Last year, Amazon made headlines with their release of the Kindle, a new generation of portable e-reader that uses E ink, a low power display technology that mimics the look of a printed page. The screen isn’t backlit like a computer display.
Since that time, interest has grown in the Kindle and similar offerings from Sony and we’re seeing a new generation of devices that add functionality, increased screen size, and partnerships with publishers to provide content for the devices. Some are predicting that the hot electronics item this holiday season will be the e-reader.
Sony is offering three models this year. The Reader Touch Edition is a thin, touch screen version of the device selling for $299. An included stylus can be used for highlighting and annotation on the 6″ screen. The Reader Pocket Edition, priced at $199, has a 5″ display and is a kind of “entry level” model. Due for release sometime in the next couple of months is the Sony Reader Daily Edition, which includes a 7″ touch screen display and adds wireless capability, mainly aimed at downloading news content.
The most well publicized and largest selling e-reader to date is the Amazon Kindle. The Kindle is notable for being a wireless device, which operates independently from your computer – you browse for content at Amazon’s e-book store and download material directly using a wireless technology that uses a cell phone network. If you want to read your own documents – PDF files or Word documents, for example – you email them to a special address and they are converted and downloaded to your Kindle for a small fee. The cost of wireless access is hidden in the cost of a book or document conversion.
The Kindle is available in two models. The Kindle DX, selling for $489, features a 9.7″ screen while the latest version of their entry level device with a 6″ screen sells for $299. The Kindle allows for annotations using a small keypad on the device.
Philips is introducing a new version of their iRex Reader, the DR 800 SG, in October. Priced at $399 and featuring a 8.1″ screen, it includes a stylus that can be used for adding annotations. The iRex is wireless using cellular network technology similar to the Kindle. For content, Philips is partnering with Barnes and Noble for e-book offerings.
Just announced is an offering from Barnes and Noble – the Nook. This e-reader has some features in common with the Kindle – access to a large library of titles for purchase through their bookstore, availability of subscriptions to newspapers and magazines, and wireless connectivity. The Nook also includes a touch sensitive color lcd screen along the bottom of the device that can be used for controlling options, selecting books, or entering notes with an online keyboard. One distinctive feature of the device lets you “check out” books to friends using a Nook.
There are two clear models that have emerged for content on e-readers. Amazon’s using a “closed” system – you can only download books from Amazon’s site and have to do a conversion to get other documents on the reader. All of the Sony models and the iRex support EPUB, an open format for digital books, so you can download books from independent authors and publishers or public domain material from Google Books. You can also create your own EPUB formatted documents with several online or desktop tools and EPUB files can also be viewed in e-reader software on other devices – laptops, netbooks, or even the iPhone.
Both Sony and Amazon offer programs for authors to self publish. Sony has a partnership with Smashwords while Amazon’s service is called the Digital Text Platform.
For faculty that are interested in using electronic books in the classroom, the main issues with ereaders are availability of content applicable to your course and whether your students have an e-reader or other device capable of displaying the file.. Both the Amazon and Sony e-book stores concentrate on current best-sellers and older catalogue titles in the areas of genre fiction, business, popular history and hobbies. Some textbooks are available for both devices.
The market for e-readers and e-books is small, but growing. Faculty that use primarily public domain texts or assemble a textbook and readings from documents available on the Web might find the use of PDF and EPUB files useful in courses – both formats can be viewed on a wide range of devices including e-readers, laptops and mobile phones.
Through our exploratory equipment loaner program, the CIT has an original Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle that can be checked out by faculty.
Thanks for this great article Randy. I personally love reading books on my iPhone. I wasn’t sure when I started if I would like it, but after one book, I am hooked. I always have it with me and read a little bit of Louis L’Amour almost every night. 🙂 It is small and easy to read and navigate. It is perfect for me.
I think that from the student perspective this is where we are going to see the largest adoption as well. They don’t want another device to carry around. But so much is dependent on what phone they have.
Princeton recently conducted a Kindle pilot. According to an article yesterday in the Daily Princetonian, the e-reader did not fare well in an academic setting.
One student said:
“Much of my learning comes from a physical interaction with the text: bookmarks, highlights, page-tearing, sticky notes and other marks representing the importance of certain passages — not to mention margin notes, where most of my paper ideas come from and interaction with the material occurs. All these things have been lost, and if not lost they’re too slow to keep up with my thinking, and the ‘features’ have been rendered useless.”
The article also mentioned that the absence of page numbers in the Kindle makes it more difficult for students to cite sources consistently.
To read the full article: https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/09/28/23918/
On the surface, e-readers seem to be the perfect solution to cut down on the number of physical books that have to be printed and carried around by students. Text is text, right? A textbook doesn’t have any interactive features, e-readers don’t have to either, right? Apparently, Princeton students who were involved with this pilot have answered both of those questions with a “wrong.”
The upgrades required to make e-readers more flexible and interactive seem feasible to me. Maybe one day e-readers will replace textbooks. But, for now, it seems that adoption is not the problem, the products are.