History of e-books: Firstborn
Hello, Habr.
I have long been familiar with electronic books, almost 6 years. In general, I am a fan of this movement and have been using them since 2006.
Few of those who like to read know that before the heyday of the E-Ink era, there was another generation of electronic books. It starts with a unique product released by NuvoMedia in 1998, the model Rocket Ebook.
Nicknamed “Rocket” in the CIS, the Rocket Ebook largely defined the book distribution model and showed that technology can provide an alternative to almost everything.
I ask everyone for cat.
Specifications, perhaps today will not impress anyone:
In memory of the coolest modification of the Rocket (with 32MB of memory), there were about 30 books at a time, which at that time was a very cool indicator. The portable class was only then being born, and this device was considered quite light.
A solid, even by today's standards, work time was provided by a huge battery that weighed about 300 grams (it was assembled from 6 segments the size of an ordinary finger-type battery).
Communication with a PC was carried out either via infrared or via a COM port through a cradle.
It also charged the built-in battery (it can be directly through the plug on the end of the device).
To place the content in the device used a special program Rocket
Librarian.
Especially for the Rocket, one of the first electronic formats of RB books was developed, based on HTML markup, it favorably differed from the most common TXT at that time by the presence of styles and support for simple illustrations (they were restricted by the RocketBook software itself, which only supported two-bit monochrome drawings)
Nowadays, this format can still be found in two libraries: Aldebaran and Bukland . In principle, there are several different applications for the preparation of RB books: Ebukary and BookDesigner (http://www.bookdesigner.org/). The last program is just a monster of conversion, layout and text preparation and deserves a separate article.
The screen in the device is made by Japanese company Sharp. It is made in contrast to the modern TFT monochrome readers. Among the fans of the book of that time there are legends about the contrast of the display, but at the moment it is much inferior to the latest generation of E-Ink. But the book has a clear advantage - a relatively uniform white light. It is necessary to read with the backlight on, but a wide range of adjustment makes it comfortable to read even in complete darkness. The cool feature of the book is that it can be used as a flashlight when you get to the toilet at night :).
Those who are interested can use the Rocket emulator, which will allow to fully appreciate the software functionality of this book.
Download link. You can download the same files on this archive .
')
The book was published from 1998 to 1999. In 1999, NuvoMedia faced the problem of lack of content, and was absorbed by GemStar.
I will cite a slight squeeze from the 2002 article on the situation in 1999.
In the meantime (we did not know about it) NuvoMedia almost exhausted its funds and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Growth in sales of devices and content was too slow to encourage investors. Rocket eBook was a breakthrough (comment of the translator: today, September 2002, this device remains the best, apart from the MyFriend mentioned below, which is ~ 8 times more), and the community around the device has already got stronger, but the company did not manage to solve the chicken problem and eggs: too few devices on the market will force publishers to prepare texts en masse. Too little content reduces the attractiveness of devices for buyers. Investors one after another lost faith in the company. By this time, the despondency reigned on Wall Street, and the only way out was to sell NuvoMedia to a large company as a means to get their money back. Full article
This ended the era of the Rocket, but almost the entire company remained to develop the product further. In 2000, the model was released REB 1100, characterized by significantly reduced weight and improved performance.
In the next article I want to make a full review of this model, which I own.
Sources:
Jim's homeplace
The ebook
Personal experience
Special thanks I want to express
Alexander Kovalev, Andrey Sanjur and my parents, thanks to whom I became the owner of my first e-book.
Vladimir Prohorenkov for his wonderful resource.
And of course, to all reading lovers from The-Ebook forum
I have long been familiar with electronic books, almost 6 years. In general, I am a fan of this movement and have been using them since 2006.
Few of those who like to read know that before the heyday of the E-Ink era, there was another generation of electronic books. It starts with a unique product released by NuvoMedia in 1998, the model Rocket Ebook.
