Posted by
timothy
on from the one-that's-out-next-year dept.
jacob1984 writes "A few years ago there was a question about which e-reader was the best. Since then, the market has beenfloodedwithnewadditions, many of them more open than others. Have you bought one yet? If so, which one did you find best and why?"
Reads all file formats, browses the internet at hot-spots or anywhere with add-ons, variable brightness, 32-bit color, access to free bookstores (The Pirate Bay being the most popular free store) and much more functionality that one couldn't eke out of small overpriced pieces of shit like the Kindle or -- ha HA! -- the iPad.
It's too damn heavy. I use a nokia n800 some but the screen is a little small. I'm eyeing the iPad. It looks like it's close to what I want and the wifi one is not too pricey. It may be a little big though.....must research more.
Re:Answer:
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 5, Insightful
other than page refresh time, I would go to a best buy and spend 10 minutes with an e ink display. you will be surprised at how easy it is to read such displays.
plus many have variable font sizing so you can use the really large text.
-- i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Re:Answer:
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Where can I get one with e-ink that weighs half a pound? Thanks.
Pirate Bay is the best source for books? I don't think so. Project Gutenberg is the best source for books, unless you want technical manuals--then it depends upon what you need. There seems to be plenty of public domain and creative commons sources for those. (linux documentation prj., freebsd, lightandmatter.com, etc...)
Or were you looking for modern teeny bopper crap? Just look for "fan fiction" sites (Halo is "wonderful"), or just about any site which allows teenage girls to publish a "book." But then, those aren't any better than the penny rags of yesteryear which are already in the public domain.
Plenty of free places to legally get books. Makes me wonder why you would mention The Pirate Bay. Did some publisher pay you to do that so they could create "proof" they need DRM?
Re:Answer:
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Interesting
e-ink is overrated. LCDs aren't that hard on the eyes and since I don't read outside I often find they are better.
No - its because its the best place to get books free. Not GP but tried Gutenberg and TPB has both a bigger selection and easier to download (i.e. 100 of books a time), also available in many diff formats.
And yes, a publisher pays everyone who has a different opinion to you - as part of a convoluted conspiracy to make slash-dot pro-pirate!
-- Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie.
From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
Any particular recommendations? I read a lot of conference and journal papers, and I obtain virtually all of them online; it would be nice not to have stacks and stacks of papers on my desk.
Heavy. No e-ink (with a nod to Zoidbot above, I like my eyes, thanks). Terrible battery life.
From what I can tell, the e-reader options out there right now are pretty terrible. But it's silly to suggest that there's not a niche for such a thing. I can tell reading papers is not in your job description.
... real men read their technical manuals on a 65" Plasma Screen
Meh; it's only 1920 x 1080. My laptop has more pixels than that, and at its usual distance while on my lap it subtends a larger angle than that plasma screen would if sitting on the back of my desk.
I'm not impressed by a physically big screens with low pixel counts. But I suppose if I had really bad eyes, I might consider such a screen (and sit really close to it).
-- Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Pirate Bay is the best source for books? I don't think so. Project Gutenberg is the best source for books, unless you want technical manuals--then it depends upon what you need.
Mildly off-topic, but for Project Gutenberg books I'd greatly recommend ManyBooks.net, they have most of the PG books available in multiple formats (and I *do* mean multiple, check it out) and with user reviews to help you find the better ones.
-- No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
I used the Nokia 770 for a long time as an ebook reader. I really loved it. The screen was excellent and the volume buttons were correctly placed for paging forward adn backward one handed and it was about the size of a thin DAW paperback from the 70's. For the price, how could you beat the 770? Great battery life, excellent screen, wifi, plenty of expandable RAM, oh yeah, and it was a real computer with other functionality as well. IMHO, the Kindle doesn't even come close.
I'm with you that the iPad is probably going to be the winner, just depends on the size and the otehr functionality.
My Verizon Droid is a fabulous ebook reader. Any book you can find on the net can be converted to open ebook format (.epub) with Calibre, not just ebooks the likes of Amazon or B&N want to sell you. An infinite library and it fits in your pocket. (It takes calls too.)
-- Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
This is my second post about this device in as many days... I suppose it was inevitable with the iPad announcement, but at risk of getting called a shill, google the Notion Ink Adam. It's a tablet with the Pixel Qi display. Supposedly, [hopefully,] it'll come out a couple months after the iPad and it looks pretty much perfect. In any case, it's the reason I don't have any kind of ereader yet.
Actually, my wife loves my Motorola Droid as an ebook reader in bed (Nexus would work great too). She shuts off the light, wants my light off too, but doesn't mind if I keep reading, using Aldiko on Android, since I can put the background color to black, the foreground color to dark gray, and turn down the screen brightness all the way.
Perhaps not as low eye stress as e-ink with a light on, but I didn't have to buy anything except the ebooks.
I don't know... I played with a Nook the last time I was in a Barnes and Noble, and the e-ink display really didn't impress me (the touchscreen interface was also terribly slow and unintuitive, but that's beside the point). I found that, just like a book - surprise! - it's horrible to read in poorly lit areas. Of course it didn't look like it would suffer from glare issues or related stuff you get from an LCD, but as a slashdotter I never venture into brightly-lit areas.
At least for me, a sufficiently high-resolution display is way better than fake paper. Maybe it's a generational thing. I've been using computers since I was about 4, which is going on twenty years and obviously almost my entire life; suffice to say, I'm used to reading lots and lots of text on computer screens.
That, and I'm becoming increasingly pleased with the quality of convergence devices. I hate to come off as a Mac fanboy, but it seems like the introduction of the iPhone really was a turning point for the quality standards of do-nearly-everything gadgets. Especially as someone who doesn't do a whole lot of (book) reading, buying a dedicated device for the purpose just doesn't make sense to me - I'd rather spend a bit more and get a single device that replaces several other things. For now, that remains a laptop - though I'll certainly recognize that even a lightweight 13" model (or even a netbook) simply doesn't have the portability factor that some are looking for.
-- How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
Re:Answer:
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Yeah, because it's out of the question to sit around reading from an LCD all day. You're liable to go blind doing something that crazy.
Oh, wait. 99% of people on this site have done exactly that since early adolescence. I guess e-ink isn't so all-falootin' important for sustained reading, after all.
Get over it. e-Ink is the deadest of dead-end tech. Once the post-iPad product generation comes out, nobody, but nobody, is going to spend hundreds of dollars on devices that can do only one thing well.
I'm holding out for the Notion Ink Adam...it's Android based, and uses a Pixel Qi display, which is basically an e-paper like screen that supports colour and video. You can turn on a backlight so it's like a regular LCD, or turn it off for e-ink style reading. Should be coming out in June.
Re:Answer:
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Anonymous Coward
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oh... I thought the iPad had iBlood.
Re:Answer:
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Anonymous Coward
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Oh wait, 99% of the people on this site have never tried to read an entire novel on their LCD screen. Of this 99%, 99% would cry in pain as their eyeballs melted from their cranium.
I can make up stats too!
Your right that ereaders are going to stop selling very soon, but not because of the iPad, because of newer colour eInk like technologies like Pixel Qi which have the ability to go "ereader mode" where the backlight is shut down sparing readers eyes, yet also have a "normal mode" where videos and quick refresh rates can been seen.
As someone who has been reading e-books since 1997 (palm et el), I have to say that I absolutely loathe e-Ink displays. The reason is cause, I mostly read in dark or low light conditions, and e-Ink fails here as do normal paper. I find LCD's with low brightness less straining than a Kindle, thus am looking forward to what Apple and possible competition would have to offer.
-- ...free your source and the rest would follow...
I don't think e-ink is overrated. Kindle lasts for literally DAYS AND DAYS of non-stop reading. I'm sure all the other e-ink readers work similarly. The drawback for e-ink is that it requires external like light a book does, but it really looks like you're reading a paper book. I just bought another Kindle two days ago because I sat on my other one. It was one of those canvas fold-out chairs... it didn't stand a chance. Sigh. Anyway, to actually be amazed by e-ink you have to see it in person. Ask your friends if they have e-readers, because watching it on YouTube or seeing pictures on Amazon's site or whatever simply doesn't do it any justice.
Re:Answer:
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Anonymous Coward
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(The Pirate Bay being the most popular free store)
I know you only wanted to sound l33t, but everybody knows that bittorrent is one of the worst protocols to transfer books or similar media. This because a book has very small size.
Believe me when I tell you, the *best* source of ebooks is gigapedia, which translates mainly into ifile.it, rapidshare and the like.
Borrow one of your friend's e-ink readers. The screen is like nothing you've seen before (except paper;), and looking at images/videos online of e-ink screens doesn't do them justice.
It really isn't. There's a huge difference between active - LCD and passive e-Ink. Not least that e-ink works in bright sunlight.
I read a lot - hours a day - and I really do notice the difference.
If you do download books from Gutenberg or ManyBooks you might like to consider giving a little back. This doesn't have to be financial - head over to Distributed Proofreaders and sign up.
Ssshhhh. Not so loud. I don't think that the marketing troll that invented this topic wanted to hear that.
Hint: think black turtle neck.
Now that's better.
-- Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
Re:Answer:
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
A hint: adjust the brightness of the screen until it is similar to the brightness of your environment. That is an effective way of preventing eyestrain (a.k.a. preventing your eyes from melting), because your eyes do not need to adjust constantly between the brightness of your screen and the light of your environment. With that and a good contrast and resolution (and the N800 definitely has both), your eyes will not suffer more than with an old-fashioned dead-tree book. At least that is my experience after reading several dozens of books in my N800 and several hundreds (probably thousands), on paper.
i switched to macs a long time ago because I got tired of fixing windows, and could never seem to get linux to support what hardware i was using at the time.
however i have been using computer for a decade more than you, and reading displays while don't get a headache, means I hav eto sit in some awkwad position or a desk chair which is only good if I am using a keyboard.
I want to be able to stretch out on the couch, or my reading chair to read many things. laptops don't work and existing tablets have crappy interfaces. the iphone did change things however like the ipod before it every one else seems to forget that it is the whole thing including interface that matters.
-- i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Re:Answer:
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Anonymous Coward
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I still use my PDA as an e-reader. (IPAQ HX4700)
The advantage it has over e-ink devices is that it can run in continuous scroll mode enabling totally hands-free reading.
