Luxury Or Necessity?

Having the Intel Reader at my disposal for several weeks did feel like a little luxury. Passing it on to a colleague yesterday definitely stirred up some separation anxiety.

I thoroughly enjoyed the ease it brought back to recipe reading, and the angst it took away from the mail and the (dreaded) form. I used it as my own private teleprompter, to practice and give prompts, for a speech. I used it for reading printed documents, on a daily basis; I actually cleaned up the piles of paper I wanted to read, but had not quite figured out how – until now.

The Intel Reader passed two of my critical technology tests. It helped me feel like I could read anything, and it made me feel good about doing it. It also passed my usability test, with flying colors, which means: if I can operate this device…anyone can.

I, like Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, got better at Intel Reading each day. I originally thought I would be flipping through the pages of Vogue and the New Yorker, but this was not as easy as it looked. There were some articles that I photographed again and again, before I got a readable shot. Newspapers were equally as difficult, clearly a skill to be acquired over time.

I did take a few books off the shelf and read excerpts from a couple of them, once read by my eyes. This, for some reason, I excelled at; however, it also gave me a real appreciation for the Capture Station, an accessory available with the Intel Reader, for photographing entire books (without breaking them apart).

So now I will decide which category does the Intel Reader belong: luxury or necessity? At $1,500, and in the month of December, it can only come from one place…Santa, are you listening?