I'm going out on a limb here and asking what are the environmental benefits of this particular application?

I can't see any directly provided by this application, and please don't mention less paper use. Studies have shown repeatedly that the wide scale introduction of the PC have not brought about the paperless office but have instead vastly increased paper consumption.

The only environmental aspect I did see when looking through their information and the beta was that it can be used on a electronic ink reader.

Now there is a definite environmental benefit to using electronic ink reader/notepads in place of paper but that is not a direct benefit of this application .... at best secondary.

IE many different formats and applications can be used on electronic ink readers, not just this application and the direct enviromental benefit is from the electronic ink reader not the applications/formats.

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That said:

If the NY Times and Microsoft were to fund a large scale production of branded electronic readers with this bundled application for low cost purchase and distribution to interested subscribers then I would applaud their efforts because that would provide a signifigant enviromental benefit.

Let's say half an hour reading a day, with a 100w monitor and 100w PC - 0.1kWh a day x 365 = 36.5 kWh a year...

An acceptable amount for reading a paper?

How much energy would making & delivering those papers require?

I agree with TrollPatrol that electronic ink readers will be what makes a significant impact. I am subscribed to several magazines and really hate the fact that I am not reading magazines from an electronic source. I have been keeping an eye out for an adequate electronic ink reader, which will enable me to sit on the sofa or in bed and read comfortably. In the meantime, I have been looking for ways to substitute my print magazines for comparable Internet magazines and have noticed that the online reading experience is not comparable to a print magazine. Maybe better online formats, as mentioned by in this article, would make it possible for me to dump my magazines for online versions. This would save paper. The number of people who would do so probably would not be large, but any improvement is better than no improvement. Having said that, I'm still waiting for an adequate, affordable e-reader.

this is great, and im happy to hear it.

a related aside, nylon, a street style fashion magazine, offers their entire magazine online in a format that sounds similiar every month, before the issue even comes out. i had thought it was really cool because they were offering it for free and early, but now that you post this, it has me thinking its far cooler than i had even thought out. thanks.

Aside from any environmental benefits (or lack thereof), this is a poorly done app.

There are a great many ways that they could have developed an application like this and maintained better Windows compatibility (WPF will be in Vista and available as an addon for XP) and Mac and Linux compatibly. They could have gone the very old fashioned and labor intensive way of writing a custom C or C++ app in a cross-platform way. Or they could have written a Java app, which would be easier to make cross-platform. Or they could write an app using GTK, QT, wxWidgets or one of the other cross-platform toolkits.

Or if they wanted to have as much as possible done for them, they have done this as a Firefox/XULRunner based app. That would give them a very cross-platform base, complete with networking and rendering code.

Microsoft has promised a thing called "WPF Everywhere" but I'll believe it when I see it and even then, I wouldn't put *any* trust in it until (if) the Mono project produces an open source implement ion (and even then I would be wary). MS has too much of a history of getting people hooked on something and then pulling the rug out from under everyone not using the MS version.

I am waiting for a standardized e ink book/news paper reader whent hat comes out I'll believe that print media cares

many magazines are available digitally already. the mac program that is used to read them is zinio reader. you can click on links, highlight, make notes, etc.

But I can't do the crossword puzzle online...

I believe it is time to set the record strait having heard some rumors that the Rock Hall Foundation is considering the Doobie Brothers for induction. The fact is that name was authored aboard the Uss Independence in the late 60's by a shipmate of Mike Hossack. The two entered an agreement that he would allow Mike to use the name with the understanding any monies made were to be paid to the author. Mike stiffed the author and lied about the true origin of the name. thereby keeping the author from the profit made with his intellectual property. I believe thieves are not welcome in the Rock Hall of
Fame.

I know the app. is still in development, but I've got a post up about the e-paper in relation to the print/Web divide. I agree that e-ink/e-paper will ultimately save more trees!

In short: *Flexible* e-paper may be here sooner than we thought ... it's another option, since the NYT Reader is still a computer application. See my post: "Talking ‘Bout a Digital Paper Revolution (Sounds Un-like a Printer" click here for permalink