Star Epaper vs Star Paper
The Star EPaper (Electronic Paper for short) was launched on 31 May 2004. It was quite an exciting er. happening, being one of the few to offer such a service in Malaysia. I immediately checked it out that day, but to my disappointment, it wasn’t up and running till evening of that day. Nevertheless, this is not about that…This is a comparison post on The Star Epaper Vs The Star Paper.
In my opinion, (call me old fashioned) I still prefer the paper version of this paper. I found a few things about the Epaper that caused some disturbances in my head. Here’s a list…
1)The epaper takes TIME to load! I counted between 7 to 8 seconds for each page to load (on Streamyx, how bout those poor dial up fellas) as you digitally flip it, while the paper probably takes just 1-2 seconds, depending on your muscle mass.
2)The epaper doesn’t produce any sounds while the paper produces a satisfying crispy kinda sound as you flip the pages.
3)The epaper doesn’t let you skip certain pages quickly enough (like the ads) while with the paper, my eyes only focus on what they, well, focus on…
4)The epaper is not exactly recyclable, while the paper has thousands of usages. Eg: Wrap Kulit Durian, Cat Dung, sell to the lorry man calling for ‘Old Newspaper, Suratkhabar Lama!” for extra income…at the same time helping out the fella in his income as well…
On the plus side, The Epaper does have its many benefits. For now, I love it because it’s FREE! When subscription fees come along, doubt I would fork out for it. It’s also great to read at the office, no more hiding the paper under tables for some. Plus, with archiving, no more worries about missing the news. It’s really convenient too, for those overseas who wanna read local news. It’s great news for environmentalists too, no more chopping of our precious virgin rainforest trees for the daily papers. So much more!
Overall, this is a fantastic technology advancement for our ICT infrastructure. Two kinds of media are better than one. Thumbs up to The STAR for this great effort!
4 Comments
Andy
Hi Leona!
I just stumbled upon your blog from PPS and noticed that the name “leonamanutd” was kinda familiar… I googled it and found that you’re a member with BookCrossing.com! The Kuching branch is currently active with monthly meetups. Maybe you could join them when the time comes… =)
Okay, back on topic, I tried The Star Epaper but the loading time with 284 Kpbs Streamyx was just 3 or 4 seconds at the most, maybe it’s something to do with the connection? I guess you’re right, no electronic paper could actually replace the feeling of a real paper. But one avantage if everybody on Earth switches to Epapers is to the enviroment. Once real paper stops being produced, less trees will be cut down. Anyway, that’s my 2 sen.
Nice to meet you! =)
Leona
Hey Andy, yeah I’m pretty inactive in BookCrossing coz of the many books I got no time to read. I didn’t know bout the craze in Kuching, coz I’m not staying there. Wow, when I joined Bookcrossing, there weren’t any members from Kuching, so it’s great news.
Bout the speed of the STar Epaper, yeah it varies, I was probably having a slow connection day yesterday, so…saving the trees’ a good thing. I was a member of Kawan WWF before, so can I consider myself an environmentalist? CHeers!
Andy
Gaaah! My previous comment was riddled with typos!
o_O
It was 384 Kbps, btw…
HPLow
Can’t access the Star epaper anymore. I reckon they have started charging for the paper, $100 for 6 months