Over the last year, Apple’s long-awaited foray into the tablet PC market has been very successful. One of the many anticipated uses of the iPad has been as an e-book reader. Comparing a multi-function LCD computer to a purpose built E Ink reader is, well, Apples to Oranges. However, the iPad does present some unique advantages that someone shopping for an e-book reader should consider.

First among the iPad’s advantages is it’s multi-function abilities. Apple launched the iPad and at the same time premiered their own online bookstore. This bookstore has yet to feature the sheer volume of titles that Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble make available. Also, independent offerings to its bookstore face the same strict review process that iPhone apps go through. However, there is a way around this. All one needs to do is go to the App Store and download the iPad optimized versions of the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook apps. These apps will allow users to access their purchases right on the iPad. By having the ability to run these programs, ipad owners have access to just about anything that’s available digitally.

And if this isn’t enough for you, there’s all the other things the iPad does awesome. However, that’s where it’s appeal as a dedicated reader starts to taper off. With all the added functionality comes more complications and greater cost. The base 16GB iPad with WiFi only costs $499, and the price ranges all the way up to $829 for a 64GB model with 3G and WiFi. In comparison, the top of the line Kindle DX and Barnes and Noble Nook Color retail at $379 and $249 respectively. If the high initial cost is already causing concern, you’d do well to avoid getting the 3G equipped model. Where Kindles feature free 3G data access, 3G iPads require monthly subscriptions via AT&T. Prices range up to $25 per month, with a maximum download of 2GB per month. Other drawbacks include shorter battery life, trouble viewing in direct sunlight, and increased eye-strain over time.

The smart consumer should really weigh their options when considering an e-book reader. The iPad might not be right for a person looking for a dedicated reader that they will use to read a large volume of text on over a regular basis. There are much better options for that purpose which cost a great deal less. Ideally, a person would choose the iPad if they were already in the market for a multifunction device, had a small to moderate sized reading habit, didn’t mind the higher costs, and was rarely far form an external power source. That end-user would see the value in the iPad as an e-book reader to eliminate the need to buy a dedicated reader.

It seems like the whole world and his dog are looking to buy an ebook reader. More and more are hitting the stores and it is becoming a increasingly difficult job for ebook reader reviews to keep up with the constant changes.

Take for example the inclusion, by some manufacturers anyway, of what seems to be the new standard file format in e-publishing. “Why?” you may ask, “does it matter what format I buy my ebooks in, surely I can read them all.” The short answer to that question is a resounding NO!

Let’s take a look at the most popular file formats used by ebook publishers, explain a little about them and see why it does matter which formats the ebook reader device you choose to purchase supports.

The Original Sony eBook Reader (.LRF)

The first Sony devices, models like the prs-505 and prs-700, catered only for their own proprietary format. Books purchased from their site could be used on their device but books purchased from say Amazon could not be read. Yes, they do have a lot of titles but the practice of companies publishing in their own proprietary file format was and still is extremely restrictive.

The Kindle eBook Reader (.AZW)

Much the same as Sony, Amazon Kindle also decided to go down the road of proprietary file formats, at least to some extent. Electronic books sold on Amazon’s online book store are available in the.AZW format which can only be read on the Kindle.

The Mobipocket (.MOBI)

Unlike the above two examples, this format was developed not for any particular ebook reader but for a software. The Mobipocket software is freely available for download and can be distributed by manufacturers along with their books. This makes the format versatile for publishers and readers alike. It was one talked about as being the file format of the future for e-publishing such was its effectiveness at down scaling text to smaller, differing screen sizes.

The Adobe Reader (.PDF)

Probably the best known of all the text/image file formats. Anyone with a PC or laptop will have used this format in the past, it is pre loaded on to many, if not all modern machines. This was also seen by many, in ebook reader reviews, as the natural standard file format for e-publishing as it was a stable text based format. It has to be pointed out though, the Adobe.pdf format does work great on computer screens, giving a clear, crisp facsimile of text, but the clarity suffers when it tries to reduce the image to fit the small screens that most ebook readers employ.

The EPUB Format (.epub)

This relatively new format is open standard and free. It’s lightweight, which suites such small devices like ebook readers, and it automatically, or more to the point, successfully resizes text to the screen size of every device. It is becoming available on more and more ebook readers, is being used by digital libraries for electronic books you can borrow and recently received the backing of the influential internet giant, Google. They intend to release all their one million plus public domain ebook collection in this format. That’s as good as them saying this is the e-publishing standard, as using this format would not tie their library of books to any one device.

