Chapter 1

Booking It to an eReader

In This Chapter

Defining an eReader

Looking at dedicated eReaders

Examining tablets

When you were young, a book was a book. A sheaf of papers, imprinted with inked letters of great wisdom or great wit, and clamped together within cloth-covered cardboard. (If you really wanted to go first-class, the covers were leather and the edged were gilded.) What a wondrous piece of technology: it was portable, you could make notes within it, and you could store it away for future reference.

Ah, but that was then and this is now. Today we’re much of the way toward a time when books will exist without paper, without ink, without covers. They’re mostly called eBooks. And they exist within the world of personal electronic devices: eReaders, tablets, smartphones, and laptops.

What ever will we do?

We will read.

A book is still a book. The move from ink on paper to tiny dots onscreen is a matter of media. Every ink-on-paper book you’ve read in the last two decades or so has — at some point in its process — existed in digital form.

An e What?

An eReader is an electronic system that can download (make a copy) and store thousands of full-length books, magazines, newspapers, and other publications.

A piece of hardware can be capable of using eReader software (like a laptop that lets you read eBooks), or an eReader can be the actual piece of hardware that uses the eReader software. When I refer to an eReader, Table 1-1 explains what that can mean.

Table 1-1 eXplaining eReaders

Layman’s Terms	What It Is	Example Brands
eReader (or dedicated eReader)	A specially designed, single- purpose hardware device. Typically the smallest, lightest, easiest-to-use, and least expensive option.	Amazon Kindle Barnes & Noble NOOK and NOOKcolor Kobo eReader Sony Reader Other, lesser-known devices of this sort exist.
Tablet	A miniaturized computer that can run one or more eReader programs and store books. These devices are generally larger, heavier, pricier, and in some ways more complex. The reading experience is very similar to an eReader.	Apple iPad BlackBerry PlayBook Samsung Galaxy Tab
Laptop or personal computer	Runs an eReader program and stores books. Computers are the largest, heaviest, most expensive, and in some ways most complex piece of hardware. The reading experience is very similar to an eReader.	Dell Toshiba Mac
Smartphone	A phone that runs an eReader program. The lightest device. May be too small for your liking, with a screen about the size of an index card.	Apple iPhone BlackBerry Bold BlackBerry Curve Phones that run Android

I discuss each of these options in this book, but let me tell you right up front that, from my point of view, the first two options are the best: an eReader or a tablet. The third and fourth options are, respectively, too large or too small for ease of use. And when I say single-purpose, I realize that almost nothing in our culture is ever that simplistic. An eReader with its power off makes a perfectly adequate paperweight. More to the point, designers are always seeking ways to “converge” technologies. Therefore, many eReaders can also store and play music, serve as your partner in a simple game, or offer very basic web browsing.

Choose the one that best fits your needs, and keep in mind that over the history of technology, devices tend to become more capable and less expensive over time. Today’s single-purpose eReader may be expanded to become more like a tablet. A Kindle is only for reading eBooks, and you can see the Kindle in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1: Now your hand is holding an eReader while you look at a hand holding an eReader. This model is a Kindle.

What’s Electronic Ink?

Everyone thinks of E Ink as meaning Electronic Ink, although its creators swear that the E stands for Electrophoretic. As we all know, electrophoresis is the process in which charged colloidal particles or molecules migrate through a solution under the influence of an applied electric field. You didn’t know that? Perhaps you know it by its other name: cataphoresis. Let’s just call it E Ink and leave it at that.

Here’s the basic concept: The display consists of a thin film that contains millions of tiny microcapsules, each the diameter of a human hair. In the basic design, each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric charge is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule making the surface appear white at that location. At the same time, an opposite electric field pulls the black particles to the bottom of the microcapsules where they are hidden. By reversing this process, the black particles appear at the top of the capsule, which now makes the surface appear dark at that location. Put enough dots together and you can create a character or a number or a piece of an image. And then here’s the important part: once a dot has been formed, it stays there.

E Ink eReaders can’t display moving pictures or video. That also makes it difficult to make the dedicated eReader into a GPS device to give you turn-by-turn directions to the nearest board-certified, left-hander friendly, non-denominational, vegan takeout restaurant. As this book goes to press, every E Ink device displays only black and white text or images (in as many as 16 shades of gray). Sometime soon, though, the first multicolor E Ink displays will be available (although still unable to handle moving pictures).

Bottom line: an eReader using E Ink is more like a traditional book printed with black ink on white or near-white paper. It doesn’t glow from underneath the characters, the print won’t rub off on your fingers, and it can hold a thought for days, weeks, and months without the need of fresh electrical power.

Why Can’t You Be More Like Your Sister?

I created a couple tables. One compares four of the most popular single- purpose (more or less) eReader devices, and the other table compares the most popular multipurpose tablets.

Although the precise dimensions may differ slightly from one device to another, here’s an example of a diagonal measurement: the “6-inch” display of an Amazon Kindle or a Kobo eReader is about 3.5 inches wide by 4.75 inches tall. The device is measured diagonally.

Comparing dedicated eReaders

In Table 1-2, I display the essential facts of the bestselling Amazon Kindle 3 and the similar Kobo eReader — both basic E Ink devices — as well as the hybrid devices from Barnes & Noble: the NOOKcolor (which uses a color screen) and the NOOK Simple Touch (which has an E Ink touchscreen). Figures 1-2 and 1-3 show the Kobo and NOOK, respectively.

Figure 1-2: The Kobo has reading mojo.

Figure 1-3: The NOOK has you reading a book.

Comparing tablets

The first distinguishing characteristic of a tablet computer is that it’s capable of being programmed and adapted to do more than one thing. It can function as an eReader, but it can also be used to browse the web, show videos, take pictures, play action games, and perform most business functions from word processing to spreadsheets to e-mail.

The second point of difference involves its screen design: a tablet does not rely on a high-quality black-and-white or grayscale low-power reflective E Ink screen. Instead, it uses a high-quality color backlit LCD screen that can react quickly, draw and refresh moving pictures, using the power of its larger, heavier, and more expensive battery.

Table 1-3 compares three of the leading tablet computers: the bestselling Apple iPad 2, the BlackBerry PlayBook, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab (in its 7-inch and 10-inch versions). Figures 1-4 and 1-5 show the PlayBook and the Galaxy Tab, respectively.

Figure 1-4: The PlayBook is one at which to look.

Figure 1-5: The Galaxy Tab is a great one to nab.

Your fingers are oily. As you swipe or tap or otherwise touch the screen of an eReader or a tablet, you’re likely to leave behind streaks and dirt. It’s not a big deal: Use a soft cloth like the ones used to clean eyeglasses to clear the screen.

And What About You, Mr. eAuthor?

As an author and a professional geek of long-standing, I usually end up with at least one example of every possible type and variation of high-tech device. So even though my shopping habits are a bit different from yours, I suppose you might wonder which I use.

The answer is Both.

When I’m heading out on a long flight across the continent or across the ocean, or if I’m looking to bring some reading material with me to a waiting room or sitting on the rocks by the beach, I bring an eReader. It’s light and thin and works well in the bright sunlight, and I can (and do) store a few hundred books, old and new, in its memory.

But, when I’m traveling and want to go online, make a phone call, send email, use GPS, and work with some of the hundreds of photos and videos I take while traveling, I bring along my tablet (which weighs about twice as much and demands three times the price). But in addition to its computer functions it can also read books. The text is crisp and the background is bright, but in some situations the image isn’t quite as easy on the eyes as the one from my lithe and little dedicated eReader.