There are a variety of machines available to hold and read Electronic Books with including your personal computer, laptops and PDAs. You can get a product specifically for electronic books themselves. Click Here for Information on EBook Readers from Wiki!
Most of them are about the size of a paperback book but can be as large as a regular piece of paper. They usually only weigh about 5 to 16 ounces with rechargeable batteries. Most ebook readers have a small internal memory that can be expanded with the use of a secured digital card. With the extension you can hold anywhere from 100 to 1000 ebooks depending on what kind of format they were saved in. TEXT files or files with a “.txt” extension take up the least amount of room while those saved in “.pdf” (acrobat reader) or another software type take up more room on the drive. Almost all of READERS cost around $350.00 with some being a little more and others being a little less. Of course, the more things they are able to do then the more they will cost such as play music while you read, check your email with WIFI, etc.
Be aware that the “Net” computers and mini-laptops are coming down in price and can also display your ebooks so the mini-computer from Dell has a 9-inch screen and weighs about two pounds for around $400 might be something you may want to look into. And they can do everything that a regular computer or laptop can do. They just don’t have the extra drives or even an adequate hard drive. They are simply designed to go onto the Internet, do some surfing, check emails, and maybe online chatting with or without video.
Some MP4s have Ebook functions but those are only for text files and not any other kind of saved formats. These might be a good starting point if you want to “try out” reading books on a smaller screen and are less expensive. There are some great deals on EBAY on MP4 and MP5 players just make sure they have the EBOOK function. I must warn you though there is no formatting of the document on the screen and they can only read TEXT files. A few of them have “bookmarking” capabilities to save your place and allow you to play music while reading and a few are able to read the book to you.
When looking for an electronic book reader you need to consider several factors:
1) Is the READER proprietary? In other words you must use that company’s products. The Amazon Kindle can only be used with their Ebooks that are downloaded directly from their website using WIFI. You can email yourself Word documents and they are still working on PDF (acrobat reader files) but they charge a small fee for everything you send to your unit. Check out the my bookstore for more information on the Amazon Kindle.
2) How much memory is available on the machine and if it can be expanded with a digital card, how much can be added to it? Most machines come with 16MB to 32MB initially. (Secured digital cards like the ones that go into a digital camera are fairly inexpensive. I bought my daughter a 1GB card from Walgreens for only $10.)
3) How long does the battery last on one charge? Most rechargeable batteries last about 8 hours of continuous use and if they use a fancy program to give you the illusion of an actual turning page that usually slows down the program and uses more battery time. Some boost that they will last longer than that or give you the time in number of pages such as “7500″ pages turned.
4) What kinds of documents can you upload to the machine? Generally, you want to be able to upload Acrobat Reader Files as they are the least expensive (and in some cases even freely available) and converting any document to this format can be done for free by using freely available software. Just remember though all READERS currently on the market are GRAYSCALE only. There are some colored screens out there however they don’t seem to be as popular, still in business, or just plain more expensive. If you find a good deal on a colored Ebook reader that the company is still in business send me an email: jolene.macfadden@jolenesreadingguide.info
Here is some more information about Ebook Readers from other blogs that you might find interesting and helpful.
Some interesting Posts for Ebook Readers:
Ebooks Endorsed by Ophrah!http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/10/26/oprah-seal-of-approval-for-the-kindle-and-what-it-means-for-ebooks/
New Developments for Ebooks! http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/07
/14/fujitsu-to-commercialize-e-reader-with-color-e-paper-in-the-fall/
Ebook Reader Versus PDA Discussion: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/05/14/astaks-new-ebook-rea.html
One of our subscribers has written a great review about the Amazon Kindle2 in the comments for the Mercedes Coffin Book Review. Click on the link and read all about it: http://jolenesreadingguide.info/wordpress/2008/09/15/review-mercedes-coffin/comment-page-1/#comment-354
