Textbooks via Ebooks for universities

With the announcement that universities in the US are looking to distribute textbooks via e-books rather than the tower of paper we were all used to, is it time for the e-book to make its way into the mainstream?

But who are the runners and riders, what does the future hold, and it is the end of the paperback as we know it? Let's quickly look at what an e-book is before we go on to see which e-books are leading the pack in the market. All the devices here use a technology called E Ink. E Ink is a type of electronic paper manufactured by E Ink Corporation.

Basically electronic ink displays are made up of millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. Each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule to become visible to the reader. This makes the surface appear white at that spot.

At the same time, an opposite electric field pulls the black particles to the bottom of the microcapsules where they are hidden. By reversing this process, the black particles appear at the top of the capsule, which now makes the surface appear dark at that spot. To form an E Ink electronic display, the ink is printed onto a sheet of plastic film that is laminated to a layer of circuitry. The circuitry forms a pattern of pixels that can then be controlled by a display driver. This in the real world means a number of things, but most importantly that you don't get the glare normally associated with LCD displays, and additionally battery power is only needed to change the microcapsules on the display you can achieve greater battery efficiency.

So what are the players (or should I say readers) in the market?

The Sony Reader Digital Book .

The iRex iLiad reader

The Bookeen Cybook Gen3

The Kindle

The Readius

The HP e-book reader

Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/ - See that post with different algorithms in metabole - See the journal French Metablog with today different posts - Jean-Philippe Pastor

Multipurpose devices

Most people will have a reading system for ebooks already, be it a PDA, Pocket PC, Tablet PC or even a subnotebook.

Usually when I mention cost as an advantage of ebooks over print, people counter by claiming that ebooks can't possibly be cheaper when you have to spend hundreds of dollars on a reader. Only I don't think you do have spend hundreds of dollars on a reader. I've made no secret of the fact that I think dedicated readers are a dumb idea, that ebooks can and should be read on multipurpose devices. I've also mentioned that I believe PDAs or Pocket PCs will be as ubiquitous as pagers and cell phones in the very near future. The Franklin eBookMan contains basic PIM functionality and an API for programmers as well as the ability to read PalmDoc, Microsoft Reader and even play Audible books, all in a package starting well under $200. Palm and Handspring both have quite capable PDAs capable of reading ebooks for $150.

These devices will become commonplace, and if you've already got the device anyway, then an ebook (or twenty) weighs nothing, takes up no space, and costs no more than the price of that individual title.

Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/ - See that post with different algorithms in metabole - See the journal French Metablog with today different posts.