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Review
Created:
February, 2000
Nothing like ending the day, changing into warm flannel pajamas and curling up into bed with a good electronic tablet.
A what? Actually, you will be hearing more and more of this, as electronic books such as NuvoMedia's Rocket eBook -- today's cutting edge -- join the mainstream.
On one hand, it is a really cool and convenient gadget, ending the need to lug around books. On the other hand, when reading classic works of literature on the electronic screen, the rustling of the turned page is replaced by the click of the button. You lose the ability to close the book and gaze at the front cover at a particularly stunning moment in the tale. Something is missing. There is something unholy about it for a bibliophile.
But there are real selling points to this technology. The Rocket eBook is handy and it's a sweet-looking gizmo. It comes bundled with three titles, and is sheathed in a snazzy leather holder. It is shaped like a slightly big Palm Pilot but weighs a little more. It features a stylus and operates with pull-down menus that any neophyte could navigate.
The back-lit screen is very configurable, offering various degrees of lighting and text both large and small. After reading Alice in Wonderland (an enclosed title) for an hour straight, no eyestrain was felt at all.
Aesthetics aside, there are definite advantages to reading a book in this format. Marking your place is easily accomplished with the stylus. Notes can be inserted anywhere through a point-and-click keyboard or in allegro format, where you use the stylus to write in each letter of the note on a little square screen.
Because it's searchable, finding text or items in the book is obviously easier than with a real book. The unit is accompanied by a CD and serial port connector for downloading titles off the Internet.
Publishing and media outlets clearly see the future. There is a great number of novels available for purchase in electronic format. Even more encouraging, NuvoMedia offers subscriptions to a variety of news services, including Bloomberg and The New York Times. Using software that you can download from NuvoMedia's Web site, you can also transform your own documents into Rocket eBook format, providing business reading on the go.
If there is any bah humbug element to this story, it is because this reviewer is not convinced the average individual is ready to throw away pulp and paper books and adopt electronic reading. But as a utility to scan various media sources and to review office documents on the go, this is great technology.
At $199 US ($349 Canadian), the base cost of the Rocket eBook is not horrendous. But current prices of top novels available in this format offer no vast savings over hard copies, despite obvious savings to the publishers.
The low cost of e-publishing, however, could mean that the Rocket eBook and its future cousins will inspire a slew of literature from authors ignored by traditional publishing houses. Their books could simply be downloaded online. That alone is reason to be encouraged by this technology.
Reviewer's
rating: 4.5 / 5
Comments: The Rocket eBook is only as good as your interest in the medium. Add-ons provide can provide some of the versatility of palm computers, however, giving you a powerful office aid at a very competitive price.
System
requirements: (For transfer of electronic titles) 486 processor or higher, 16 MB RAM, 6 MB disk space.
Price: $199 US, $349 Canadian
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Adding RAM is easy, 