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E-readers: State of the Union

 

 

 

The Basics:

Reading is one of the most enjoyable, useful and educational activities humankind has known. Yet the technology around it has been the same for centuries, written paper or printed word has been the rule. Now several big companies are set in changing our old ways into a new  age.

The E-reader is a Gadget that typically holds a display of about 6 inches with little or no input devices; its main purpose is to display digital books or eBooks in a fashion close to that of a real book.  A single unit  can store hundreds up to thousands books,  allowing quick access to all the different parts and the book, search features, bookmarks and even highlighting.

The big advancement in this devices is what is called the “Paper-Like Display”  or EPD designed in most devices by a company called E-Ink.  An Electronic Paper Display is a display that possesses a paper-like high contrast appearance, ultra-low power consumption, and a thin, light form. It gives the viewer the experience of reading from paper, while having the power of updatable information.

This kind of technology allows for an extended battery life literally allowing to go on reading for days without a recharge, and is easier on the eyes because it is not backlit.

 

The Big Players:

 

Amazon Kindle

This breakthrough device has a big following and can be thought of as the “original” e-reader for being the first to successfully reach a huge audience. The latest iterations of this e-reader are the Kindle 2 and the Kindle DX.  The kindle 2 a 6” diagonal display, 2gb of internal memory and will hold about 1,500 non-illustrated books. The DX boasts a 9.7” diagonal display and 4GB of storage, support for PDF formats and build in stereo speakers. Kindle 2 is $299 and Kindle DX $489. Both have over the air connectivity which allow to download books from the Kindle Store on the go at no charge.,  international versions have been recently released which allows the network feature to work on more than 50 countries worldwide.

 

Sony Reader

Sony wanted in on this huge market and have developed some very interesting devices the PRS-300 and the PRS-600.  The   upcoming 900 “Daily Edition” was the first to allow for 3G network access at no cost to the Sony Bookstore. I has a 5” E-ink Display 8 levels of gray and 512M of memory its MSRP is $199. The PRS-600 or “Touch Edition” has a 6” diagonal screen, 512M of memory expandable via Memory Stick.  

 

The bookstores

Both devices have a great selection of books to choose from and are constantly being updated (Kindle Store has over 350,000 ebooks as of this writing) also including magazines and journals. The latest move by Sony was to announce the support for the .epub format allowing to access to millions of “open books”   betting that openness will attract more clients. The epub format is used by Google Books.

 

Personally I think that the E-Reader movement is really something to watch for and embrace it. Its portability, eco friendliness (no trees need to die so you can read your magazines) and practicality make it a great choice.

 

 

 

 

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