Software Apps for eReading

Third in Series

Ray Hendon

This piece of the series is meant to give you some of the last piece of information you need in order to maximize your eReading experience.  With all the options available today for someone wishing to read books and other electronic media, the time has never been better.

But, eReading is, in one sense, a fragmented industry.  Vendors have their own hardware and, to some degree, their own software.  Each has its own quirks and good points.  But, the industry is coming together much more than they have since 2006 when eReading began its serious stage.

I will cover the software and file formatting issues today.  This involves the eReading apps and file formatting more than anything else.  I hope this information will allow you to make a good choice in how you go about perusing your reading goals.

eReading began as a piece of hardware using a  new E-Ink technology for its display.  You bought a Sony Reader or an Amazon Kindle, and the software was imbedded in the package.  The vendors held their own inventories of books to sell its customers, so when you bought your eReader device, you were committed to the vendor’s library as the source of all your reading options.  Once you decided on your hardware, you were locked in to the vendor.

File Formats and Why They Are Important

The options of different eReader apps cannot be discussed without first covering the basics of file formatting.  It is important because each eReading app is made to read on the file formats which the vendor sell.  This means you cannot read a Nook eBoook on a Kindle device or eReading app from Kindle, and vice versa.

The Kindle reads Amazon’s proprietary file format (AZW), plus TXT,PDF and Mobi files.  Kindle has the ability to convert some other formats of documents into the AWZ specification.  You can, with a Kindle, convert a Word for Windows file to AWZ so you can read your Word files on your reader. 

Kindle does not, however, read or convert the ePub format. This is important because ePub  happens to be the format almost all other eReaders use.  As you would expect, none of the others eReaders can read Amazon’s AWZ files.  So, in an, important sense, the file format is a critical difference in determining what app you choose.

But, there are ways of getting around these restrictions if you are determined.  First, Independent software vendors now sell eBooks formatted in all of the popular file formats, so you have the option of receiving you new eBook in the file format of your choice.

Secondly, hardware vendors began providing free eReading apps to anyone who wants them regardless of whether they owned their hardware.  Although there is nothing altruistic in their motives, it has had a beneficial impact on our choices of reading material.  Taking these two changes together has made a huge difference in the options we have on our eReading experience.

Thanks to the free reading apps and multiplicity of eBook vendors, most any kind of format can be read on almost any laptop, desktop, or smartphone.  The entire world of eReading has opened up, although there is still much brand loyalty to one’s first purchase.

The eReader apps shown below are all available free to owners of just about any PC, tablet, laptop or Android device.  There are many other independent apps available, but I cover only the majors.  Click on the icons to go to the site.

Kobo             Sony                  Kindle             Nook

The iPad has its own free app for eReading, called iBooks.  It is a fine eReader, but it isn’t available for anything but iOS devices. Their library listing is pictured at left.

This means iPad users have the option of using one additional app for their eReading, but the iPad iBooks app is tied to Apple’s rather paltry selection of books, magazines and newspapers.  Because of this, many iPad and iPhone owners also use apps from Kindle, Nook and others to supplement their eBook inventories.

The last development in the spread of eReading is the rise of the free eBook libraries.  Gutenberg.org and Manybooks.net provide their libraries of copyright-free books at no charge.  There are probably close to 100,000 free titles available from these two sources, and both organizations give the downloader the choice of formats when downloading.

These options for format choices and free classic titles has opened up eReading to those who do not have a dedicated E-Ink screen and otherwise constrained with their eBook budgets. If you are interested in collecting and reading electronic editions of books you are not longer required to purchase a dedicated eReader.  The apps are free, and with the recent additions to web eReading, any device that has a browser can read eBooks, Magazines and Newspapers.

Whether you own an E-Ink reader or not, your reading progress on each book can be synced between all your devices, as long as you buy the book from the app vendor.  This allows you to stop reading on any page using, say you Kindle Fire, and pick up where you left off when you switch to an iPhone or Sony Tablet computer. 

