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The recent Consumer Electronics Show piqued a lot of interest. Eighteen new models
of e-book reading devices on display means the manufacturers think a lot of people will be reading e-books.
With the admonishment of "either you keep up or you'll fall hopelessly behind" ringing in my ears
I thought it time to dip a toe into the great digital pond, so I set out to research e-book readers.
Which device was the simplest to use for someone with a moderate knowledge of computers? I wasn't interested
in a gadget that could read the book to me or play music - I just wanted to read a book. Confident
I could gain this information from the internet, I searched "e-book readers".
What I found was enough to fry my cranial circuitry. If e-reader manufacturers and e-book websites
selling dedicated readers want to lure customers over the age of 40, they'll have to take a page
from The Plain English Movement. For the uninformed, The Plain English Movement pushes to have legal
documents rewritten so they are understandable by the average person. In the electronics world, that
would translate to less geek-speak, please.
On the first website I searched I found a list and reviews for nine e-readers. One column heading caught my
attention immediately--"wireless". Red flags went up. How would I purchase an e-book
for that model?
As I continued reading, another problem reared its head. One notation said "No Wireless Fee: Yes".
Did that mean a wireless fee or not? When I checked the next e-reader review that specific comment
read "No Wireless Fee: No" Again, is there a wireless fee or not?
To narrow down my search I settled on two e-readers and did some in-depth research on them. The
wireless issue was critical because I needed to know what that meant for me - possibly the only person
in the world who still doesn't own a cellphone.
Reader "A" listed a 3G wireless connection in their specifications. What is 3G? I searched the net
and found that 3G or 3rd Generation--
Total intimidated, I went back to their forum and searched "connect by computer" and "download e-books by
computer". The postings that popped up included terms like Core FTP Pro v2.1.1635 and Bluetooth, as well
as integrated 1080p full HD encode and decode. I needed someone to decode the entire posting! Nowhere
did I learn if I could purchase and download an e-book with my computer. This was not the e-reader for me.
Reader "B" listed a long string of features that sounded appealing until I came to "free wireless via AT&T and Wi-Fi ( 802.11 b/g)". I do not use AT&T and Wi-Fi means wireless to me.
I turned to their forum for help. There I learned about "sideloading". That was a new term, so back to the search engine to find out what it meant.
Upload and download were terms I'm familiar with so I was a bit heartened. Back on the forum
I found a query that seemed to answer my question: Can I download to a computer and then somehow download from computer later?
The answer, while not direct, indicated that indeed the e-books could be downloaded to a computer and then to the e-book reader.
The process took about four hours to solve a question that should be addressed in the specifications of the e-reader.
E-reader marketers, please take heed -- less geek-speak, please.
The author of this article wishes to remain anonymous.
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