Should I buy an E-reader or a Tablet?

After all, a Tablet (or Pad, or Slate) can do everything an E-reader can, and more, right? If I buy a Tablet then I can’t go wrong, can I?

The answer depends upon a deeper understanding of how important reading is and the ‘comfortableness’ of the reading experience, including where you want to read, what you want to read and a few ergonomic factors.

Personally, when we want to relax and read a novel, probably the last thing we want is to be presented with another glaring light emitting LCD display! After a day in the office in front of a PC screen, or an evening watching TV, do we have to presented with yet another glaring light-emitting device barraging our eyeballs? This, therefore is one major reason why an E-Reader might be an important preference over a Slate. Of course, if you read outside in daylight, the reflective display technology of an most E-readers also means that you can easily read the screen in daylight. The lack of illuminated screen also helps to add to an e-readers typical battery life of weeks between recharges, as opposed to hours for a Slate.

That said, the display is (at present) only monochrome (grey scale), but colour is to appear before too long. The low power facility also means that the device is not as responsive as a Slate, and may not be powerful enough for display and happily scroll through a 20MByte technical book or magazine. Here, the Slate is clearly the winner, particularly as most slate also have touch screens, which are great for zipping around a technical document, particularly if it is heavily illustated

So, which one do you buy? the answer is easy – both of course! The E-reader is perfect for novels, bedtime and relaxation. The Slate is perfect for technical documents, email, internet and a zillion other applications. But come to think of it, my smart-phone does most of those things, its just that the screen can be a bit small for e-reading.

How to download free e-books to your Kindle

One of great strengths of the Amazon Kindle is its superb integration with the Amazon Kindle Store. With this feature, you can simply select your desired e-book on the Amazon website and it will more or less automagically appear on your Kindle device within a minute or so.

That’s great, but suppose you want to get hold of a free e-books, or a paid-for e-book from an online bookstore site other than Amazon?  Well firstly, good news for those of us in the USA; Amazon has a section containing ‘free’ e-books. For the rest of the world Amazon charge a small amount to cover electronic delivery cost (Typically $0.99c).

Kindles have three methods of obtaining digital content:-

• Wireless networking (IEEE 802.11G)
• (Kindle option) 3G Cellular (Amazon may charge for ‘Whispernet’ 3G delivery).
• USB link.

Of course, not all Kindle models have 3G delivery built in, and rely upon your Wireless Internet (eg. in your home) for communication with the store. In this case your Internet bill covers its usage too. Some sources have suggested that if you change your location in the “Manage your Kindle” section of the website, by switching to ‘USA’, it may be possible to access the free e-books without the delivery charge from overseas. Of course this suggestion probably conflicts with your terms of use of Amazon’s services at least, and is definitely not recommended.

There is another way to get free e-books and other ‘vendors’ e-books on your Kindle, so please read on. Firstly, however we need to address the situation about e-book formats. The Kindle works well with Amazon’s own proprietary format “.azw”, however this is similar to the Mobipocket ebook standard, and the Kindle can read these “.prc” or “.mobi” e-books directly.

E-book Formats

Unfortunately many e-books available from other suppliers use the “.epub” Open Publication format. Converters are available (eg. KindleGen), or the Stanza program. With these you download the .epub file to your PC and then convert it to .mobi format using the program. Make sure you download the Stanza for Windows or Mac, not the iPhone version!

To use Stanza, load your .epub document into Stanza and then use the menu to export the document as a ‘.mobi’ file. Then, plug your Kindle into the USB port of your computer, navigate your computers’ File Explorer to the ‘documents’ folder in the Kindle drive and simply drag the converted file into that folder. Finally safely remove the ‘Kindle’ drive from your computer and your new book should appear on the Kindle book menu.

The Kindle only supports the following file formats directly:-

• Adobe Portable Document format (.pdf)
• Amazon proprietary format (.azw, .azw1, .azw2)
• Plain Text (.txt)
• Unprotected Mobipocket (.mob, .mobi, .prc)
• Audible (.aa, .aax) (Audiobook format)
• MP3 (.mp3) (Audiobook or background music format)

Some other file formats can be converted by Amazon (for free) by sending, for example, your Microsoft Word document to your Amazon Kindle’s email address. Amazon then delivers the content in a usable format to your Kindle. Files can be delivered to your device by the Wireless method of your choice.

Getting free e-books

Project Gutenberg, Google Books and FeedBooks are just a few sources of thousands of free (and paid in the latter site) e-books. Assuming you access the sites using your Internet Browser, the first thing you want to do is check the format of the desired e-book to make sure it is “.epub” format. If the book is free, a simple way to do this is to download it to your computer and then check the file properties for the correct file extension name.

All you then do is convert the file to .mobi format, using for example the free Stanza program, copy it to your Kindle over USB and there is your new book!

We will shortly publish another article on e-book sites for free and paid-for downloads.

Should I buy an E-reader or a Tablet?

After all, a Tablet (or Pad, or Slate) can do everything an E-reader can, and more, right? If I buy a Tablet then I can’t go wrong, can I?

The answer depends upon a deeper understanding of how important reading is and the ‘comfortableness’ of the reading experience, including where you want to read, what you want to read and a few ergonomic factors.

Personally, when we want to relax and read a novel, probably the last thing we want is to be presented with another glaring light emitting LCD display! After a day in the office in front of a PC screen, or an evening watching TV, do we have to presented with yet another glaring light-emitting device barraging our eyeballs? This, therefore is one major reason why an E-Reader might be an important preference over a Slate. Of course, if you read outside in daylight, the reflective display technology of an most E-readers also means that you can easily read the screen in daylight. The lack of illuminated screen also helps to add to an e-readers typical battery life of weeks between recharges, as opposed to hours for a Slate.

That said, the display is (at present) only monochrome (grey scale), but colour is to appear before too long. The low power facility also means that the device is not as responsive as a Slate, and may not be powerful enough for display and happily scroll through a 20MByte technical book or magazine. Here, the Slate is clearly the winner, particularly as most slate also have touch screens, which are great for zipping around a technical document, particularly if it is heavily illustated.

So, which one do you buy? the answer is easy – both of course! The E-reader is perfect for novels, bedtime and relaxation. The Slate is perfect for technical documents, email, internet and a zillion other applications. But come to think of it, my smart-phone does most of those things, its just that the screen can be a bit small for e-reading.

How to download free or other e-books to your Kindle

One of great strengths of the Amazon Kindle is its superb integration with the Amazon Kindle Store. With this feature, you can simple select your desired e-book on the Amazon website and it will more or less automagically appear on your Kindle device within a minute or so.

That’s great, but suppose you want to get hold of a free e-book, or an e-book from another site apart from Amazon?  Well firstly, good news for those of us in the USA; Amazon has a section containing ‘free’ e-books. For the rest of the world Amazon charge a small amount to cover electronic delivery cost (Typically $0.99c).

Kindles have three methods of obtaining digital content:-

• Wireless networking (IEEE 802.11G)
• (Kindle option) 3G Cellular (Amazon may charge for ‘Whispernet’ 3G delivery).
• USB link.

Of course, not all Kindle models have 3G delivery built in, and rely upon your Wireless Internet (eg. in your home) for communication with the store. In this case your Internet bill covers its usage too. Some sources have suggested that if you change your location in the “Manage your Kindle” section of the website, by switching to ‘USA’, it may be possible to access the free e-books without the delivery charge. Of course this suggestion probably conflicts with your terms of use of Amazon’s services at least, and is definitely not recommended.

There is another way to get free e-books and other ‘vendors’ e-books on your Kindle, so please read on. Firstly, however we need to address the situation about e-book formats. The Kindle best works with Amazon’s own proprietary format “.azw”, however this is similar to the Mobipocket ebook standard, and the Kindle can read these “.prc” e-books directly.

E-book Formats

Unfortunately many e-books available from other suppliers use the “.epub” Open Publication format. Converters are available (eg. KindleGen), or the Stanza program. With these you download the .epub file to your PC and then convert it to .mobi format using the program. Make sure you download the Stanza for Windows or Mac, not the iPhone version!

To use Stanza, load your .epub document into Stanza and then use the menu to export the document as a ‘.mobi’ file. Then, plug your Kindle into the USB port of your computer, navigate your computers’ File Explorer to the ‘documents’ folder in the Kindle drive and simply drag the converted file into that folder. Finally safely remove the ‘Kindle’ drive from your computer and your new book should appear on the Kindle book menu.

The Kindle only supports the following file formats directly:-

• Adobe Portable Document format (.pdf)
• Amazon proprietary format (.azw, .azw1, .azw2)
• Plain Text (.txt)
• Unprotected Mobipocket (.mob, .mobi, .prc)
• Audible (.aa, .aax) (Audiobook format)
• MP3 (.mp3) (Audiobook or background music format)

Some other file formats can be converted by Amazon (for free) by sending, for example, your Microsoft Word document to your Amazon Kindle’s email address. Amazon then delivers the content in a usable format to your Kindle. Files can be delivered to your device by the Wirelss method of your choice.

Getting free e-books

Project Gutenberg, Google Books and FeedBooks are just a few sources of thousands of free (and paid in the latter site) e-books. Assuming you access the sites using your Internet Browser, the first thing you want to do is check the format of the desired e-book to make sure it is “.epub” format. If the book is free, a simple way to do this is to download it to your computer and then check the file properties for the correct file extension name.

