Reader Ebook

Ebook readers are becoming available from a number of manufacturers and in various formats for PC, mobile phones and PDA systems. Two of the more popular ebook readers are the Amazon Kindle and the Sony although competition is heating up, largely because of Amazon’s failure to dominate their niche by failing to offer the Kindle to the UK and Europe until sales started on October 19, 2009. That policy has enabled competitors to be knocking on Amazon’s door as genuine competitors.

Sony offers the PDF format PRS-505 and the ebook reader PRS-700, both smaller than the Kindle. Nevertheless, many prefer the Sony devices that are good to handle and very easy to use, and where Amazon once scored with the large range of titles they could offer, Sony is beginning to compete.

PRS users can upload directories of public domain books, offering them virtually free libraries, and also have access to the Google e-books libraries. Add to that the increasing range of books being added by Sony, and the Sony PRS now has a lot of titles to offer which makes its lower price look very attractive, and Google e-books has corrected its one-time weakness in technical books.

There is a large price difference between Sony and Amazon, with the Amazon products priced at least $100 above the Sony offerings.  Although the choice would seem to be between these two, others are now becoming more popular, and the Cool-er is starting to interest many users due to its relatively low price. Retailing at $250, it is available cheaper from some online outlets, and the price more than compensates for its lack of wireless.  For listening to, it offers MP3 capability from an SD card – far superior to the Kindle text to speech robotic type of sound.

However, although it is significantly less expensive than the Kindle, the Cool-er is only around $50 less than the Sony, so if $50 isn’t important to you the Sony is the better by far due to its better looks and ease of use. An additional setback for the Cool-er is that its books can be expensive to download in comparison to others. Though, as it was noted in the article “Cool-er: Intuitive Marketing or Blatant Copying“, it was marketed as being compatible with all eBook formats, and could operate with books from any store using the ePUB format, including its own eBook store that also permits its books to be shared (Digital Book Readers). The Kindle also wins hands down on battery life over these other two.

There is more competition to the Kindle than that however, and not only because of the Sony being the #1 eReader in Europe. The iRex iLiad and Hanlin are also assuming greater popularity on price.  The iRex supports html, PDF, text and MOBI formats among others while the Hanlin is the ideal choice if you require an ebook reader with a wide range of file formats -17 in all, plus 5 graphics formats and MP3.

However, if the range of formats is important, BeBook offers 25! Capable with Mac and PC computers, it has an SD memory slot, stores around 1000 books and can play MP3 files. BeBook also comes loaded with 150 classic book titles, and the BeBook library offers around 20,000 downloads. Its main problem is the price, at only $30 less than the Sony, and what it offers does not warrant choosing that unless you need all these file formats.  The Sony is technically and aesthetically superior.

There is more serious competition to all of these on the horizon, however. Mobile devices are increasingly being used as eReaders. Apple offers a free application to enable the iPhone to be used as an eReader. It is compatible with Kindle, and also others such as Clickwheel Comic Reader, eReader and Stanza. Of these the Stanza is the general ebook reader, and can compete with Kindle as an iPhone reader although it has been purchased by Amazon so its future is insecure.

The iPhone is not the only cell phone from which eBooks can be read, however, and you can use any smart phone, or even a PDA to read books. BlackBerry can be used with Mobipocket’s mobile format and eReader for Symbian smartphones is on free download, compatible with many Nokia models and some Sony-Ericsson models. Windows Mobile eReader is available free for the Windows Mobile Smartphone and their PocketPC, and the same is true for the Palm OS eReader. So smart phone and Palm computer users have the option of eReaders free of charge, and these are perfectly serviceable. They are obviously unsuited to serious reading but are perfect for traveling, and for use on planes, trains and in cars (as a passenger of course!).

If you own one of the small lightweight netbooks, you can also use that as an ebook reader – in fact these are getting so small that they may shortly be very serious competitors to eReaders such as those currently offered by Kindle or Sony. A small fully functional and featured computer that doubles as an ebook reader could definitely seriously harm the dedicated products, assuming that users also had a requirement for the small notebooks. ` 

In conclusion, Kindle is still the top dog for range of features if not looks, with the Sony not too far behind because of its price. What is becoming evident is that cell phones are a good enough size of reader for some (because they cost nothing), and that the increasing size-reduction of ‘laptop’ PCs is rendering these a serious competitor to the dedicated eReaders.

Marco Gustafsson is author of articles on eBook Readers, e-inc technology and electronic books. Discover new dimension of reading here on Digital Book Readers

Internet is an international computer network with information accessible to the public through modern links. The history of the Internet dates back to the early fifties. Most of the communication networks were bound by bridges which were built for a limited requirement. The usage of the Internet is unlimited. The most popular form of internet is the electronic mail fondly known as email. Gone are those days when we had to be at the mercy of the postman to communicate our messages. Email is the quicker form to communicate our thoughts and feelings to the concerned person. The message reaches on time and we get our response quickly.

Internet mail and internal email are two different words and are used differently. The Internet mail can be hacked read and tampered with and at times can be destroyed. The Internal email is more reliable as the information you have provided remains within the company’s network and cannot be tampered with.

Computers are linked through the internet into a major global network. The information is passed from one end to the other. For this purpose, security validity and language codes are used. Internet is not restricted to a certain class of people. It is not meant only for white collar workers. Even housewives can access the Internet. There are jobs, which can be done on the Internet sitting at home, and this is valuable for the homemakers and retired people, whose skill and talent are just wasted many a times in preparing food and doing all household chores. Similarly an accountant can audit accounts of a company situated in some other country through the medium of internet, as this will link you to the server of a third country. The usage of Internet worldwide has restricted or stopped the use telephonic lines, for the purpose of communication that was not affordable by the common man.

We are not new to the concept of cyber cafes. These cafes are found in every nook and corner now. Cyber cafes are public utility centers, where the usage of Internet is encouraged. You need not necessarily possess a computer at home and get connected to the Internet. You can go to a cyber café and access Internet.

There are e-books available on net, which are free of cost. Isn’t this great news for bookworms who visit a library very often for reading purpose!

Internet has also become the hub of leisure. This comes in the form of chats, games, funny videos and so on. It is a common sight to find children in cyber cafes playing online games. Multiplayer games are major arena of leisure, which binds communities, and people of all ages together to dive into the fast paced world of World Wide Web. Pornography and gambling are not new terms in Internet now. Pornographers and gamblers use Internet as their medium to generate profits as many people do access such illegal sites. Thus, Internet has brought a drastic change in our lives, making it more knowledgeable with a modern outlook.

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