Apart from the compact size, if you’re wondering what else makes it stand out among the variety of e book readers we have on the market, here you go. It is worth noting that the TrekStor Pyrus Mini takes the distinction of being one among the very few devices to venture into new territories. It utilizes an epaper screen not manufactured by E Ink, the company whose name is already synonymous with epaper screens.

trekstor-pyrus-mini-1

TrekStor

It is important to note that E Ink has pretty much maintained a monopoly in terms of monochromatic electronic ink displays. Several of the prime brands of ebook readers such as Sony, Kobos, Kindles and Nooks make use of the same kind of epaper screens from E Ink.

Well, it isn’t like the other epaper screen technologies haven’t attempted in the past to venture into the field and give competition to E Ink. One such was SiPix that came a couple of years ago but didn‘t receive a very warm reception with its screen contrast leaving users asking for more. As was expected, E Ink acquired SiPix and the deal cancelled any hopes that SiPix may have had of improvement.

Technology reinvents itself with every passing day and another epaper screen company has made its foray into the market. We are talking about Digital Ink manufactured by Guangzhou OED Technologies in China.

Let me run you through some interesting snippets on Digital Ink and provide a picture on how this novel epaper screen technology compares to E Ink. Right from the first glance, the quality of display on both look strikingly similar. While the contrast is impeccable, you can also read the Digital Ink screen perfectly fine in bright sunlight.

The resolution 800 x 600 ensures that the text appears absolutely crisp and dark just as in the case of larger screen size ebook readers. However, under highly luminous circumstances, the screen in the Digital Ink technology appears a little on the yellower side unlike the latest screen display roll out from E Ink called Pearl.

One more surprising difference between Digital Ink and E Ink technologies is that the background colour on both varies in different illumination conditions. While one may appear lighter in a certain degree of illumination, the other’s background appears darker and vice versa.

Partial page refresh is also an area where Digital Ink technology does not perform just as well. When pages are partially refreshed, there is a tendency of ghosting such that the content and images from the previous page appear faintly when you turn to the next page. Such ghosting discrepancy does not occur when the Digital Ink display is configured to refresh every page.

pyrus-mini-vs-kindle-vs-kobo-mini

After the pros and cons of the latest technology, it can be concluded that Digital Ink holds firm ground when placed next to E Ink. Considering the fact that it makes you save some dollars, Digital Ink is a good bargain for bookworms looking to buy ebook readers.

However, the arrival of Digital Ink on the market has not boiled down well with E Ink that has sued the manufacturer company Trekstor for patent infringement. The result of the proceedings will determine whether Digital Ink stays or bids adieu to the market.

No EInk? Believe it! TrekStor Pyrus Mini eBook Reader - an eBook reader article brought to you by: eBookReader.com

JetBook Color 2

Ectaco uses a different marketing approach to promote this new product. Unlike other market giants, Ectaco is targeting students and educational institutions for the promotion of the Jetbook Color 2. With this unique strategy, the company has successfully run projects in New York schools. Many schools have already started using the JetBook Color in their classrooms. The ebook reader has been carefully designed to include educational software; for example, there are specially designed programs for preparing for the SAT exam, to solve mathematics problems, spelling questions or higher level physics exercises.

Jetbook Color 2 has the same physical and hardware features of its predecessors. The major differences however, are the screen technology and the much smoother device performance. The ebook reader features a 9.7 E-Ink Triton 2 Screen having a resolution of 1600X1200 pixels. It is powered by Freescale i.MX508 800MHz with an ARM Cortex A8 CPU processor. However, the processor is not up to the device’s objective performance. It still responds quite slowly to the page turns, menu navigation and to starting programs.

The device comes with 4 GB of internal memory, which reduces to almost half because of the jam packed student and educational software on the device. But the internal memory is still pretty much enough for basic use. If more internal memory is required to keep music, books and other files, the Jetbook allows expandable memory via MicroSD card up to 32 GB. No eBook store has been offered via the device, but the users can load JPEG files for visuals as well as content in EPUB, MOBI and Adobe DRM formats. Ebooks can be accessed through library loans or other user sources. The device comes with Wi-Fi, Wacom Touchscreen, a long time battery, text-to-speech technology localizations and menus in a number of languages, scribbling and freehand writing access, dictionaries and a translator.

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Ectaco has priced this device at $499.99 but they are available on sale now through Ectaco’s own website.

