Digital or printout ?

[DiscoMick]

I used to swear by print, but after buying a new tablet I decided to give the LRO digital subscription a go, and I'm hooked!
There are numerous advantages:
1. Its cheaper - $6.49 an issue.
2. Its up to date, not three months old.
3. No more chasing around newsagents looking for copies.
4. Once I got the ap set up on the tablet, new issues just appear as released, to be downloaded. Always available on my tablet.
5. Easy to enlarge the screen with finger movements to help my eyes.
So, what do you think - print or digital?

[John_D4]

Digital for new. I enjoy reading digital books for years

[BMKal]

Don't get anything in print format any more. Even work related publications / articles. I often cut & paste from relevant publications in my work - a lot easier than copying it from a book.

[windsock]

I am reading stuff 95% of my day in digital form. A good printed book feels like a holiday read. A digital book feels like work.

Currently reading (a few hours each weekend) a well written printed book about fruit tree pruning at present.

[DiscoMick]

Yes, I'm converted now, particularly because a tablet is so convenient.

[d2dave]

I'm an old fart from the old school.

Print only for me.

[spie]

I used to change trains at town hall station and at least three times a week would buy a new book to read on the trip. Now I have all the books I want in my phone which fits in my pocket and I don't need a light when reading in bed

[prelude]

I believe we had a similar discussion on here a while ago.

My opinion has not changed, allow me to sum it up.

pro's


you can haul around complete back catalogs of a magazine or more books that you can possibly read
weighs less than a book
physical size often smaller or equal to a book
way easier bookmark and annotation tools
can get a subscription on a .au magazine in europe no worries :)


con's

dislike the smaller physical size for magazines
power requirements
tires the eyes more
an app for every publisher...
DRM!


The last con is what worries me the most. Almost all digital print is DRM'ed and is locked into the app of the publisher. The iPad is old enough that we all know by now that an iPad 1 is barely useful anymore and it runs an ios that is 10 versions old. Whatever you have installed on it will work but that's it. As devices age, apps might fall of the cliff and so does the digital media you paid for. I really dislike the new pay for everything forever mentality the world has gotten into. I like my magazines, books, software, well... anything to be MINE. I paid for it, I own it. Also, a stack of old magazines can hardly be given away once you switch hobbies, again, because of DRM. I can understand the need for it somewhat but it sucks in virtually every way for the consumer.

just my .02

Cheers,
-P

[3toes]

We reading a story not so long ago about the digital sales of music. The seller was of the opinion that the purchaser was well aware they were only renting for as long as the format was supported. The buyer thought they had purchased life time rights similar to a hard copy

[prelude]

On that subject;

Indeed. If I were but a tad bit older I would have paid for my materials 5 times by now! As a (former) star trek fan (the modern crap is... crap) I would have bought star trek on beta, god forbid and within ten years I would have had to buy it again on VHS. I actually did the latter. Then DVD came out, of course, and yeah, it was better than VHS and since my collection was not yet complete, I bought it -all- on DVD. That's TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT. hundreds of discs iirc. Then bluray came and the two most pertinent series were converted to HD. Star trek has been recorded on 35mm film since day one. This film stock has ~4K worth of "pixels" although you don't call em that in the film business. In any case. I did, again, collect the HD versions but by then I was well aware of the previous fact so I am just waiting to spend money, again, on the same bloody rights for the 4K product.

Now, I am more than willing to pay the bloke who did the upscaling work etc etc but the studio now has profited about 5 times! And the bloody shame is, I did watch the DVD's but by the time I felt like rerunning all of star trek again, it was on netflix and it's just that tad bit easier to click on there in stead of trying to reanimate my old dvd player and dig up that collection...

So, yeah, great fan of digital in every way but the lock-in so I have made it a point to only purchase media that have been cracked so that I can backup that stuff in the format of my choosing so that I can do lifecycle management on that stuff, for so long as the powers that be will allow it ;)

Cheers,
-P

[spie]

So out of all the options, my pick is enterprise... Yours?

[NavyDiver]

Digital for years now. I did have to ask for my paper still mum and dad to hold the old ones as we have a pup coming home in a few weeks and do not have the old standby for puppy poo[biggrin]

[superquag]

In a previous life I was a 'Printer'.

Printed media needs no interface devices... can never be obsolete ... (Try finding a punch tape or punched card reader ?)

Once made, printed info cannot be altered or interfered with or wiped out of existance - via malicious computer virus or copyright company asserting control over your device.

Or affected by electrostatic or magnetic fields etc etc.

Guess my preference !

[prelude]

Printed has it's own issues but most of them tend to be just as problematic for digital media. (fire, water, stuff like that)

The only advantage digital has is that it does not degrade in quality, it's pretty much all or nothing. Media lifecycle management is a thing though. Computer tapes with a shelf life of 30 years are not uncommon but indeed, try finding a properly working tape drive 30 years old! Not to mention the interface required to run that thing...

regarding series: TNG, hands down.

[DiscoMick]

It's funny. Digital is so easy I'm converted.
Mind you, one of the grandsons was going through my vinyl collection and announced one of my Beatles albums is now valued at $100, so I doubt that will happen with digital.