E-Readers
November 2013
A little history & background
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According to Wikipedia:
An e-book reader, also called an e-book device or e-reader is a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals.
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When most of us think of e-readers, we probably think of the Amazon Kindle.
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While the Kindle was one of the early e-readers, it definitely was the most widely-marketed e-reader of its time.
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But it was predated by the Sony’s Libré by three years.
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The technology that made the e-reader feasible is known as e-ink (or, more correctly, electrophoretic ink).
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Either dark or light e-ink particles are pulled to the surface of the display in response to an electronic charge.
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Once positioned, the pigment particles stay where they are, even though the charge is removed from the display.
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This means that e-ink displays only require electricity to change the displayed text or image, and require no electricity to keep text or an image displayed.
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Are there any downsides to e-ink?
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Because of the technology behind them, successful e-ink displays of today are gray-scale, with the capability of displaying, say, 16 shades of gray.
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Like their paper counterparts, you must have an external light source to read using an e-ink reader.
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How does e-ink compare to LCD?
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An important family of the newest e-readers uses LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) rather than e-ink.
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How do the LCD readers compare to the e-ink readers?
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Price: LCD reader e-ink reader
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Color and resolution: LCD reader e-ink reader
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Weight: LCD reader e-ink reader
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Battery life: LCD reader e-ink reader
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Memory capacity: LCD reader e-ink reader
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Video capability: LCD reader e-ink reader
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How do books get onto an e-reader?
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All e-readers can download e-books and periodicals from a computer using a USB cable.
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Many e-readers (LCD and e-ink) have wi-fi capability.
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Some e-readers have free 3G cellular connectivity. (Free, that is, for downloading e-books and periodicals.)
How many books fit onto an e-reader?
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That all depends … :)
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First, let’s look at the sizes of some larger e-books (for Kindle):
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The King James Bible ..............................3.0MB
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Ender’s Game .............................................2.5MB
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Atlas Shrugged...........................................2.3MB
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Wizard of Oz (14 books)........................2.3MB
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“Average” book size used for calculations: about 1.7MB.
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Now let’s look at the capacity of several e-reader:
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E-ink:
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Kindle Paperwhite ..........................................2GB (1,200 books)
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Barnes & Noble Nook Glowlight ...............4GB (2,400 books)
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Sony prs-t2.........................................................2GB (1,200 books)
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LCD:
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Kindle Fire..........................................................8GB (4,800 books)
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Nook HD+ ...........................................................16GB (9,600 books)
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E-readers vs. tablet computers
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One of the disadvantages of the dedicated e-reader is that it is (more or less) a one-trick pony.
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By comparison, tablet computers can serve not only as e-readers, but also as “general purpose” computers.
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Seeing a new market in tablet computers, the big three e-reader manufacturers (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sony) all have released e-reader apps for Apple, Android, PC, and Mac.
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Free e-books, anyone?
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Classic books that have fallen out of copyright can be downloaded freely from the internet.
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Two of my favorite sources for free classics:
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Project Gutenberg (http://gutenberg.org)
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Archive.org (http://archive.org)
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Also, if you visit the Kindle and Nook book sites, you can find books by new authors for free.
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Sometimes, they also will offer popular books for free, but only for a limited time.
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