There are then the “normal” file formats such as.rtf,.txt and.doc which we are more familiar with. These let you read popular text based documents but are more for documents from your computer than electronic books.

Last year, there were more sales for e-books than printed books. On March 5 this year, Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest chain of bookstores, acquired online e-book vendor, Fictionwise. President of BN, William J Linch said: “The market hasn’t been that developed to date. We think it’s a big growth area going forward.”

Many people like to purchase and read e-books and e-magazines through lightweight handheld readers today. Several companies have come up with innovative, standalone e-book readers, such as Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Hanlin eReader (aka Endless Ideas BeBook), etc; these thin elegant gadgets can take people back to the era of reading. Let’s have a look at some of these readers in this article.

E-books and E-magazines: How Do They Work?

E-books can be of two types: those which can be read on a computer and those which require special devices to read. There are several formats for e-books including Adobe PDF, Microsoft LIT, Palm PDB, etc. In order to buy an e-book, you go to the online vendor of the e-book, pay and register your reader for DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection, and download the e-book to the registered reader. Since only the registered e-book reader can read this e-book, the author and the publisher are protected from piracy. Digital copying is not possible with DRM protection.

Popular E-book Readers

There are many reading devices available in the market, and most of them work with electronic paper technology by E Ink Corporation.

In 2008, an Apple iPhone app for reading e-books in iPhone had a surge of sales (even more than the sales total of Amazon Kindle). This made iPhone one of the popular devices to read e-books. But in this article, we will be looking only at specialized e-book readers.

1. Amazon Kindle

Perhaps the most popular of e-book readers, Amazon Kindle had a sales total of 380,000 units in 2008 in the US alone. Kindle is now in the next generation with the advent of Amazon Kindle 2 and Kindle DX this year (DX is already out of stock). K-DX offers native PDF support, has an iPhone-like accelerometer that changes the orientation of the screen when you rotate the Reader and is more suitable for reading electronic versions of newspapers, magazines, and formatted books. With the ability to keep thousands of e-books in storage and easy access to the online Amazon e-book store, Kindle is perhaps the first choice of anyone looking for a standalone e-book reader.

The display is like normal paper and easy to read. Kindle has wireless capabilities to access the online book store and magazine store of Amazon. Kindle 2 has a 600 x 800 (6 inch) display. It can receive books through the high-speed Sprint 3G network, nationally available. Supported formats include the Amazon proprietary format, AZW (DRM-restricted), PRC, TXT, and PDF (some of these formats may need to be converted to AZW).

2. Sony Reader

Sony Digital Book Reader is the popular e-book reader from Sony, and there have been already three editions of this-PRS-500, PRS-505, and PRS-700.

The reader has a 600 x 800 pixel electronic paper display (EPD), similar to Kindle, and the display is 8-level grayscale. PRS-700 edition, unlike others, sports a touch screen. The supported e-book formats include BBeB book (from Marlin), TXT, RTF, ePub, Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word (DOC). It supports JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP for images; and MP3 and AAC for audio.

3. iRex iLiad

iRex iLiad, similar to Kindle and Sony Reader, makes use of the electronic paper display and comes at 768 x 1024 (8 inches) resolution. It has 16-level grayscale screen.

Through Wi-Fi, LAN, USB connectivity, or a network using a MyiRex account, you can transfer e-books to the reader. The supported e-book formats include Adobe PDF, MOBI, PRC, HTML, and TXT.

4. Hanlin eReader

Hanlin eReader, known in various brand names across the world, such as Endless Ideas BeBook, is a popular e-book reader. It has a 600 x 800 resolution, 4-level grayscale display. It connects through a USB port.

Unlike other readers mentioned above, this reader supports almost all popular file formats for e-books-Adobe PDF, CHM, DJVU, DOC, ePub, FB2, HTM, LIT, MOBI, PPT, PRC, RTF, TXT, WOLF. It also supports archiving formats like ZIP and RAR; image formats like BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF; and audio format, MP3.

Conclusion

Most of these e-book readers come with revolutionary E-Ink technology developed by E Ink Corporation. This is a digital paper display, which gives the experience of reading actual paper. With the storage space for thousands of e-books and ability to keep battery power for thousands of page turns or several hours, these e-book readers can be regarded as portable libraries. Since they can connect to some network to purchase and download popular fiction and non-fiction from online e-book vendors, they can provide great reading experience when you are on a long-distance journey.