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If you are not tied to any specific type of DRM check out Hanlin V3 (or perhaps V9). Check this site for more info on both of them.

I bought V3 about a year ago and I am very happy with it. Bonus points: it does run linux (but there is some problem with releasing sources), it has SDK... But what is most important: there is the OpenInkpot project .

The Sony Reader can. As can the Hanlin eReaderand many more

then you could just buy a 300$ ebook reader, if you could use open source ebooks, you may start saving even in only 1 year.

It happens I've been building a contraption for a similar purpose over the past few weeks, in my spare time. (My own project is scanning paper books so I can DjVu them to read on my V3 book reader.

The structure I came up with is a hinged wooden frame with a wooden surface on one side, and a glass surface on the other. It hinges open at the top to sit at exactly 90 degrees, and the open book sits astride that. This allows the camera to photograph almost all the way to the spine.

By chance I took some photos of the frame itself last night (the wooden side and the glass side). I didn't photograph the cradle, as it wouldn't have the camera in it... The mirror is so I can see the digital camera screen as I'm positioning the book.

The camera (actually my cameraphone) sits inside the structure in an adjustable cradle - you can see part of the sliding mechanism on the wooden face. And a long handle (very crude) allows me to press the shutter release button.

Anyway, this is a very cheap and cheerful solution. I manage about 5-6 pages a minute (turning the pages is slow). The only problem so far is getting even lighting on the page surface. When I'm happy with the results, I'll probably put up a tutorial about how it's built and the software I use.

Read it yourself at mobileread.com. I made the cardboard version myself -- works fine after a little fiddling, as long as you don't need to copy hundreds of pages.

None of the 6" readers handle 'standard' PDF well, but that's down to the nature of PDF and it's reproduction of a page. The native formats are reflowable, so don't assume a particular page size. As for the 'proprietary' formats, Sony's include TXT & RTF! In addition there are a number of free/open apps to create & convert from other formats such as HTML, or MS Reader's LIT format - http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/PRS505#Supported_Formats.

I posted a blog entry with some pictures: http://camaelon.blogspot.com/2008/05/iliad-irex-pictures.html and a previous post about the iliad and other stuff: http://camaelon.blogspot.com/2008/04/iliad-irex-note-taking-and-hand-writing.html The Mobile Read forums are also pretty informative. On the capacity to annotate pdf, I think that's one of the great use case of the iliad -- you can easily read & annotate on the iliad, then transfert back the PDF+annotations, and merge them in a new PDF -- or even only create a PDF with annotated pages.

Here's a list.

On iliad you can annotate, but the method ain't perfect. See the end of this article for a review.

Regarding the price.. Iliad has a bigger screen and Wacom style touchscreen. And if you are a Linux user you can install apps that were already ported to Iliad.

2 places that I use: Library Thing http://www.librarything.com/ and Mobile Read http://www.mobileread.com/

Most of what you're asking for exists already. Here's a good reference I found: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix

- All are less than a pound
- If not using the wireless, most can last several days
- Treat them like a book (don't get wet, don't set on a hot stove, etc.) and they're as durable as a book
- Comfort is subjective, but at the weight and size all of these are, they're just like holding a book or more comfortable. Most interfaces for page turning look to be convenient, too.
- Wireless download, USB download or memory card storage. Sound as easy to use as any MP3 player.
- Most have a wireless option. Kindle seems to be the easiest, but it's also proprietary.
- Price is a major factor now. I think we'll see these drop drastically as they catch on. The content prices should drop as well.
- Not sure what you mean by your library supporting it. Content?

My main gripe is the same I've had with re-buying movies on DVD that I already had in VHS. It's the same movie; why do I have to buy it again? Why can't I just pay for the difference of the format and not pay for the content again? Likewise if I own all of these books, why do I have to buy them all again?

My ideal would be that I can take a reader, have it scan the barcode on my paper book, locate the digital version and offer me an "upgrade" price of $1 or $2 for the convenience of having it digitally.

Eventually every book will be in a digital format and inexpensive to get. THAT'S when I'll seriously look at a reader. I'll still keep all the paper books as collector's items. At least with a reader you never have to worry about tearing or staining that rare book just because you wanted to read it. I think comic book/graphic novel collector's would catch on to this as well so they could enjoy reading all those comics they can't touch.

Yes, KPDF is great. The Iliad runs linux and has many apps ported already. Maybe KPDF will be there someday. Unfortunately you have to ask for shell access on your own device...