David Lubinitsky, CEO, Ectaco,Inc was questioned about the user’s part in this update and he stated: “The customers always provide invaluable feedback which we often use in development. The education of America’s youth is at stake here, paying extreme attention to detail is a priority with the JetBook Color 2″.

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Even the Kindle Paperwhite, which presents a higher resolution screen, may not top the basic Kindle. Actually, the fonts on the Kindle Paperwhite are thinner and sharper. The fonts may seem dark and bold to you, but they aren’t even close to the basic Kindle.

Yes of course, with respect to Kobo’s ebook readers, they have advanced font weight settings. The Kobo Glo comes close, especially if you set the font to Caecilia and maximize weight setting. However, the text will turn rougher and fuzzier. When using Kindle, it looks a little inkier because the text is more refined and gets so in tune with the E Ink screen.

kindle-black

Last year, a basic Kindle was released and this year’s basic Kindle is no different. If you said that the fonts look exactly the same, you would have a valid pint because at a first glance there’s no difference. But a professional eye might notice that they are, in fact, not the same. There are reasons why this year’s basic Kindle appears to be the best. It is black instead of grey, which makes its font even darker. Black ebook readers, make text look darker, and even though it’s just an optical illusion, it’s a feature that thickens and darkens the fonts.

There’s even more to this. The newest basic Kindle undoubtedly has slightly darker fonts, even eliminating the optical illusion. If you compare this to the previous Kindles, you will reach the same conclusion. Indeed, the text on this year’s basic Kindle screen has slightly darker fonts. It may be due to its newer display, but it is difficult to ascertain the real reason for this new look.

If you want the best reading experience on an ebook reader, then the $69 basic Kindle could be the perfect fit for you. With the darkest and boldest fonts out there, reading has never been easier and more pleasurable. It comes with three basic fonts, but the thickest and darkest is definitely Sans Serif. As mentioned previously, this feature is quite unique, not equaled by any other device on the market, even though the Kobo ebook readers offer a memorable reading experience as well.

Best eReading Experience Offered by the New Kindle Black - an eBook reader article brought to you by: eBookReader.com

This device will be available in 1500 partner retail stores and online, at a cost of €99 ($129 USD) and it will definitely challenge the already established names on the European market: Amazon’s Kindle and the Kobo ebook reader.

Tolino Shine has a 6″ E Ink high-resolution screen with 1024 x 758 pixels and also comes with an integrated front light and an infrared touchscreen. This device contains 4GB of internal

Tolino Shine ebook reader

storage, 25GB of cloud storage and a microSD card slot, to facilitate the memory expansion.

Users can easily download ebooks through the integrated ebookstore, having access to over 300,000 products in German. Due to the inbuilt Wi-Fi, users may also download ebooks from private ebook stores. Tolino Shine supports EPUB, PDF and TXT ebooks and thus ensures a wide range of choices for content selection.

The Shine comes with an 800 MHz processor, 256 MB of RAM, 7 week battery backup and also with access to over 11,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots in Germany via Deutsche Telekom.

According to the specifications, one of the most interesting feature about this ebook reader is that it runs on Android OS. And due to that fact, users may install tons of appealing software, as well as thousands of applications. Devices that run on Android, such as the Nook Touch and Sony PRS-T1 and T2 can be hacked and then set to download and install different apps for reading digital content. This is also the case with the Tolino Shine and considering the lack of limitations usually encountered when no free Wi-Fi network is around, this device has a big pro in Internet access via the Telekom network.

In the past months, Germany has stepped up and released quite a few ebook readers and gadgetry that have been recognized as a valid attempt to compete with Amazon and Kobo. It was high time that Europe came up with some development within the gadget industry and as far as the specs show, Tolino Shine will be a decent ebook reader that can run side by side with some of the bigger players. Not just that, but the collaboration with Thalia, Weltbuild and Hugendubel expands the accessibility of Tolino users and grants access to a vast library of ebooks and apps, as well as considerable cloud storage space.

Germany Strikes Again: Tolino Shine eBook Reader - an eBook reader article brought to you by: eBookReader.com

Further, Bookeen provides a new characteristic on this generation of ebook readers. They allow all the bookstores to get linked with the device, developing a more direct relationship between ebook stores and the users. This means that all the new Bookeen partners will be allowed to integrate their content on the ebook readers – feature not used by any other company to this date.

