An eReader is a mobile device about the size of a tablet that lets you read digital newspapers, magazines and ebooks stored in the cloud. You can then access their online store for downloading ebooks without connecting the device to a computer. Some eReaders do offer web browsing and colour, but screen resolution is lower than on tablets. Amazon Kindle is the most popular eReader worldwide. There are over 1 million titles and thousands of audiobooks to purchase from the Kindle store, with some titles also available free.
Rakuten Kobo has over 5 million ebooks and magazines to choose from their ebookstore. The open platform supports a variety of platforms allowing you to purchase from many sources. Before getting started, make sure you are connected to the internet, and check that your preferred credit card supplied when registering an account , is still within expiry. If you intend to borrow ebooks from your local library, and you haven't purchased an eReader yet, check with them before you do to see which format of ebook they have.
This could help you decide which one to get. You can download ebooks directly to your laptop and use it like an eReader. You can also transfer ebooks back and forth between your laptop and an eReader. Or read online wherever you can access a Wi-Fi network. A single charge lasts up to several weeks depending on wireless usage. Reduce your battery drainage by switching Bluetooth off and adjusting down the light setting. Contact us to get in touch with the experts at Telstra Platinum.
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Find out more. More Platinum Articles. Skip to main content. Telstra Home Page. Screen refreshing over the years has been improved over the years with the advent of waveform controllers.
E Ink Regal Waveform Controller is the most popular and Regal virtually eliminates the need for a full refresh, giving the viewer smoother viewing transitions and prevents ghosting. There are no technical details on how Regal works and this is by design, Regal and the other waveforms on the market are a closely guarded secret that is not shared with anyone, except under an NDA. In order to understand how they work, you need to understand what an E Ink screen does and how waveforms effect it.
An E INK display is a fairly weird beast, mainly because of how it works. This shift register has two bits per pixel, to select if a pixel should go black, go white or stay the same.
Because the display works with electrophoretic ink particles, it needs a fairly high voltage to attract and repel them. The display also needs a standard 3. On a programming level in order to go from white to black, it can be accomplished in 4 clock cycles in the form of 0b10 0b01 0b01 0b01, to go from grey to darker grey, the table can be something like 0b01 0b01 0b10 0b01, etc it is an example, in general it is about 20 or 40 cycles.
How can e-readers be improved to be faster and more robust? I believe most companies such as Kindle, Kobo and Nook need to all employ Freescale IMX 7 dual core, single core processors are too slow and sluggish. Solid State drives also should be utilized instead of SD cards to improve performance. More RAM would also be a welcome change. Color E-Paper is an absolute game changer and will encourage people to upgrade, but mainstream adoption is still a year or two away.
Michael Kozlowski Editor in Chief Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past twelve years. Michael Kozlowski Editor in Chief. Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past twelve years. Share Tweet 5. X Close. For the younger audience, the company also promotes Vocabulary Builder, which saves a list of the words children look up, and Word Wise, which shows definitions of difficult words as kids read.
Both of these features are available on other Kindles as well. Amazon's Parent Dashboard lets parents control features on Kindle readers and Kindle Fire tablets, such as setting time limits, an age filter, whether or not they can use Alexa or a web browser, and more.
All Kindle readers have the same basic e-book functionality, but the more upscale models have other features readers may enjoy.
The Paperwhite and Oasis have higher-resolution displays ppi versus ppi. The Oasis's screen is 1 inch bigger, at 7 inches. If you want to use Amazon's cellular service, you'll need to pick up a Paperwhite or an Oasis. If you think your Kindle may get wet at the pool, in the tub or at the beach, you also need one of those two models.
The Oasis differs from the Paperwhite in some subtle ways — you can adjust the warmth of the light, its light sensors automatically adjust to your environment, it automatically rotates the page when you rotate the device, and it has the two page-turn buttons on the front. The Oasis is just a little larger, designed to be held on the side, unlike the others which must be held by the sides or from behind.
If you order the Kindle directly from Amazon, it will come preregistered to your Amazon account, but if you pick one up at your local store, you will need to register your Kindle to download and sync your e-books. The Amazon Kindle gives you wireless access to an electronic store that includes millions of books, newspapers and magazines.
Amazon provides wireless service without a monthly subscription fee on some devices — you just have to pay a little more upon purchase of the device. The cellular devices also allow for WiFi access to the e-book store but the non-cellular devices are WiFi-only. The Kindle allows you to buy books directly from the device. Alternately, you can browse books in the Kindle store using your computer's web browser and purchase them from your computer.
