A Tutorial on eBooks, Mobile Devices and eReaders

This is a guest post by Veronica Clyde.

You may be new to the world of eBooks and perhaps slightly confused at all of the eBook options out here.  However, this is clearly where the publishing industry is headed.  It’s time to take a crash course in eBook publishing 101 and how you can read eBooks using your Smartphones and Apple devices.

The eBook World and Big Names in Publishing

For starters, let’s consider what en eBook reader is, and how it is differentiated from a Smartphone device.  The top eBook readers include the Amazon Kindle series, the Nook Touch Reader or Tablet, the Sony Reader Touch, the BeBook Neo and the Kobo Wireless eReader.  However, eBook readers, which are mobile electronic devices, are primarily designed to read eBooks and magazines and not perform other tasks—such as popular Smartphone series like iPhones, iPads and Android-ready Smartphones.  It is speculated that in 2011, eBook reader sales worldwide rose to nearly 13 million.  In the lead were Kindle eBooks, followed by Nook (owned by Barnes & Noble). 

Another survey suggested that Amazon.com had the largest selection of eBooks for sale, and actually was twice as big as Barnes and Noble and even the Apple iBook Store.  (Not to mention Sony Reader Store and OverDrive)

Reading eBooks on Apple iPhones and iPads

Of course, if you already have an iPad or an iPhone, or any Android-compatible device, you already have the ability to read eBooks on your own multimedia system.  How so?

For Apple products, you can buy and download eBooks using the iBooks store.  It is available as an Apple-approved app.  As soon as you buy it, you can start filling your library with books.  Rather than HTML text, the pages actually look like book pages, and are colored and lit appropriately. 

The iBook store already has some 700,000 books available, and some books are actually free.  Users can also view the bestselling books or browse for an author or subject of interest.  The iCloud device lets you store all of your eBooks upon all of your platform devices; hence they are accessible from anywhere.  The iBook store lets you read PDF files, and organize your collection however you see fit.  Even better, there are special options included, such as the ability to highlight text, change colors, add notes and even look up words in the dictionary or from an Encyclopedia.  You can also search inside iBooks or hear your books read to you via VoiceOver, the built in screen reader.  The iBooks store works with all new iPads, iPods and iPhones. 

What About Google Android Phones?

Always competitive, Google has their own version of an eBook reader built into their Android OS. In order to read eBooks you have only to download the Google Play Books app (works with 2.2 or newer).  Once you install the app, you can start accessing the Google Play Store.  Just as with the iBooks store, the Google Play Books store offers free and commercial books, and lets you merely tap your way to the end of a book. 

You can save your place just by tapping and can resume where you left off my merely pressing the cover on the menu. You can swipe your way through, check your page number, search for specific text or even just to the table of contents. 

If you desire to change the font size, line height or alignment, this can be easily done with a few presses, not to mention brightness settings.  There is even a day and night lighting option.  Some more nice features with Google Play Store include sharing the book on your favorite social media sites, reading the book while offline and bookmarking your book wherever you would like.  There are two reading modes: flowing text (wrapped according to screen size) or original dimensions straight from a scanner.  You can change the viewing mode by selecting one of the two choices from the action overflow button at the top right corner.

Remember also that eBooks allow you to enjoy audio or video content as well as text.  The Android Google Play Books app lets you play content with just a tap, though it should be noted this feature is only available online.  For that matter, wireless Internet is recommended so that you don’t go over in 3G or 4G phone usage.  Lastly, the Google Play Books app also supports text to speech technology and thus can read aloud your eBook. You enable the TalkBack feature (found in accessibility settings) and then choose the book of choice.

It is important to understand all the major applications for eBooks, as eBooks are quickly becoming the easiest way to publish, buy and read books in the modern era.  Fortunately, with a smartphone, you don’t have to invest anything extra and can enjoy the function of a powerful multimedia device.

About the author
Veronica Clyde is a tech writer at VPNServices.net - a place where you can read reviews about the best VPN providers. If interested check out a Private Internet Access review.