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28th May 2019

Digital Readers Taking Out Blue Screen And Their Negative Effects On The Eyes

Researchers have constantly warned that blue light is bad for the eyes and for your health. There are reports that blue light from screens can hinder your sleep. This is worse when you are reading in the dark. Reading the tiny prints of paperbacks strained my eyes but the moment I got my first e-reader I realized I was going to face a new and peculiar problem. That problem was dealing with blue light emissions of digital screens.

Well, it appears many manufacturers of digital readers are aware of this problem and are doing everything they can to take care of it. CLEARink, for example, is working on a new technology that will serve as an alternative to LED and E Ink lighting on digital displays. As far as I know, they have made significant progress on that project.

Several e-readers come with several options that allow users to adjust different display parameters for more efficient reading. Inkbook and Clara HD are two e-readers that I found that have made great efforts to eliminate blue light.

How The Clara HD Takes Care Of Blue Light?

The Clara HD deals with blue light using the ComfortLight Pro technology which comes with all the Kobo e-readers. The blue light filter tracks the time of the day based on your time zone and adjusts blue light emission at night. You will notice that your screen becomes more orange at night.

Not All Readers Have Blue Light Filter

Sadly, not all e-readers have a blue light filter. If you are using the Inbook or any other e-reader that runs on Android operating system, you can install a third-party app that will confer this functionality to your e-reader. One of the favorite blue light filtering apps is Twilight. You can also schedule your blue light filter to turn on automatically.

12th April 2019

Read In The Dark With InkBook Explore

I have no regret switching my reading preference from ink and paper to e-readers. I have gained more from using e-readers compared to when I bought only paperbacks. The greatest impact is on my budget as well as my ability to purchase more books—and read more too.

Like many e-reader users, I also faced a difficult challenge of reading in the night as well as when the sun is too bright. My eyes either get dry or too wet. Many e-readers like the Kobo Clara HD and the Amazon Kindle Oasis has done a lot to get it right with a handful of customizable options but the problem still persists to some degree.

From all indications, the inkbook Explore is about to change that. Not only does it have a great frontlight, but it also makes reading in the dark easier by giving the users the ability to adjust the light color temperature to match that of the surrounding to ease the pressure on the eyes.

Other Features Of The Inkbook Explore

The Inkbook is a product of Arta Tech. The device runs on Android 4.4.4 which means users can download and install their favorite apps from any app store. It has a 7.8 E Ink Carta display. The screen resolution is 1872 x 1404 with 300 PPI.

The device is one of the few e-readers in the market that has USB-C. Talking about memory and storage, the device comes with 8GB internal storage expandable using a micro SD to 32GB. This means more space for your favorite titles. The Inkbook Explore also has an improved battery of 3,000 mAh compared to the predecessors with had only 2,800 mAh.

The availability of Bluetooth means users can install any audiobook app of their choice and listen at any time. This device is available for $189 which is pretty affordable compared to Kindle Oasis and Clara HD.

14th February 2019

The Fate Of E-Readers: E-Ink’s ACeP Delayed Until 2019

Like many users of e-readers, I sometimes wonder why we have our ebooks on monochrome. I bet it will be a great idea to have some colors added to our ebooks. Well, I found the answer lately; there is no technology for that just yet. E Ink’s Advanced Color ePaper (ACeP) may just be the icing we have been looking for.

The moment I switched from reading traditional books to e-readers, I knew there was no going back. E-readers have numerous benefits of hardcover books. The most significant of them is the lower prices of books, less storage space, and increased safety of books—I could go on and on.

What Makes ACeP Different From Its Predecessors?

Before the launch of ACeP in 2016, E Ink had previously launched three color displays namely Spectra, Prism, and Triton. These products have been on display on the electronic shelf tag labels of many retail settings.

The Spectra featured 3 pigments of electronic ink while the Triton has 16 levels of grayscale display with 4,096 colors. ACeP boasts of a larger color display and resolution. The resolution of ACeP is 1600 x 2500 with 150 PPI and it can display an amazing 32,000 different colors.

According to the company, the specification allows the ink to produce full color on each pixel. It is also the first time that an electrophoretic display (EPD) will have the ability to produce full color at every pixel without an array of color filter.

The Technology Used In Color Display Prior To ACeP

CFA is used to achieve a side-by-side pixel color which often leads to light attenuation. ACeP, on the other hand, has all colored pigments in every pixel rather than placing them side-by-side with the pixel which is the conventional practice.

To achieve this, the researchers at E Ink had to solve the complex puzzle of getting reflective color at every picture element. Stacked complex backplane structures have been used in previous attempts to achieve this feat. ACeP beats the odd while utilizing a single backplane.

The Features ACeP Will Bring To Digital Display

Like all other previous ePaper by E Ink, ACeP maintains ultra-low power and has a paperlike readability suitable all lighting conditions. Inasmuch as these features are desirable for e-readers, E Ink has made it clear that their primary market is digital signage. The primary focus of the company was further clarified by Johnson Lee, the president of E Ink. If this technology would be deployed to e-readers it would likely not come before 2021.

Ultra-low power display of E Ink on an e-reader will be enough to extend the battery life of e-readers. However, ACeP is not the only ePaper on the horizon. CLEARink utilizes similar electrophoresis technology but uses reflective panels which give it a shaper display compared to E Ink. Clearly, when pigments are added to displays, it slows down the refresh rate and E Ink will have to sort that out before its display technology can be deployed to e-readers.

