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Today you can find E-book readers of all shapes and sizes and at prices to suit all wallets (almost, prices could come down a bit more). The graphic below shows a comparison of the popular models that are available on the market today.

E-Book Reader Matrix

This matrix was created from manufacturer information and from data on a more comprehensive matrix at the MobileRead Wiki. I have largely concentrated on what I feel are the most important parameters for comparison.  If you want a more comprehensive view, you can see the original matrix here.
There are a few alternatives to using a dedicated E-book reader device. If you already own an iPhone or an iPod touch, you can read e-books on your device by installing third party applications. Lexcycle’s Stanza is a popular free e-book reader solution for the iPhone or iPod. Stanza supports ePUB, MS LIT, AZW (Kindle’s format), MobiPocket, PalmDoc, HTML, PDF, TXT, DOC and RTF, which means you are pretty much covered as far as content is concerned. The only drawback I feel, is that you have to put up with the iPhone’s much smaller 3.5” screen.
Another alternative is to use your netbook as an e-book reader by using software like Stanza Desktop. With netbooks costing as much as the entry level E-book reader (in the $250-$400 range), I think they present a great alternative to the e-book reader. However, their LCD screens may cause eye strain in the long run and the battery life definitely won’t reach that of e-book readers. Still considering that your average netbook can still do a lot more than even the most sophisticated e-book reader, I’d say they are a good alternative.
In the next article, I’ll look at the various factors to consider when deciding on an e-book reader.

In this part of the series on E-book readers, I’ll take a peek behind the screen and try and show what makes an E-book reader tick. I’ll also look at the common specifications that most e-book readers have. I’ll be concentrating on E-ink based e-book readers, because these seem to be the most dominant form of e-book reader devices today.

The Screen

Most E-book readers today use an e-ink display screen. Sounds really high tech right? Well, it is. I’ll try and explain how e-ink works.

An e-ink display basically consists of material called “electronic ink” which is printed onto a thin sheet of plastic. “Electronic ink” or e-ink consists of millions of micro capsules which have colored chips that may be black or white in color. Each color responds to electricity in a different manner. Let’s assume that the white chips respond to a positive charge and the black chips respond to a negative charge. Now when an positive charge is applied to a micro capsule this causes the white chips to rise up to the top of the capsule, while the black chips sink to the bottom. This makes the capsule appear white. When a negative charge is applied, the capsule appears black through a similar process.
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I’ve been fascinated by e-book reader devices, ever since I first saw a review for one of these devices, way back in 1998. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be presenting a look at the wonderful world of e-book readers in a 5 part series of articles.

What is an E-book reader?

The term e-book reader can refer to both software used to read electronic books or e-books to dedicated hardware devices for reading e-books. I will be largely focusing on the dedicated hardware devices for reading e-books and not on the software used. The evolution of the software and file formats used for e-books is in itself equally interesting and deserves much more attention.
In its simplest form an e-book reader had a screen for displaying the text of the e-book, buttons to move forward, backward in the book and to access device functions. To a large extent this basic design is still seen in most e-books today, though gradually touch screens where gestures achieve the same function as buttons, seem to be catching on.
I will touch on the specific technology that goes into making e-books a bit later. For now, let’s look at the interesting history of e-book reader devices.

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