Hands-free reading is great in the bath, in bed on cold nights and especially when sprawled and contorted over a couch.
Seconded. I use the European version (Milestone) for my eBooks (Mostly converted to plain text) with the program iReader. The 854x480 screen resolution makes for incredibly crisp text, and the text and background color options let you find a combination that suits your eyes, leading to absolutely effortless reading without tiring out your eyes for hours on end.
Obviously this would work on pretty much any smartphone with a relatively large (the Droid/Milestone is almost too large, IMO, but that just means less page turning), high-pixel-density (HVGA on ~3" will NOT cut it if you want nice crisp text and no fatigue) screen...
The main advantage here is that the damned thing fits in your pocket. If I wanted something the size of an actual eReader (i.e. something I need a bag for), I'd just carry around a paperback... Obviously if you're into e-ink you'll be more inclined to go the eReader route, but for me? I just don't see it...
I use my Lenovo X60t. It's an old model available on EBAY for like $400 now, but it is a full laptop and the screen rotates into a tablet (with wacom stylus) and it weighs under 3 lbs. It's not e-ink, but then again you can't do development on a kindle. So for its limitations, it is the best device for me.
The main reason I'll only buy e-ink displays is battery life. I would rather have a device that has 1 week+ of usable time than one that has to be recharged every 8 hours or less.
But at what point does the battery life stop being a bonus? The 10 hours (or was it more?) of reading you get out of an iPad or netbook aren't exactly problematic unless you're flying halfway around the world - and in that case, get a spare battery (there are external ones too, for the Apple users).
And why is it such a bonus that it "looks like a real book", when you could just get a _real book_? I'd rather have a device that I can use for things other than reading text, so that I don't have to carry around as much crud. Hell, if my tablet-PC ran for 24 hours straight I probably wouldn't even carry a cellphone... just the tablet and bluetooth headset.
Do days and days of battery life and a realistic emulation of the paper reading experience really outweigh the benefits of a far more functional device?
Not to mention that reading at night with someone sleeping in bed next to you or on the train or at the bus stop or on a plance is a lot easier and less disturbing to others without needing an external light source...
I also find a properly adjusted LCD very pleasant to read, especially with decent antialiasing on nice high-resolution screens. As someone who spent a lot of his childhood reading novels in paperback/hardback form (I think my parents actually spent more money on books than any other form of entertainment for me) and now reads exclusively on TFTs, I'd say the switch to LCD full-time doesn't really bother your eyes unless you crank that LED backlight up to 100% in a dark room every day... or buy glare-TFTs and try to use them outside.
My girlfriend is the same. A light and an actual book (a laptop display too, usually - although that may be because I tend to type on the relatively loud IBM keyboard when I'm using the laptop) bothers her, but my Milestone (white text on a dark grey background with the LCD turned down as far as it'll go is awesomely nice to read, IMO... nice contrast, and no strain) backlight is too small to be annoying:)
E-Readers are light. A lot lighter than books are, and of similar size.
The battery life is a bonus when you use it like a book - you keep it in your bag, and almost never take it out unless you want to read something. Rarely do you have to take it out just for charging the battery, and for me, that happens to coincide with wanting to upload new books.
More functional devices have their place too of course, but I often take my E-Reader places I wouldn't take any device that's larger.
Now if they'd only make them waterproof...
-- Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
ManyBooks.net will also format texts for the Apple Newton, which actually makes a pretty darned good book reader. I read an awful lot of stuff on my Messagepad 2100 before I got my Bookeen CyBook v3.
Agreed. In fact, business trips and vacations are the one place where the e-ink reader's hold their own. You can read on the beach. If you finish your book you can start a new one in 30 seconds.
I have the nook which I would give a 6.5 or 7 out of 10. I don't regret getting it but my expectations were too high.
Pros: great screen. color LCD at the bottom is nice (and after the most recent software update is starting to be useful). B&N library software is nice. I've got the same books on my laptop, my nook, and my phone. battery life is great light; no more carrying three or four books on the airplane
Cons: I originally was looking at ebooks as a place to store all those PDF reference documents and I thought I would never buy a hard copy technical or programming book again but there are three problems: 1. the nook is slow and search is useless and it's not easy to switch between multiple documents, 2. on some pdfs the text is so small as to be almost unreadable (I was trying to read the Symfony 1.4 reference books), and 3. so far B&N doesn't seem to sell many technical books in the epub format.
Neutral: The lending feature may be nice, but in two months I havn't used it.
Conclusion: the nook is a great vacation substitute for a stack of fiction novels but a bad reference library.
I too am trying to read technical books on an eReader.
Agreed, it's not very practical. There's a useless border wasting screen space, and the reflowing doesn't work on pages with figures and breaks formulas.
What the world needs is a working PDF to EPUP (HTML) converter.
-- Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
I have considered getting a big-screen television for book reading, but haven't heard of anyone actually doing it.
You could hook your computer up to the TV and use a joystick or something to turn the pages, then sit back in your easy chair and read with any font size you want and without having to hold the book in your hands.
Is there anything that I'm missing in this scenario that would make it not work well?
I don't watch television so the only reason for getting a setup like that would be for reading books...
-- If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
You do realize that PG hasn't been ASCII-only for several years now, right?
-- Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
The Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 5, Informative
By a very long mile. Great format support, including many open formats, great quality too.
Re:The Sony
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biryokumaru
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Plus you can mount it under Linux and just copy over your books. My wife has a PRS-500. It's a little slow, but it is one of the earliest models. Definitely the most consumer-friendly option.
-- When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
I find it very surprising that the most open eReader on the market today is the Sony. I always though that was one of the 7 signs of the apocalypse. They must be catching on to what consumers actually want.... I hope Apple is paying attention.
I've heard the Iliad is amazing, but I think it's about 700$.
I have heard similar praise of the iLiad. About Sony, though, look at the PS3. Until just recently, they actually went out of their way to make it possible to put Linux on them. If you ask me, you're right on about Sony knowing what the consumer wants.
-- When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
battery life of 2 weeks, easy to read, touch screen. 1000 apologies for coming off like a shill.
Re:The Sony
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WuphonsReach
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· Score: 5, Informative
I find it very surprising that the most open eReader on the market today is the Sony. I always though that was one of the 7 signs of the apocalypse. They must be catching on to what consumers actually want.... I hope Apple is paying attention.
Yeah, I was rather wary about buying my PRS-505 two years ago, but went ahead and took the plunge when they got below $300. I'm extremely happy with it as it does exactly what I want for leisure, cover-to-cover reading. Open formats, a no-DRM source of books (Gutenberg and Baen's Webscription), and the fact that it stays the hell out of my way when I want to read. Takes a few weeks for the battery to wear down and I keep 200-300 books on it.
I've averaged 1 book every week or two for the past 2 years on it.
Very much a no-muss no-fuss e-reader. Which is a key selling point.
-- Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
I find it very surprising that the most open eReader on the market today is the Sony.
Sony is a huge corporation. While the left hand is suing downloaders and rootkitting customers, the right hand is sneaking off and selling DivX players. I was pleasantly surprised to put a home-burned DVD with 720p mpeg4 avi movie in a PS3, and it just played!
And I must add - pick the one without touchscreen. It's not particularly useful for reading fiction books, anyway (and reading tech books on those things isn't very convenient), and it darkens the screen. Readers without touchscreen have noticeably better contrast, which means less eye strain.
I've owned an Illiad and a PRS-300 now, and the PRS-300 wins hands-down for reading books.
The Illiad was handy for taking notes, but really just wasn't up to snuff for heavy note-taking, and was generally slower than the PRS. The PRS also wins on price and battery life.
And, yes, Calibre is a must with Sony's.
Re:The Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Informative
Highly agreed. I have a 500 and my wife owns a 505.
Here's the thing tho, it all depends on your level of technical ability. If you're a Luddite the Kindle is the way to go. The ability to easily purchase content and have everything "just work" is great. But you pay for the ease of use with DRM (yes you can use non-DRM content, but then you're leaving behind the one benefit (ease of use).
Since this is/. I assume you're of the more technical readers. In which case you don't need the "click buy download" ease of use of the Kindle and in exchange you get much wider format support, better OS support, and a smaller form factor. Actually the new smaller Sony's are kind of cool too, and you can throw it in a jacket pocket.
Re:The Sony
by
minorproblem
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· Score: 3, Informative
Agreed, PRS-300 is probably one of the best e-book readers out at the moment if all you want to do is read novels front to back.
Why would you call the sony's "most" open? From what I see very few of the sony readers support any format but e-pub, the only readers that don't support that format is the kindle and Illiad. So it seams it is more open than those 2 e-readers. Sure it runs linux, like many others, but with only the 505 having a memory card it seams the least hackable of the many readers running linux.
The nook currently seams more open, it is fairly easy to hack, requiring only a micro-sd card, having wifi access, pdf access, and android having a SDK, easily the easiest developed for (once hacked.) But even un-hacked it is more open than the Sony, simply plug the supplied USB into your PC, the internal memory and u-SD card show up as drives, drop mp3's or epub/pdf,etc into the folder labeled for them, done. I will give you that using B&N store you will likely end-up with a bunch of drm'd files with more restrictive sharing (but not all that difficult to strip.) But it appears to me to you can use it identical to the Sony's, if you choose the same stores as you would with the Sony.
Re:The Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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They must be catching on to what consumers actually want.... I hope Apple is paying attention.
Revisit this thought in a few months after the iPad is released.
Yes, exactly. I have a PRS 600 and I think it's great. Works great with Linux and Calibre.
My only gripe used to be that Sony's software is pretty buggy, and their eBook store is as DRM infested as Amazon's. But the device itself is about as good as you can make with an E Ink screen, it's easy to use and I find myself actually using it for its intended purpose.
My Sony Reader PRS 600 shows up as a drive (two, actually) when you plug it into your PC via USB, it has native support for PDF, LRF, ePub, plain text files and RTF. It also supports several image formats - if you like to see your photos in black and white, you'll be all set.
Re:The Sony
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rotenberry
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· Score: 3, Informative
PRS-300 has two advantages: no WiFi and no touch screen.
Neither Sony nor anyone else can hack in and erase your ebooks.
A touchscreen is makes the characters less crisp, more muddy. I much prefer clear text to the minor advantages of a touchscreen.
And it works well with Linux. Now if Sony did not supply such lame software...
