
Perhaps the new method of purchasing and saving e-books will tempt Joyce to give the Kindle another shot.
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