Electronic paper, also called e-paper or electronic ink, is a display technology designed to mimic the appearance of regular ink on paper. Basically, light is reflected on the display, and no power is used to display a page.
The pros of this technology is that it is very easy on the eyes. LCD screens can cause eye strain and e-ink does not (in theory). It also uses very little power to turn pages.
Cons of this technology? Currently it is black and white only, it will eventually be available in color but that is a few years off. The screen will “flash” when you change pages, it will go all grey and then the text of the next page will appear, there is a slight lag when this happens. Some people find the flash to be very annoying. I found it relatively easy to get used to and eventually ignore.
Currently e-ink is the type of screen that is being used on most ereaders, there are a few that have LCD screens, but the vast majority uses this technology.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
How many books will my ereader hold?
I find this question somewhat amusing. My little ebookwise 1150 only holds about 10 books (I don’t have the expanded memory for it) and my Cool-er has 1 gigabyte of book storage and is expandable with a SD card.
Ebook files take up very little space. The ones on my machine are roughly an average of 500kb in size. What does that mean exactly? They are pretty darned small. Books with more pictures will of course take up more space, and ones with more special formatting will also take up more space.
Data Storage conversion
• 1 byte = 8 bits
• 1 kilobyte (K / Kb) = 2^10 bytes = 1,024 bytes
• 1 megabyte (M / MB) = 2^20 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes
• 1 gigabyte (G / GB) = 2^30 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes
• 1 terabyte (T / TB) = 2^40 bytes = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes
• 1 petabyte (P / PB) = 2^50 bytes = 1,125,899,906,842,624
So most ereaders will hold literally thousands of books, without having to use an expansion memory slot.
The reality? How many books do you plan to keep on your ereader at any one time?
I keep maybe 100ish books on my Cool-er, I do not keep my whole library on it.
Why not? Frankly sort options are currently not terribly good. So trying to find the book you want to read can be a real challenge. Many ereaders don’t have very good folder support, or they don’t have folders at all.
So when people say that a ereader ONLY has 1gig of space for books I smile and nod. Thinking who really carries a thousand books around on their reader at one time? Now if I was going to be in the middle nowhere with no internet access I could see having a thousand books on my ereader, but in general I don’t think most users will have more than a few hundred books on their ereaders at one time.
Ebook files take up very little space. The ones on my machine are roughly an average of 500kb in size. What does that mean exactly? They are pretty darned small. Books with more pictures will of course take up more space, and ones with more special formatting will also take up more space.
Data Storage conversion
• 1 byte = 8 bits
• 1 kilobyte (K / Kb) = 2^10 bytes = 1,024 bytes
• 1 megabyte (M / MB) = 2^20 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes
• 1 gigabyte (G / GB) = 2^30 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes
• 1 terabyte (T / TB) = 2^40 bytes = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes
• 1 petabyte (P / PB) = 2^50 bytes = 1,125,899,906,842,624
So most ereaders will hold literally thousands of books, without having to use an expansion memory slot.
The reality? How many books do you plan to keep on your ereader at any one time?
I keep maybe 100ish books on my Cool-er, I do not keep my whole library on it.
Why not? Frankly sort options are currently not terribly good. So trying to find the book you want to read can be a real challenge. Many ereaders don’t have very good folder support, or they don’t have folders at all.
So when people say that a ereader ONLY has 1gig of space for books I smile and nod. Thinking who really carries a thousand books around on their reader at one time? Now if I was going to be in the middle nowhere with no internet access I could see having a thousand books on my ereader, but in general I don’t think most users will have more than a few hundred books on their ereaders at one time.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Don't you dis our EB1150
So a user on Mobileread was saying how out of date the little EB1150 is and wondered why anyone would want to get one.
Now most users of the ebookwise 1150 (also known as EB1150) are extremely happy with their device. Five people jumped forward to say why they love their little EB1150 and why even though its old it is a good little device.
So don't dis our little ereader! It might be older but that does not mean that it is as out of date as some might expect!
Now most users of the ebookwise 1150 (also known as EB1150) are extremely happy with their device. Five people jumped forward to say why they love their little EB1150 and why even though its old it is a good little device.
So don't dis our little ereader! It might be older but that does not mean that it is as out of date as some might expect!
Is an ebook reader right for me?
This is a very good question. I love and adore my ereader and I would hate to give it up!