All you then do is convert the file to .mobi format using for example the free Stanza program, copy it to your kindle over USB and there is your new book.

We will shortly publish another article on e-book sites for free and paid-for downloads.

What is a Kindle?

Which type of Kindle are people buying?

The biggest demand for e-readers is presently the smaller units as they are relatively low-cost, are perfectly suited to reading of chapter-books (novels) and are very portable. Most e-readers can last several weeks on a single battery charge, and the reflective display technology can be read outside and is easy on the eyes, appearing much like paper.

E-Ink and LCD close up

Where is the Kindle Technology going?

The new Kindle – Kindle Fire!

You may already know that on the 28th September, Amazon announced a new Kindle, the Kindle Fire. Less well known is the announcement of two other Kindle models. In fact, the Kindle Fire is not an e-reader, it’s a slate or pad, and so represents a new branch in the Kindle lineage.

It follows that the significant part of the announcement is the Kindle Fire. Amazon appears to be going after the ‘Slate Tablet’ market started by Apple with the iPad™, and closely followed by the likes of Acer and Samsung with their own similar ‘me-too’ offerings.

Of course, the Slate market is still evolving, as users find out what slates are good-for, and where they are less useful. The key factor here is that with the Kindle Fire, Amazon are anticipating an evolvement of the Slate concept, and at the same time bringing users even closer into the Amazon supply chain. The concept of making it easy to purchase content from the original device supplier was pioneered by the Apple iStore, and utilised by Amazon for Kindle ebooks, but here Amazon have gone one step further by tying the devices’ everyday operation into their own Internet based cloud computing infrastructure. Effectively they are now taking a page out Google’s strategy by giving them an opportunity to maintain a close customer involvement on a minute-by-minute basis. This combined with Amazon subscription streaming content delivery means Amazon are firmly placing the Kindle Fire as their portal to consume a wide range of media they provide.

On a more technical aspect, the Kindle Fire is different to many other slates, the trend has been to boost memory capacity and CPU speed, however with the Fire, Amazon have leveraged their own ‘cloud’ infrastructure to offload some of the storage and processing requirements usually associated with slates. It would be wrong to say the Fire is limited, it’s using reasonable CPU, graphics and memory capacity for today (maybe a bit stingy on secondary storage), but with a good, fast Internet connection it should make up for it using Amazon’s cloud storage. This factor combined with the close post-sale customer tie-in for additional content sales, probably means that Amazon has been able to crunch the price. At 6” the screen size is still small compared with many other slates, and it’s pitched a media delivery and apps, so it will be interesting to see where it fits into the user gamut between those using smartphones and full size slates.

The other two models (released in late November) are conventional e-readers with ‘e-ink ‘ displays, long battery life, smaller and lighter, and now with the benefit of the same size 6” multi-touch screens. Historically e-ink LCD displays couldn’t support capacitive touch screen overlays, but they are now appearing from several suppliers as technology improves. Pricing is held low, but at the moment there is no announcement of a large screen version. Reportedly, volume sales of e-book readers are definitely at the low price point end of the market, that is, small size units, highly portable and the lower cost the better. If implemented well, a touch screen interface should make the reading and searching experience much more enjoyable and intuitive to use.

Advantages of E-books over regular books

We are in the midst of a revloution in the world of books. Normal books, printed on paper, are being threatened by the amazing technology of eBooks. Some would argue that the invention of the eBook and eReaders is the end of both traditional books, AND bookstores.

So just what is so good about eBooks and eReaders that keeps people buying them over and over, instead of choosing traditional paper books? What are the main differences? Well, the traditional paper book is easy to use, simply because of the ergonomics of paper; plus you can transport it from one place to another without problem. It can be used for study, and some might argue that curling up on the couch with a good paper-book far surpasses doing the same with an eReader device. eReaders do have their limits, they sometimes lag with page turns, there are no color pictures with eInk devices, and regular paper books don’t run out of batteries!

The advantages of eBooks over regular books are that we do not waste huge quantities of paper, you simply download the books right onto your eReader device. You don’t have to carry tens of heavy books with you on vacation – eReaders can store thousands of books, all in the palm of your hand. Plus eReaders can recommend you books that you might like based on books you already have, even previewing the first few pages of recommended books – with traditional books at a store, you only have the cover and the blurb at the back to go off. Even eBooks themselves look like regular pages of a traditional book due to eInk technology. eReaders have built in dictionaries, so if there’s a word in a book that you don’t understand, you can simply look it up. Yes, you can study with traditional books, but most eReaders can go online to a whole world of information.

The new technology is changing the way we read books, and it’s understandable that some people are still reluctant to it – and who can blame them? Humans have been using traditional books for thousands of years now, and it’s sad that technology is making them redundant, but the advantages far surpass the disadvantages.