The syncing will not work, however, for books bought from vendors other than the supplier of the app.  So a Nook reader will not be able to sync your free books or those you paid for from other app vendors.

Given these latitudes of choice, which of the eReader apps is best?  There is no definitive answer to this question, because if depends on what other devices you have. 

For example, if you have a dedicated E-Ink reader, say the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight, then you certainly want the Nook apps on your other devices.  That way your library travels with you regardless of which you take along or want to use when convenient.  You obviously do not need to be concerned about the other reading apps

Are there advantages in one reader app over other brands?  Yes and no.  I can’t say that all apps are the same, for they are clearly not.  But, there is little difference in their functionality between brands.  Although the syncing is done differently between brands, they all accomplish what they need to do.

For example:

• Each reader app gives you some font control.  Some have a different set of font types, and some have more sizes than others.  They are all accessed somewhat differently, but in the end, there is little difference.
• All give you some control on background shades and colors. 
• The screen can be split between two columns for wide displays and one for narrower ones like a smartphone or 7-inch table in the portrait mode.
• All offer bookmarks and highlighting modes.
• In-line dictionary lookups are available in various forms.

The biggest difference is in the titles available from each vendor.  Generally, not one can match Amazon’s selections, although Barnes and Noble is quite competent and Sony has a good selection, too,.  But none of the other vendors can match Amazon’s totals or its special publications such as Kindle Singles—unique short-form essays and stories that Amazon contracts directly with the authors to publish.

Add to this Amazon’s vast store of movies and other electronic content, and Amazon rules this space without much dispute.

As for versatility in handling file formats, the Sony Reader, in my testing, is the champ.  I rarely find one it cannot handle, except, of course, AZW. 

But a fairly recent addition to the app war makes file format less a matter on concern.  The icon pictured at right is that of Calibre, a software program that readily converts virtually any file format to any other file format.  For example, it can convert an ePub file to AZW and vice versa.

This is a must have addition to the dedicated eReaders who has multiple file formats on their devices.  Although Calibre also has an eReading app of its own, I don’t care for it, but I like it archiving abilities as a place to hold various file formats, and if you want to read a Nook file format so it an be read on a Sony or Kindle app, Calibre can do it.

If you are content to live with two or more eReading apps, then no conversion will be necessary, so it is absolutely necessary.  I have lived with multiple apps for years, and I have converted only one file through Calibre, but is may prove handy.

I hope this information will assist you in getting the most out of your computing equipment for your reading enjoyment.

eReader Review

Kobo Aura HD E-Ink eReader

Kobo goes against the grain with a new, high-end E-Ink reader that features the highest resolution screen of any other dedicated reader and larger screen.

The new Aura HD features a Pearl E-Ink display with a pixel density of 1440 X 1080 pixels, displayed on a screen that is 6.8-inches diagonal.  Almost all the other top of the line readers use a 6-inch screen and have 800 X 600 pixel counts.

Kobo has not been able to compete head to head with the larger sellers of eReading machines, at least with it current line up of devices.  It's E-Ink readers have not gained significant market share against Amazon, though with Sony seeming to be heading for the exits and Barnes and Noble on the ropes, there may be room for the Japanese firm to find its niche in the American market.
Kobo also breaks new ground by charging $170 for their new device, a price that puts it near the full-color 7-inch tablets from Amazon, Google and Barnes and Noble, among others.
This is, if anything, a bold move by Kobo.  But it may prove to be a good bet by the lagging manufacturer of eReaders.    Kobo recently reported that the new Aura is accounting for 27% of its total sales, but there is no way to evaluate that success since they do  not release their sales figures.  Without more information it can't be told if they sold 100 or 100,000 of the units.
Kobo sells a total of five models of eRaders.  In addition to the Aura HD model shown above, the rest of the line is shown below.