Do you read more than a book a week? If you do not, I do not recommend a ereader at this time. For the heavy book reader they work wonderfully, but the price for the devices is prohibitively high for the more casual book reader at this point.
Currently ereaders run from $200 and up, with the exception of the ebookwise 1150 which is currently $80, you can also find Sony PRS 505 on clearance at some stores for less than $200, such as Target.
When the price of ereaders come down I think that they will work fine for the people who do not read as heavily.
If you are going to be gone for a long period of time where getting books in your primary language is difficult or impossible to find, a ereader is a very handy device. You can load a ton of books up and then charge the device with a solar charger.
My favorite thing about my ebooks and my ereader is the amount of space I save! I currently have 700+ books on my computer harddrive. Think how much space 700+ books would take up if they were paperbacks?
Do you read more than a book a week? If you do not, I do not recommend a ereader at this time. For the heavy book reader they work wonderfully, but the price for the devices is prohibitively high for the more casual book reader at this point.
Currently ereaders run from $200 and up, with the exception of the ebookwise 1150 which is currently $80, you can also find Sony PRS 505 on clearance at some stores for less than $200, such as Target.
When the price of ereaders come down I think that they will work fine for the people who do not read as heavily.
If you are going to be gone for a long period of time where getting books in your primary language is difficult or impossible to find, a ereader is a very handy device. You can load a ton of books up and then charge the device with a solar charger.
My favorite thing about my ebooks and my ereader is the amount of space I save! I currently have 700+ books on my computer harddrive. Think how much space 700+ books would take up if they were paperbacks?
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
EB1150 my first ereader
Back in May 2008 I took the plunge and bought an ebook reader.
I waited (not terribly patiently) for Amazon to come out with a new lower priced kindle and/or Sony to do the same thing, I gave up. I am cheap, I refused to spend more than $200 on a ebook reader. If I am going to shell out $300 or more dollars I would buy myself an iTouch or a iPhone.
Why did I want to get an ebook reader? Well I have to say it’s because of the 6 boxes of books that I had. I love books, and I love to read. However, I am getting tired of the amount of space that they take up. (I think I am going into a minimalist stage)
So after doing some research online I found that www.ebookwise.com sells a reasonably priced reader. Which is to say that it is a mere $100. So I took the plunge and bought one.
I was very pleased to find that it is a nice little machine. It is slightly larger than a regular mass market paperback. It is roughly the width of a book that is about 300 or so pages long. It has a nice bulge with a rubber grip on the left side and the right also has rubber on the back. The screen while not having the clarity that e-ink supposedly offers, I have not actually seen a e-ink reader myself, its screen is very readable. It has an adjustable back light which is nice, the e-ink readers that I have read about do not have that feature. The battery life is supposed to run about 15 hours. I am guessing that is fairly reasonable. I have to admit that even I don’t sit and read for 15 hours straight. I have sat and read a whole 300+ page book with it and the battery still had 10+ hours left at the end.
The reader came in a nice box with easy to understand instructions. The biggest problem I had with the initial set up was the fact that in order to the setup easily you need to have a phone line to make a call out directly from your ebook reader, though they kindly include a phone line for you to use. This would be a problem for me in general, because I don’t normally have a LAN line. However, I am currently living in the boonies and am on DSL so do have a LAN line instead of cable internet. The phone call the little machine makes takes only a minute or two. Then you can download the USB software from the site and hook the ebook reader directly into the computer. You can apparently do the setup through the USB software somehow, but I could not figure out how. I kept on getting a message that my ebook reader needed to be registered.
The librarian software and can directly download ebooks from the www.fictionwise.com and www.ebookwise.com websites. (Fictionwise owns ebookwise). If you are like me and actually already own ebooks this is not terribly convenient. I downloaded the ebook librarian software and must say it’s not the most user friendly software that I have ever used. I found a great website: http://www.mobileread.com/ which has forums and it had the instructions that I needed to the software to work.
The ebookwise reader doesn’t read all formats, its primary one is a .imp. Have you ever heard of the .imp format? Yeah me either. The reader can also use .txt, .rtf, .html, and .doc which the ebookwise librarian can convert into a .imp file type.
The software menus on the ebookwise reader its self, were somewhat confusing to me initially. I had trouble with my ipod when I got it too. It was a bit too easy and I over thought the process. The problem that I had with the ebook reader was pretty much the same. The software is pretty easy and if you can’t figure out what you want it to do you can always open up the nice and convenient instruction manual that they provide on the ebook reader its self.