Nicknamed “Rocket” in the CIS, the Rocket Ebook largely defined the book distribution model and showed that technology can provide an alternative to almost everything.
I ask everyone for cat.
Specifications, perhaps today will not impress anyone:
| Weight | 590 grams |
| Dimensions | 190x130x35 mm |
| File format | Own (* .RB) |
| Memory | 4-8 MB (up to 32 in Pro version) |
| CPU | Cirrus Logic ARM-7 |
| Nutrition | Built-in metal hydride battery |
| Battery life | Up to 40 hours |
| Communications | COM port (cradle), IrDA |
| Screen | Monochrome touch LCD, 480x320 pixels, 140 mm diagonal |
| Backlight | White, adjustable in steps |
| Enter information | Handwritten or via virtual keyboard |
| Russification | No official, free unofficial firmware available. |
| Service functions | Rotate the text at an angle of a multiple of 90 °, bookmarks, underline a piece of text, enter a comment, full-text search. |
In memory of the coolest modification of the Rocket (with 32MB of memory), there were about 30 books at a time, which at that time was a very cool indicator. The portable class was only then being born, and this device was considered quite light.
A solid, even by today's standards, work time was provided by a huge battery that weighed about 300 grams (it was assembled from 6 segments the size of an ordinary finger-type battery).
Communication with a PC was carried out either via infrared or via a COM port through a cradle.
It also charged the built-in battery (it can be directly through the plug on the end of the device).
To place the content in the device used a special program Rocket
Librarian.
Especially for the Rocket, one of the first electronic formats of RB books was developed, based on HTML markup, it favorably differed from the most common TXT at that time by the presence of styles and support for simple illustrations (they were restricted by the RocketBook software itself, which only supported two-bit monochrome drawings)
Nowadays, this format can still be found in two libraries: Aldebaran and Bukland . In principle, there are several different applications for the preparation of RB books: Ebukary and BookDesigner (http://www.bookdesigner.org/). The last program is just a monster of conversion, layout and text preparation and deserves a separate article.
The screen in the device is made by Japanese company Sharp. It is made in contrast to the modern TFT monochrome readers. Among the fans of the book of that time there are legends about the contrast of the display, but at the moment it is much inferior to the latest generation of E-Ink. But the book has a clear advantage - a relatively uniform white light. It is necessary to read with the backlight on, but a wide range of adjustment makes it comfortable to read even in complete darkness. The cool feature of the book is that it can be used as a flashlight when you get to the toilet at night :).
Those who are interested can use the Rocket emulator, which will allow to fully appreciate the software functionality of this book.
Download link. You can download the same files on this archive .
')
The book was published from 1998 to 1999. In 1999, NuvoMedia faced the problem of lack of content, and was absorbed by GemStar.
I will cite a slight squeeze from the 2002 article on the situation in 1999.
In the meantime (we did not know about it) NuvoMedia almost exhausted its funds and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Growth in sales of devices and content was too slow to encourage investors. Rocket eBook was a breakthrough (comment of the translator: today, September 2002, this device remains the best, apart from the MyFriend mentioned below, which is ~ 8 times more), and the community around the device has already got stronger, but the company did not manage to solve the chicken problem and eggs: too few devices on the market will force publishers to prepare texts en masse. Too little content reduces the attractiveness of devices for buyers. Investors one after another lost faith in the company. By this time, the despondency reigned on Wall Street, and the only way out was to sell NuvoMedia to a large company as a means to get their money back. Full article
This ended the era of the Rocket, but almost the entire company remained to develop the product further. In 2000, the model was released REB 1100, characterized by significantly reduced weight and improved performance.
In the next article I want to make a full review of this model, which I own.
Sources:
Jim's homeplace
The ebook
Personal experience
Special thanks I want to express
Alexander Kovalev, Andrey Sanjur and my parents, thanks to whom I became the owner of my first e-book.
Vladimir Prohorenkov for his wonderful resource.
And of course, to all reading lovers from The-Ebook forum
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/118851/
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