To move forward the new deal, Bookeen has added on Thalia and Cybook devices new features like OTA firmware updates. The future expects innovative collaboration with the Thalia team including ground-breaking reading solutions, to be launched later this year.

Thalia Director Digital and Mobile, Dr Bernhard Mischke says: “Our collaboration with Bookeen enabled us to offer our customers e-reading devices of high quality. The e-reader Cybook Odyssey HD FrontLight, for example, has been a great success, especially throughout the Christmas season. Therefore, we plan to continue our cooperation as well as improving the current range of products.”

Bookeen_Odyssey_Thalia

Michael Dahan, Bookeen CEO, says: “We are delighted to be continuing our work with prestigious partners as such as Thalia and Deutsche Telekom for their e-reader solution. Since we announced our partnership with Thalia last summer, we have seen a significant success in sales of the Cybook Odyssey HD FrontLight sold by Thalia. This demonstrates that there is a strong market for e-reading in Germany and we are still continuing to position Bookeen as one of the industry leaders in Europe.”

He further added: “Thalia has clearly proven to be one of the most influential booksellers in Europe by taking a leading position in this new digital revolution. We had an amazing start to our partnership during the summer and this is a great opportunity for Bookeen to broaden this collaboration by bringing our new products and innovation to German customers by working with Thalia. By offering our new Cybook Odyssey HD FrontLight exclusively to Thalia in Germany this is clearly a key step in our partnership going forward.”

Michael Busch, Thalia CEO: “We at Thalia have a solid foundation of experience in eBooks and eReading. This expanded partnership with Bookeen, after a very successful launch in June, is therefore an important step as it brings together our common experience in this domain. Our customers will be able to discover Bookeen’s new FrontLight technology within major bookshops thanks to our expert booksellers. The rapid developments in the e-reader market as well as the increase in the distribution of eBooks justify Thalia’s strategy to invest in this sector.”

With this established partnership, Bookeen is positively positioning itself as the only European company in competition with Amazon Kindle and Kobo.

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Giants like Kobo and Barnes and Nobles announced the inclusion of the EPUB3 format as standard in their ebook readers, tablets and apps. But without publishing the content which is viable for multimedia elements that EPUB3 offers, there is no point in making this format the default.

There is only one publisher, namely Hachette, who has announced its commitment to publish content fit for the EPUB3 format. The COO of Hachette, Ken Michaels said: “HBG’s goal is to get our authors’ works out to consumers as broadly as possible, with the most engaging experience for readers regardless of device or platform, along with high quality aesthetics and entertainment. To do this in a world of rapid technological change, the industry needs standards like EPUB3 that enable a wider range of publishing creativity in handling complex layouts, rich media and interactivity capabilities. This EPUB3 release is an exciting step forward in our publishing program and will greatly benefit our readers as the industry fully recognizes the potential and fully adopts this important standard.”

In the opinion of SPI Global and major technology developers, the EPUB format is on the path of extinction, especially when tablet reading has become hugely popular. But Book Industry Group Study and IDPF constantly push for a brighter future of EPUB.

bookeen-cybook-odyssey-hd-frontlight

EPUB3 is quite limited at this time, as most online readers do not support the format. Apart from Apple that provides the best support features for EPUB3, all major companies such as Amazon, Kobo and Barnes and Noble have not adopted EPUB in their operating systems and apps. The dilemma is that limited apps support contents for EPUB3 formats. If publishers use this format, they will end up using lots of EPUB2 features, sidelining the true multimedia experience.

CSS3 and HTML5 are a viable alternative to EPUB3, as books can accessed online through any internet browser. It allows readers to access ebooks on MAC, PC, Android and IOS without relying on e-reading apps. Amazon and Kobo have already employed HTML5 through Kindle Cloud Reader and Kobo Cloud Reader.

While Kobo and Amazon have the largest HTML apps, their books do not support multimedia content. Publishers have yet not developed multimedia ebbooks in HTML or CSS format, making a very difficult situation as most used publishing programs are made by Adobe.

HTML5 based ebook readers have the major advantage of displaying both HTML5 and EPUB3 formats, so it is a better system to invest in. But there is no clear answer to the future of digital publishing. If there is a choice between investing in new apps or in already existing HTML format, the choice is definitely hard.

What’s the Next Level for Digital Publishing? - an eBook reader article brought to you by: eBookReader.com

open_library

The public domain ebooks are usually in EPUB format which is embedded in 95% of the ebook readers available in market. Some public domain ebooks are also available in MOBI format, which is the reader version found in Kindle. Calibre is a free program which converts one format from another without any hassle, if you happen not to find the right format of ebook.

