All ebook readers are not the same

Several devices all claim to be the next big thing in the way we read. They split into two main types – on one side are what we will refer to as e-readers, which are small devices the size of a very thin hardback book, with screens that use a technology called e-ink.

On the other side is a new device from Apple called the iPad. Announced in January in a blaze of publicity, the iPad is also a thin device, but it has a larger screen, which is backlit. It’s also more powerful than the e-reader devices: while the readers are designed to do one thing (show books and other printed content) the iPad is a full computer without a keyboard.

Other ways to read
There are other ways to read ebooks. You can download free out-of-copyright books from Gutenberg for example. These are available as text or PDF files. These can then be read on any computer, and some phones also have ebook readers that can be downloaded. The Nintendo DS portable games console can read its own ebook collection.

Mobile phones are convenient for reading when out and about, but one big problem is the resolution – the text has to be small enough to fit on the screen but the smaller the text gets the harder it is to read.

Battery life is also a problem on many devices. If you are reading an ebook on a phone or a laptop a large amount of the battery power is being used to light the screen, and much of the rest is effectively going to waste. The laptop and phone are designed for more intensive tasks than showing text on a screen, so viewing text for long periods is an inefficient use of the battery.

Dedicated readers
Dedicated ebook readers are designed to combat the problem of battery life and energy waste. Using a more efficient screen and optimising the entire device for just one thing – the display of text – can make battery life significantly longer.

They use an e-ink display instead of the LCD screen used by laptops and phones. This kind of display does not need a backlight, which means it cannot be read in the dark (e-readers require an external light source) but it also does not cause eye-strain in the way that backlit screens do.

The display looks a bit like an Etch-a-Sketch, with the black text physically drawn onto a gray surface but at a high enough resolution to be easily readable at small font sizes.

Once a page of text is drawn onto the screen it can stay there even if the reader is turned off, so the device can be very efficient – often, e-readers are only using power when pages are being turned.

This kind of ebook reader is made by Sony, Cool-er and Foxit, among others. One late entry into the British market is the Kindle, sold by the online bookshop Amazon. You can also buy ebooks directly from the device, which is always connected to the internet, and it can also access electronic versions of newspapers on a subscription basis.

The big Apple
Several applications are available for Apple’s iPhone that allow users to easily read ebooks and other text on the phone’s screen.

The company’s latest product, the iPad, is a larger version of the iPhone with a big screen and more processing power than the smaller phone version. US customers can download ebooks through the iTunes store, although it’s not yet known if this shop will be available in the UK.

Unfortunately, it seems that the books won’t be available on the UK version of the iPad.

Our verdict
The publishing industry has been slow to cotton on to ebooks, and has been criticised for the restrictions placed on the ebooks that can be bought online – for instance, if you buy a book for your Amazon Kindle it cannot be read if you switch to a Sony Reader, and vice-versa.

Similarly, current titles are not priced competitively – in some cases, new books are more expensive as ebooks than they are as paper versions. Despite that, the advances in reading and screen technology mean that ebook readers are coming closer to being widely available.

All current devices include the ability to copy your own files onto the device for reading, so you don’t have to pay out for new releases, and there are many out-of-copyright titles available on the web ready to download and enjoy.

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