reading online @ simmons library
DESCRIPTION
Slides for How I Learned to Love Reading Online: Thursday, February 21, 1-2pm, L225, part of the Your Life at the Library series.TRANSCRIPT
How I Learned to Love Reading Online
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Beatley Library
Simmons College
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich, 1818, PD
Newsweek cover from Nov. 27, 2007
From lawgeek’s flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdawg/1300241735/), last accessed 2/18/08
Kindle details
• $399 for device• 10.3 ounces• 6 inch display• Holds “hundreds” of books• Wireless connection using 3G
network
• Supports MOBI, Microsoft Word, HTML, TXT, PRC and image files
• Newspapers, magazines, blogs, & books
• Doesn’t require a computer• Keyboard• Not backlit• OED loaded• Wikipedia• $.10 for wireless conversion• PDF??
Amazon.com’s Kindle storefront (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/133141011), last accessed 2/17/08
Sony Stats
• PRS-500 series• $299 for device• 9 ounces• 6 inch display• Internal memory holds up to 80
books• Connects to computer via UPB• BBeB Book, TXT, RTF, PDF*,
Microsoft Word • Not backlit
• No keyboard• Bookmarks• Switch Screen orientation
*PDF can be created using Acrobat Standard or need to be unencrypted
Ebookstore.sony.com, last accessed 2/17/08
Fictionwise & eBookwise
•eBookwise-1150
•$110 plus shipping
•18 ounces
•Screen the size of a paperback
•Backlit screen
•Memory: 8MB internal flash (10 books)
•Can add up to 128MB card (200 books)
•Rechargeable battery
• Rocketbook, TXT, RTF, HTML, & Microsoft Word
•Does not support PDF
Image from http:www.ebookwise.com, last accessed 2/17/08
Other readers available
UBIT’s walkbook•Supports: PDF, TXT, DOC, HTML, MP3, WOL and image files
•$310
•Istanbul, Turkey
Bookeen’s Cybook•Supports: PDF, TXT, HTML, PDB, Mobi, MP3 and image files
•$350
iRex Iliad
•Supports: PDF / HTML / TXT / JPG /
BMP/ PNG
•$699
•8.1” screen
Other “readers”?
Image from Kimbooktu (http://kimbooktu.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/bookish-wallpaper-ii/), last accessed 2/17/08
iphone
3.5 inch screen
5 hour battery life?
Not technically an ebook devices, but . . .
Textonphone.com
Image from http://www.apple.com, last accessed 2/17/08
Gphone
•Big question mark
•No delivery date
•Software only
•Ebook capabilities?
Image from Feb 18, 2008 entry at http://www.google-phone.com/, last accessed 2/17/08
OLPC
From OLPC’s site (http://laptop.org)
Other Mini PCs
Kojinsha E8 subnotebook •Windows XP•AMD Goede LX800 processor•512MB of memory•Touch screen (1024x600 resolution)•Memory card slot•USB port•3.5 hours of continuous use time •Between $529 and $635
EEE PC from Asus•Linux operating system •900 MHz Intel Mobile CPU •4 GB of solid state memory.•7-inch wide color LCD with an 800 x 480-pixel resolution •Memory card slot•3 USB 2.0 ports•3.5 hours of continuous use time•$400 at Amazon.com•Selection of colors: White, Black, Pink, Blue, & Green
http://www.arbus.com. Last accessed 2/19/08http://aving.net/usa/news/default.asp, last accessed 2/19/08
Polymer Vision’s Readius
Image from 1/22/09 Wired blogs(http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/readius-ebook-p.html_, last accessed 2/17/08
Polymer Vision’s Readius
Good News• Cell phone & ebook
reader
• 5” Flexible screen
• Download content wihtout USB
Bad News• Tri-band phone
• For European market only
• Release?
Where’s the content?
Image from http://www.lightupyourworld.nl/en/index_en.html,
last accessed 2/17/08
http://books.google.com, last accessed 2/17/08
http://search.live.com, last accessed 2/17/08
http://www.archive.org/details/texts, last accessed 2/17/08
http://www.gutenberg.org/, last accessed 2/17/08
http://www.dailylit.com/, last accessed 2/17/08
http://www.the-future-of-ideas.comhttp://www2.oprah.com http://craphound.com/down/