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over wireless Internet connections to portable readers Before we decide, however, we have to know what
and devices. an e-book is, how it has redefined reading, and how
With the many changes in the way books are sold it has transcended existing publishing methods and
and read, the question remains: What will be the future changed business models across the globe.
of the book? Is this—the electronic format—the best
way to go?
4
The Battle
of E-Readers
The Amazon Kindle In 2007, online bookstore Ama- The Apple iPad The iPad’s greatest strength is that it,
zon.com decided to launch the Kindle. It managed like all Apple products, looks great. It’s so pretty that
what Sony had accomplished with its Reader, but also whatever e-book you load into it ends up looking
allowing users to do what the Reader couldn’t: con- like the greatest volume ever written. Its library looks
nect to the Internet via a wireless connection, and like a shelf, its touchscreen interface allows you to flip
download volumes directly to the device without pages like a real book complete with sleek effects, and
having to use a computer. the device itself looks like something out of a science
It is touted to be the best reader on the market fiction film.
despite being for the most part no-frills, because of its Apple’s brilliant marketing strategies also made the
easy-to-use interface and stable performance. It aims emergence of the iPad seem like the second coming,
to give users the ability to read e-books and not much thus making it one of the most coveted devices in
else, but attempts to do it well. If reviews from maga- recent history.
zines such as US-based Laptop is to be believed, it has As an e-book reader, it can only do so well. By vir-
certainly achieved its goal, having a pageturn rate that tue of its touchscreen interface, its display is not very
outstrips its peers. friendly to the eyes. Unlike an E Ink screen, it reflects
The best thing about the Kindle and other E Ink light and is backlit, thus making it almost impossible
display-equipped machines? Its E Ink display looks to use outdoors, particularly in daylight.
like paper, allowing it to be read easily under different It can connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi and 3G
lighting conditions. (depending on the model), and is capable of doing
Controlled by a keyboard and a set of buttons, the other things, because it is basically a tablet computer
latest Kindle model can access the web via a 3G con- equipped with specialized applications.
nection in addition to Wi-Fi, and has a new built-in Its strength lies in its potential for new media, allow-
browser and improved PDF viewer. It’s connected to ing e-books to become multimedia troves. “Enhanced
the Amazon store, and can access several value-added e-books,” as Apple likes to term them, let readers view
services such as library backup and built-in social me- videos and listen to audio files embedded into them,
dia (i.e. Facebook, Twitter) integration. The best things as well as view websites via hyperlinked text.
about it, according to Amazon, are its speedy page- Storage: 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive, with option to expand
turn rate and battery life of up to one month. However, Supported e-book formats: EPUB, via iBooks application (other
its batteries are not replaceable. formats can be read via separate readers or applications)
Storage: 4GB internal - approximately 3GB available for user Supported audio formats: HE-AAC, AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless,
content, with option to expand AIFF, WAV
Supported e-book formats: AZW, TXT, MOBI, PRC (other formats Other supported media: Video (M4V, MP4, AVI), Images
must be converted first, or sent to Amazon for conversion)
Supported audio formats: AAC, AAX, MP3
9
Sony Reader Sony’s early models pre- Barnes & Noble Nook k The Nook is
date the Kindle and other devices cur- bookseller Barnes & Noble’s attempt
rently on the market, but the company is at dislodging Amazon’s Kindle from
releasing the Reader Daily Edition, a sleek booklovers’ shelves. Equipped with
device equipped with a touch screen and two screens—an electronic paper
stylus. In recent interviews, Sony execu- display (EPD) controlled with an LCD
tives said they refuse to get into a price war with other touchscreen—it tries to expand on
e-reader makers, and instead will focus on providing the Kindle’s current capabilities. How-
quality devices. Whether this ploy will help Sony win ever, Amazon patented the dual-display interface. They
the reader wars remains to be seen. haven’t sued anyone over the patent yet, but only time
Storage: Up to 32GB, expandable will tell.
Supported e-book formats: EPUB, PDF, TXT, RTF, DOC (Needs MS Storage: 2GB, with the option to expand
Word installed in user’s computer) Supported e-book formats: EPUB, PDB
Supported audio formats: MP3, AAC Supported audio formats: MP3
he supported media: Images
Other Other supported media: PDF, images
From Pigment
to Pixels
The birth of the e-book
Market Economy
Where digital books are sold
13
Random House Free Library (www.suvudu.com) E-book sales are increasing. Amazon recently
Random House-owned Suvudu features free full- announced that it was selling more e-books than
length genre books: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Paranor- printed books.
mal, Star Wars, Graphic Novels & Manga, and Gaming.
