Newfangled electronic book readers, such as the RCA REB1100, have been popping up lately on the market--all trying to become the next digital fad.
But for owners of Pocket PC devices, there is a cheap and easy alternative. By using the Microsoft Reader e-book format, standard on the devices, users can turn their PDAs into very serviceable e-book readers.
The Microsoft format might well be an ideal way to handle not only your favorite novel or nonfiction text but also reports and large documents from work. There are an estimated 1.5 million Pocket PCs in use, according to research firm IDC, so the audience for such books could be large.
Microsoft Reader offers several advantages over some other e-book formats. One is color highlighting; because most Pocket PCs sold in the U.S. are color units, highlighting appears in color, making it easier to find annotations. Another is size: According to Microsoft, Reader-formatted files can be 70% to 80% smaller than equivalent Pocket Word files. Having smaller files, of course, means you can fit more of them on a device.
Unlike the RCA eBook product line, the Microsoft Reader format is "open" to the extent of offering conversion/publishing tools to end users. This enables them to put documents into the Reader format, something unavailable with the RCA product.
The Reader also incorporates a Microsoft technology called Clear Type, which renders characters in a very easy-to-read font. The size can be scaled up or down, and it's easy to select such an option.
There is, for now, one major drawback to using Microsoft Reader on a Pocket PC: Because the two products have had different development cycles, the hand-held version of Reader lacks a security feature that would let you download and read some titles, such as Stephen Ambrose's history of the transcontinental railroad, "Nothing Like It in the World." If you get the Reader software "client" for desktop or notebook PCs, however, the extra security is there.
Mario Juarez, a group product manager at Microsoft, said the company is preparing a software "patch" for the Pocket PC that will let users read digitally secured titles such as Ambrose's epic. Such added security is needed to make sure books aren't pirated and peddled, Juarez said. No date is set for the launch of the patch, he said, but it should come out this year. (The next Pocket PC will have the proper e-book security, he added.)