Amazon will send the electronic books directly to your device. Amazon maintains a subscription service called Kindle Unlimited. Despite its name, however, Amazon Unlimited does not include most of Amazon's electronic titles. Amazon claims the service has more than 1 million e-books. As part of its Prime subscription, Amazon also offers Prime Reading. The service is similar to Kindle Unlimited, but while you do not have to have a Prime account to use Kindle Unlimited, an account includes access to a rotating catalog of e-books and audiobooks and one free pre-release e-book chosen from a list of editors' favorites.
Prime Reading includes magazines and comic books, but you may prefer to use a computer or a tablet like the Kindle Fire series to enjoy books in color.
These files include digital rights management DRM that prevents you from sharing your files with other users. Kindles can handle Audible files. Amazon also can convert several other types of files into the AZW format so that the Kindle can read them. These file types include:. Each Kindle has a unique email address. You can send compatible files to your Kindle by e-mailing them as an attachment to this address. You can also connect your Kindle to a computer with the USB cord to transfer files.
Every purchase you make from Amazon goes into a special folder called your library. Amazon uses a cloud storage model where the file lives on one of Amazon's computer servers.
That means even if you delete a book from your Kindle to conserve space, the record of your purchase will still exist on Amazon's servers. You can download the book again to your Kindle for no additional charge. There are also free Kindle reading apps for many devices, including iPhone, iPad, Android devices and Mac and Windows-based computers, so that you can buy and read Kindle books without purchasing a Kindle.
One advantage to all the available apps is that you can partake of Amazon's Whispersync technology, which synchronizes the last page you read on one device across all your Kindle readers, including your physical Kindle if you have one or more, so that you can read on multiple devices without losing your page when you switch.
There are also libraries of free e-books available online, many of which are in the public domain. And some public libraries even let you check out e-books and read them with your Kindle. What if you've lost your Kindle, or some unscrupulous person has taken a kindled interest in it and stolen it from you? You should go to your Amazon profile and deregister your Kindle as soon as possible. Otherwise, the thief may use your Kindle to download a library of books on your dime.
While some critics said the price tag was too high, the demand for the Kindle soon depleted Amazon 's stock of the device. He claimed that the company sold out of its stock in less than six hours. Some web journalists and bloggers suggested that Bezos' goal wasn't to offer a sincere apology — it was to drive up more interest for the device. Amazon didn't release sales numbers to the public, leaving many to question exactly how popular the device was.
Amazon got a huge publicity boost in October when Oprah Winfrey named the Kindle as her favorite gadget. Oprah devoted most of an episode of her show to promoting the Kindle. She invited Jeff Bezos to the show to talk about the device, explaining its features to her audience.
Oprah also announced an electronic coupon for the device. Kindle readers usually rank at the top in journalists' lists of best readers. Amazon's advantages help fuel this, especially against other companies with similarly equipped e-readers.
But the company hasn't been free of criticism, and the integrated bookstore is often a topic of complaint. Electronic copies of books sometimes cost about as much as physical copies, something that seems unfair to some people. Unlike a physical book, there are very few production and distribution costs associated with an electronic file. Amazon also got into hot water when it remotely deleted copies of George Orwell's "" and "Animal Farm" stored on customers' Kindles. It turns out the publisher that made the books available didn't have the proper rights.
Amazon credited customers the money they spent on the books and apologized for the situation. The incident brought to light a potential problem with electronic copies of books — a gray area for consumers when it comes to owning digital information.
Turns out these companies doesn't own these e-books, they license them. If something happened to the company you bought these books from, the content would no longer be available to you. You also can't read an e-book you bought via Amazon Kindle on a rival e-reader like Nook [source: Warner ]. In , Amazon was accused of terminating a woman's account and deleting the books from her device, stating that her account was linked to another that had abused its policies.
The company didn't provide much information and gave no recourse for resolution. While this is one isolated incident, it has prompted renewed concern about digital rights management DRM [sources: Aguilar , Mosbergen ]. But despite criticisms, the Kindle certainly has appeal. Amazon reported in May that e-book sales were surpassing physical book sales on its U. As of , Kindles enjoyed 72 percent of the market in the U.
But sales of e-books overall dipped in the s , only to be revived during the COVID pandemic when bookstores were closed. Libraries were also closed, and e-book borrowing skyrocketed. E-books are still behind print in terms of revenue , but it's clear that publishing companies and self-publishers aren't going to quit anytime soon.
And the pandemic also gave e-publishing a shot in the arm. When all is said and done, e-books may not obliterate print books, but they're here to stay. And so is Kindle. HowStuffWorks earns a small affiliate commission when you purchase through links on our site.
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