• The New York Times, Tuesday, August 3, 2010 12:59 PM

Could the broad adoption of e-books and e-readers be trickier than Amazon and Apple would like consumers to believe? Suggesting as much, The New York Times' Nick Bilton was recently prohibited from e-reading in a city coffee shop with a 'No Computer' policy. "This isn't a computer, it's an e-book reader," Bilton told the shop employee. Seeing as how the e-reader had a screen and required batteries, however, the employee determined that Bilton's "device" was obviously "some variation of a computer."

According to Bilton, establishments will be soon be forced to reconsider the limits of their 'No Computer' rules, given that widespread adoption of e-readers. Indeed, a report last week by the Center for the Digital Future at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism found that people were quickly moving away from print in favor of digital offerings. "Coffee and sandwich shops might not have much of a choice but to accept that some people now read books on screens -- even if they do look like computers."

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