Totally agree. The Bookeen is one of the best out there and the great guys at naeb cut a really good deal. Sub 400 bucks for a fully spec'd reader.

It has some software drawbacks which should be easily fixed, but it is so good I never use mine.... my girlfriend keeps hogging it.

Was actually thinking of getting another one from naeb.

I think a new firmware came out yesterday actually...
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23622s=711b5e61dc8d12879c69f74f85c4f217&

There'ss a pretty good comparison matrix of a bunch of eBook readers with links, including the iLiad, here.

ebook readers? sure.IRex iLiad rocks, an e-ink greyscale display linux tablet (@ 768x1024), with various linux apps ported as well as the usual ebook-reader style PDF and web page readers.

Amazon Kindle in particular? No. It's just low-spec compared to the iliad (and the iliad isn't particularly new anymore!), and while it may be "linux underneath", its primary purpose is reading DRMed files from amazon so it's pretty much worthless to me.

What's the battery life like on the Sony Reader? I'm thinking about getting one, but it's still kinda pricey right now. If they were under $200, I would buy one in an instant. I'm still seeing them for more like $300 right now, and I'm concerned that they don't really have a lot of storage space. I'd be carrying around a lot of reference books which are much larger than their stated average of 1.24MB per book. That could be a problem.

Built-in space is 190MB or so on the internal memory. It has slots for both Memory Stick Duo and SD Cards (not SDHC). So you could (in theory) use 8MB MSD cards and 2GB SD cards to hold additional books.

The caveats are:

- Having a SD card installed does measurably drain battery life, even when the unit is in standby. The MSD cards are apparently more thrifty with power and don't impact battery life as much.

- It takes time for the reader to load the directory on the flash memory card, sort it, and ready it for display. So for practical reasons, you may not want to have more then 50-250 books on a single card. This wait only occurs when you insert the card, not when you pull the device in/out of standby. I just bought a collection of 256MB and 512MB memory cards that I'm planning on using.

Using just internal memory, reading for 2 hours a day or so (figure 60-120 pages per hour), I'm managing to only drain the battery about 25% per week. I generally hook it up to recharge it whenever I get below halfway. Which happens about every 2-3 weeks. If I was using it with a memory stick duo installed, I might have to charge it every 1-2 weeks instead. Some SD cards might make that as frequently as once every 6-9 days.

See Mobileread.com forums if you want end-user opinions.

AIUI, though, the PRS doesn't do pdfs very well, right?

That's more of an issue of trying to pack a 8.5" x 11" PDF down onto a screen that is only a quarter of that size. Even with a 170dpi display, trying to view the PDF in portrait mode is going to be painful. The display is 3.5" x 4.75".

PDFs are not well suited for devices that are a different size then what the PDF was originally laid out for. Their primary use is to preserve physical formating and whitespace, not to encapsulate text in a easily reflowable manner (like HTML, BBeB, Mobi, or other ebook formats).

All that being said, you can press and hold the zoom key on the PRS to switch to landscape viewing mode. Then you can view the top/bottom halves of a PDF page at closer to full size resolution. It's still not perfect, but unless the screen was 600dpi and came with a magnifying glass (or was letter-sized and huge) you'd still have the same issue.

There are tools that can be used to convert PDFs into a more ebook friendly format (allowing the device to reflow the text correctly). Most of them are discussed over at:

MobileRead

• Forget about the DRMed Sony store, the premise is in content available otherwise. The Sony doesn't have the world's best PDF renderer, but there are freeware utilities which will render PDFs to Sony's native format and do a much better job (have a look around http://www.mobileread.com/forums/index.php). Text files work fine, and then you can resize the text to your liking. The Gutenberg Project and similar sites are great. There are also quite a lot of progressive publishers who will sell you non-DRMed files. Basically, just as in the music world, skip Britney Spears and buy from the people that will sell you stuff in the format you want.

• You won't believe how nice the ePaper screen is until you try it. It is just as comfortable as reading from paper

• You can fit a massive number of books on a decent size SD card. Actually, the limitation is more that it takes time to browse through the list of books.

• You do notice that it is still a new technology, the Sony PC program is a crap iTunes knock-off and not everything is as streamlined as it could be. There is also a lot of functionality that is still in the future (newspaper subscriptions, web-browsing etc.), but even for what it is today, eBook readers are great. If you are a book-lover on the move, by all means buy one.

As a reseller for Bookeen I recommend the Cybook. http://www.bookeen.com/overview/ebook-overview.aspx

As for reviews here is a link to the MobileRead Forum. http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=136

> You want to stay away from any proprietary
> technology (why? you shouldn't have to ask...)

> That pretty much immediately rules out the
> Kindle, and any thing Sony has ever made...
>(also, anything that requires books be in .lit
> format - microsoft reader, I'm looking at you!)

I thought the same thing about the Sony PRS-505, until I tried one. (This is coming from someone with a HATRED OF SONY.) It actually will work as an open-format reader. You can almost ignore that it's from Sony.

Check out the Wiki page at MobileRead.com that I edited: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/PRS505

It has all standard connectors on it, does not require Sony s/w to work, doubles as a card reader, and reads PDF, TXT, RTF, MP3, AAC, JPG, GIF, PNG, & BMP files. There are converters for many others (including .DJVU, .LIT, etc.)

OTOH, the battery life is falsely advertised by Sony, it slows to a crawl whenever it feels like it, and it is unable to find some files.

Still, it's what I picked, mainly because it was the most open one I could find to play with pre-purchase.

Andy

Why limit yourself to Kindle and Sony only? Have a look at E-book Reader Matrix at MobileRead Wiki to see what e-ink devices are currently available. I personally like Cybook Bookeen.

If you purchase .LIT files, you can strip the DRM using Convert LIT http://www.convertlit.com/, and convert them to Sony's format with libprs500. https://libprs500.kovidgoyal.net/

I'm uncertain of the legality of doing this (for personal use) in the US... see the DMCA exception on the convertlit legal page. Outside the US, check your local laws.

A good source of information is http://www.mobileread.com/.

If you want it for the reading experience, get the Sony.

If you want it so that everyone will think you're geeky, get the Kindle.

If you want it because you're truly geeky, get the Irex Iliad.

There's more information than you ever wanted to know about e-book hardware, software, formats, etc. at MobileRead

If you check the "customers" page on eink.com, you can see all the current e-Book producers and go to each site and check them out.

I have done this and I feel that the iRex Iliad is the top dog. You can read the specs here

Not counting the sweet ability to write with it using the built-in Wacom Penabled touch screen, here are some other plusses:

* It uses the 8.1 inch, 768x1024 pixel screen. All other e-book readers currently on the market use the 6-inch, 600x800 pixel screen.

* It claims 16 shades of grey (4-big). All other e-book readers are at 3-bit (8 shades)

* Decent Processing power with a 400mhz X-Scale processor

* Built-in wireless-G with support for 10/100mbs ether.

* IT'S HACKABLE! There appears to be an active dev community for it and even a sanction dev site

My OLPC just arrived today (less than an hour ago in fact) and I'm planning on using it as my eBook reader. But if I manage to 'outgrow' the OLPC as an eBook reader, the iLiad will be my next one.

Agreed on the 1150, I have one myself and love it. No, it's not e-ink, but it's certainly readable, you can adjust font size, and since I mostly read while laying in bed at night, I use the backlight pretty much 100% of the time - that's one of my first requirements in any reader. The nice thing is, reading in the dark allows me to keep the brightness and contrast fairly low, so I get 20+ hours on a charge. Well...the last couple hours are kind of like the last quarter tank of gas, but still... The Kindle does nothing for me. I don't need the wireless, though it might be great if you want to subscribe to newspapers on it...but I'd rather just have PC connectivity, I can load up a year's worth of reading in one session that way. If I was going to drop Kindle-like change on a reader, I think I'd check out the Sony and the Bookeen Cybook. If I was stupid rich, I'd even look at the iRex iLiad. And here's a useful link... http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17317

I looked at the Sony reader in Costco and the Kindle online.

The real nice thing about the E-Ink devices (Sony Reader, Kindle, Bookeen, ...) is the very high resolution and effective infinite refresh this makes it real easy on the eyes when you are reading for hours at a time.

The Sony is sleek and well designed, didn't like being locked into one store though. I ended up getting a Bookeen Gen3 and am very happy so far -- it weighs very little and looks much nicer than the Kindle. It supports the Mobipocket format and there are 20-30 online stores that have content; you will find some stores have books others do not.

If you want to be able to browse web pages or other interactive things and believe that's more important than a reader device then I suggest you look outside of the E-Ink devices.

If you value being able to search your e-books, something like the Kindle or other readers which have a keyboard may be better suited to your habits.

This matrix compares specs of most major readers out there. http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix/

Books On Board has a pretty good deal on Bookeen: http://www.booksonboard.com//

An avid reader of Sci-F, Fantasy, and the occasional Mystery.