The Barnes and Noble nook also appears as a USB mass storage device, no different than a flash drive. I think most do, with the exception of the Kindle (and, if you must call it an ereader, iPad).
Re:The Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Plus you can mount it under Linux and just copy over your books.
You can do that on the kindle too. Perhaps not quite as many format options, but it has text, mobi, and pdf (kindle 2+ only I believe).
They can have my PRS-500 when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.
I just got it back from Sony after the firmware upgrade and I found it hard to get by without while it was gone. No DRM, no restrictions. It's mine and I can use it as I see fit. Those are the highest recommendations I can think of these days.
Apparently the reason for Linux iwas for better taxation in the EU. They claimed it was a computer, not a game console and paid less import fees. I would have bought a slim after the price drop if they'd kept the Linux support.
I agree. I looked at PRS-505 and the clarity was amazing. Very easy on eyes. You will be able to read hours together without any stress on your eyes. However, I decided to go for PRS-600 thinking that the dictionary and the touch screen (for taking notes) will be great additions. I admit that, it was a bad decision. PRS-600 has too much glare because of its touch screen. You will hardly use the note or highlighter as its too slow. So, its a plain reading device. I should also mention that calibre is a great app to manage e-readers
You are correct, appears someone needs to edit the wiki I was looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e-book_readers. Still appears to be a draw with the more popular e-readers (except the kindle, and illiad) in open formats. Seams obvious the nook is the most hackable since it has been out for the least amount of time, and yet is one of the very few with applications developed for it by a 3rd party.
I owned one of the original Iliad models. Unfortunately, the screen broke after putting it in the flap on the back of an airplane seat. The one thing that was really nice about the Iliad was the ability to take notes with a stylus.
But I'm very happy with my Kindle DX now. The connectivity and the kindle store are just great. I wish it had a touchscreen, though. Also, although one transfer files to it over USB, the included web browser doesn't allow downloads of PDF files. It is annoying to have to use my laptop to download articles from arxiv and transfer them to the Kindle. Hopefully this can be changed now that there it a dev kit out.
Re:The Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Informative
Now if Sony did not supply such lame software...
Ack. Don't install that crap. And with the Sony readers there's no reason.
Option #1: Connect the reader via USB and drop files onto the drive that appears Option #2: Use an SD card or Memory Stick. Copy files to the card via your computer and throw the card in your reader Option #3: Use Calibre, opensource/cross platform software to manage your library and convert / write files to the reader (my favorite)
I think the people designing the Reader hardware realized the software guys would fuck up, and so make it easy to use without installing anything;-)
While I do have a irrational love of hackable devices (My phone is an Openmoko Neo, which is great because people stopped calling me since they can't hear a word I say - it's that bad. But hey - it's hackable!) I still prefer the Sony Reader to what I saw of the nook so far. It's one of the few devices I have that I never felt the need to go and modify. It does what it's supposed to do reasonably well, and unlike the nook, it's stable.
WiFi would have been nice. Sony does have a model with WiFi support, but it's limited in what it can do (that's where the nook wins, since you can run anything on it.)
Re:The Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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Apparently the reason for Linux iwas for better taxation in the EU. They claimed it was a computer, not a game console and paid less import fees. I would have bought a slim after the price drop if they'd kept the Linux support.
Until the Notion Ink Adam comes out in June/July. Then everything else will be last year's technology. Tegra 2, Color and Daylight-readable B&W LCD, running your choice of Android, ChromeOS or Ubuntu, camera, expandable storage, 3G, HDMI-out. Sure, some of you may say it's a tablet, not an e-reader, but if it makes e-readers obsolete does it matter?
-- Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
Same here. The PRS 600 is the best tech investment I have made in years. I have condensed 2 whole bookshelves (about 400 books) into a device that I can carry anywhere. And the battery life is *incredible*. And, no, I don't work for Sony, but credit where it's due.
-- I'm in to sadism, bestiality and necrophilia. Am I flogging a dead horse?
Re:The Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 2, Funny
Math no workie... "I keep 200-300 books on it" and "averaged 1 book every week or two for the past 2 years". So you keep around twice-thrice the number of books you've ever read on it. Good call.
Re:The Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Agree - the Sony - non touch screen - and I suggest using Calibre software rather than Sony's software.
And for those that are thinking of the IPAD.
Its a different market altogther - My sony goes weeks on a charge. I dont need to worry about DRM or hacking. It works on Linux (which I uses) or Mac or windows and any book I read on it - I know I can read again on my next ebook reader and my next one. Its easy on the eyes. It uses virtually no power except when changing the page so i have convinced them to let me use it during take off and landing on planes (not invariably but more often than not - you wont succeed with that with an IPAD)
THINK BOOK - if its a book you want as close to a book as possible with more benefits - not disadvantages. My NETbook fills other needs very well but the Ebook reader is irreplaceable !
Sorry. When it comes to format support, nothing comes even close to the Astak EZReader. That thing reads anything under the sun. No support for.djvu is a deal breaker for me, as it means you cannot scan stuff and take it with you on the go.
-- "You can't allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them." [Condoleezza Rice]
Re:The Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I believe the word you want is "seems", not "seams". Please look both up in a dictionary, and learn the difference.
Re:The Sony
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I've heard the Iliad is amazing, but I think it's about 700$.
Yes and no. BTW, it's not supported by Irex anymore. It's a nice device, but suffers bad battery life and no sleep mode. You can still get it 2nd hand for 300-400 USD...
Keeping books on the device matters for battery life indexing all the text. Quit trying to be clever mocking an important metric. (Number of books stored vs battery life)
But even un-hacked it is more open than the Sony, simply plug the supplied USB into your PC, the internal memory and u-SD card show up as drives, drop mp3's or epub/pdf,etc into the folder labeled for them, done..
That is -exactly- how every kindle made has worked. Kindle can read PDF, txt, and other "open" formats. So how exactly is it less "open" than any other?
Maybe what you mean is that the default stores sell books in a more "open" or closed format. . . but all (B&N, Amazon) the stores are the same in that manner, so what again is your point about "openness"?
Re:The Sony
by
vcgodinich
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· Score: 2, Informative
Kindles (all of them) show up with no drivers as mass storage devices. ..get your facts right.
Re:The Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
PRS-300 has two advantages: no WiFi and no touch screen.
Neither Sony nor anyone else can hack in and erase your ebooks.
A touchscreen is makes the characters less crisp, more muddy. I much prefer clear text to the minor advantages of a touchscreen.
And it works well with Linux. Now if Sony did not supply such lame software...
In regards to the software, yeah, it isn't that great, but by no means do you have to use it. It stays out of your way so that you can freely use something else such as Calibre.
Re:The Sony
by
Hurricane78
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Didn’t you all swear to boycott Sony, after the rootkit debacle?;)
-- Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I've had a PRS-505 for about a year now, and I really like it. It's clarity is good, and it's a 'no frills' sort of a device. I don't need MP3 playback, 3G connections or touchscreens. They're nice, but what I _really_ want is something that is clear, sharp, readable and with a good battery life. The PRS-505 is also quite lightweight and compact too.
My only grumble with it, is it's very expensive to fix if you drop it (I've done so twice now, and each time netted me a bill not actually much below the price of a new one). I'd therefore consider A Tuff Luv case for one a mandatory accessory.
I too was afraid that Sony might 'do a Sony' and make it full of proprietary bells and whistles. To my pleasant suprise, they're one of the most open ones out there, and the only nod to 'sonyism' is having a memory stick slot as well as an SD card slot.
With the amount of internal memory it has, I've not really come close to exhausting it, so have actually used the SD card as a portable USB drive from time to time.
The UI is good - simple, yes, but that's exactly what you need. I've handed it over to people, who've 'got' it quickly without needing any instructions at all.
The text and text reflowing are clear and neat and easy to read.
The 'new' one, that a friend has got - has touch screen, more screen estate. It's quite nice, but I can't actually see that much need to upgrade. If Sony did a 'ruggedized' one, that's y'know, vaguely capable of being dropped, and for bonus points capable of surviving a bit of a splash from the bath, then it'd be perfect.
Book availability is still one thing that bothers me - I would, in general, rather pay 'hardback' price, for an ebook, than the hardback. But there's still a lot of publishers that a) Won't do eBook at all, b) do 'region controlled' ebook distribution or c) do 'unfavourable' ebook pricing - either more expensive, or later release than paper.
I know that pirating is an option - I wouldn't feel a lot of guilt about buying a physical copy, pirating an ebook, and then reading it on my ebook reader, but I feel it shouldn't be necessary.
The other problem with it is Amazon don't really support anything other than the Kindle, and they're a big name in the market. It's a bit annoying, as I used to use their site a lot, and now I've migrated to other retailers as a result. Especially now Amazon recommendations are getting badly pumped by shill reviewers, making them increasingly meaningless.
"Most" open? Let me ask your opinion of something; what If you could get a device that had a smaller than usual screen at 4", but 320x480, 65k colors, touchscreen, adjustable backlight, switches between landscape & portrait. SD/SDIO/MMC/SDHC slot. 128mb flash storage, with 100mb user accessible. 300Mhz ARM-based intel processor, which can be overclocked up to 520Khz. 802.11b WiFi, Bluetooth 1.1, IR I/O. 1 Speaker and a stereo headphone jack. Charges either via AC adapter or USB. It has good handwriting recognition, based on jot; out of the box it can work with office format documents, read PDF's, play MP3's, Surf the web (after connecting with either WiFi or Bluetooth), Display images or video at up to 30fps, exchange client, operate as a remote terminal for a remote computer, watch TV through a mobile phone video provide service (using WiFi). With a little installing of free software it runs Java, opera browser, at least 6 different e-reader software packages (it will NOT run Microsoft Reader, though, so everything but.LIT format works). The development library is extensive and open source; over 50,000 3rd party applications exist that will run on it. It makes a pretty decent TV remote control, also. It's been available since late 2005, and is now available new for $199. What do you think? aside from the screen size, pretty phreaking awesome eBook, right?
Yeah the Pixel Qi screens look perfect for what I want (always on browser for quickly looking stuff up in the living room and e-book reader). The Adam looks like a nice implementation too. Hoping it works out well and isn't too pricey.
Re:The Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Isn't the screen absurdly small though? Considering that you need to turn pages every ten to fifteen seconds and the refresh itself takes around a second?
