Today’s column deals with reading e-books on digital devices, but first I want to take time for a public service reminder — back-up your computer’s hard drive on a regular basis. The other day I received a phone call from a fellow Macintosh user at TR, asking if I had any suggestion for a problem they were having. After explaining what had happened, it seem apparent that the hard drive was not functioning. I asked if they had been backing up their drive, and the answer was no! Everyone should be making regular backups. All versions of Windows include a backup and restore function, and Mac OS X version 10.5 and later includes a program called Time Machine to preform automatic backups. While the backup programs generally backup everything on your drive, you can also backup critical data and photo files by periodically dragging them to an external drive, flash drive, or burning to a CD or DVD. Whatever method you chose, remember that it is only a matter of time before your drive fails or causes other problems, and you will be glad you were prepared.
I have always been a voracious reader, and next to my side of the bed in our RV you can usually find a stack of books. At home in New York I seldom leave our public library without five or six books to read, and when we travel I always try to prepare a stockpile of reading material for the trip. So it is no surprise that the idea of a portable, digital reader intrigued me.
The concept of reading books, magazines and newspapers on digital devices is not new, but it has only recently caught on with the buying public. Reading print material on a computer screen is not easy on the eyes, and you cannot curl up with a computer, but digital readers are small, compact devices that are not much bigger than a paperback novel—only without the pages. As we begin 2010, there are many such devices on the market, with many more scheduled for release in the coming months. The one that has thus far captured the most attention and sales is the Amazon Kindle. Eddie gave me a Kindle for Christmas, and after a month of using it I can unequivocally say that I love it!
The original Kindle, released in November of 2007, featured a 6 inch (diagonal) 4-level grayscale display and could hold approximately 200 books. The current version of the device, the Kindle 2, was released last February and features a 16-level grayscale display, improved battery life, faster page refreshing, a text-to-speech option, thinner than the original model, can store approximately 1,500 books and is nothing short of amazing.
Reading material is downloaded to the Kindle through Amazon’s Whispernet network, included with every device. After registering a credit card at Amazon.com, you visit the Kindle Store from the Kindle’s main menu, chose a book, and it instantly is downloaded. When you finish reading a book you can leave on your Kindle or delete it. All deleted material will be archived in your Amazon account and can be downloaded again at any time.
The Kindle does not feature a touch screen. Instead there are a few, conveniently located button that control the device. It also has a full keyboard for entering text in a search box. There is also a built in dictionary for word definitions, and you can even access the internet through the Whispernet wireless connection.
There are reported to be over 400,000 books available for download, with most releases, both fiction and nonfiction, costing $9.99. Some books are actually priced less, and there is also a plethora of older books in the public domain, many of them classics, that can be downloaded for free. Paperback trade books, such as how-to-books on digital photography, will cost more, but are priced between 40% and 60% off the publishers list price. You can also subscribe to over ninety newspapers and magazines. I have a subscription to the New York TImes and a new issue is downloaded automatically to my Kindle every morning.
As nice as it is to have access to such a large body of reading material, what makes the Kindle stand out is readability. The screen uses a technology called electronic paper and is extremely easy on the eyes. The text can be adjusted to six different sizes, and the margins can be adjusted to show fewer words per line.
If you like to read, and want to have a library at your fingertips, a digital reader may be in your future. In addition to the Kindle, Sony sells the Sony reader, and a number of other digital readers are scheduled for release in 2010. The most anxiously awaited is the Nook from Barnes and Noble. The Nook was supposed to be available before Christmas, but the current release date is projected for February 12.
The Kindle is available exclusively from Amazon.com and currently sells for $259.
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