The touch screen could be a bit more sensitive in my opinion. I had a palm handspring in the past and feel that this one is not nearly as sensitive. Then again perhaps that is a good thing, that way you don’t accidentally exit a book when reading just because you accidentally bumped the screen.
One of my favorite features is that you can leave a book without even bookmarking it and when you open it next time it will be at the same spot. Overall I have to say the pro’s outweigh the con’s of this product. The pro’s being its reasonable price, comfortable size and shape and backlighting. The con’s are the software could use some work and instructions that also could use some work. I think I will enjoy my ebook reader greatly, I don’t have to pack a ton of books when I go on vacation now and I have the bonus of having less book clutter around my house.
I waited (not terribly patiently) for Amazon to come out with a new lower priced kindle and/or Sony to do the same thing, I gave up. I am cheap, I refused to spend more than $200 on a ebook reader. If I am going to shell out $300 or more dollars I would buy myself an iTouch or a iPhone.
Why did I want to get an ebook reader? Well I have to say it’s because of the 6 boxes of books that I had. I love books, and I love to read. However, I am getting tired of the amount of space that they take up. (I think I am going into a minimalist stage)
So after doing some research online I found that www.ebookwise.com sells a reasonably priced reader. Which is to say that it is a mere $100. So I took the plunge and bought one.
I was very pleased to find that it is a nice little machine. It is slightly larger than a regular mass market paperback. It is roughly the width of a book that is about 300 or so pages long. It has a nice bulge with a rubber grip on the left side and the right also has rubber on the back. The screen while not having the clarity that e-ink supposedly offers, I have not actually seen a e-ink reader myself, its screen is very readable. It has an adjustable back light which is nice, the e-ink readers that I have read about do not have that feature. The battery life is supposed to run about 15 hours. I am guessing that is fairly reasonable. I have to admit that even I don’t sit and read for 15 hours straight. I have sat and read a whole 300+ page book with it and the battery still had 10+ hours left at the end.
The reader came in a nice box with easy to understand instructions. The biggest problem I had with the initial set up was the fact that in order to the setup easily you need to have a phone line to make a call out directly from your ebook reader, though they kindly include a phone line for you to use. This would be a problem for me in general, because I don’t normally have a LAN line. However, I am currently living in the boonies and am on DSL so do have a LAN line instead of cable internet. The phone call the little machine makes takes only a minute or two. Then you can download the USB software from the site and hook the ebook reader directly into the computer. You can apparently do the setup through the USB software somehow, but I could not figure out how. I kept on getting a message that my ebook reader needed to be registered.
The librarian software and can directly download ebooks from the www.fictionwise.com and www.ebookwise.com websites. (Fictionwise owns ebookwise). If you are like me and actually already own ebooks this is not terribly convenient. I downloaded the ebook librarian software and must say it’s not the most user friendly software that I have ever used. I found a great website: http://www.mobileread.com/ which has forums and it had the instructions that I needed to the software to work.
The ebookwise reader doesn’t read all formats, its primary one is a .imp. Have you ever heard of the .imp format? Yeah me either. The reader can also use .txt, .rtf, .html, and .doc which the ebookwise librarian can convert into a .imp file type.
The software menus on the ebookwise reader its self, were somewhat confusing to me initially. I had trouble with my ipod when I got it too. It was a bit too easy and I over thought the process. The problem that I had with the ebook reader was pretty much the same. The software is pretty easy and if you can’t figure out what you want it to do you can always open up the nice and convenient instruction manual that they provide on the ebook reader its self.
The touch screen could be a bit more sensitive in my opinion. I had a palm handspring in the past and feel that this one is not nearly as sensitive. Then again perhaps that is a good thing, that way you don’t accidentally exit a book when reading just because you accidentally bumped the screen.
One of my favorite features is that you can leave a book without even bookmarking it and when you open it next time it will be at the same spot. Overall I have to say the pro’s outweigh the con’s of this product. The pro’s being its reasonable price, comfortable size and shape and backlighting. The con’s are the software could use some work and instructions that also could use some work. I think I will enjoy my ebook reader greatly, I don’t have to pack a ton of books when I go on vacation now and I have the bonus of having less book clutter around my house.
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