 |
| Touch Screen Sony Reader |
Want to go on an ebook-reading marathon for two weeks? You don’t need an iPad. All you need is a decent touch screen ebook reader. They can last more than 10 days (not just 10 hours) and, thanks to e-ink technology, so will your eyes.
E-ink displays, which most of these ebook readers use, consume less power, are less susceptible to glare, are less strenuous to the eyes, and most of all, cost much less than even the most basic iPad.
Now, why did I have to zoom in on touchscreen versions of these handheld devices? That would certainly leave the numero uno ebook reader on the market today - Amazon’s Kindle - out of the picture. Because I find clicking buttons so outdated and flicking through virtual pages with fingers so cool.
And thanks to innovative technologies like the zForce touch screen, a fast touch interface on an e-ink display is now possible.
You know what else most of them have in common aside from the e-ink display? - a Linux-based OS.
Onyx’s Boox 60, iRex’s Digital Reader 800, Condor’s eGriver Touch, Spring Design’s Alex, and, most likely, Sony’s Readers - all these touch screen ebook readers, which are all slated for release no later than this year, run on Linux.
Even their earliest predecessors, which were launched some time in the middle of this decade, were powered by some kind of embedded Linux. Many of the later generations actually ran on Android, just like all those smartphones, but, as we all know, that OS also has Linux origins.
I’m not 100% sure about the latest Sony Readers, but their immediate predecessors used to run on Monta Vista Linux. Still, even without them, more than half of touch screen ebook readers use a Linux OS. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_readers)
E-ink displays, which most of these ebook readers use, consume less power, are less susceptible to glare, are less strenuous to the eyes, and most of all, cost much less than even the most basic iPad.
Now, why did I have to zoom in on touchscreen versions of these handheld devices? That would certainly leave the numero uno ebook reader on the market today - Amazon’s Kindle - out of the picture. Because I find clicking buttons so outdated and flicking through virtual pages with fingers so cool.
And thanks to innovative technologies like the zForce touch screen, a fast touch interface on an e-ink display is now possible.
You know what else most of them have in common aside from the e-ink display? - a Linux-based OS.
Onyx’s Boox 60, iRex’s Digital Reader 800, Condor’s eGriver Touch, Spring Design’s Alex, and, most likely, Sony’s Readers - all these touch screen ebook readers, which are all slated for release no later than this year, run on Linux.
Even their earliest predecessors, which were launched some time in the middle of this decade, were powered by some kind of embedded Linux. Many of the later generations actually ran on Android, just like all those smartphones, but, as we all know, that OS also has Linux origins.
I’m not 100% sure about the latest Sony Readers, but their immediate predecessors used to run on Monta Vista Linux. Still, even without them, more than half of touch screen ebook readers use a Linux OS. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_readers)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment