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Hardware devices for reading e-book data include the Rocket eBook, the SoftBook Reader, and even Newton MessagePads and PalmPilots.
I've had some experience lately with the dynamic creation and use of electronic book data for e-book readers and personal digital assistants. In a sentence, e-book technology effectively provides the means for reading electronic texts on portable devices, but the functionality of these devices is not necessarily a superset of the functionality of print on paper. The functionality and business models of e-books and traditional print media overlap.
E-Books Are Not E-Texts
First, we need a definition. E-books are not the same as e-texts. E-books connote a hardware/software combination used to read electronic data on a portable electronic device specifically designed for such purposes. Strictly speaking, e-book hardware is intended to do just one thing: read e-book data. E-book data starts its "life" as e-text, usually plain text or text marked up in HTML. Currently, there is no standard format for this data, but a standard is emerging based on HTML 3.2. The e-book data must then be converted through a softwarebased translator into a format readable and displayable by the e-book hardware.
Hardware and Software
There are a growing number of hardware devices available for reading e-book data. I have had the opportunity to evaluate NuvoMedia's Rocket eBook and Softbook Press' Softbook. And while they don't fit my strict definition of e-book hardware above, I have also explored the possibility of using Newton MessagePads and PalmPilot devices as e-book readers. Devices not covered here include desktop and portable computers, Everybook, Librius, Qubit, and Glassbook. (If you want a broad overview about e-books in general, a good Internet starting point is the Open eBook Initiative at http://www.openebook.org.)
Newton MessagePad: Apple Computer's pioneering but out-of-production Newton MessagePads continue to draw large numbers of avid users. User groups and Web pages focused on MessagePads are not difficult to find. With a minimum of moving parts, these devices consistently function properly and sell for prices equal to their original cost. They weigh about a pound and have a viewing area of 3 x 4 inches. Some versions allow the viewing area to be oriented into portrait or landscape modes.
For creating e-book data from e-texts, there are two...