The Franklin Digital Book System (DBS-1) is a palm-sized, 4.6-ounce, 16-bit computer with a 5-line LCD screen. It feeds on "Digital Books" - plug-in, matchbox sized, read-only memory cards. Each book holds up to 45 megabytes of digitally compressed information, equal to the text of 10 Bibles. In short order, said David, books will be available in categories such as entertainment, cooking, gardening, foreign language and science.
Two of Franklin's cards can be installed simultaneously, snapping into slots in back. The books can then be read in turn or together in a cross- referencing fashion that's easy to learn and efficient.
For example, you might want to use the Matchmaker function in the Merriam- Webster Dictionary Plus to help you fill in the missing letter blanks of Hangman, one of 10 games in the Word Games electronic book. (Both cards are supplied with the DBS-1, carrying a $199 list price tag.)
Doctors will want to carry a Digital Book System loaded with both the Physicians Desk Reference and the Manual of Adverse Drug Interactions. Cross- referencing this combination, a doctor can be certain a medicine he or she is about to prescribe to a patient won't cause negative reactions in tandem with other medicine the patient is taking.
Sony has been marketing an optical disc-based electronic book system for more than a year called Data Discman. Recently, that system has been updated with models that can reproduce sounds through an earphone or external speaker, as well as put text and graphics on a screen.
Sure to confuse matters more, Sony is readying a second, incompatible portable system that works with CD-ROM XA-formatted computer discs for more advanced multimedia applications.