E-books open new markets. They cater to avid
Books are copyrighted, but given away for free. consumers of media—readers who want convenience
and instant access.
BookGlutton (www.bookglutton.com)
BookGlutton offers a unique twist: it makes reading E-books let people try before they buy. This increases
into a community experience if the reader so desires. the likelihood that they would make a purchase... and
The site allows some books in its database to be read that they might buy the printed copy of the book later.
online or downloaded as an EPUB book for free. How-
ever, other books may only be read or downloaded
for a fee.
14
Want to know more? Amazon.com Inc. “Amazon Kindle’s Publishing Program.” Accessed
6 September 2010. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.
html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000234621.
—. “Kindle for PC.” Accessed 6 September 2010. http://www.amazon.
Periodicals com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311.
Bradford, K.T. “eReader Evaluation.” Laptop, May 2010. Dear Author Blog, The. http://dearauthor.com/
Halpern, Sue. “The iPad Revolution.” The New York Review of wordpress/2009/01/18/using-calibre-to-interface-with-iphone-
Books, 10 June 2010. sony-reader-or-cybook-part-2-of-2.
Wollman, Dana. “Reading, Redefined.” Laptop, May 2010. eBook Architects. “eBook Formats.” Last modified 6 June 2010.
Online Publications http://ebookarchitects.com/conversions/formats.php
Fowler, Geoffrey, and Marie Baca. “The ABCs of E-Reading.” The Geometer Plus LLC. “FBReader: Electronic Book Formats
Wall Street Journal, 25 August 2010. Accessed 25 August 2010. (supported and unsupported).” Accessed 6 September 2010. http://
http://www.online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703846604 www.fbreader.org/docs/formats.php.
575448093175758872.html. Goyal, Kovid. “Calibre User Manual.” Accessed 6 September 2010.”
Lebert, Marie. “A Short History of eBooks.” Diss.,University of http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual.
Toronto, 2009. Accessed 16 August 2010. http://www.etudes- International Digital Publishing Forum. “Specifications.” Accessed 23
francaises.net/dossiers/ebookEN.pdf. August 2010. http://www.idpf.org/specs.htm.
Lindsay, Scott. “The History of the ebook.” Articlesbase, 22 Mobipocket. “About Mobipocket.” Accessed 6 September 2010. http://
September 2008. Accessed 16 August 2010. http://www. www.mobipocket.com/en/eBooks/default.asp?Language=EN.
articlesbase.com/ebooks-articles/the-history-of-the- Redfox Technologies. “WizPad.” Accessed 23 August 2010. http://
ebook-571780.html. www.redfox.com.ph/wizpad.html
Sedycias, R. “The History and Popularity of ebooks.” Read An —. “WizLib.” Accessed 23 August 2010. http://www.redfox.com.ph/
E-Book Week, n.d. Accessed 16 August 2010. http://www. wizlib.html.
ebookweek.com/history.html. Sony Electronics Inc. “Reader Daily Edition.” Accessed 23 August
“Franklin sells interest in company, retires shares.” Philadelphia 2010. http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Produ
Business Journal, 31 March 2005. Accessed 6 September ctDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productI
2010. http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/ d=8198552921666064650#specifications.
stories/2005/03/28/daily32.html. Spring Design, Inc. “Alex Feature Overview.” Accessed 23 August
Websites 2010. https://www.springdesign.com/us/features/index.action#top.
Adobe Systems Inc. “Adobe: Adobe Acrobat Family-Portable W3C (MIT, ERCIM, Keio). “History of the World Wide Web
Document Format.” Last modified 14 July 2009. http://www. Consortium.” Accessed 23 August 2010. http://www.w3.org/
adobe.com/products/acrobat/adobepdf.html. Consortium/facts#history.
Not all e-books are the same. What sets a Vee Press e-book edition apart?
Vee Press e-book editions are
guaranteed to be fully func-
tional, with internally linked Numbered endnotes
tables of contents, endnotes, Note references are seamlessly linked
to chapter endnotes.
and properly re-formatted
graphics with anchored cap-
tions. Vee Press e-books also
feature hyperlinks to web
resources and are beautifully
designed for shifting e-book
typography. All conversions
from print are fully checked
for dead links, illogical breaks
and lapses, and other elec-
tronic irregularities.
With our instant access to
iBookstore and Amazon Kin-
dle Store, you’re just a few days
away from 24/7 worldwide
distribution.
For more information call
Ela de Leon at +632 4168460
or send an email to books@
vibalfoundation.org.