It's actually better than the zoom. The zoom itself is excellent, but it resets on each page turn, making it virtually worthless for the thing I use zoom for most: zooming in to remove margins in PDF tech books.
-- PageTurner Reader: open-source e-reader for Android with cloudsync. http://pageturner-reader.org
I've heard the Iliad is amazing, but I think it's about 700$.
The Iliad is a very neat piece of hardware, but it suffers greatly from lack of support and development from Irex. I used one for about a year, its main drawbacks are lack of epub support, battery life, a somewhat clunky user interface and slow pageturns even for e-ink. No matter what they claim 7-9 hours of battery life is the real-world fact if you're actually reading on it, even with the newer "improved" models.
While this sounds like it should be enough, I found that I was still constantly running out of battery and needed to recharge. Combine this with a 2 minute boot time, no sleep mode and NO power management whatsoever on an ARM processor no less, and it's nearly unusable compared to my new Sony Reader.
I got a PRS-600 a few months ago and it's a different world. I have never been close to running out of juice, you don't really even need to turn it off. It does so automatically after 5 days to save power. No, really, battery life is THAT good.
Everything in the UI is very smooth to operate, the unit is fast, and I can use Calibre under Linux to handle most books. For DRM ones I need to turn to Windows, but it has been no great hassle so far. I only need to use Windows to remove DRM from my legally purchased ebooks, then I can manage them under Linux. In short I'm very impressed with the unit, and can recommend it.
-- Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!:)
I recently used an iRex Iliad and a Sony PRS-600 side by side.
Those cater to very different markets. The Iliad's display is better, as it's larger, can display more shades of gray, and Sony sacrificed contrast for touch sensitivity. The Iliad has an inductive touch screen, so no loss of contrast there. No touch sensitivity without the stylus though.
The Iliad has a lot more features and more powerful hardware, but a lot less battery life. Also, there's no standby mode and it takes forever to boot. Also, it reads MMCs and CF cards - no SD support. Can be a turnoff, seeing how everything else takes SD and MS.
I'd prefer an Iliad for newspapers, magazines, and text books, but due to its not all that stable casing and its size, I rarely would take it outside. For everything else, I'd prefer the Sony Reader.
-- Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
While the screen's glare and lack of contrast can be annoying, it's actually not really much worse than reading on recycled paper.
I willingly sacrificed screen contrast for the notetaking, highlighting and especially the more powerful hardware and therefore faster PDF rendering.
Now if there only were more dictionaries to choose from...
-- Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
What do you think? aside from the screen size, pretty phreaking awesome eBook, right?
No. For serious reading e-ink is the only way to go. Either you don't read much or you haven't tried e-ink at all if you even consider other technologies, your eyes WILL get tired if you read 4-6 hours every day, as I do. With e-ink that's not an issue. And yes, I have tried several different phones with good screens for reading, they are not even close.
Also, it's very difficult to disregard the screen size for reading. What you describe would require me to turn the page about 5-6x as often as with my ebook-reader (PRS-600). Colours? Meh. The books I read don't require a colour display, the grayscale e-ink is great for anti-aliased fonts. The reader has absolutely no features other than reading, note-taking, basic mp3 functionality and an incredible battery life, which is exactly what I need. For everything else I use my phone.
-- Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!:)
Yes! Isn't that annoying?
I have no idea why they wouldn't have a "lock zoom" feature. Have you ever tried removing the borders with pdftk or something?
-- Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
But note that touch screen devices often have more powerful hardware. Depending on what files you're going to read, that would have a great impact on reading comfort.
Especially PDF text books take quite a lot of processing.
-- Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
No. That tax hasn't existed for years. It disappeared round about 2001 or so. Perhaps you're confusing the EU release of Yabasic with the PS2, which was the attempt to get around it, with Linux.
the main reason I think it is less open,
Even before amazon released the kindle, project gutenburg, google books, and majority of others had already chosen the epub format. Their was/is alott of free content available, that format is clearly being snubbed by amazon.
Removing the memory card reader from later releases also hurts open-ness, in that you can't swap non-drm files with any other reader, without a PC. Although the nook memory card is not all that accessible, it is available. I agree the main attack is just with internet access, it is so much easier to get drm'd content than using a PC, means many won't go through the extra step that would be required (to be equal) with the sony readers for all content. And that Amazon already pulled the plug on a book sale using the internet kill switch.
I have only the Sony PRS-505, and have never used any other e-reader. I like it very much because it supports so many open/common formats, such as PDF, RTF, and EPUB. There is a good third-party FOSS app for it as well (Calibre). In addition to being good for public domain texts, it is also great for viewing your own documents. I used it to study my bar exam outlines, which I merely saved in RTF format and copied to the reader. Again, I can't compare it to other e-readers because I haven't tried any, but it's good for what I like to do with it. The interface is pretty clumsy, but that really doesn't get in the way too badly.
I did see someone else say things about the nook crashing in this thread. I know the initial software release had some jumpiness, but before today I never heard of any "un-stable" issue. My nook has never hiccuped or crashed in the month I have had it (except the automatic reboot after a update downloaded), the only issue was wifi has been a pain at times, then again if I hadn't hacked it with a web-browser and trook news reader for grabbing news feeds (like slashdot) I wouldn't have a reason to notice. I don't know if that means the software updates have fixed them all, or if I have just been lucky so far. (really nice that it updates it's self over the cellular network for free, but I guess if they start utilizing a kill switch those "updates" could start to suck, but they are disable-able; currently.)
Again, you aren't going to comfortably read a PDF on most (I would actually argue, all) devices on the market.
And fiction books in PDF (which are mostly text, sometimes with a few pics) can be handled fine even by devices from two generations ago - they are, in fact, faster than many other formats because they have fixed layout, and there's no need to re-flow them. My PRS-505 is actually faster with PDF than it is with ePub.
Got a PRS-600 a little while ago and I totally agree on it being a good choice. The screen is a little bit grey on account of the touchscreen - but not so much that it bothers me. Everything else is just about as good as I could wish for (granted, eInk is a little slow on the update, but I knew that going in).
In regards to the software, yeah, it isn't that great, but by no means do you have to use it. It stays out of your way so that you can freely use something else such as Calibre.
Oh, it sure stays out of your way. It took about a week on my system before it would just hang on startup before displaying the UI. Amazing. Sony's tech support couldn't resolve it, or do anything more useful than drool out loud at me.
I would advise people to just skip it - install Calibre and don't worry about it.
I'd say the Iliad is an okay device for reading A4 PDFs. Not so for fiction books though.
But I myself only had the cash for one device, and the PRS-600 is a workable compromise for me.
-- Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
I bought one (Touch 600 model) for xmas and it is AMAZING. Totally changed the way and amount I read books. Handles a large number of formats etc.
The only thing that annoys me is the way the desktop software works. Very unintuitive and frustrating...especially grouping large numbers of books.
Fortunately it is something they can FIX (you hear me Sony, do ya?!) without me having to buy a new one. Better yet they can release a spec and OS can fix it for them.:)
I've been using the above-mentioned device as my EXCLUSIVE means of reading non-fiction for the last 3 years; The screen size is a little annoying, but after the first book, I really didn't notice. I read at least 3 hours per day (I'm retired) and sometimes as much as 8. Turning the page is unconscious; you either press down on the multi-selector, or tap the screen. Most of the reader software comes with a "timed scroll" feature, but I hate it so don't use it. I charge it every other day, whether it needs it or not. usually not. Oh, the reason I started using it: I was getting to the age where I was getting farsighted; I was having to hold the books further and further away in order to see them. Now, when I have my reading glasses I can put the font on its "small" setting and get an entire page on the screen at once; without glasses, I put it on medium, which gives me 12 lines at a time. I have ONE device that lets me read, download new books to read (project Gutenberg of Australia ROCKS, btw), that I can hand to my 6 year old to play Pokemon in a GB emulator, or to my 17 year old to watch a movie, TV or to IM, or to my GF to work on the shopping list or whatever, depending on who is the most bored. I wish it had a bigger display, preferably something like e-ink. but until something matches at least some of its feature set, I'm sticking with my Palm TX.
but until something matches at least some of its feature set, I'm sticking with my Palm TX.
If you're happy with it there's no need to buy something else:)
I guess it's a matter of accustomization. A friend of mine reads on his iphone, when I borrowed it on a plane trip my (good) eyes got tired after a couple of hours. I find that the visual difference between the Sony Reader and any LCD-screen is so significant that it's worth it to carry an extra device.
Happy reading!
-- Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!:)
[...] the most popular eBook formats such as: EPUB*, PDF*, TXT, HTML, RTF, MOBI, CHM, PDB, JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF (*including Adobe DRM, compatible with Adobe Digital Editions)
Compared to formats supported by the Sony:
* DRM Text : ePub (Adobe DRM protected), PDF (Adobe DRM protected), BBeB Book (PRS DRM protected)
* Unsecured Text : ePub, BBeB Book, PDF, TXT, RTF, Micrsoft® Word, (Conversion to the Reader requires Word installed on your PC)
Sorry, but this is for the "best" eBook reader, not the one "most crippled by DRM."
I was waiting for that. It certainly must be acknowledged that the Kindle is DRM-laden. However, that doesn't automatically make it non-best. The hardware is amazing, and substantially more capable the the competition. On top of a remarkable screen, form factor, and battery life, it has WIRELESS DATA CAPABILITY! As a whole package, it's a slam dunk - notwithstanding the DRM issue.
-- I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
Yes it has DRM, to protect their content. So fraking what. The ability to get new media ( in particular periodicals) from anywhere without a pc, sets the kindle apart from the others.
Did you know that the ipod also has even more intrusive DRM, but yet it is considered to be the best device out there.
Unlike an ipod, all you need to do to add third party content to a kindle is hook it up to a computer and it becomes a usb storage device, or surf the kindle to the numerous sites out there like feedbooks to get content.
The hardware is amazing, and substantially more capable the the competition
Not sure about that. I have an iLiad which doesn't waste space with a keyboard and has a wacom tablet over the screen for accurate drawing. It has WiFi, runs Linux and X11, and can run arbitrary applications. It supports CIFS, so it can sync with your computer over your WLAN. It has MMC and CF slots for other apps; someone even produced a version of Wikipedia for offline reading that fits on a 16GB CF card, and there have also been ports of web browsers and RSS readers, among other things (even a terminal; the device gives you full root access if you want, or a consumer-electronics type interface if you don't). The screen is bigger than the Kindle (800x600 for the Kindle, 1024x768 for the iLiad, both the same DPI) but the overall form factor is about the same.
Re:Kindle
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Sorry, but this is for the "best" eBook reader, not the one "most crippled by DRM."
Why is the "only" factor DRM? We're talking devices not media. It accepts PDF which works for most non commercial applications. The fact you can buy books through the internet without having to buy a mobile service is huge. For features, speed and ease of use Kindle appears to be the best so far and yes ePaper is a huge deal and far more important than DRM. Based on your reaction I'm sure you don't own a Kindle which hardly makes you an authority. Take it from some one that actually uses one and reads a great deal they are a godsend. The problem with people making their decisions based purely on DRM is they miss out. It's like my iPod Touch. I watch movies with it all the time and use it every day. Just how much do the people with non DRM devices actually use them? I think all the whining from AT&T is proof of how popular the Apple handhelds are while the other services struggle to sell apps and content. The same with Kindle. It's the most popular for a reason. If you don't want an eReader then why do you care? If you do isn't it better to have one you'll use than one that makes a political statement?
as for the DRM comment, what would you want, a crash all the time Nook, or something that works?
If people think we won't be locked down to hell and back on the iPad they are delusional. The nook would be nice but until they fix it the stability kills it
-- *
Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I own two Kindle 2s. DRM only means I can only buy protected content from Amazon, I am free to import content from other sources without involving Amazon in the process. Amazon has yet to interfere with any third parties selling content for the Kindle as long as they don't attempt to use their proprietary DRM scheme.
It is one hell of a reader, and in an emergency Whispernet is a nice backup to have. During Snowmaggeddon here in DC I was getting better network performance from the two Kindles than from our AT&T cell phones (probably you can't compare the network traffic between these two, ever).
By the way, two of the most popular tools used to generate content for the Kindle, Stanza and Mobi Pocket creator, are both owned by Amazon. Or you could use Calibre.
Worried about generating DRM-free content for Kindle readers? Release your content as MOBI/PRC or PDF and that should do it, at least until Amazon feels the burn and issues a patch allowing Kindles to read EPUB.
The biggest problem that the Kindle faces is not the DRM, it's the tug of war between Amazon and publishers that want them to raise their $10 price point for new books.
"I think all the whining from AT&T is proof of how popular the Apple handhelds are while the other services struggle to sell apps and content."
So I suppose that means that the best of all worlds would be running Windows ME on a 90's era Dell in sub-saharan Africa...
-- A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
Re:Kindle
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 3, Informative
How about the you've-just-been-screwed-because-you-upgraded-your-kindle-issue?
Check out the one-star review by Gadget Queen on Amazon's site (last review on the page): http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reading-Display-Generation/dp/B0015T963C/ref=amb_link_116589822_2/181-8601578-0208657?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0R4JH04FW7KYM843PYA4&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=528911022&pf_rd_i=507846
Particularly disturbing was the lost content she paid for when she switched from Kindle 1 to Kindle 2.
2. All of my previous issues of magazines and newspapers were lost (ie, I could not re-download them specifically for the K2) because Amazon does not back up subscriptions on their server for more than 6 days. SINCE I PAID FOR THE CONTENT, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO HAVE THAT CONTENT ALWAYS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD. Sorry, but I won't consider buying any more newspapaers or magazine subscriptions to the Kindle 1 or 2.
and
4. Although Amazon says it keeps you content on their server, I found many instances where I could not download my books to my computer because the item THAT I PAID FOR was not available for download to my new Kindle2. Amazon said the book had been "pulled." Excuse me, but I paid for it, pulled or not, it should always be avaiable to me since I paid for it. When I asked for a refund for the pulled item now unavailable to me, SINCE I COULD NOT GET THE ITEM REDOWNLOADED, I was told that a refund was not possible. LESSON LEARNED: I now back up ALL my Kindle content on my computer. Since Amazon says "Don't worry, your content is safe with us." I respectfully disagree. Also, some authors issued new versions of their books for K2. However, then the original version for K1 "disappeared" from the server so I could not even download it to K2, nor K1.
I bought the sony PRS 505 right after the whole thing with amazon deleting books off of kindles. My wife and I have both been very happy with it. It reads everything we have tried. It doesnt have mobile broadband, which would be nice. But that has its drawbacks too.
I have the Kindle 1.0. I read it practically every night, have been doing so for close to two years.
I can read e-ink for hours and hours. The battery life is outstanding. Both can load up all the free books you want. The Sony and Kindle have virtually the same experience except -
- Kindle has the Amazon store at your fingertips. I have to admit, it's pretty convenient. I have bought maybe 4 or 5 books.
- Sony can check out library books - ePup and PDF.
Now there are tons of competitors but these are still the key deciding factors.
Yes it has DRM, to protect their content. So fraking what. The ability to get new media ( in particular periodicals) from anywhere without a pc, sets the kindle apart from the others.
The Sony Daily Edition has wireless capability, the ability to download periodicals and new content with or without a computer, a touchscreen and most importantly it's not a DRM laden POS locking you in to one bookstore.
Did you know that the ipod also has even more intrusive DRM, but yet it is considered to be the best device out there.
Considered the best by who? There are many portable media devices out there that are better than the IPOD both in features and price. I think you are confusing "Best" with "Has the highest market share."
Unlike an ipod, all you need to do to add third party content to a kindle is hook it up to a computer and it becomes a usb storage device, or surf the kindle to the numerous sites out there like feedbooks to get content.
Why are you comparing the kindle to an ipod? Pretty much every e-reader does this.
They support DRM, but they don't try to force customers to use DRM'd content in any way. It supports DRM like the DVD player attached to your TV supports DRM.
Actually, for me, yes, it does. I don't purchase DRM. (Well, I haven't in the last 10 years.)
I can imagine the Kindle being good enough that I might purchase it for it's non-DRM uses...but then I consider how they removed books that people had already bought.
So, for me, the Kindle is totally out of the game. I'd rather skip an e-reader entirely than to buy one. I consider it that bad.
--
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
The fact you can buy books through the internet without having to buy a mobile service is huge.
Oh impatient one-- only to those who don't wait 'til they're at the frikkin' AIRPORT before they start thinking about what kind of books they might want to read. I don't need a mobile service to buy books, my cable internet service works just fine for that, thank you very much. I'd just as soon not buy books on impulse.
The Amazon Kindle. Is this even a legitimate competition?
If you were on a site with "normal" people, maybe not. But this is Slashdot, and very little of what the typical consumer is interested in will even make it into this discussion (and if it does it'll get "offtopic" or "overrated" mods).
Instead, I expect this discussion will be all about whether a reader can mount from Linux, run Linux, or can interpret TeX.
Sorry, but this is for the "best" eBook reader, not the one "most crippled by DRM."
Sorry, but this is for the "best" eBook reader, not which piece of hardware you can hack and crack enough to steal as much shit as you can and homebrew apps all day long.
Seriously, I'm all for tinkering, but damn, learn to judge a product by it's factory cover.
The Kindle plus the Amazon service it comes with are certainly a very powerful team. You could even argue that it offers the best overall consumer experience.
However, there are any number of places where the service provided with the Kindle is unavailable, and the pricing on the new non US models isn't exactly attractive since it's based on international roaming from AT&T. That's not even taking into account the fact that it isn't the most recent version of the hardware either.
Without that service, the Kindle is really a steaming pile of crap.
The iPad will probably be great for magazines, and possibly certain kinds of reference books where the lack of colour and slower page turns of a traditional ebook reader really cause problems.
For regular book reading however, an LCD screen is crap and so the iPad will be crap.
Running X11 means that you can take existing *NIX apps, recompile, and run them. They'll need a bit of effort to work well with an eInk display and a tablet, but you can make that effort with toolkits that you already know, not with something new designed just for the device. It also means that third-party developers can easily add features. For example, the community-developed PDF reader for the iLiad is much better than the stock one.
Yeah.. but part of the formula is availability of real books.
Many books are available as only DRM'ed eBooks in the first place. And it's not been shown that Amazon DRM is any worse than other DRM, for the customer.
It appears that there are a lot of books available on the kindle store, that are not otherwise available as eBooks, or are much more expensive in other eBook formats.
So that actually is a huge advantage of the Kindle over some other readers (easy acquisition of the materials you want to read).
I shouldn't have to forego reading certain books, or read certain alternatives instead just because it's not available for my reader. That would be an inconvenience, and indicate a deficiency of the reading platform.
Some eBooks being available only as AZW is a disadvantage all other readers have to count.
My example for the moment is: IPv6 Security - Eric Vyncke (Author), Scott Hogg
There is a kindle edition for $38.40.
You can get that particular one as an encrypted, DRM'ed PDF from publisher, but that requires $50 to purchase the same thing as a PDF.
Or a $500/year subscription through Safari.
In any case, that is one of thousands of examples...
You pay more for a PDF, and it is still protected by Adobe DRM and encrypted so it can only be registered on one eBook authorized reader.
it appears to be a lot easier and less expensive to legally purchase and ACQUIRE Kindle format eBooks than to acquire electronic versions of certain books for other readers.
Well, both positions are valid for different audiences.
Three audiences: Pure TINKERERS who just want a hackable gadget (and don't care about necessarily reading purchased eBooks that much -- they want the maximum geek utility from a reading device), People who just want to read their things (as in purchased prepared eBooks), and People who want to read things, and get as much of their existing/other content readable on the deivce as possible
Re:Kindle
by
Anonymous Coward
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Am I the only person on slashdot that knows you can install non DRM books on the kindle? You can put your own PDF files on it as well.
Yes the books you "buy" are DRM protected, but you still can use other media formats on it.
Re:Kindle
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Anonymous Coward
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Pshaw. LaTeX can export to pdf quite nicely. The real question: can it handle man pages?
Re:Kindle
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Anonymous Coward
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DRM means I will not even put it in the running. I don't care if it has any features, with this bug it's a no go.
I dunno. I like my Kindle, but all the math books I've bought have been so badly formatted as to be useless. When I read the same books on the Amazon reader for iTouch they're properly formatted, so I'm guessing something is broken with book rendering on the reader.