The top of the line 7-inch Android Tablet, is their Arc.  Pictured at ther ight, the Arc is a 7-inch Android tablet that competes with the Kindle HD and Barnes and Noble's HD as well as the Nexus 7, to name a few.  Priced at $200 it has not sold well against its competition, and the reviews have not been kind.

Their best 6-inch E-Ink reader is the Glo, pictured in the left image below.  This is their answer to the KindlePaperwhite and the Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight.  It sells for $130 and, like the Arc, has not received good reviews when compared with its competition.

The low-end of the Kobo lineup for 6-inch E-Ink screens is the $100 Touch, pictured pictured above right.  This competes with the low end of Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Simple Touch, although the Kobo Touch is more expensive.

The final entrant is the Mini.  This E-Ink screen is five inches diagonal, and is the lightest eReader available from the major manufacturers.  Pictured at the right, the Mini seems to have be in a hard place to inhabit, although it is an interesting innovation for E-Ink readers.  The criticism of the unit is its small page viewing area, necessitating frequent page turns.  It also has a reduced pixel count that makes for fuzzy fonts.

Its price, at $80, is close to the 6-inch touch, but it gives a substantially smaller reading area with less screen resolution. 
Reviewers have not seen good prospects for the Mini, but is has the advantage of being the only smaller screen on the market from the top three manufacturers.

The five models of Kobo’s lineup, if they all sold equally well, would each have 20% of their total sales.  Kobo has said the Arc now accounts for 27%, which is their best seller, but a 7% margin over other models is not a huge difference.

It will be interesting to see how Kobo does in the future.  The firms generally is lacking in competitive equality in some critical areas:  their selection of books is less than the rest.  They have little to no offerings on movies, special editions, or magazines. 

Compound this shortcoming with hardware that is perceived to be equal to its larger competitors and you get a less than promising position.
The best feature of the Kobo lineup is their eReader apps.  I have used their app on all of my devices, and in some instances I think it one of the best for maintaining consistent formatting for poetic publications.

But, I don’t think they can make a living off their free software.  They must be able to translate their best feature into a viable revenue stream.  Perhaps the Aura will help, but if it does, it will contrary to the way the market in the past has been moving.  For all other vendors, E-Ink readers are declining in market share.  It is hard to see how their new device will reverse the larger trend to tablet eReading.

It may come down to being a matter of price.  Amazon and Barnes and Noble sell their readers near, at or below costs.  They want customers for their electronic content, so their eReaders are loss leaders to gain new buyers of their content.  Kobo may no have enough content to sell to make this a viable option, or they may improve their content selection in they near future.

But with the quality differences in the critical areas I outlined, Kobo needs to lower the prices on their devices, even if it means selling them at a loss.  Whether this firm has the deep pockets to fund this strategy is not known.

Choosing Your eReader and Apps

Ray Hendon

Second in the series

In the first article of this series I showed the rise of eReading over the last seven years and the effects this new innovation has had for both printed material and the hardware required to read it.

Missing from that analysis, however, was the more personal consequences of electronic reading.  There are two consequences, in my view, that stand out.  First, while it is well established that people who buy eReaders read more than the average person, is it now clear that buying an eReader further increase the amount of reading.  Survey after survey has shown the same thing:  people read more after they get an eReader.

The second consequence is also important.  eReader owners can buy their books at lower costs than those who buy paper editions. All of the electronic book vendors sell their books at significantly lower prices than the paper editions.  Current publications can sell from $9.99 to $15, while the bound editions can be $30 or $40—although less for paperbacks.

Another consequence is somewhat related to the first two: almost the entire  Cannon of Western Literature can be had for free for those who own an eReader.  The Gutenberg Project has taken upon itself to scan hundreds of thousands of books that are in the public domain.  In the United States, this includes virtually all publications prior to 1922.

This means the entire body of Greek and Roman literature plus the vast writings in Europe through the Middle Ages, The Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment--all of of 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries  are available at no cost to those who have an eReader.

This, to me is a priceless treasure, and commends electronic reading to the most stalwart traditionalist.

