Alpha Education Books 2012

Proliferation of eBook Readers 

After two decades of experimentation with eBook formats and readers, the world moving toward eBooks and other digital content. Printing on paper and distribution to readers involves many layers of costs and environmental degradation that can be avoided with electronic distribution of information and entertainment. While desktop computers can offer luxurious accommodation - big screens, big keyboards, and big storage capacity, portability appears to be a big attraction. Many new portable devices  including lighter laptops, smaller net books, tablets, and a variety of smart phones have appeared. In 2010, Apple introduced its new iPad with a full color screen. Many competitive tables are being introduced in 2011.

We continue to have misgivings about attempting to read books on small screens. Even 15" laptop screens are confining. We know that people who attempt to read our webpage and books on smart phones cannot  enjoy the full benefit of our best efforts. They get a small sample of what offer. We use dual 25" monitors in our office workstations and enjoy reading WebPages and PDf files in full color. To us attempting to read meaningful text on a smart phone can become an exercise in frustration.

Persona Online eBooks are  downloaded as Adobe Portable Document Files (PDF) the standard for electronic document distribution worldwide. Adobe has provide free downloads of their PDF reader for many years. Most regular computer users already have Adobe's Reader installed and the reader is integrated into Microsoft's internet explorer. The program is updated regularly as a free service. Adobe PDF files are compact and can be shared, viewed, and navigated by everyone.

When you use the Adobe Reader, be sure to go the view menu and open the navigation bar (a left sidebar) click on bookmarks to see a table of contents for our books. This is collapsible menu that allows you to to find topics quickly and move through the book. You can also use the search ( find) function to look for keywords or phrases. Our books allow you to mark, copy and paste text. 

Proliferation of eBook Readers 

Amazon's Kindle  is a leader in the monochrome, paper-like display screen that has evolved quickly into  affordable and versatile devices Amazon provides eBook downloads  via wireless connections.  The latest Kindle has a built in PDF reader.  You can send PDF documents via your @Kindle address or drag and drop PDF files from your computer to your Kindle (when connected via USB). The lKindle DX ( released in April 2010) has an 8-inch by 11-inch screen that displays our PDF books with all the formatting that we create. The smaller Kindle 2 show the PDF pages intact, but the font size is not scalable and is too small to read.  

Amazon offers online and wireless document services via whispernet: "Each Kindle has a unique and customizable e-mail address. This allows you and your approved contacts to send Word, PDF documents, and pictures to your Kindle for a small fee. Kindle supports wireless delivery of unprotected Microsoft Word (DOC, DOCX), PDF, HTML, TXT, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI files. You can transfer personal documents to your Kindle via USB for free at any time."

Smart phones with internet access, reading and writing capabilities are becoming the new personal digital assistants. Several cell phones such as the Blackberry, iPod touch and Google's Nexus with larger, full color screens will display a microscopic version of webpage and eBooks. We hope that readers will study our books and to accomplish meaningful learning they need a larger format display.

One problem is the proliferation of eBook formats that are not yet compatible. The PDF format has a lead in presenting digital content worldwide. We bet that it will become a de facto standard for all eBook readers. At least, all readers will have to acquire the ability to render PDF files with formatting intact.

We offer two sources of eBook downloads:

1. The Alpha Online site is programmed  for physical shipments to the US and Canada. eBook downloads from Alpha Online can be ordered from these two countries.

2. Persona Digital online offers downloads to 40 countries. We encourage international  customers to order eBooks rather than print books. The cost of shipping books is increasing. eBooks are low cost with no shipping charges. Downloads are immediate. eBooks are portable and can be sent anywhere in the world with no shipping cost. eBooks can be read on all computers, laptops, notebooks, tablet PCs and some hand held devices. eBooks are a good way to review a book before you decide to buy a printed version. eBooks are printable,  you can copy selected texts and paste into a word processor.  A Free Copy of the book Self Care for the 21st Century is available as a PDF file for download.  Free eBook