Digital Book Reader

Analog at a glance
As a technology, analog is the process of taking an audio or video signal (in most cases, the human voice) and translating it into electronic pulses. Digital on the other hand is breaking the signal into a binary format where the audio or video data is represented by a series of “1″s and “0″s. Simple enough when it’s the device—analog or digital phone, fax, modem, or likewise—that does all the converting for you.

Is one technology better than the other? Analog technology has been around for decades. It’s not that complicated a concept and it’s fairly inexpensive to use. That’s why we can buy a $20 telephone or watch a few TV stations with the use of a well-placed antenna. The trouble is, analog signals have size limitations as to how much data they can carry. So with our $20 phones and inexpensive TVs, we only get so much.

Enter digital
The newer of the two, digital technology breaks your voice (or television) signal into binary code—a series of 1s and 0s—transfers it to the other end where another device (phone, modem or TV) takes all the numbers and reassembles them into the original signal. The beauty of digital is that it knows what it should be when it reaches the end of the transmission. That way, it can correct any errors that may have occurred in the data transfer. What does all that mean to you? Clarity. In most cases, you’ll get distortion-free conversations and clearer TV pictures.

You’ll get more, too. The nature of digital technology allows it to cram lots of those 1s and 0s together into the same space an analog signal uses. Like your button-rich phone at work or your 200-plus digital cable service, that means more features can be crammed into the digital signal.

Compare your simple home phone with the one you may have at the office. At home you have mute, redial, and maybe a few speed-dial buttons. Your phone at work is loaded with function keys, call transfer buttons, and even voice mail. Now, before audiophiles start yelling at me through their PC screens, yes, analog can deliver better sound quality than digital…for now. Digital offers better clarity, but analog gives you richer quality.

But like any new technology, digital has a few shortcomings. Since devices are constantly translating, coding, and reassembling your voice, you won’t get the same rich sound quality as you do with analog. And for now, digital is still relatively expensive. But slowly, digital—like the VCR or the CD—is coming down in cost and coming out in everything from cell phones to satellite dishes.

When you’re shopping in the telecom world, you often see products touted as “all digital.” Or warnings such as “analog lines only.” What does it mean? The basic analog and digital technologies vary a bit in definition depending on how they’re implemented. Read on.