Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, began this year’s Holiday season with the release of the Amazon Kindle. This device is a groundbreaking step in increasing the popularity of eBooks. It boasts an electronic-paper display to mimic the look of real paper, wireless connectivity, more than 88,000 books, newspapers and magazines available for purchase, and the capability to email Word documents and pictures. But has Amazon really figured out how to revolutionize the way people read?

The Kindle’s electronic-paper display is not so revolutionary, considering this has been seen before in other products, such as the Sony Reader. The display is also limited to black and white, and is not backlit. This is a far cry from a full-color, high gloss magazine, or even a blog. Also, the free wireless connectivity, WhisperNet, operates on an EVDO network and is therefore only available in the US, and tends to have limited reach and reliability within the US. Amazon charges for every document or picture you receive through email on the Kindle, and does not offer PDF support. The Kindle has a single proprietary format, MOBI. From the leader in the online bookstore industry, you may also expect to have the largest selection of eBooks to choose from for the Kindle, but that is not the case. Amazon only offers 88,000 eBooks for sale, while some smaller companies can offer up to 154,000 eBooks, almost twice as many as the Kindle and nearly eight times as many as Sony.

The biggest question being raised about the Amazon Kindle is about its price. Technological mobility always carries a hefty price tag, but is $400 for a grayscale eReader a worthy price? Keep in mind that this $400 does not include the cost of books, magazines, blogs, and newspapers. Other stores have been recognized for having the best prices on the web for eBooks with no monthly fees, so you can enjoy the convenience of having thousands of titles at your fingertips without the hefty price tag from Amazon. These stores also offer eBooks that are compatible with all PCs, Macs, laptops, PDAs, Windows Mobile PocketPC, Smartphones, Blackberry and even iPods. In addition to the price is the amount of customer service Amazon has shown customers in the past. There has been two instances where Amazon has bailed on eBook customers in the past year. First in 2006 deleting the backed-up bookshelves of eBook customers, and then in 2007 shutting down its Mobipocket servers for ten days. In each occasion no warning or explanation was given to customers. This history demonstrates a clear lack of concern for end customers, concerned first and foremost with the benefit of volume. Amazon’s customers can be discarded because they can afford to buy new ones with major advertising and marketing dollars. Smaller companies like BooksonBoard and Fictionwise care about each customer because it’s their practice.

So has Amazon really found the answer? Not yet. While Amazon’s valiant attempt to revolutionize the industry are definitely appreciated, there are just too many wasted opportunities that the Kindle fails to take advantage of; perhaps Amazon’s efforts will inspire Steve Jobs or even Google to come up with a true revolutionary eReader.

iPad consumers should consider the iPad Invisible Shield by ZAGG. Protecting your iPad is not something to be taken lightly. As durable as Apple makes their products, they are not meant to withstand any type of daily unintentional abuse. iPad Cases and Scratch protectors were made solely for keeping your iPad looking new and ensuring maximum protection. This article will explain why protecting your device is so important.

No one purposely scratches their iPad with their keys or drops it on the floor. No one would think about purposely spilling coffee on their iPad while at a Starbucks. Of course, no one would know their kids would borrow the iPad from them and drag it on the floor as they watch their favorite cartoons on it. Maybe these things would never happen to you, but what if they did. Buying a good screen protector and a good case is like buying car insurance. You’ll never know how much you needed it until it’s too late. How do you know which companies to look at when buying protection for your iPad?

Many companies have tried to jump on the wagon and create screen protectors for the iPad but only a few companies have managed to stay at the top holding true to their marketing testimonials. ZAGG, the creator of the Invisible Shield, got it right. They have created shield protectors that are made out of the same stuff made to keep military helicopter blades protected. They have been able to maintain a great reputation and high integrity due to the quality of their products, especially for mobile devices like the iPad.

What are some things to be cautious about. If you find a screen protector selling for a dollar, it’s probably not a good quality screen protector like the Invisible Shield. Zagg’s prices are on the higher side but stand by their good name. However, even though their prices are high than the dollar screen protectors found on ebay, Zagg’s prices are comparable to a few other companies who offer similar quality screen protection. Another advantage of using Zagg’s products is that they are guaranteed for life. If, by chance, they ever get damaged, Zagg will replace the iPad Invisible Shield for free. Why do they offer this guarantee? They offer it because they are sure it will not scratch under any normal conditions.

