SoftBook was one of the first commercial handheld

e-reader An e-reader, also called an e reader or e device, is a Mobile computing, mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and Periodical literature, periodicals. Any device that can display text on ...

s produced for reading

e-books An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...

that released in 1998 by SoftBook Press, Inc. of Menlo Park,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, US.

Overview

The SoftBook, designed by

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and

Lunar Design Founded in 1984 by Jeff Smith, Gerard Furbershaw and Robert Brunner, LUNAR (Lunar Design) is a product design and development consultancy headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. The company's provides industrial, interaction and communicatio ...

, featured a brown

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...

cover which flipped back to give the device a more book-like feel, and was notable for its large 6 × 8 inch (15.2 × 20.3 cm)

touchscreen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

display which allowed you to navigate the

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

-based pages as well as highlight and draw simple notes on the pages. It could store approximately 1,500 pages (expandable up to 100,000), and claimed that the

rechargeable battery A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell (formally a type of energy accumulator), is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to a disposable or prima ...

allowed up to 5 hours of reading time. Use of the SoftBook did not require a

desktop computer A desktop computer, often abbreviated as desktop, is a personal computer designed for regular use at a stationary location on or near a desk (as opposed to a portable computer) due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuratio ...

or an

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

; it had an RJ11 telephone jack and internal 33.6 kbit/s

modem The Democratic Movement (, ; MoDem ) is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was establis ...

to connect with the "SoftBookstore" to

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar systems. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

books. Publishers included

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

Warner Books Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Kinney National Company acquired the New York City-based Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publis ...

, and others, and subscriptions to periodicals such as

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

, and

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

were available (which could be downloaded automatically overnight if users kept the device plugged into a phone jack). Users could upload their own documents via SoftBook's Internet

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

for downloading to their SoftBook. The SoftBook was the first device to comply with the

Open eBook Open eBook (OEB), or formally, the Open eBook Publication Structure (OEBPS), is a legacy e-book format which has been superseded by the EPUB format. It was "based primarily on technology developed by SoftBook Press" and on XML. OEB was released wi ...

specification, which was "based primarily on technology developed by SoftBook Press".

Specifications

Technical specifications printed on the back of the product box: *Weight: 2.9 lbs (1.3 kg) *Display: 9.5 inch (24.1 cm) diagonal, greyscale, backlit, touch-sensitive LCD, built-in protective cover *Capacity: 2 MB (1,500 pages), expandable to 64 MB with Flash miniature card (50–100,000 pages) *Modem: Built-in 33.6 Kbps

; download approximately 100 pages per minute *Power: Rechargeable

lithium-ion A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible Intercalation (chemistry), intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically Electrical conductor, conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are c ...

battery pack A battery pack is a set of any number of (preferably) identical Battery (electricity), batteries or individual battery cells. They may be configured in a series, parallel or a mixture of both to deliver the desired voltage and current. The term ' ...

. Up to 5 hours reading time (less than two-hour recharge).

AC power In an electric circuit, instantaneous power is the time rate of flow of energy past a given point of the circuit. In alternating current circuits, energy storage elements such as inductors and capacitors may result in periodic reversals of the d ...

adapter. Optional recharge cradle. *Reading tools: Sophisticated searching, bookmarking, hyperlinking, text markup,

stylus A stylus is a writing utensil or tool for scribing or marking into softer materials. Different styluses were used to write in cuneiform by pressing into wet clay, and to scribe or carve into a wax tablet. Very hard styluses are also used to En ...

for marking and highlighting. *System requirements: Analog

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

connection. AC power outlet for battery recharge. *Price: $599.95

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

(original MSRP), or $299.95 plus $19.95 per month for a 24-month "content package" contract (totalling $778.75) SoftBook utilized the and patents.

SoftBook Press, Inc.

SoftBook Press, Inc. was founded by James Sachs and Tom Pomeroy in 1996, and located at 1075 Curtis St., Menlo Park CA, 94025. Book conversion was managed b
The Lowe-Martin Group
of Ottawa ON. In 2000, SoftBook Press was acquired by Gemstar-TV Guide International, who also acquired its competitor, NuvoMedia (creator of the Rocket eBook), and merged them into the Gemstar eBook Group.Greg Sandoval.

References

External links

*
SoftBook at MobileRead Wiki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Softbook Dedicated ebook devices Electronic paper technology Electronic publishing