Digital Reading

Nowadays, paper reading materials just don't seem to cut it. Newspapers, magazines, books and other reading materials are now all available in digital form, which a lot of people seem to start prefering over good old-fashioned paperback books. These electronic books, or "e-books" have started gaining popularity, and several big companies like Sony, Amazon and Kindle, to name a few, have designed monitors specifically for reading these digital books.

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HOW DOES IT WORK?

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• Most of the popular e-book monitors use electronic paper display which is designed to imitate ink on paper. It allows text and images to be read in direct sunlight because of its characteristic of reflecting sunlight instead of using a backlight to project text or images on the screen. The monitors simulate the experience of reading a real paperback book, but on portable digital monitor that can store several titles at once, depending on the monitor's storage capacity.
• E-books that come in different formats (e.g. .txt, .html, .azw, .opf, etc.) can only be read based on the operating system/specifications of each particular e-book monitor model. This is believed to be a disadvantage of some e-book monitors as not all formats are supported by each model.

WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT?

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• Monitors that use flat panel display are difficult to use in direct sunlight because of its contrast with the monitor’s backlight. Since e-book monitors use supercool technology, they can be easily read in the day time, just like real books.
• However, unlike digital paper, the electronic paper display of e-book monitors don’t usually allow the creation of written documents.
  
• Smartphones (and basically all computers) offer the same features as e-books and more. So why bother dishing out an extra $250+++ for an extra monitor?
  

EXTRA FEATURES

• Some of the more expensive models are similar to mp3 players as they can play audio files.
• Some e-books like the Ectaco Jetbook are capable of translating e-books into different languages with the use of pre-existing translating dictionaries.
• Some e-book readers can also be used as image viewers.
• Other e-books allow certain documents to be edited.
• Some companies are set to come out with foldable models of e-book monitors