What eReader to Buy

If you decide to join the revolution of eReading, there are two decisions that immediately face you:  What hardware do you choose as your primary eReading device, and what eReading apps do you like for reading on other devices?  The choice of reading devices is the subject of this essay.  The reading apps and other considerations will be covered in the next essay.

As for your choice of hardware, there are three categories of reading devices to choose from.

E-Ink Displays

E-Ink display readers are good for only one thing: reading digital content.  They are not good as a tablet computer; they are much too slow and cumbersome for that task. But, they read electronic text especially well because the text displayed on their screen is so easy on the eyes.  No other display can match the lack of eye strain these devices offer.  Plus, they are small, light and easy to hold—easy to carry around. But, that is essentially all they do.  Do not confuse a dedicated E-Ink screen device with a general purpose tablet.  

Below are four of the most popular brands of E-Ink readers.

The Kindle Paperwhite is on the left and the Nook Simpletouch with Glowlight on the right.

Both of theses readers sell for about $120.  Other models with fewer features are available from both vendors at around  $70 to $80.  On the less expensive models however, if you read at night you need a lamp to provide illumination. 

The next pair is  shown below.
The Sony Reader at left and Kobo’s Glo Reader  on the right.  The Sony does not have internal lighting and sells for $129.99.  The Kobo Glo has lighting and sells for $129.99, also.  Kobo also sells a touch edition (without the internal lighting)  for $99.99. 

I cannot recommend either Sony or Kobo.  Sony is too expensive for what it does, although the build quality is typical of Sony products. Kobo has a poor reputation for build quality and service after the sale, and their selection of books at their website is poor when compared with Amazon and Barnes and Noble. 

All of the models shown use WiFi for downloading books, but 3G/4G models are available from Amazon at higher prices.

Tablets and Smartphones

Tablets are winning the battle of eReading.  Their versatility and power offer a full computer experience for users who surf, email and who use some of the apps that do many, many things.  They function more like a laptop without the weight and bulk of a keyboard.

They also do a great job with eReading.  The screens are internally illuminated, making reading in a dark environment easy, and the font and layout control I equal to or better than the dedicated E-Ink readers.  Colors are brilliant and well defined.

If you want to use a tablet as an eReader, that is easy to do and costs nothing extra.  But not all tablets are created equal when it comes to eReading.  In this task, a nine or twelve-inch screen is too much to carry around—to heavy and clumsy, and too heavy to hold for any length of time. 

In my case, I prefer two tablets—an iPad for regular tablet work of surfing, email and research, and a smaller 7-inch tablet for eReading.  If I had to have only one and I were buying one now, I would probably go for the iPad Mini with its 7.9-inch screen.  It is small enough to hold in one hand, light enough not to become a burden, and has the surfing abilities almost equal to the larger screen devices.  The iPad Mini sells for $330, but Walmart is discounting it now to $299.99.  A new model with an enhanced screen is expected by October.

There are other options, however, and one’s personal preferences for look, feel and features are your best guidelines.  If you are looking for a single-device solution, I recommend not going larger than the roughly 8-inch dimension.  Anything larger will not be suitable for eReading for long reading sessions.  Anything much smaller will be a burden for surfing the internet.

This intermediate dimension is gathering steam over the last few months.  The smaller 7-inch tablets have always trailed the larger tablets in sales because of the severe limitations of the smaller screen, although they are far better for eReading.  The middle sizes may be best for a single device.  Otherwise, I would use a 7-incher for eReading and a larger screen for internet work.  In my view Email on a 7-inch screen is fine, and both the Android and iOS devices have a robust email capability.

Below are pictures of some tablets to consider:  The far left is Google’s Nexus 7, which runs under to Android operating system. It is considered by many to be one of the best 7-inch tablets at the $200 price point.

