Gateway

Issue date: 3/9/10 Section: Opinion

(Graphics courtesy of MCTCampus.com) [Click to enlarge]

Have you spotted those funny-looking plastic toys students have been reading on campus? Students have recently been taking advantage of the library's Kindle-renting program (including netbooks, digital cameras and laptops) thereby experiencing a possible sequel to the iPod craze--E-reading.

E-readers, small electronics with digital versions of books, newspapers and magazines, are actually nothing new. The first major book digitizing experiment began in 1971 with Michael S. Hart's Project Gutenberg, still active today. In 1993 the first piece of software was developed specifically for reading "E-books" called Digital Book v.1. As early as 1998, the first commercially available E-readers released were the Rocket Ebook and the SoftBook Reader which downloaded books as HTML pages via a dial-up Internet jack.

However, it wasn't until 2007 that Amazon's Kindle first really made an impact on initiating the E-reader market.

Today, other manufacturers are scrambling to claim their share of this new demand. Most notable are the Barnes & Noble Nook and the recently announced Apple iPad. Less popular readers are the Sony Reader and new concepts including a thin, flexible E-reader debuted at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. The appeal of the Kindle and, consequentially, E-reading in general began with several factors. The Kindle was successful not only because it was backed by one of the largest online retailers, but because the whole experience was simple and familiar.

Instead of clicking the hardcover or paperback format on Amazon's Web site, simply choose the Kindle edition and the book appears on your Kindle in about a minute. Also, Amazon was the first, not to use, but to champion using E-ink technology. E-ink screens are very different from traditional LCD screens in that they need no backlighting. In fact, E-ink uses little to no power unless something on the screen is changing. This is made possible by electronically "floating" ink up to the surface, or "sinking" away the text like an Etch-a-Sketch. This dramatic conservation of energy allows consumers to read for weeks at a time on a single charge.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools