E-book Timeline

By kswan3
  • Alan Kay and the Portable Library

    Alan Kay and the Portable Library
    The Dynabook is what this innovation would be called. The Dynabook was supposed to be a portable kids library. Unfortunately, technology was not advanced enough for Kay to go through with his idea.
  • Project Gutenberg

    Project Gutenberg
    Project Gutenberg was the first electronic library to exist. The electronic library was invented in 1971 by Michael Hart. Michael Hart wanted to create an electronic library that held culutral works in order to advance ebooks.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqBM12DB014
  • The Alto

    The Alto
    The Alto was the first notebook sized computer. The first models were introduced March 1, 1973, but the first one did not become operational until April. As one can see, this was what the first laptop looked like. It would be equivalent to the average size of a desktop computer.
  • The Grid Compass Computer

    The Grid Compass Computer
    The Grid Compass Computer was created by William Morridge. A long with the creation of the first laptop system, Alan Kay's Dyabook was finally created and manufactured by Toshiba in 1986. The Grid Compass was released in April 1982
  • Superbook Software

    The superbook software is yet another innovation that enhanced e-book. The superbook consisted of preprocessed text and turned the text into a formatted searchable book. Superbook allowed for its users to create annotations on the books they were reading. (This invention was created in 1987, but I cannot find the exact date.)
  • Rocket eBook Reader

    Rocket eBook Reader
    The Rocket eBook Reader was designed to be the size of a paperback book. The reader had up to 17 hours of reading. The device could hold up to only ten books with an approximately 4,000 pages. (Also, I could not find the exact release date, but I have the year.)
  • Sony Portable Reader

    Sony Portable Reader
    Sony launched the new portable reader, as well as, they launched a connect ebook store with over 10,000 books.
  • Amazon Kindle

    Amazon Kindle
    When the kindle was created, it could only have books that were found on the amazon web base. One cool thing about the kindle, it could have one book on up to six different kindle accounts. Also, with kindle, the books had to be downloaded from a computer through the use of a usb cord.