Next is the Kindle Fire HD, also a 7-inch screen.  The Kindle Fire HD is “almost” a full featured 7-inch tablet, but now quite.  This tablet is also priced at $200 and is a decent tablet in its own right, but it is designed to give the owner exceptionally easy access to Amazon’s movies, gadgets, eBooks, magazines and newspapers. 

The iPad Mini is on the right end of the graphic. The sizes shown are

 

 

 

 

 

 

roughly accurate but not precise.

The tablet pictured at left is a new entry into the arena from Chinese manufacturer HiSense.  It offer specs similar to the Nexus 7 but sells for about $50 less.  It also has an even lower priced model that retails for $100, but the specs on that model are significantly reduced, especially on the processor and screen resolution. 

The less expensive model will probably be okay for eReading, since its screen resolution is about the same as many of the E-Ink screens.  But, surfing and email would be significantly slower than its full-featured brother.

To complete the tablet category, only a few more will be discussed.  There are probably a hundred if not more models of the larger screen tablets.  Operating systems run from Apple’s iOS for the iPad, Windows 8 for the Surface and Android systems from Samsung, Amazon, Asus, Acer, Lenovo and Dell, to name a few.

The pros and cons of these different models is too complex to consider in this article.  It is sufficient to note that all of them can run all of the available eReader apps from the major suppliers, so the brand will not affect you ability to use the tablet effectively as an eReader. 

Smartphones are another category that can be used for eReading. 
All of the apps available for tablets, with few exceptions, are available for iOS, Android and Windows Phones.  The problem, of course, is the small screen sizes.  Most are round 4-inches, and I find this while you can read on them, the experience is definitely second best.  I have used Android Smartphones with 4.5-inch screens and an iPhone for eReading, but if you have a tablet with you, that is the better option.

I haven’t used a Windows Phone for eReading, but the screen size controls the quality of the read more than any other specification—they all have good screen resolution.  So I cannot recommend any particular smartphone over any other.  The two top of the line phones, the Samsung Galaxy series and the iPhone series, generally have the highest screen resolutions, and that helps.  But it still is not a way of eReading I would recommend for your primary use. 

Laptops and Desktops

Laptops and desktops of all descriptions can run eReader software from all the major and minor vendors of eBooks.  But neither of these devices is convenient as an eReader.  I put the reader apps on my computers because there may be occasions when I need to press it into eReading duty.  But this is becoming more rare.

However, it costs nothing but a little disk space to download the eReader software from you favorite vendor, and you may find it worthwhile to make your laptop a secondary reading source.

Since the software is virtually the same on all the laptops and desktops, there are no inherent advantages of any one brand over any other.  Whichever brand and model you choose will work about the same as an eReader.

The next installment of this series will cover the specifics of the eReader apps available to computers, tablets and smartphones.

An Overview of eReading

Ray Hendon 

Reading books on a computer has a long history, but in 2006 when Sony introduced its Reader to American consumers, a revolution of the reading habits of Americans  began .

With a device dedicated to reading electronic texts with a (then) new process of E-Ink display, it was possible to read indoors or out, even in direct sunlight.  And, it was possible to carry the reader with you with a minimum of hassle.  This was the entry of eReading into the mainstream.

The picture at right is of the original Sony PRS-500  which was made available in the United States in September 2006 and priced as $329.99.  Books for the Reader were also offered in Sony’s bookstore.   The screen of the PRS 500 was six-inches, and sported a 4-level grey scale screen at 800 x 600 pixels.

The original Reader weighed 1.2lbs, could hold about 500 books, and read an impressive list of file types: PDF, TXT, RTF, BMP, EPUB and others.  The ePub file is now the most prominent file type for electronic books, but the existing Sony Reader continues to read a large number of file types.

Sales of the PS500  were slim by today’s standards.  In December 2008, Sony disclosed that since the device launched in October 2006 it had sold 300,000 units worldwide .  After the first couple of years, especially after the Kindle was introduced in late 2007,  sales for all e-book readers worldwide grew to 12.8 million in 2010 and 23.2 million in 2011.  

