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As you may have seen, Amazon has made a pioneering move by introducing a very usable eBook reader called Kindle back in 2007. An eBook Reader is an electronic tablet that can hold many books and allows you to read them on its easy-on-the-eye screen. Sony, Google, Microsoft, and others are also busy creating similar devices, believing this will be the next big electronic gadget segment. But are eBook readers as useful and beneficial as their makers tout them to be? Let's take a look.
Benefits
eBook readers like Kindle are ideal for people on the move who also read a lot, like business travelers. Books can take up space and add weight to a traveler's already packed luggage, so they're not ideal travel companions in that sense. Packing many books in a thin and light device with long battery life can be a big convenience in this case.
Among other useful features is the ability to take notes on the reader while reading the book, and saving it in your online electronic library. This is especially handy since you can refer to your notes any time by going online. Looking up words in the embedded dictionary, zooming in on the text, and in some cases getting online versions of certain newspapers and magazines delivered to your reader are among benefits of these devices.
Easy on the Eyes
One significant advantage of eBook readers over computer displays and other handheld devices is their superior display technology for long term reading, called E Ink . Unlike LCD displays, E Ink does not need to constantly refresh the screen, doing away with eye strain as a result. E Ink can also be read very easily in low light or in bright sunlight, mainly because it very much simulates the high contrast of ink on paper.
A side benefit of E Ink turns out to be its very low power consumption. Since it only writes the text or image on the screen once and doesn't constantly refresh it, it saves a significant amount of power. As a result, battery life for eBook readers is measured in days, not hours.
Is It Worth It?
There are a couple of economic downsides to eBook readers. First, is their price. They're generally in the few hundred dollars range, which may be a steep investment if you're not an active reader. Of course, just like all technology products, the prices are expected to come down in the next couple of years.
The other is that buying electronic versions of books for the eBook readers is not much cheaper than buying the paper versions. So you won't be saving much there either. What the makers of these readers are counting on is that the convenience of an eBook along with its other features is worth paying the extra money. That's a decision you'd need to make for yourself.
Incompatibilities
It's not rare to see incompatibilities between electronic gadgets, and eBook readers are no exception. Currently there are several companies vying for market share, each promoting their own format, and in many cases the formats won't work across various readers. So before you take the plunge, consider the book selection and longevity of a company to make sure you're comfortable picking their eBook reader as your companion. If you'd rather wait, the picture will be much clearer in a couple of years, with the possibility of having one single format that works across all readers.
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