Below there is a short list with a few places to find quite handsome ranges of public domain ebooks:

FeedBooks: The website does not require registration. You can simply navigate through the website easily by browsing the author or book names. The ebooks are in EPUB format without DRM.

Books should be Free: This website has a wide collection of free ebooks and audio books. The site is excellent to browse through genre categories, aiding a lot in finding the desired ebooks. The audio content format is MP3, usually found in most players and readers available on the market. The website provides a range of formats on each ebook. EPUB, PDA, MOBI and TXT formats are available for every ebook, meaning you won’t need to convert the format through any software.

eBooks@Adelaide: The website by University of Adelaide in Australia provides a vast collection of ebooks. Some of them are read-only while others are downloadable. The downloading formats are MOBI and EPUB and you also get “Read it later” or “print” options on the website. The website navigation is not very easy, having a blog format, but if you know what you want, it’s easier to locate through the search bar.

Project Gutenberg: Project Gutenberg is probably the most known public domain website. The huge collection of ebooks over 30,000 in number is the reason why people are so fond of this website. It is definitely a viable solution to ebook search in a number of formats.

ebook on ebook reader

MobileRead: Another excellent source of free public domain ebooks is the Mobile Read Forum Community. The forum is very effective to find and request ebooks, if they are not available. Because it is a forum community, people will help you find the required ebook. The website features all important formats and also works well with old Sony and Microsoft extensions.

Google Books: In addition to the paid Google Play Bookstore, Google also offers a stunning number of free ebooks. The online giant has partnered up with thousands of libraries around the globe to digitalize their books. This means you can download European books in any corner of the world. Google ebooks has fantastic collection for your liking, including the digitalized version of the mysterious Dead Sea Scrolls.

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The newly born ebook market is still in its evolutionary period. It is still a bit odd to think of buying ebooks from the regular grocery or stores like Walmart and Walgreens, but this is going to become a reality sooner than we expect, thanks to the new deal between Txtr, the German ebook company with backing by 3M and ReaderLink, which is a print book distributor to every retail store in the US.

walmart

ReaderLink is planning to allow individual retailers to develop their ebook stores – from their websites, rather than physically sell them through stores. They are also planning to sell the inexpensive txtr Beagle ebook readers from stores with an additional cheap tablet.

“Our hope is to have something up and running in the next six to eight months,” says David Barker, the ReaderLink President. “We can move faster than that. We’re ready to go. There’s a significant amount of showrooming that goes on. Our idea is to let retailers capture those customers.”

“This partnership opens up an entirely new sales channel for our retail partners,” he continued. “Whether they are mass merchants, warehouse clubs, grocery chains, drug stores or department stores, they can quickly and easily begin offering ebooks to their customers.”

The basic plan is to make use of txtr’s ebook library, cloud storage and any device that can function as a reader. The ebooks are available in EPUB format and come with Adobe DRM, making them readable on virtually every device available on the market, except for the Amazon Kindle.

This new deal provides retailers like Walmart and Target the grand opportunity to distribute reading content to the readers and tablets already being sold through their stores. Every retailer has the power to manage its marketing and retailing plans concerning the ebook sales, so it is on the retailers to choose their next course of action in the coming few months.

e-books

The decision will benefit the consumers more, as Barker adds: “They will have the freedom to shop for ebooks from a variety of retailers, not just one or two large players, providing them with the best possible price and selection without committing them to one retailer for all of their future purchases.”

Although this seems a fabulous idea, it looks like it will not be an easy task – to bring all retail stores in line with the idea of selling ebooks. Hard cover and digital books are completely separate entities. Selling ebooks requires technical support and knowledge that are not essential when dealing with the hard cover books. It will be interesting to see how things will turn out regarding this idea, but it won’t come as a shock if this project comes to a halt before even beginning.

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iPad vs Kindle

The most important thing to think about is the way these devices will likely be used in. Some opinions are that E Ink ebook readers are usually more suitable to read electronic books. In addition, tablet computers are considerably better on coloration as well as large-form information: journals, comics, papers, along with internet reading and PDF files. Ebook readers are also capable of accessing this material and showcasing it well, however, if talking about analyzing ebooks in particular, nothing compares to a powerful E Ink portable ebook reader, for the five reasons stated below.