Technical progress of E-Ink readers has continued improving since its first introduction.  For comparison, today’s best E-Ink screens such as the Kindle Paperwhite have 16-level gray scale, weigh 7.5 ounces, and supports a 800x600 resolution.  Nooks’s high-end model weighs less than seven ounces. Most of the new Readers can now hold 1000 books and the battery life has been extended to four and even eight weeks, depending of use patterns.

Prices of eReaders today start at around $70 and extend up to $120 to $140, depending of features.  The pictures below are of current models of E-Ink screen readers.  The Amazon Kindles are shown at left.  Barnes and Noble Nooks are to the right.

The future for E-Ink screen Readers is not optimistic.  Sales have been falling annually since their peak year of 2011.  From the 23.2 million sold that year they fell to 14.9 million in 2012 and are expected to lose around 20% a year until 2014, where they are expected to be about 5.3 million units. 

The poor outlook for E-Ink readers in no way translates to a poor outlook for eReading, however.  The shift from reading only paper editions to electronic editions is continuing.  The dollar sales of eBooks in 2011 was estimated by BookStats at  $1.97 billion.  This was almost 16% of all trade book sales. (Trade books include the major categories of adult fiction and non fiction, but exclude children’s books and textbook sales).

The 2011 figure was up  from $838 million in 2010 where the sales of eBooks accounted for  6.7% of all trade dollar sales that year.

From Amazon’s perspective, the growth is even more pronounced.  Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later in November 2007, Amazon introduced the Kindle and began selling Kindle books.

By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books - hardcover and paperback - combined.

The growth of eReading, though, has not been particularly kind to devices using E-Ink technology.  People reading electronically are switching to the internally illuminated screens of tablets, smartphone and laptops. 

The graph below shows how eReading is accomplished through 2012.  The figures in the graph represent the percentage of all electronic reading done in

the time period by each device. The Kindle Fire, Nook HD , Android tablets, smartphones and the iPad, are increasingly the most likely way of reading electronic editions of books.

Tablet eReading

For the last couple of years, tablets seem to be taking the lion’s share of eReading device sales.  The versatility of the iPad and its competitors has overwhelmed the E-Ink devices. The reality of it is easy to understand. A tablet can surf the internet, do email, show photographs and graphics in full color and play movies at full speed.  But they can also provide a good eReading experience.  All the major eBook sellers provide apps for tablets that can read the appropriate format and read it as well or better than a dedicated reading devices. 

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The iPad Mini and iPad are shown at right.  The Mini starts at $329 and the iPad at $399, $499 and $599, depending on screen resolution, processor speed, memory and connectivity options.

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Contrast these abilities to that of a dedicated eReader, and it is easy to see why a consumer would prefer a tablet over a dedicated eReader. Why carry two things when one will do the work of both.

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Google’s Nexus 7 tablet is shown below.  It is priced at $199 for the base model.

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It can be argued that the reading quality of the E-Ink machines is superior to that of a tablet, and that is a legitimate point.   A tablet cannot be read out of doors well, especially in direct sunlight, while a dedicated E-Ink device does well in direct sunlight.  But, that advantage and the longer battery life of an E-Ink reader  are not enough to offset the surfing qualities of a tablet, at least for most people. But the market has spoken and versatility wins over a single-use machine in spite of what is a marginal advantage of the reading quality.

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Three of the Kindle Fire tablets are shown below.  Barnes and Noble also sells several tablets that double as eReaders for its content.

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One lesson learned during the years from 2006 through 2012 is that the eReading industry is far from static.  Manufacturers of all stripe have taken aim at it, as have the major book sellers.  And now that eReading is indisputably engrained in Americans’ reading habits, the pace of innovation and price competition can only be expected to grow even more fierce. 

This is good news for those of us who enjoy reading. 

The next article in this introductory series will tackle way of combining the software and hardware options that are best for your personal needs for reading books, magazines and other digital content.