24th January 2019

The New Kobo Clara HD Vs The Amazon Kindle Oasis

Comparing brands is one thing you cannot fail to do when you are using e-readers. If you have just made the transition from reading traditional books to reading ebooks, you certainly would want the best performance—something that looks similar to your traditional books. This led me to pitch the new Kobo Clara against the Amazon Kindle Oasis 2.

These two gadgets represent the newest generation of e-readers. The Amazon Kindle Oasis debuted in 2017 but the Kobo Clara HD hit the market in mid-2018. E-book readers have been left to make the tough decision between these two competing brands. While the new Clara Kobo HD focuses on the Comfortlight PRO technology, Oasis promotes its waterproof nature, has a larger screen, and can be used to play audiobooks.

If there is one thing I love about the competition between the two companies, it is its ability to inspire great improvements in e-reader technologies. For example, Kobo Aura One which was released in 2016 was waterproof and the Amazon brought that feature to Kindle Oasis in 2017 along with Bluetooth technology that enabled pairing with headsets to listen to audiobooks. Rakuten also partnered with Walmart to launch Walmart eBooks with the sole aim of competing with Amazon.

What Is Underneath The Beautiful Design Of Kobo Clara HD?

One of the prominent features of the Clara HD is an E-Ink Carta HD display with 300 PPI display. It also has a 1GHZ Freescale Solo Lite processor which makes navigating through this device sleek. Additionally, its RAM size is 512MB while the internal storage size is 8GB. Kobo put a stop to its expandable memory hence there is no Micro SD slot on the Clara HD.

It gets more interesting when you talk about the lighting system because avid readers making a switch from reading paperback to ebooks are concerned about the safety of their eyes. Clara HD makes use of 8 white LED combined with Comfortlight PRO system with 7 orange LED. The auto brightness feature on this device is completely optional and you can turn it off altogether. CLEARink is proposing a new technology that might replace the current LED screens.

What Is Underneath The Beautiful Design Of Amazon Kindle Oasis?

The Kindle Oasis is larger than the Clara HD and definitely a perfect reply to their competitor. Kindle Oasis features a capacitive touchscreen display that has a resolution of 1680 x 1264 and 300 PPI. Its dual-core 1GHz processor in combination with a 512 RAM gives it a tremendous speed in terms of navigation and accessing the store. Unlike the Clara HD which is only available with 8GB storage, Kindle Oasis readers can choose between 8GB and 32GB. Those who listen to lots of audiobooks will find the 32GB handy.

The lighting of the new Kindle Oasis follows that of its predecessors which has ambient light sensors that adjust the screen brightness in response to environmental lighting. Its lighting system is composed of 12 LEDs to ensure uniform lighting across the screen. This also makes reading in the night easier. I find the light sensors and lighting system handy because it lets me read anywhere I want. The most talked about feature of the Kindle Oasis is the IPX8 rating which makes the device water resistant.

Why Choosing Between The Two Is Always Difficult?

I have used devices from both brands and one thing I have found extremely difficult to do is placing one brand over the other. Both have their strengths and weaknesses as well as similarities. For example, the Amazon Kindle Oasis lets you communicate with fellow book lovers. Kobo, on the other hand, lets you customize your own reading experience with its advanced features.

The Clara HD appears to be a fraction lighter than the Kindle Oasis—but it means a lot to me. Both have slide bars which can be used to customize font size, line spacing, text type, and weight and whole other. The remarkable difference in the two devices is seen in their prices. While Clara HD is available for $129, Kindle Oasis goes for $249—almost double the price of Clara HD. If you buy books regularly like me, you wouldn’t mind ditching perks to increase your budget for books.

14th December 2018

Impact Of E-Readers On Reading Habit

Have e-readers affected my reading habit in any significant way? The answer is a definite yes. Since I got my Amazon Kindle Oasis, I usually buy the ebook and audiobook of any particular book. I will start reading an ebook in my office during my spare times and when it is time for the thirty minutes’ drive back home, I flip to the audiobook and continue to listen from the place I left off. The moment I get home, I continue reading.

Apparently, I am not the only one whose reading habit has changed since I moved from reading hardcover books to ebooks. As early as 2012, the Internet & American Life Project conducted a research that showed that the reading culture of many has been transformed since the coming of electronic gadgets and more people tend to own electronic readers compared to a decade ago.

With my e-reader, I also noticed that I read more at night now compared to when I read the hardcover. I am generally attracted to books with a minimum of five hundred pages. From experience, larger books give the author the opportunity to express themselves and create better and vivid worlds. On print, these books are usually large and heavy. Carrying them to bed and flipping the pages often seem like a lot of work when I am tired. With e-readers, it is totally different. No matter how tired I may be, I am still able to read a couple of pages before dozing off.

E-Readers Have Also Affected Other Cultures Relating To Books

Ebooks are generally cheaper compared to paperbacks largely because of the difference in the cost of production. This difference—no matter how little it may seem in some cases—means a lot to those who are at the lower ebb of earning.

The effect of cost on reading culture and the attitude of Americans towards books was shown by the Pew Research Center in 2012. According to the center, seventy-eight percent of American adults read a book in the previous year. Out of this figure, fourteen percent borrowed their last book from a national library.

If the research was expanded, I believe it would have shown the alarming number of people that borrow books from family or friends like I used to do. Today, the low cost of ebooks has increased the inclination of Americans to purchase rather than to borrow.

Somehow, it is easier and more convenient to read ebooks than paperbacks. The research by Pew Research Center also found out that an average e-book reader read more books in a year when compared to those that read only paperbacks.