The Rocket eBook is an early commercial handheld
e-reader
An e-reader, also called an e-book reader or e-book device, is a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals.
Any device that can display text on a screen may act as an e-re ...
that was produced by NuvoMedia in late 1998; it uses a
LCD
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but i ...
screen and can store up to ten
e-books
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...
.
E-books
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...
are loaded on the device by connecting it to a computer and the device has two page turn buttons. Rocket-compatible e-books were sold online at
Barnes & Noble and
Powell's Bookstore. It had a retail price of $499.
The Rocket eBook was manufactured by NuvoMedia until 2000, when it was purchased by
Gemstar-TV Guide International for $187 million.
[Hossein Bidgoli. ]
The Internet Encyclopedia
'. John Wiley and Sons, 2004. p. 790. After purchasing NuvoMedia and merging it with
SoftBook
SoftBook was one of the first commercial handheld e-readers produced for reading e-books that released in 1998 by SoftBook Press, Inc. of Menlo Park, California.
Overview
The SoftBook, designed by IDEO and Lunar Design, featured a brown le ...
, Gemstar released an e-reader called the RCA eBook Reader.
NuvoMedia
On April 15, 1997,
Martin Eberhard
Martin Eberhard (born ) is an American inventor, engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla, Inc. (then Tesla Motors) with Marc Tarpenning in 2003. Eberhard served as Tesla's original chairman, and its CEO until late 2007. In 2015, he was i ...
and
Marc Tarpenning
Marc Tarpenning (born June 1, 1964) is an American engineer and technology entrepreneur who is the co-founder of Tesla Inc. with Martin Eberhard in 2003. Tarpenning served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Vice President of Engineering ...
founded NuvoMedia to make a product that could benefit from improving battery size and settled on designing an electronic book reader; the resulting Rocket eBook e-reader sold 20,000 units in 1999.
References
External links
"The Tale of Rocketbook – The very first e-reader" Good E-Reader, 2018
{{Ebooks
Dedicated ebook devices
Electronic paper technology
Electronic publishing