E-book readers began creeping into the market just before the dawn of the new millennium and their popularity has increased ever since. The smell of a new book and rustle of its paper beneath ones fingers are the charms of traditional reading but sometimes, the nearby bookstores just don’t have what you’re looking for. Online stores take ages to deliver the real thing and sometimes e-books are the only solution for the impatient bibliophile. Worming through chapters of a book displayed on the glaring white screen of a computer robs reading of half its pleasure. This is why e-reader devices are so great. You can curl up and read off a non-glaring, papery texture quite comfortably and download content with great ease. Let’s go over some of the best devices this year has to offer.

(i) Amazon kindleDX
Successor of the successful, the DX tops kindle 2 with its larger (9.7”) screen, rotating display, massive storage capacity, native PDF support and of course, its price. 3G wireless technology delivers books from the Kindle store, newspapers and magazines subscribed to right into your hands. Personal files might have to go through Amazon’s hands to reach your DX through an email system or you can just drag-drop supported formats (.AZW .AZW1 .TXT .MOBI .PRC) when the device goes into USB mode. The official kindleDX website on Amazon has thousands of words on the product; if you want to look a closer look at all its features.

(ii) BeBook 2
The new BeBook’s revamped hardware (they included a touchscreen too!) has to be what raises eyebrows because the only other sensation it creates is curiosity since it isn’t out on the market yet. The original device was wonderfully flexible though. The internal memory might only be a third of what the kindleDX has to offer, but BeBook gives you the option of storing reading material on memory cards too. It supports a wider range of file formats than the kindle and also has no shopping restrictions. You can download e-books (even free ones) from anywhere. The new device can only improve on what already exists. I’m anxious to try it out.


There’s plenty of software out there that allows you to read ebooks on alternative devices such as iPods and Smartphones. Mobipocket and eReader are two of the more popular ones; but no matter how good the software is, your reading experience will only be as good as the handheld device. iPod screens are small and annoying and like smartphones, they’re prone to flash you with reflected glares. Your other options for reading e-books are stiff seating sessions in front of a computer screen or squinting your way through an entire novel on a phone, even with the adjustable text size.

The $300+ pricing of e-book readers put them in the category of luxury items but they’re well worth the cost. The read-aloud feature lets devices such as the kindle and BeBook put the kids to sleep while you attend to other matters while built in mp3 players provide background music for those who like that sort of thing. These gadgets can hold en entire library of paperbacks, yet only tax you with the comfortable weight of a single book. They are compelling buys for gadget enthusiasts that enjoy reading.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 4:17 am and is filed under Gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.