E-book reading

rpm

rpm

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Kindle free e-book reading

A few weeks ago, Pasquale Castaldo was waiting at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport for a delayed flight, when a man sitting across from him pulled out an Amazon Kindle book-reading device.
 
The main drawcard to a Reader device is that it uses very little power. An average e-book reader with E-ink can last 1 to 2 weeks on a single charge. Sure using a phone or other device works for the quick read but a dedicated device is better suited - it just needs to become affordable and mainstream.
 
The fact that most e-ink readers don't have a backlight or wireless capability is not a drawback since longer battery life is more desired. Also, normal books don't have a backlight and that's not viewed as a deficiency. ;)

Wireless on the Kindle is a two-edged sword. There's been a few cases where Amazon remotely deleted certain books from Kindle users. It also means that you are tied to Amazon to be able to use the device.

The acceptance of epub as the standard format is a huge leap to future use.
 
Mobipocket

Mobipocket (http://www.mobipocket.com/) make a nice free ebook reader compatible with the leading smartphones and PDA's. It has a desktop component for converting .pdf's and other filetypes into a highly compressed format. The desktop software allows you to transfer the compressed files to your device, to view with the reader component. It works pretty well - takes a bit of fiddling to get it talking to a Blackberry, but worth the effort.
 
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I think one of the best things about the kindle is that it is not backlit. The whole idea behind its technology is that it causes less eye strain and is easy to read in full sunlight, I cant stand reading books on pc, and really consider these ebook readers to be the only technology I would use, if only the prices would come down now.
 
ave said:
I think one of the best things about the kindle is that it is not backlit. The whole idea behind its technology is that it causes less eye strain and is easy to read in full sunlight, I cant stand reading books on pc, and really consider these ebook readers to be the only technology I would use, if only the prices would come down now.
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I agree reading of PCs and smartphones is a nightmare.
 
I use ereader (developed by http://www.ereader.com which is owned by http://www.fictionwise.com which is owned by Barnes & Noble http://www.bn.com)

I purchase books from fictionwise and read it on my HTC Touch Pro 2. The TP2 has a 3.6-inch screen with 800 x 480 WVGA resolution. The text is amazingly crisp and easy to read. It's also easy to use with one hand since you only need to touch the bottom or top half of the screen to page in that direction. Most dedicated readers do not have touch screen abilities and thus require dedicated buttons for different actions. I also sometimes use the autoscroll function.

The only problem with most ebook publishing companies is that they do not always have the necessary rights to publish certain books in countries other than the USA. I often find that a book that I would like to purchase is not available in SA.
 
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