-John

The sony device is bigger, but the screens are exactly the same size.

http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix

Have a look. Not a production version yet, but 1600x1200 6.7" should be more than adequate (for comparison, the existing screens are 800x600 6").

This is the one stop place for comparing all the different e-readers:

This one is more comprehensive than the matrix posted at Wired, which BTW looks as if it was a cut & paste from some parts of the above matrix

That said, I would need a device with larger screen than either the kindle or the Sony gadget.

Personally, the iRex iLiad looks really nice: 8 inch, 1024x768 screen, all the nice stats, and can read more formats + has wifi (!). Downside: costs $699. Still, it apparently browses the net too (amazon only allows limited browsing features). >

Nice to see linux across the board for all of them - even running lots of proprietary stuff. :)
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix

How are you supposed to quickly and easily load your current books onto the Kindle?

If it's a Mobipocket device then there's already convertors. PRC is the Mobi format and it's pretty widely used for non-DRM stuff. I have much of the Gutenberg ebooks in PRC for my phone. If ebooks ever take off then there's literally tens of thousands of ebooks on the torrents in every format from simple PDF/DJVu scans to various OCR captures. I'd say ebooks are about where mp3s were circa-1995 or so, hardware wise, before the HanGo and Rio came along and gave people a reason to put them on handhelds, and software distribution-wise about where mp3s were in 1999.

Why the hell does a READER have one third of its real estate covered by a keyboard, that will probably be used very rarely? I mean, how much typing do you do while you're reading a book? Bad design, DRM, horrendous pricing. I hope the post that showed it on the cover of Newsweek isn't a hoax, because this thing is the poster child for what an e-book reader should not be, and when it tanks hopefully Apple or somebody will be taking lots of notes.

Reading just PDFs off Google gets old fast unless you're really interested in 19th century Victorian travelogues. The best all purpose 3G-enabled multi-format ebook reader now with the best resolution is the Toshiba G900. It's a PocketPC phone with 800x400 colour screen. Because US carriers are loathe to offer any advanced phones besides Apple's, it doesn't seem to be subsidised. Google says it costs $600-$800 unlocked. There's a couple of HTC smartphones Athena, (640x480, $900!) or Universal (640x480, $200-$600 on eBay). The Universal has a lot of different OEM names. If you restrict yourself to non-3G carriers, and want to leech off WiFi, why not just get an EEE or a Nokia tablet? Cheaper, better screen than most phones, and more flexible. Hacking the ip[hone repeatedly is a bit like the entire PSP debacle. Too much time spent noodling with exploits, not enough time spent developing apps. Sure next year migth be different, but won't there still be signed apps? And you'll have missed out on real ebook reading for months and months.

Here's another closeup: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=7343&d=1195464957

If you still don't believe that the leaked FCC photos depict the final product (some say it's hideous), check out next week's cover of the Newsweek: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=7336&d=1195413957

"When I can buy a cheap laptop for $399.00 that does more then an e-reader, why in hell would I spend the money for an e-reader?"

Because until the Asus EEE came along, no laptop in the world could do what an e-reader does: wheigh less than a pound. This is important.

That's not to say the price of e-readers couldn't and shouldn't be lower. I've always felt 50 USD was the sweet spot. You can get an e-reader for about 110 USD (shipping not counted), and Sony had a deal until two weeks ago where you could get their Reader for the price of 50 USD plus your soul. (The soul bit entailed applying for their credit card.)

I bought a Sony Reader here are the bullet points-

1. Great to have hundreds of books at the press of a button.
2. Easily navigatable.
3. The 6 inch screen is a bit too small for reading technical pdfs (long equations, detailed graphs etc) even in landscape, if you really have to have that you want an Irex Iliad $650 (£468 in the UK)
4. Can be read in direct sunlight, great for beach reading.
5. Contrast is not fantastic, reading black on light grey not white, there is a tool on MobileRead called RasterFarian that helps with pdfs, but I've found the best solution to copy the text of pdfs out of Adobe Reader into Open Office Reader, reformat the page to 9cm x 12 cm and change the font to Arial Black 11 or 12, the formating might be a bit messy but I can read it low light conditions easily and it only takes about a minute to convert a whole book.
6. Overall I'm glad I got the Reader, if the Iliad was cheaper or I could have expensed one I would have prefered it for technical pdfs.

