[2007-03 con't]
eBooks
The Whole Subject Revisited --- page 2
Four years ago most of us were reading eBooks (the proper term is "eText", but we didn't know that back then) on our desktops or laptops. But most of those were research pieces or short novellas, not full length novels to rival a good all-nighter paperback.
Palm-sized PC's were hip when they had software to display eBooks.
Still not competetive with the paperback prices, but closer than the laptop. It was progress of sorts, and very campy for those who had one.
Franklin's eBookman came at the right price, manufactured from 1999 to 2002, and reportedly is still sold as "new" somewhere, but we haven't been able to locate anyone to write us a favorable review of it's reliability and operation. Wikipedia has the information. Please check it out before you buy one.
In late 2002 we read reviews on something called RocketBook, a handheld reader that displayed a page about the same size and clarity as a mass market paperback, sold for around $200 USD, ran on batteries (for the patio, the bedside, or the beach), weighed about as much as a cell phone, and held up to twenty novels at once.
We were racing to get in that line. Unfortunately we couldn't find one actually for sale in the US. We heard the first units were manufactured in Europe and just didn't make it over here.
We heard rumors that RCA would manufacture the reader for the US market. They even had it featured on one of their web pages. No kidding!
But our requests to find dealers, and even a request to BECOME a dealer, were ignored.
Nada. No Sale Sweetie. Never heard of it.
Even tody, there is still a web page featuring the RBE1100 and RBE1200 models, but we can't figure out whether it's RCA or Thompson, and we're getting the same results from our inquiries about locating or becoming a sales representative. No such product!
And hence the rumor that Big Publishing is causing interference. Whichever the case, the bottom line is that what appeared to be the best-ever reader device is simply not available!
Even so, the eBook Industry is booming with new material to read.
(To Be Continued. . . . )
