The future is this spring.

I have to admit I am excited about Sony's upcoming Portable Reader; not so much for the reader itself, since I listen to more audiobooks than I read the paper variety (except for Jan Burke's novels, which I read straight through in nearly a single sitting), but more because of what will follow.

I know most of my friends prefer a paper, in-your-hand, book to reading content on a computer screen. This new technology promises to bridge that gap. It could bring us that much closer to a paperless office and reading assistance for young or illiterate people. I see smaller backpacks and fewer back injuries for students of all ages. When you enroll in a college course you could download all of your textbooks to your reader. Library research could be portable. Combine this electronic paper with text-to-speech, handwriting-recognition, speech-recognition, WiFi, tinier bulk storage mediums, I could go on... this is REALLY cool stuff. Some of the big let downs to using a laptop is the screen readability in bright light, battery-life and the bulk. This new stuff combined could make paper into an art medium only. I think trees can still support art, but they should not be required to support TPS Reports and the like.