E-Readers

November 2013

A little history & background

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.
When most of us think of e-readers, we probably think of the Amazon Kindle.
- While the Kindle was one of the early e-readers, it definitely was the most widely-marketed e-reader of its time.
- But it was predated by the Sony’s Libré by three years.
The technology that made the e-reader feasible is known as e-ink (or, more correctly, electrophoretic ink).
- Either dark or light e-ink particles are pulled to the surface of the display in response to an electronic charge.
- Once positioned, the pigment particles stay where they are, even though the charge is removed from the display.
- 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.
Are there any downsides to e-ink?
- 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.
- Like their paper counterparts, you must have an external light source to read using an e-ink reader.

An important family of the newest e-readers uses LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) rather than e-ink.
How do the LCD readers compare to the e-ink readers?
- Price: LCD reader e-ink reader
- Color and resolution: LCD reader e-ink reader
- Weight: LCD reader e-ink reader
- Battery life: LCD reader e-ink reader
- Memory capacity: LCD reader e-ink reader
- Video capability: LCD reader e-ink reader

All e-readers can download e-books and periodicals from a computer using a USB cable.
Many e-readers (LCD and e-ink) have wi-fi capability.
Some e-readers have free 3G cellular connectivity. (Free, that is, for downloading e-books and periodicals.)

That all depends … :)
First, let’s look at the sizes of some larger e-books (for Kindle):
- The King James Bible ..............................3.0MB
- Ender’s Game .............................................2.5MB
- Atlas Shrugged...........................................2.3MB
- Wizard of Oz (14 books)........................2.3MB
“Average” book size used for calculations: about 1.7MB.
Now let’s look at the capacity of several e-reader:
- E-ink:
  - Kindle Paperwhite ..........................................2GB (1,200 books)
  - Barnes & Noble Nook Glowlight ...............4GB (2,400 books)
  - Sony prs-t2.........................................................2GB (1,200 books)
- LCD:
  - Kindle Fire..........................................................8GB (4,800 books)
  - Nook HD+ ...........................................................16GB (9,600 books)

One of the disadvantages of the dedicated e-reader is that it is (more or less) a one-trick pony.
By comparison, tablet computers can serve not only as e-readers, but also as “general purpose” computers.
- 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.

Classic books that have fallen out of copyright can be downloaded freely from the internet.
Two of my favorite sources for free classics:
- Project Gutenberg (http://gutenberg.org)
- Archive.org (http://archive.org)
Also, if you visit the Kindle and Nook book sites, you can find books by new authors for free.
- Sometimes, they also will offer popular books for free, but only for a limited time.