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Have You Changed Your Opinion On eBook Readers?

Posted by Soulskill on from the indispensible-or-expensive-e-paperweight dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Kindle made waves when it came out, but they've now had the chance to calm. How many of you have been using your eBook readers since you've received them? How many of you forgot you had one, and how many of you swear by your reader? I like my single-purpose (well, dual — music player) Sony Reader because I actually use it to read, rather than multitasking myself to death. Is this technology as convenient and useful as you expected?" If not, what refinements or improvements would reKindle your interest?

8 of 569 comments (clear)

  1. Monospace Font for Technical Books by mmurphy000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Kindle, as I understand it, lacks a monospace font. Monospace fonts are rather useful for code listings and whatnot.

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    The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development
    1. Re:Monospace Font for Technical Books by Jaegar · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Kindle, as I understand it, lacks a monospace font. Monospace fonts are rather useful for code listings and whatnot.

      According to O'Reilly, the lack of the monospace is one of the roadblocks for getting more publisher support for the Kindle. I think that getting Safari Online for the Kindle would certainly be enough to get me to give the Kindle a shot.
    2. Re:Monospace Font for Technical Books by Pedersen · · Score: 5, Informative

      Check out the iLiad. I've been using it for the past month and a half now, and wouldn't dream of using something else. Oh, and I can use my download tokens from Safari to get the books, and put the PDFs onto the iLiad. Very very nice device and combination.

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      GPL made simple: What was my stuff is now our stuff. If you improve our stuff, please keep it our stuff.
    3. Re:Monospace Font for Technical Books by Anonymous+Psychopath · · Score: 5, Informative

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

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      Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

  2. How about no? by heptapod · · Score: 4, Informative

    If the books were printed on rag or something else that lacked acid then those tomes would certainly outlast their electronic counterparts. Over time books will become brittle and fragile because the acid is deteriorating the paper.

  3. Re:Only two sticking points for me by powerlord · · Score: 4, Informative

    Take a look at Baen's E-book publishing ( http://www.webscriptions.net/ ).

    They've been publishing their entire catalogue since 2001, the prices for the books are pretty reasonable, and the ebooks are available in several unencrypted forms.

    They even have a whole bunch of their older titles available for free ( the first dose is always free :) ) http://www.webscriptions.net/c-1-free-library.aspx.

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  4. Re:Only two sticking points for me by kickabear · · Score: 5, Informative

    1. Refresh time on turning pages. I know that it doesn't bother some people, but I do notice it. I'm told that it's getting better, though, and that gives me some hope. I've been reading a Kindle since the third day after release. I was annoyed by the page turn for about 10 minutes, and then my buffer adjusted. Most of us, when reading the last line on a page, skim the last few words of that line, and process it as we turn the page. With the slightly increased page turn time of the Kindle, I just had to learn to buffer a little more of the last line. Now, I don't even notice the page turn. Oh, and if you haven't tried e-ink for at least half an hour, you should do it before you compare your PDA/Laptop/SmartPhone to it. It's not the same. Not even close. I can stare at a backlit screen for about an hour before my eyes start to burn. I can read the Kindle for hours and hours and never get the slightest eye strain.
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  5. Ancient libraries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    While it's true that a lot of the ancient library was lost, much of it was not very good; a lot of the good stuff was saved. And there is much more than will fit on a single shelf, certainly! I have five or six shelves of it just in my office, and that's not nearly everything.

    Karen Carr, Dept. of History
    Portland State University