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Ivan Petkov

With the advent of television in the last century, but especially with the widespread access to the Internet in recent years, the book seemed to give way to much more exciting and interactive entertainment, including three-dimensional technology, combining all types of media - text, sound and picture, but with the emergence of devices such as tablets and smartphones - handling everything listed with fingers.

But wait, do not rush to check off the good old book! It also undergoes its evolution, its transformation and synchronization with modern technology! If you are an avid reader, but have never heard of the e-book, there is much to catch up. These devices are not new, nor are unavailable. Even on our latitudes, you can see someone reading an e-book on the tram, bus, on the beach, pool or when drinking their morning coffee at a favorite café. E-books are files in a specific format, which can save text and image by resembling its original parent - the traditional book. E-readers of electronic books are even lighter devices with not very large screen - 6 or 7 inches diagonal (approximately 15 or 18 cm) and most often they use technology called e-ink - electronic ink which allow the display of letters and illustrations from the books. The advantage of e-ink is that it is very economical for the battery, making e-books very durable and they give the owner up to 200 hours of reading time. Moreover, the lack of active lighting on the screen spares the eye. The disadvantage is that the illustrations are black and white or rather in shades of gray. Of course, technology does not stand in one place and currently developing are active color screens which will combine the advantages of e-ink, but at the same time will transmit also color. Many e-book readers come with the option of listening music, and some offer even Internet browsing.

The emergence of tablets made many market watchers of such technological products to wonder whether the new devices, which combine much more functionality, including the ability to read e-books, will replace the traditional e- reader. In order to keep pace with technological developments, the giant in selling e-books, Amazon, recently released its tablet under their very popular brand Kindle - Kindle Fire. Before them the big publishing house Barnes & Noble released its tablet Nook Color. The race was joined also by the Canadians and the chain bookstores Kobo, with their Kobo Vox. For the curious and technical knowledgeable readers, we provide a table of technical characteristics of the three electronic readers:

Undoubtedly, the Amazon tablet comes from the most popular and great website for electronic books. Kindle Fire is based on Android, but the operating system is specially modified for the new device. With the purchase of this tablet users will have access to all Amazon services, the things they have already bought, and one month free service Amazon Prime.

Along with the tablet presented was a new browser, based on the cloud technologies designed to accelerate mobile web browsing - Amazon Silk.

Amazon tablet is totally bound to the website of the company and therefore it does not offer access to the Android market, but to their own application store - Amazon Appstore for Android. The price of the tablet was announced as unprecedented, lower than the estimated cost of 250 US Dollars, the same price as the competitive Nook Color of Barnes & Noble.

The technical characteristics of Kobo Vox are close to those of the Amazon tablet and the price of the device is the same as Kindle Fire. In contrast, however, Kobo Vox will provide full access to Android Market, which means that Amazon customers will be able to use Vox thanks to the application Kindle App. In addition, users who prefer the Canadian tablet can use Nook App, Aldiko, and all other programs for electronic books reading in the operating system Android.

The name of the tablet comes from the Latin "Vox Populi" - "Voice of the people" and Kobo Vox has emerged as the first multimedia device, integrated with the new Facebook Ticker (which allows users to see real time everything their friends post in social network – games they are playing, music they are listening, movies they are watching and etc.) and the upcoming Facebook Timeline - new visual profile of accounts that allows tracking of user activity over the years.

We see that the two new proposals, Kindle Fire and Kobo Vox, are more than worthy competition for Nook Color, which until recently was the only specialized tablet with a color screen and Android operating system. What will the competitors offer us? Apple prepares its iPad 3 which has a larger screen, but significantly higher price. On the other hand, the market is flooded with 7" Tablet models with Android, but they have higher prices than the ones mentioned in this article, but those tablets are multifunctional, without any software or hardware limitations.

The choice is very big and perhaps a bit difficult. However, if you are a passionate reader and want to carry your books in one compact device, e-readers are the right thing for you. Now with color screen and more features!