There are great demonstrations available at http://www.ipadprotector.blogspot.com where you can see the people trying to jab sharp tools through the shield and it holds up very well. The same demonstrations are administered on the cheaper screen protectors and the sharp tools rip right through them like butter. You’ve spent a lot of money on a device that is probably your best investment yet, don’t compromise by buying cheap protective coverings. Look for quality products like Zagg’s Invisible Shield and keep your iPad looking like new and protected for life.

As we know there are various devices for reading e-books, there are also popular file formats associated with several of such devices. There have always been debates as to which is the best among them, though each of these formats has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some of the popular file formats include Adobe PDF, Microsoft LIT, Amazon AZW, Mobipocket PRC, PDB, etc. Some popular PC content formats, such as HTML, TXT, and DOC, may also compete as e-book formats. In this article, let’s have a look at some of these popular file formats and their software readers.

1. Amazon AZW

With the production of Amazon Kindle, Amazon created also a file format that Kindle recognizes, called AZW. With its own DRM (Digital Rights Management) structure, AZW format protects the e-book publishers and authors from possible piracy. Kindle recognizes only this format, and other formats should be translated into AZW before they can be read through Kindle device. In order to do this, Kindle provides a free email conversion system, which helps you download the books in any other format to Kindle through an email. A large screen device (Amazon Kindle DX) that is actually 1.5 times larger than the regular Kindle display – offers native PDF support and according to Digital Book Readers is more suitable for reading electronic versions of newspapers, magazines, and formatted books.

AZW is loosely based on Mobipocket’s popular MOBI file format.

2. Adobe PDF

Adobe’s PDF (Portable Document Format) is not just an e-book format, but also a popular PC file format. First created in 1993, it became popular long before the e-book revolution started. It was created for storing and transferring portable, printable documents. Adobe’s own PostScript format forms the basis of PDF documents.

PDF documents support compression, password protection, and are viewable in virtually all platforms (hence the name ‘portable document format’). It is estimated that more than 250 million PDF documents are in existence on the Web. Adobe’s software applications, Acrobat and Acrobat Reader were used to create and read PDF files, but in 2008, PDF was released as an open standard, and now there are several applications available to read and edit PDF documents. This has enhanced PDF’s popularity in the e-book arena.

3. Microsoft LIT

With severe competition from Adobe and other popular e-book formats, Microsoft also came up with their own proprietary e-book format, LIT. Files with extension ‘LIT’ are accessed and read by the Microsoft Reader, available as a free download from Microsoft website. The application is available only for Windows operating system.

Microsoft Reader can be used for reading e-books on portable devices with the help of ClearType technology, which renders improved text on those devices. It was first introduced in 2000.

LIT format also supports DRM (Digital Rights Management), protecting e-book author and publisher rights. You should activate the Microsoft Reader once installed in your PC, tablet PC, or pocket PC, through Reader activation website. You can purchase the e-books in LIT format from Microsoft Reader website as well.

4. Palm E-book Format (PDB)

Palm Database format (PDB) is a proprietary format used in Palm PDAs. It can however be accessed on Windows or other type of OS with the help of specialized software.

Palm’s own eReader is a free program for reading PDB files. This reader is available for a number of devices and operating systems—BlackBerry, iPhone, Macintosh, PalmOS, PocketPC, Symbian, Windows Mobile Smartphone, etc.

You can purchase and download e-books from eReader website, and read them through your device. There are also a number of classics in public domain available in PDB format for free. The purchased books are encrypted for safety.

5. Mobipocket PRC or MOBI

Mobipocket is a French software company that creates the Mobipocket Reader, which can be used to read e-books on your PDA or smart phone. The reader’s native format is PRC. The PRC format and Reader are supported under BlackBerry, Franklin eBookMan, PalmOS, Symbian, PocketPC, Windows Mobile Smartphone.

Mobipocket Reader gives you an e-book library for storing and managing all your e-books. You can edit the metadata associated with the e-books, such as author information, title, publisher, and rate e-books. You can transfer e-books to any of your PDA devices from your PC through a USB connection. You can also incorporate notes and annotations on your e-books and highlight any term. Also, the reader allows you to look up the definitions of any term easily through available dictionaries, which include Longman, Merriam Webster, Oxford, and others.

Conclusion

Those are the most popular of e-book document formats. There are also less popular formats associated with specific reading devices. However, since most readers recognize almost all formats, it is easy for users to read e-books in any reading device. The conversion and publishing of e-books on any of these formats is also easy with the help of specialized software.