Google Books: Classic Books Available via the Espresso Book Machine
Description
Over 1.5 million public domain books that have been digitized by Google will be available for purchase from any Espresso Book Machine at bookstores and libraries around the world. Brandon Badger, Product Manager on Google Books, and Dane Neller, CEO of On Demand Books, talk about the Espresso Book Machine.
Tags: Available, Book, books, Classic, Espresso, Google, Machine
Stats: 102 total views, 1 so far today
this could have a good use in emergency response situations like in haiti?
first aid books… etc
Me is the knowledge gained. I can read a book on a leaf and some concrete and I am going to gain just as much as if it were written on velum or paper.
They shred when they make books in a standard printing press. Butin addition you eliminate the waste of “unneeded books”
Weel’ aye thenk eits ee bee’s nee’s!!
Hope they have local technicians to maintain these machines. Seems like it has an awful lot of moving parts, and the average shop owner is not going to enjoy playing mechanic with it. It’s a cool idea, but I’ll just keep waiting for the 9.7″ ebook readers to get cheaper.
It doesn’t “decentralize” anything, it just makes a new product for google to sell. There are low volume presses around which are better than this, and as far as printing on a consumer scale, this is uselessly slow. I guess making another product which is a lame version of something already around is the same sort of “innovation” google offered with their new online book database, which is totally not a shit pile version of Project Gutenberg! Of course not! Thanks for the innovation google!
The real value here is in eliminating wastage in retail. Many books, are discarded into the land fill, after the covers are torn off, and sent back for credit. The rest of the unsold books, goes into landfills. This is industry malpractice, and anything that alleviates the bookstream into landfills is a good thing, in my view.
Also, this is not just about public domain titles. When publishers realize that they can sell books for profit for zero investment, look out! Imagine being able to walk into a Starbucks and buy a copy of a book that’s been out of print for a couple of decades for less than the original cover price.
I did some conceptual work for OnDemandBooks a couple years ago when they were just beginning to work on the prototypes of the second generation of the machine. Google had nothing to do with the development of this technology and the machines that have been developed from that technology. All Google is doing is providing content. The machine was invented and developed by a (very cool) guy in Missouri.
On Demand as this was written had 16 machines installed at various stores, libraries and universities, and planned to make another 64 available in 2010. The machines are priced at $75,000-$100,000 each and have the capacity to generate around 60,000 300-page books a year.
Not really. They charge 6 times as much per page for color output. You could do a 100 page graphic novel but it would cost like $40 retail.
Comics/graphic novels could be done on these too! SWEET!
Which eliminates all existing forms of quality control. i.e. publishers. BAD.
Google suxX!!!
1. Small demand for
2. A huge number of public domain titles
3. Plus on demand printing
4. ???????????
5. Profit !!!1!
Also, what they don’t tell you is that you can get your OWN book published if it is in PDF format for about $5 overall cost.
yeah, how much is that machine?
that guy sounds gay
go eco. save trees
Google is the coolest company ever.
This is great!!!!
That’s why it’s better to print them one at a time as each individual copy is demanded. Cost to print is higher per book, but you don’t have the waste.
Watch 1:50 to 1:54. They show the finished product. Doesn’t look like a notebook. Looks like a normal, glossy-covered paperback.
I was on the edge of me seat waiting to actually see the book after it was finished. All I saw come down the shoot was a notebook looking thing. Why didn’t they show the finished product up close and personal?
The market for the overwhelming majority of Public Domain books is tiny.