I've had my Kindle 2 hard reset. The books I'd bought from Amazon I was able to get back, but I lost all my notes and bookmarks on the books I'd loaded over USB -- one of the key buying points for me. No ability to put my own documents on, no sale. But the documentation doesn't explain that when it says notes are backed up over WhisperNet, that's only for books that you have bought through the Amazon store. That had me *pissed*, because they essentially told me they were backing my notes up when in fact they weren't.
Recently my Kindle has been taking a very long time to wake up from stand by or to go to stand by.. fifteen or twenty seconds. Enough to be annoying. At first I wasn't sure the Kindle was responding and so I'd hit the power button again, only to be rewarded by the Kindle turning on and off.
There have been lots of complaints about customer service -- especially where there have been screen problems. Several people I know (whom I trust as truthful) have had screens fail do to what should be normal handling for an ebook. Some people claim that the screen failed after being put through airport security, although that hasn't happened to anyone I know.
Finally, the user interface is really about as screwed up as you can make something that ought to be dead simple. Err. When do you want to hit "back" or "return" or "previous page" exactly? I know what to do if I think it through, but after over six months with the thing I still occasionally do the wrong thing.
Oh, it's a very good device overall, but there is vast room for improvement, even without talking about major updates like color or touch screen input.
-- Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
On first glance, Amazon appears to be on the side of the consumer, since they want to be able to sell eBooks to you for less than they pay the publisher. Cheaper books – yay! But it’s not that simple.
Publishers want the right to set prices so they can make more off initial sales, then drop the price later to bring in more buyers. Think about hardcovers and paperbacks. Hardcovers come out first and cost more. That higher price helps recoup the costs of publishing a well-crafted book (self-published books are wonderful, but sometimes sloppily edited and packaged). Sure, publishers make money, sometimes a lot. Do you want to kill the industry to punish them?
Cut-rate pricing by powerful retailers (Best Buy, Wal-mart, Amazon,), NOT “piracy”, is what drove many small record stores out of business and made it much harder for new and mid-level acts to sell their music. When Brittany Spears is all that’s left, no wonder music sales are down. Hopefully we can avoid this as book publishing goes digital.
Well, just so long as you don't need to read any of the books you've "acquired" more than once. For reference, I give you the many surrounding comments. Here's a few good selections:
-- When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
Re:Kindle
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Anonymous Coward
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I realise it's slashdot I'm talking about here but really. You managed to talk about E-Readers without once mentioning "allows you to read books". Implicitly, yes, it does this, so you didn't need to mention it, but I'm just going on the assumption that the average jo (even on here) looking for an E-Reader, wants an E-reader.
If I can pick it up and reasonably access a book on it, then at a future point have more books loaded onto it, it's pretty much sorted. If I wanted something I could hack a terminal into or spend many bastardly hours porting apps onto I'd purchase on old 486 and move back into my parents basement.
The Amazon Kindle. Is this even a legitimate competition?
Umm... no, it's not a legitimate competition. The Kindle loses hands down. The only thing it's got going for it is the display. From a technical perspective, other e-Readers beat the Kindle is almost every single category.
Kindle falls short in these categories:
1. Ergonomics (Keyboard is questionable, speed is terrible) 2. Lack of a built in light for reading at night. Spend that extra $0.01 for that LED! 3. Excessively crippled by DRM 4. Lack of supported formats 5. Price 6 Expandability
The list goes on... what's really scary is the fact that the Sony readers excel in almost every category. Sony. What's the world coming to when Sony is the good guy and Amazon is the evil money grubbing corporation that hates it's customers.
the ipod also has even more intrusive DRM, but yet it is considered to be the best device out there.
By you.
Plus, I've got a 3G ipod with rockbox that has zero DRM (which I gave to my daughter). It plays ogg, flac and is completely compatible with my Sansa, which is my main player when I'm on the go.
I stopped using the ipod when I bought my Archon.
-- You are welcome on my lawn.
Re:Kindle
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Anonymous Coward
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Without having to pay for printing, paper, etc, there is no way an e-book should cost even $10 let alone higher. I refuse to pay that.
I'm guessing Unzipped, The Advocate and Blue Boy will be especially popular.
-- You are welcome on my lawn.
Re:Kindle
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Anonymous Coward
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However, that doesn't automatically make it non-best.
yes, it does.
Re:Kindle
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Anonymous Coward
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The nook just came out, and was sold out until just over a week ago. Let's see what the numbers look like in eight or ten months. (probably still amazon, but B&N has B&M stores where people can touch the product. That goes a long way.)
I have a Nook and quite happy with it. I pre-ordered and got it before Christmas. There were a few quirks and bugs initially, but they have released two major software updates since its release that fixed most of my annoyances.
I use a Kindle DX for work all the time and have no issues with DRM since I can put whatever I want on it (in PDF but there may be other formats this works with) via USB. If you are worried about "1984"-like issues, you don't even have to turn the wireless on - mine's been off for months. If, however, you want the convenience of purchasing books through their store, then you are locked into their DRM for that purchase no different than a purchase from iTunes.
and the pricing on the new non US models isn't exactly attractive since it's based on international roaming from AT&T.
How's that? As far as I can tell, the newest models are cheaper than the original Kindle and they offer free wireless connectivity wherever it's available. No roaming charges.
By the way, iTunes and Amazon are no different with music files. You get to download the file once, re-downloading would be another purchase.
Server bandwidth to transfer content is not free.
The chance Amazon will want to delete stuff off your device is slim.
The case where it happened seemed to be an exceptional situation.
It's a cause for concern that it happened in one case, but Amazon took some serious PR flak for that.
It's no different with other readers really...
I expect Apple will be able to revoke apps' on the iPad (or break them next update), just like they can with the iPhone.
Your best bet might be to preemptively keep wireless turned off on the device (or blocked) when not in use.
And to pre-emptively break DRM on any eBooks you have, to ensure you can always read it, even if whoever you bought the reader from decides to do something nasty later.
Interpreting TeX would be an extremely useful ability to anyone studying/working in Mathematics. While there's a few Engineering departments out there that have switched to Office in recent times for reasons we cannot begin to comprehend, I've yet to hear of a single Math department that uses anything else.
Ohh, and as far as "typical consumers" go, the Kindle is pretty bad as well: half its features work only within the United States which, as you may be aware, holds a relatively small portion of the world's "typical consumers".
-- No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
Re:Kindle
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Anonymous Coward
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Not sure about that. I have an iLiad....
You neglected to mention the iLiad is $499 and the "the iLiad 2nd Edition" is $699. I believe you are trying to compare different price points which will obviously have some discrepancies.
Considered the best by who? There are many portable media devices out there that are better than the IPOD both in features and price. I think you are confusing "Best" with "Has the highest market share.
Content consumption devices do benefit from market-share. See game consoles.
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"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, actually, there is legitimate competition, as can be seen here. The Sony products are very good, the iRex Iliad seems absolutely the best but way too expensive. The Hanlin readers seem good too (and have been around for quite a while).
The Kindle has only 2 advantages over the competition really, one is Amazon's supply of ebooks (albeit DRMed). The other is that it is relatively cheap (compared to the Iliad especially). Other than that, there's not a lot about the Kindle to recommend it over Sony.
Wireless is a feature, but one of only marginal utility compared to the rest of the idea of what an ebook reader is for (IE reading). It's handy for renting new books from Amazon. Or grabbing a book from Gutenberg. But for most of us who have our ebook libraries already on our computers in txt, pdf, and other forms, dumping it via mass storage is probably the quickest and easiest.
I'd like an ebook reader that was open such that I can easily write my own software for it, without restrictions. Kindle's SDK will be out soon, but we'll have to see if it will be as restrictive as Apple's SDK has been thus far. I know that the Kindle can be hacked and you can get access to the file system and run your own apps (some guy recently built the Qt framework for the Kindle), but I don't want to have to break into a device I own to be able to do things with it. Plus any future update from Amazon could close the holes, leaving me high and dry. In short, the Kindle is a gamble. Is it a better gamble than the Sony? I don't know. It's hard to tell.
Right now the best e-book readers that would probably fit the requirements of the anti-kindle slashdotters, is the Hanlin series of readers. But unfortunately you can't buy them from any US retailer and shipping from China is pretty expensive, especially for a device I cannot see and hold before buying.
For me, the DRM is a big issue - to the point of being a deal-breaker. For any content store for that matter, not just books. I got screwed by DRM once in the early days of iTunes (and from Sony's abysmal ATRAC3 format for otherwise-great Minidisc players, before that) and did not buy another track until they were available without copy protection. Data portability is a real concern for me, so I'm not buying into any format that's going to limit that in any meaningful way.
That doesn't necessarily stop me from buying the device, just from using the built-in store. But when devices are built around showcasing the integrated storefront (and certain features are really only useful in that context, which is largely the case for the Kindle's wireless to my understanding), that's usually a good indication that it's the wrong device for me.
Don't let that stop YOU from buying what you want - you're all intelligent people and can make informed decisions. Ultimately an ebook reader is not the right device for me simply because I don't read books enough to make it worthwhile. Just don't forget that everyone is placing different values on the various aspects of these devices, so what's perfect for one reader may be terrible for another.
-- How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
I was quite excited for the nook (more as a gadget than a reading device, since most of my reading is on forums, blogs, and other stuff that's not in bookstores) until I actually played with one in person. It definitely came across as a good idea but it would be better to wait for the second-gen version.
Of course I only had about 45 seconds to play with it, but my first impressions were not good.
-- How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
Backups are designed to deal with data loss at my end, not some publisher getting persnickety about usage rights (read: 1984 fiasco). The ONLY legitimate reason for pushing out a "delete this content from all devices" notice is one where failure to do so could cause the security of the device to be compromised. Given the nature of bookstores and what I can only assume happens before content shows up in them, I feel that the need for that "feature" to exist is zero, and I have no intention of buying any device that allows that to happen. At least with apps, you're running code that could be later discovered to do some malicious things... books are just dumping text, and maybe a couple images, on a screen (that said, I'd rather take my chances with a rogue app and not have that remote deletion feature exist - if something can be used for political reasons, it will).
-- How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
The hardware is amazing, and substantially more capable the the competition.
Capable of what? Being used as a hammer? You can only buy books from Amazon, PDF support is broken, doesn't read DJVU doesn't read DOC doesn't read RTF, doesn't read EPUB, the list goes on, and on, and on.