I would really rather have an EBook reader, say as opposed to read pdf or txt files in a computer. The thing that would make me buy it would be: - decent screen that doesn't kills my eyes (after already spending the whole day programming); - battery life measured in thousands of pages; - a form format that is suitable for reading. - easy to get it to work with Linux The form format of the screen is a bit of a problem with something like the XO. The screen brightness could also give me trouble. [...] About screen size, the only ereader with something more than 6" is this iRex illiad. But it costs around $700 :-( And it has DRM all over :-(( I am, however, eagerly waiting for the Hanlin v9, which will have 10", and can be easily used from Linux. But there is no info on the pricing yet. [..] BTW, this is a good summary of the EReader market http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix Cheers

I don't really understand why the Sony Reader isn't more popular. It's infinitely nicer reading text on the reader than it is trying to read it on a laptop. You can use the reader outside in direct sunlight and the screen is clearer than in dim lighting conditions. And unlike a paperback (otherwise the superior medium) you can carry thousands (literally) of texts in a pocket and still move.

I own one and use it constantly for reading project Gutenberg texts (pre rendered for the device and downloaded from http://www.mobileread.com/ and http://manybooks.net/ ). Like any early generation device, it has some rough spots, but none of them seem sufficient to explain its relative unpopularity.

For me it would attain perfection if O'Reilly integrated it with their Safari online technical catalogue so that I could replace my physical technical bookshelf (now approaching critical mass) with something a little more portable.

Rumors are flying around that Amazon is going to release their own e-ink device any day/week now. A version of it went through the FCC a while ago since it might have a wireless modem in it. It will probably be more expensive than the Sony, but might have the ability to download newspapers and magazines directly.

Bookeen is coming out with their own device any day now that's really similar to the Sony reader but will use different file formats. They all read RTF, TXT, etc... but if you want to buy a new book, it's likely to have DRM in the file. The DRM file format that the Sony uses is different from the DRM files that the Bookeen and Amazon Kindle will use.

The Iliad is bigger and can render letter size PDF files without the hassle of the smaller devices. It has wifi and a writable screen that you can take notes with... but it's supposed to be slower and more than twice as much money.

I want one really bad, but I'm waiting to see what Bookeen and Amazon finally release before I throw down my cash. Sure they're all kind of expensive, but you can load up with free classic books from Project Gutenberg and you'll save money in the long run (if you read a lot and are too lazy/busy to make trips to the library).

http://www.mobileread.com/
http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/11/amazon-kindle-meet-amazons-e-book-reader/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/03/kindle-edition-books-appear-on-amazon-reader-launch-imminent/
http://www.bookeen.com/
http://www.irextechnologies.com/

gf, sex tapes, drm, and backdoor access to FBI agents.

I got nothing. Need Benny Hill.

It's not going to happen, sadly... The Zaurus is dead even in Japan.

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t= 9443

I got a Sony Reader for Christmas, and I'm really loving it. http://www.mobileread.com/ has some excellent forums (first link in the bar below the header) where there are quite a few people who own the Reader, Irex's Iliad, and other eInk devices.

Granted, the Connect software is not the greatest, and they have a limited selection of books (they were giving out a $50 store credit with purchase/registration of a Reader, not sure if that's still in effect), but http://www.manybooks.net/ has a good chunk of the Project Gutenberg content, already pre-formatted for the Reader and a bunch of other ebook devices.

Also, the Reader is $350, and another $50 if you want the docking cradle. It comes with a soft cover, though you can buy others in colors (the standard one is black).

Check this forum for a few reviews: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php? f=101

You need Windows only if you want to buy the books from the Connect store. If you don't, just drop your PDF/RTF/TXT/MP3/pictures on the SD card - Reader will happily display them. It only needs a little time to index the file on the first opening and Connect software can do that faster if you use it to transfer files onto the device, but it's absolutely not required.
See here: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t= 7713

Reader is not Librie and it DOES support PDF, RTF and TXT natively. See this extensive report for details:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t= 7713

build in.
The Sony does not have a pen-interface, AFAIK.
That's a lot of additional potential for the Iliad, let's see if their software leaves beta soon and whether they provide us with an appropriate SDK...

For Iliad-Discussion from iRex see forum.irexnet.com
For more independent info on both products see http://www.mobileread.com/ .

build in.
The Sony does not have a pen-interface, AFAIK.
That's a lot of additional potential for the Iliad, let's see if their software leaves beta soon and whether they provide us with an appropriate SDK...

For Iliad-Discussion from iRex see forum.irexnet.com
For more independent info on both products see http://www.mobileread.com/ .

You still need to be "invited" to get to the online order page. Invites can be found here at http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t= 6927.