Bob Browning's blog

There is a lot of activity on the ebook front.  If you have not been following these developments, drop by your local Waterstones and try out a Sony ebook.  You load up your book(s) and read on a screen, surprising like reading words on paper.

These gadgets use different technology for the screen. These (Electronic paper) screens have two really useful properties.

1. You read them using ambient light rather than being back-lit which is much easier on the eye.
2. They only use power when the screen changes, ideal for reading.  Power consumption is minute.

You can carry a whole library around in a gadget about the size of a paperback.

I really like the reader gadgets, but haven’t bought one because the books I want are not all available on it, and I don’t see the sort of price break I should get for simply downloading the book (near zero cost to publisher) rather than getting a physical document from a bookshop.  If ebooks are to take off, both of these issues need addressing.

The Kindle from Amazon gets a lot of hype and is available over here now, the Sony ereader is nice and sold via Waterstones.

However in the US things move forward, and the pattern for newer gadgets is a ‘reading screen’ using electronic paper and a second LCD touch screen.  Combine the electronic paper screen with a second touch-screen and you have potentially a great gadget.  The US giant book chain Barnes and Noble has the Nook (www.nook.com). There is also the Alex from Sprint Design which has a very similar look plus the Entourage Edge.  These are all Android powered (If you have been off-planet, Android is the mobile phone operating system from Google).

The Nook and Alex both have a small LCD touch-screen below the main screen.  The Edge opens up with a reading screen on the left and touch screen on the right.  Microsoft have recently shown how powerful that format can be with the Courier prototype.

This whole area is moving fast now, and I see e-book readers moving into the netbook space and starting to run Windows or Linux with built-in internet and mobile connectivity.

Give it a year.