-- "You can't allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them." [Condoleezza Rice]
I do not know about any of the others other that looking briefly at them and say not for me.
I would be curious as why anyone would buy the Kindle as Amazon has proven that they delete book(s) that you have already purchased. It is like having bought a real paper type book and some is dispatched to yank it away from your hands. I would suspect that a new profession would be created and called something like the Bounty book hunter maybe they could get A&E to do a series.
Backups are designed to protect against loss regardless of cause...
The "1984 fiasco" caused Amazon to pledge to not ever again delete eBooks from consumers' devices. By contrast, Apple, BN, Sony, and others have not made such a promise.
It's kind of pointless to pick on the kindle about problems that should be ancient history.
Re:Kindle
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Anonymous Coward
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I'm going to agree and recommend the Kindle 2. I initially crossed the Kindle off of my list when I learned that it couldn't support ePub and thus couldn't handle checked out ebooks from my library, but when I learned how trivial it was to strip the DRM and convert to mobi I went ahead and purchased the Kindle. I don't have any experience with any other E-readers, but I'm very happy with the Kindle from a practical point of view. It sucks that they won't support ePub natively, but it only takes a second to run a python script to remove the DRM and then run Calibre to convert it. I would have gone with the PRS-600 if it had an Internet connection and the PRS-900 was just too much money. If the Notion Ink Adam really gets 160 hours without a backlight then I might switch to that, but at the moment I read for 90 minutes a day and have 50% battery life left after a month of reading.
Re:Kindle
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Anonymous Coward
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You know, man pages are written in troff which can also export to a number of formats including pdf.
Indeed. I have books on backlog, from the day when I had to buy hardcopy - I'd buy a batch of 3-5, and when I'm getting to the last of 'em, I go find some more.
I do much the same with my PRS-505. Works fine.
So you haven't heard of the incident when amazon deleted a book on a customer device? And that this customer was a student who read nineteen-eighty-four for an important university assignment, annotated the book and then was left with only his then-useless notes and a gift certificate?
This incident was actually the reason why I bought a Hanlin V5, a dead simple ereader without wireless, who displays all important formats: PDF, TXT, RTF, DOC, CHM, FB2, HTM, WOLF, DJVU, LIT, EPUB, PPT, Mobipocket, ZIP, RAR, TIFF, JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, MP3.
Seriously, how could anyone ever buy a kindle? Would you buy from a bookstore, that breaks into your house, rips your post-its out of your book, steals it and leave you a gift certificate?
Er. Sony haven't made such a promise, because they didn't build in the killswitch in the first place. They _can't_ remote delete off my PRS-505. Which is the way I'd rather have it.
Illegal distribution of a novel by a publisher. Purchasers got to keep their copies anyway in violation of publishing rights. Oh no, how unfair is Amazon!
I didn't talk about reading books because that's the basic functionality that you'd expect. If I described a new computer, I wouldn't say describe 'emulating a universal Turing machine' as one of its features; it's something that you'd expect any computer to be able to do.
Several of the features that I listed relate to reading books. The wacom tablet means that you can annotate books easily. These annotations can then be merged with the original PDF or they can be stored in separate files.
The fact that it is an open environment means that things like FBReader were ported to it quickly, so there is good third-party support for eBook formats that the original creators didn't implement.
The only thing that it doesn't support is DRM. Given the large number of DRM-free books available, however, I've had no issues keeping mine full of things to read. Unlike the Kindle, the screen is just about big enough that you can read research papers on it. You need to crop them to eliminate the white border, but most of them are quite readable. Mine got a lot of use during my PhD; I'd load half a dozen papers onto it then go out into the park to read them. I could have done the same thing printing them all out, but carrying half a dozen papers across the park (and not having them scattered by gusts of wind while you sit and read one) is more effort than just taking the iLiad. It also kept my desk free from clutter; before I got it my desk was always covered in papers that I'd printed.
Every product benefits form market share. There is nothing wrong with having a high market share. I am just arguing that having the highest market share != having the best product. See the web browser or operating system markets for examples:-).
-- "Frequently wrong, never in doubt."
Re:Kindle
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Anonymous Coward
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Yes, there's no roaming charges for going out to the Internet, but any book purchases (even free books) contain extra fees to cover roaming.
Despite the DRM, the Amazon store is the best paid content provider for one reason and one reason only- REFUNDS.
B&N does not give refunds for ebooks. Neither does Sony. Apple doesn't give refunds for apps or music, so it's reasonable not to expect them for ebooks.
Amazon has a seven-day, no-questions-asked refund policy for ebooks. You send CS an email, and they send one back a day later informing you of the refund (which is NOT store credit), and that the book has been removed from your account. They also politely ASK you to remove it from any devices you may have downloaded it to. They don't do that automatically.
As with any ebook store, some of the books are absolute crap, whether in content or in formatting. Amazon is the only ebook vendor willing to give you your money back.
You've got it backwards...the rise of online media will save the new and mid-level acts (and authors) who are actually worth something. The larger producers and publishers spend a great deal of money preventing those people from getting any useful press so that they can concentrate sales to their highly promoted acts/authors. With nearly zero stocking cost, online retailers can keep far more "inventory" from all areas of the arts on hand for sale. The online corporate giants may just end up as the ultimate backstreet music shop, with more selection than could ever be imagined. With things like the music genome project, it will become possible to actually find acts you've never heard of, but play "your style" of music.
For all things IP, the mom and pop stores are, indeed, on their last legs. The only ones left will be specialty collector stores for hard-copy versions. It is the relentless march of time and progress.
Publishers currently spend foolish amounts of money "promoting" the next big book. The goal is to get massive sales to pay back the large cost of advances to superstar authors, basic publishing prep costs, and the massive first run that has to be sold to pay for all of that. No doubt those publishing prep costs will not change, but if you eliminate the superstar advances and the irrational marketing pushes to sell a million warehoused copies, $10 a copy really isn't a huge deal. If you believe the publishers, they want to charge more so they can provide additional services (author interviews, etc.). Really? It sounds like they just want us to pick up more of the tab on their marketing costs.
Amazon exists to sell books. They probably get a (roughly) fixed amount for each sale, so the cheaper they can sell the more they make. I think that they are more on our side than the publishers are.
--
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Well, both positions are valid for different audiences.
Three audiences: Pure TINKERERS who just want a hackable gadget (and don't care about necessarily reading purchased eBooks that much -- they want the maximum geek utility from a reading device), People who just want to read their things (as in purchased prepared eBooks), and People who want to read things, and get as much of their existing/other content readable on the deivce as possible
Yes, I do agree with you in that there are always multiple audiences. However, when you ask the manufacturer or the Design Engineer behind damn near any consumer product out there, they are pretty much going to see only ONE audience and ONE purpose for their product; to be used the way it was designed. If that happens to include open-source design, then fine, tinker away and read the fine print on "support".
And no, I can't really fault them for that, at all. I don't go hunting around car lots looking for the car I can "hack", I look for the one that fits my purpose by it's NATIVE design. I don't see too many people chopping the top off their minivan because they just HAD to have a 7-seat convertible, and for "some reason", those "bastards" at DOT/IIHS won't approve one.
Again, I'm all for tinkering, but sometimes it floors me that we as consumers get PISSED when we find out that a product designed for reading books won't allow it to be "cracked" wide open and put 3 browsers, an FTP server, and Bittorrent on there. Oh, the unmitigated gall...
Book prices for non US residents are substantially higher to cover the roaming costs.
The devices themselves also aren't cheap and as far as I can tell are not actually the new Kindle, but an older model.
The long and the short of it is that the selling point of the Kindle is Amazon's service that goes along with it. Without that it's not as good as the Sony devices. Considering they're just starting to release devices which will work outside the US, they're more expensive, not the most recent model, and for extra fun you have to get them shipped from the US, you start to see that the appeal of the device is a little diminished outside the US.
You are missing the biggest part of the $10 debate. Amazon is paying certain publishers $14 wholesaler per title, then turning around and selling the title for $10. Why? Because they are willing to use the books as loss leaders to drive sales of the Kindle, which gives them more strength to negotiate for a lower wholesale price later down the road.
The publishers are whining because at $10 it lowers the perception that the contents books are worth a lot of money. They don't want you to think ebooks can be discounted perpetually until they sell for a buck a title.
Amazon is whining because they are paying the agreed on price to the publisher and it is their business how much money they are willing to lose per title as long as it drives up Kindle sales.
Us ebook buyers are whining because it is borderline price fixing, which is illegal in this country. And while rare titles should command a price, there is no way in hell that a mass release title needs to cost more than $10 for everyone involved to make money.
And yes, the two biggest losers here are going to be the mom and pop bookstores, which are going to be relegated to used bookstore duty only, and the small authors, who are getting sabotaged out of creating grassroots interest in their works since obviously the big publishers aren't interested in marketing them but have no trouble sabotaging new channels that allow them to do the marketing on their own.
I hear you. However, when you're talking about content consumption devices, content is king. This is why, for exmaple, the PS2 won its round of the console wars despite being the least sophisticated of the big three. It wasn't the best by a long shot, but it had the games library to easily justify it.
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"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
The Sony Daily Edition has wireless capability, the ability to download periodicals and new content with or without a computer, a touchscreen and most importantly it's not a DRM laden POS locking you in to one bookstore.
You know, I see this all the time on/. but I can't figure out why... Everyone talks about how much better these other readers are because you aren't locked to Amazon's store, but it's ridiculous. You're not locked to their store for the Kindle either. I think of it more like a homepage that I don't use.
Disclaimer: I have and love my Kindle v1. I've been using it for about a year now...
The only DRM laden stuff on my Kindle are the samples that I've gotten from Amazon to see how a book is, check formatting on Hitchhikers, etc... Everything else I've gotten from other bookstores or copied over myself.
Last I checked, TXT, HTML, and other extensions don't have DRM involved. I've got a couple PRC/MOBI formats and such, with no DRM, that I've gotten from several other bookstores. In fact, I'm reading through a series from Baen Library (several from the free library, and several from the paid) right now. Hell, Baen will actually send the books to your Kindle wirelessly at this point. I'm sure several of the other places will too (it just requires that you give them your Kindle's email address and enable your device to get emails from them on Amazon).
