|
|
Ebook readers, such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony PRS-350, are now cheaper and better than ever, but can they compete with good old-fashioned paper?
In 1455, Johannes Gutenberg printed a Bible and changed the world forever. He set in motion an industry that remained fundamentally unchanged for 600 years.
Movable type was his great innovation - individual characters arranged in a frame and used to press ink onto paper. It’s only now, with the advent of ebooks and digital readers, that we are in a position to leave print behind.
Dedicated ebook readers such as Amazon’s Kindle are rapidly falling in price, and so are books that can be read on them.
Supplied as a digital download, they don’t consume the planet’s forests, needn’t be carried to shops by sea, air or road, and are more flexible than their printed equivalents, as you can choose how they are displayed.
But can an electronic book ever replace the printed page in our homes, on the move or even on the beach in summer?
In truth, this new technology has significant problems alongside its many advantages. In this article we will look at the pros and cons, allowing you to choose whether digital or paper books are best for you.
Carry on reading
Jilly Cooper’s latest hardback has 739 pages and Ken Follett’s 864. Penguin’s latest translation of War and Peace runs to more than 1,300 pages. None of these can be easily carried around for any length of time, unless you buy them as ebooks.
Download all three to a Kindle and it still won’t weigh more than 247 grams - roughly the same as a single slim paperback - and there will be room inside for hundreds more books besides.
Amazon also makes Kindle software for iPhone and Android smartphones, as well as Windows and Mac computers and iPad tablets. They all synchronise online, so if you buy a book on one it can be downloaded in seconds onto any other device you own.
Likewise, Apple’s iBooks app is available on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch music player, and if you own more than one your books are synchronised between them.
Digital portability only stretches so far, though, as all the major ebook services’ platforms are incompatible with one another.
Books bought from iBooks can’t be read on a Kindle, for example, and if you bought an ebook from Waterstones for the Sony Reader you couldn’t read it on the iPad or Kindle. The only real exception is that, at the moment, you can buy a book on the Kindle and read it using the Kindle app on an iPad.
Article tags
Related articles
We're all having to tighten out belts in the current economic climate, so we've listed 20 ways to save money – from checking prices online to simple haggling
Software problems may be the cause of a computer running more slowly than it should, but there are some free tools you can try to improve things
Unwanted software and temporary files, plus too many programs running in the background will slow your computer down, so now is the time to take action
Q.Is my phone’s Bluetooth any use?
Q.Can I switch boot drives so that I can work on older...
Q.Can I open my old genealogy files or have they gone...
Make a profit from your unused gadgets
Run Windows and Ubuntu on the same computer
Hide private folders
Save up to 40% on the price
Exclusive subscriber website
Our price won't be beaten
A 'small British village' in the mid-Atlantic is in need of funding to get it connected
Voice over IP. The routing of voice conversations over the internet, which is cheaper than the telephone...
|
|
|
|
|
Computeractive Excel (2010) Online tutorialPrice: £19.99 |
Computeractive Word (2010) Online TutorialPrice: £19.99 |
Computeractive Powerpoint (2010) Online TutorialPrice: £19.99 |
Angry BirdsPrice: £9.99 |
Back Issue CD-Rom 14 (2011)Price: £15.99 |
Ebooks
I have a Sony PRS 600 absolutely love it, which I never thought I would because I always had loads of books but it is so easy to put lots of books on it when I go away, if I don't like a book I just delete it and go onto another one, I havent had to carry lots of paper or weight. Only downside is the ebooks are fairly expensive to buy because as you say the TAX so that could come down a bit
Posted by Carol Sparks, 16 May 2011
Ebooks need further polishing
I’ve been reading ebooks for some time now. I don’t own a Kindle, I use Kindle for PC on my netbook instead, so I can read and do other things. Almost all of my 100+ ebooks suffer from careless formatting – words containing spaces or hyphens in the middle of a line, lines split oddly, etc. They also invariably come in just one typeface and with no formatting to distinguish, for example, a paragraph quoted from another source, which in a printed book would be indented to make it clear that it’s a quote. There are too many vendor-specific formats, which must be a pain for publishers. An international ebook standard format would be of great benefit to both readers and the publishing industry.
Posted by Peter Rodwell, 16 May 2011
Sony ereader
I own a pocket ereader and love it also, I think it is one of the best gadgets I have ever brought. What people do not realise is the advantage of Sony and some other ereaders (not the Kindle) is you can download books for free from your public libraries. My library allows 2 books at a time for up to two weeks then they are encripted. So I do not have to buy any books, the range is good and if they are already being "borrowed" they contact you when availabnle by email. It is an excellent service.
Posted by M Keeble, 02 Jun 2011
Kindle best thing since sliced bread
Would not be without my kindle now ( 2year) I have built up a good library. Saves on the luggage weight at airports
Posted by Bill webster, 11 Jul 2011
comparability
It would be helpful if Computeractive were to publish a table comparing e-books' characteristics, eg weight, size, font options, retail price and so on.
Posted by Bill Tregunna, 14 Oct 2011
Kindle pros and cons
Pro: On holiday with poor bedside lights in my hotel room it was great to be able to enlarge the font Con: (a big one) It is infuriating, and, for my academic work a major drawback, not to be able to search, refer back etc, atures that are often available on many web sites.
Posted by Angela Parkes, 28 Mar 2012