Lowell Deeds

Bill Gates and Microsoft may have just discovered a way to bridge “the great divide” between electronic and printed media. In case you missed it, a battle has been raging for a few years now…Over what?…”Will the Internet replace printed newspapers?”. Friday’s join announcement by Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Arthur Sulzberger (The New York Times) might just have ended this great debate. Microsoft has developed software that allows readers to download an electronic version of the newspaper. What’s the big deal? I read the newspaper online now. How is this different? …”Times Reader”, the software’s name, “replicates the look, font, typeface and layout” of the actual printed-paper. Consumers can download newpapers to their computers or preferably a new portable reading device ($1,000-$3,000). “Times Reader” will be available as a componet of Microsoft’s new Vista Operating System, intended for release in January, 2007 …I don’t get it, What’s the point? … Ultimately, Microsoft expects readers to download numerous newspapers to their hand-held device and read them off line. Imagine, storing the equivalent of five or six newspapers in an electronic device no larger than a hard covered book… take it where you want, read it when you want? The New York Times believes this new system “combines the portability of the printed paper with the immediacy of the Internet”…but it’s more than just convenient…Microsoft’s new software offers Hyperlinks and continuous story updates through an RSS feeder… But what if I don’t have Vista?… Microsoft also intends to make “Times Reader” available for Windows XP…”eventually”.