2. E-books
An electronic book is a book-length publication in
digital form, consisting of text, images, or
both, readable on computers or other electronic
devices. Although sometimes defined as "an electronic
version of a printed book", many e-books exist without
any printed equivalent.
Commercially produced and sold e-books are usually
intended to be read on dedicated e-book
readers, however, almost any sophisticated electronic
device that features a controllable viewing
screen, including computers, many mobile phones, and
all smartphones can also be used to read e-books.
3. The Idea of E-book
▪ Some years earlier the idea of the e-reader came to Bob
Brown after watching his first "talkie". In 1930, he wrote an
entire book on this invention and titled it "The Readies"
playing off the idea of the "talkie“. In his book, Brown says
that movies have out maneuvered the book by creating the
"talkies" and as a result reading should find a new medium: A
machine that will allow us to keep up with the vast volume of
print available today and be optically pleasing.
4. Books Go Digital!!
▪ E-Books offer the following obvious advantages
(assuming you have an eBook reader) :
▪ They're easily readable. Most readers offer
zoom functions, letter resizing, and so forth.
▪ They're easily portable. You can carry multiple
books on one device.
▪ They're much more environmentally friendly. You
don't have to kill a few trees for each book, and
let's not even talk about the ink. Recycling only
goes so far.
▪ Note-taking is much more powerful, and the
notes you write can be found and referenced
quickly and easily. And they don't have to be
permanent.
▪ Lighting conditions essentially become
meaningless. Many readers incorporate display
lighting allowing you to read whenever and
wherever you like.
5. Dedicated hardware readers and mobile reader
software
There have been several generations of dedicated hardware e-book
readers. The Rocket eBook and several others were introduced around
1998, but did not gain widespread acceptance. The establishment of the
E Ink Corporation in 1997 led to the development of electronic paper, a
technology which allows a display screen to reflect light like ordinary
paper without the need for a backlight; electronic paper was
incorporated first into the Sony Librie (released in 2004) and Sony
Reader (2006), followed by the Amazon Kindle, a device which, upon its
release in 2007, sold out within five hours.