1.  Much better to browse for lengthy times, much less eye strain, superior snooze: It’s a remarkably arguable matter; however, for lots of people using E Ink screens is definitely less stressful upon the vision in comparison with reading on a backlit PC tablet, particularly if browsing for a long duration. It is already being demonstrated in scientific studies that looking at the dazzling liquid crystal display before going to bed can possibly impact on relaxing routines. Even though neither of them seems to have been confirmed effectively, a very important factor that ebook readers are easier to keep up for long studying periods, considering they are definitely lighter in weight as compared to tablet PCs (such as, the particular Amazon Kindle Paperwhite weighs about half of 7″ Amazon Kindle Fire HD). Additionally, ebook readers are normally slimmer as well, which makes them easier to adjust to pants pocket or perhaps handbags.

2. Not as much disturbance: Essentially the most unappreciated issue with E Ink ebook readers is actually that they’re just a whole lot more specialized in browsing in comparison with tablet computers. Reading might be very challenging to tablet computers, as a great number of factors draw attention, such as e-mail announcements, enslaving online games, videos, text messaging, and so on. It often can be difficult to concentrate on reading, along with all the distractions.

3. Lengthier life cycle of battery, extra power efficient: One of the several important things about E Ink is definitely the product’s powerful performance. Energy is barely required to restore a web page; simply no energy levels are necessary to keep up a graphic on the particular display screen. Therefore, battery power charge on the Amazon Kindle or B&N Nook may persist varying from 1-2 months, when making use of the device for a minimum of a half-hour daily. In comparison, the majority of tablet computers have to be charged just about every five to ten hours of use.

kindle family

4. E Ink is much more visible in sunlight: the screen is definitely watchable on sunny days, whilst the Liquid crystal display in PC tablets can’t always be glare-free.

5. Easier to carry out in comparison with PC tablets: In some cases less complicated is more preferable. The majority of ebook readers comes with an easy-to-use interface, designed for both specialists and non-tech persons who would like to have the capacity to simply download and browse electronic books. Tablet computers generally have extra configurations and applications that are more difficult to install and apply.

When concerned with reading ebooks, and less interested in movies, apps and general web surfing, we recommend the ebook readers. They have been designed for showcasing electronic books and excel at that, hence the name. While there is the possibility of reading ebooks on tabs as well, they have been designed with different purposes, ereading not being a particularly favorite.

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ectaco_partner_lux

The prominent feature of this device is the built-in keyboard which is a complete QWERTY edition and surely makes typing as easy as never experienced before. The tablets on the market offer a docking port to connect an external keyboard to the tablet. But this device gives a brilliant feature of a moveable built-in keyboard which can be folded into the tablet or can be overlapped with the screen. Anyone who wants to use the touch screen can freely fold the keyboard and unfold it whenever necessary.

The tablet is very portable, having travel friendly measurements of 5.2X3.9X0.9 inches. It is aluminum based with slight design enhancements, which gives it an edge over all the other tablets in the market. The 2.5mm headphone adapter, however, is a disappointment as opposed to the 3.1mm widely used version.

The device runs on Google Android 2.3.2 which honestly seems an ancient version at this point. However, the Partner Lux features the promising Ectaco Education and Translator Software. There are different models available in different languages so you can pick up the model which fits your needs.

Another excellent feature of the device is the voice translating feature. For instance, if you speak in English, the voice converter will translate it to, say, French. If you write in English, the device will enunciate the words in French. You can also use the audio dictionary to hear words and definitions.

There are a lot of excellent educational and translation apps preloaded on the device. The Language Teacher, the Phrase Book and many others are going to relieve some of your needs, especially in language learning.

Ectaco Partner Lux

The learning experience is not as smooth as one wants. The 5 inch size is way too small for dedicated reading and the TFT screen is not as impressive as the other readers boast. The PDF documents also need to be pinched-and-zoomed harder on the rezistive touch screen, requiring lots of patience.

However, with its external and internal cons, one might defend it by saying it was designed primarily as a translator and not as a mind-blowing tablet. The reading features are quite disappointing, but there are two front facing speakers and a microphone to fill in for the language learning needs.

For the users, this device simply costs too much than most ebook readers in the market. The only case when this device is necessary, is when you want to learn a new language or for the elderly. In these situations, the easy-to-use tablet priced at $499.99 is worth its cost, as it comes with the world’s best translator and brilliant learning apps by Ectaco.

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