The Evolution of The Electronic E-book Reader
Reading has always been one of the most favorite hobbies of man. Whiling off time flipping through books, giving ignition to imagination has attracted man to no end. Even in professions like teaching or writing, books have been an integral component. In other words, reading books has been a significant part of human existence since ancient times. With the development of technology and the wide sweep of the Internet, book reading, as many other things have also gone digital. Many books have been digitized and made available online. There are also some bookstores that sell books on the Web. With the growing demand of e-books, there arose the need of a device that can aid in the reading of digital text. This is how the electronic e-book reader was born!
The Early Days
E-books have a lot of advantages over conventional paper books. Though some still hold the opinion that nothing digital can replace the smell and feel of actual books, there are a considerable number of people who are keen to adopt the latest technological advancements. The first set of digital books, or the earliest digital library per se, was Project Gutenberg which was set up in 1971. Although e-books were little known at that point in time, this set of digital books quickly caught the fascination and the curiosity of millions of readers. No wonder that Project Gutenberg is doing great business even to this day.
Slowly, as e-books started gaining popularity, people realized that this is a much easier and more convenient way of getting hold of books and reading them. Corresponding to this was the fear that it might take a heavy toll on the eyes. After all, staring at the computer screen for a long time, no matter how much technologically advanced it is, can never be good for the eyes. To solve this problem, the first electronic e-book readers were launched in 1998.
The Present and Future
Electronic e-book readers quickly became popular as these were great ways to read e-books. One of the main advantages that scored big was its portability. This hand held device can easily be carried anywhere, with a capacity to hold as many as 50-80 full length books nowadays. Followed by Sony in 2006, Philips launched its e-book reader enabled with e ink technology. Amazon Kindle, probably the most favorite e-book reader was introduced in 2007. These have the facility of copying books from your PC and at the same time download digital content from the Internet.
And now, with color e-books being produced by Fujitsu in Japan, the future of electronic e-book readers is shining bright to say the least!