No, it doesn't have ePub, nor PDF, but I haven't found that to be an issue yet. PDFs either translate fine using the Mobi software, or they generally aren't good for e-readers anyway. I do have my issues with the Kindle, but DRM isn't really one of them... All in all, I'm extremely pleased with it, and it's re-"kindle"-d my reading to similar levels of when I was much younger. I am still able to sit out on the porch and read, or use it as a tour guide for an unfamiliar city.
If that's your only comment on the Kindle, then you clearly don't know what you're talking about.
Yes, Kindle ebooks purchased from amazon usually have DRM. Not always, but usually. However, the Kindle works perfectly well with ebooks not purchased from amazon, if they are in MOBI, PDF, or several other formats. And before you start complaining about its lack of EPUB support, I'll point out that you can get the free Calibre software and convert your EPUBs to MOBIs effortlessly... unless you bought them from Sony, B&N, or Apple, in which case they're probably crippled by DRM, in which case you can't say they're any better than Amazon.
But if you want to live in a DRM free ecosystem, the Kindle is a beautiful piece of hardware that is entirely capable of reading DRM-free books. It's just your problem to acquire DRM-free books. But then, that'd still be your problem with some other reader too.
None of them have really, for my uses, caught up to iSilo for one of my black-and-white Palm systems. I mean, they're better, except they aren't small, portable, and able to use arbitrary quantities of completely DRM-free material with free conversion from basically any format.
Or if they have, they haven't yet revealed this. I really do prefer to have reading be a function of a device which I can do other things on, but none of the current of general-purpose gizmos are anywhere near the battery life of the Handera 330 (4+ hours with backlight on = ~20% of a charge at most; without backlight, I never even saw the meter dip).
I've been sorta hoping that after another round or so of gratuitous DRM, they'll come up with one that is a bit better thought through and can display plainish documents in some usable way.
-- My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Re:I hate to say it...
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Daniel_Staal
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Basically everybody but the Kindle is using the ePub format, which is an open format. It supports DRM, but doesn't require it, and there are many sources out there who sell/provide books in it without DRM.
The conversion software available to ePub is a bit primitive at the moment, but it does exist, from practically any format you can care to name.
I'm pretty sure most of the e-readers do allow you use arbitrary quantities of DRM-free material, and conversion from one format to another isn't a problem since they're all open standards when you strip off the DRM.
I have a Kindle, so its what I'll refer to -- I'm sure other readers have similar capabilities. I can take any file of format txt, mobi, rtf, and copy it to the kindle (it mounts as a flash drive) and they are immediately readable. Conversion of things like.doc are obviously more complex, but Amazon even offers to do this for you, for free if you're willing to load it on the device yourself. The only limit on quantity is memory availability. The main format lacking is ePub, which has emerged as an industry standard after the release of the first Kindle -- however, even then, it should be pretty easy to translate between ePub and Mobi, assuming no DRM.
That DRM is the crux of the issue, but this is not a question of devices but of stores. There are no good *general-purpose* ebook stores. However, if you get books from Project Gutenburg, or from Baen's free releases, or any other source of DRM-free books, the new readers have exactly what you're looking for. Don't believe the FUD thats been spread since the Kindle and other e-ink readers started to come out.
The conversion software available to ePub is a bit primitive at the moment, but it does exist, from practically any format you can care to name.
At least ePub is an open format with published fileformat descriptions, so you can theorethically make your own converter...
ePub is pretty much a renamed.ZIP file, containing an index and content in.xml format, plus cover image(s)
As far as conversion is concerned, I'd recommend using calibre -- it's pretty much the ultimate ebook library manager, which supports converting back and forth between many of the common ebook formats and can interface with the majority of ebook readers currently on the market. Open source, free download at http://calibre-ebook.com/
Re:I hate to say it...
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Daniel_Staal
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At least ePub is an open format with published fileformat descriptions, so you can theorethically make your own converter...
I've considered doing so, since I haven't found one that will do a smooth job of some of my more basic conversions.
As far as conversion is concerned, I'd recommend using calibre -- it's pretty much the ultimate ebook library manager, which supports converting back and forth between many of the common ebook formats and can interface with the majority of ebook readers currently on the market. Open source, free download at http://calibre-ebook.com/
It's a nice little program, in many ways. I like it's library management functions, although they are a bit clunky. (Browsing is a bit hard, duplicates aren't handled well, nor is automatically importing more than one format of the same book) It's had some intermittent problems syncing to my Nook, which makes me leary of doing so. (The entire library tends to disappear on occasion...)
Once a book is in it, I've not had any complaints about it's conversions, but I've had books in some basic formats (HTML, txt) that I just couldn't get it to recognize at all. (Despite the fact that I know it handles them in other cases.)
Still, one of the best general programs around at the moment.
Re:I hate to say it...
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Anonymous Coward
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Mobi to/from ePub conversion is very good from my experience (and automatic if you manage books through Calibre). So if you don't mind removing DRM, ePub books work on Kindle (and Kindle mobi books work on any readers that display ePub).
Well, it's too early to say, of course, but the iPad looks like it might actually have potential. I have never purchased an e-reader before as I have always preferred books, and the quality of ereaders was just never good enough for me. This is the first product I might actually give a chance. Of course, the fact that it's more of a general purpose tool and not *just* for reading ebooks makes it much more useful.
The number of people that don't yet have a ebook and "don't get" the concept if e-ink is staggering. Clue: e-ink does not melt your eyes like a TFT with a backlight...
Re:iPad?
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Anonymous Coward
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Agreed. The iPad has what looks like a slightly larger screen and more options, but in terms of just plain *reading*, an actual e-reader with e-ink is likely best.
Didn't we go over this argument with cameras already? Specialization always beats generalization in terms of real cameras vs. cell phone cameras with 10 megapixels?
Re:iPad?
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Anonymous Coward
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Clue: e-ink does not melt your eyes like a TFT with a backlight...
Is that the technical phrase for a well understood phenomena or filth raised to the status of fact by repetition? Really, I'm curious if this oft repeated 'fact' is substantiate by anything other than anecdotes.
What? People on here will not consider a Kindle because it has drm in it but they will consider the iPad.
At least with my kindle, all i need to do to add third party books is hook the device to my computer and start copying, or surf to numerous sites on the net with the device.
Using your example, a dedicated camera is clearly better, but which do people use to take more photos? The iPad will fall into the same category: great at some things and good enough at others.
One of the main benefits to a dedicated e-reader is that they have e-ink displays which are much easier on the eyes for extended reading than the brightly lit display of, say, an iPad.
Well, so far the iPad is the only one that might be acceptable. It has color and can also hold music and videos. Except for the books, it's free of DRM (well, the apps aren't, but I'm not including them here). I understand eInk is much better for viewing books, so I'd like to check that out. But black & white would be unacceptable to me in any ereader. I'm looking forward to seeing the color eInk when it comes out as that could be a big winner.
What? People on here will not consider a Kindle because it has drm in it but they will consider the iPad.
The kindle is more locked down in many ways than the ipad (well, than the ipad will be when it's released). The ipad supports epub, and most people seem convinced that Amazon and Barnes and Noble will port their iphone apps to the larger ipad screen. The ipad may have its apps available only through the app store, but it's going to support far more file formats than the kindle.
-- "The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
Re:iPad?
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Anonymous Coward
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Your analogy is stupid. E-ink is better for your eyes. Period. Because more idiots use their phone to take pictures, that "proves" a multi-use device is better than a Kindle? Hey, fuck head 1) they are completely unrelated issues, 2) more doesn't equal better, 3) how many professional photographers are running around taking pictures with an iPhone?
No. While it might be easier to read eink readers, using a 'normal' monitor/phone display to read will not worsen your eyesight.
This is somewhat anecdotal, so ymmv, but I find that I tend to blink far less when looking at a display that radiates light rather than one which reflects light (ie. difference between a computer screen and a paper page). Is there a physiological reason? I don't know, but I know this observation seems to be fairly well reflected (pun not intended) with studies I've read and people I've advised (in a past life as an IT admin). That said, given the inherent nature of the Ipad vs an Eink screen, I'd argue that there is a chance your eyesight will worsen via this phenomena - e.g. dryness and eye-strain caused migraines/headaches.
Just FYI, I've been reading ebooks since the Palm Pilot days.
Every. Single. Time... When there's an ereader discussion someone always brings this up. Perhaps technically e-ink IS indeed better for the eyes, however does this really matter a damn?
I've never used an ereader. I've no intention of doing so anytime in the next decade. I've sat behind desktops and laptops with CRT and LCD and other types of displays. I've done so for 10-15 hours at time over extended periods. I have 20/20 vision without the need for glasses, and am checked regularly. I do not suffer from headaches.
You can tell me that e-ink is better for my eyes till you are blue in the face. I do not give a fuck. It smacks of FUD coming from people who are shills for the e-ink industry. Seriously, this is absolutely NOT an issue for me at all in any way. This will in no way affect my decision in choosing a device to read on.
What will affect my decision is utility and price. The iPad looks like a fine choice to me, because if I'm carrying around something that size I want it to do a hell of a lot more that just display books.
So will everyone please just stop with the e-ink is better for the eyes FUD? Most of us do NOT care.
my one and only problem with e ink is the refresh time. I know the tech and how hard it is to upgrade it to move faster, however I can't enjoy it as the refresh is annoying every time i try.
If they can figure the tech out enough to speed up the refresh time, then I am so in.
-- i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Yes, there is plenty of evidence. A backlight causes prolonged constriction of pupils while eyes are focused at close range. This leads to fatigue, and will eventually get you glasses. There is also evidence that the blink rate diminishes when staring at a backlit display, causing eyes to dry out. Of course , E-ink doesn't solve all these problems, but is better than LCD displays.
For starters,
http://www.aoa.org/documents/EffectsComputerUse.pdf
-- Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
I know where you're coming from. I was of the same opinion as you, until I saw a sony e-reader, then a friend's Kindle. They absolutely blow LCDs and CRTs away for reading purposes, they simulate printed paper to such an extent that you can't read them in the darkness, they need a active light source around like you need for real books.
I've never used an ereader. I've no intention of doing so anytime in the next decade.... You can tell me that e-ink is better for my eyes till you are blue in the face. I do not give a fuck. It smacks of FUD coming from people who are shills for the e-ink industry. Seriously, this is absolutely NOT an issue for me at all in any way. This will in no way affect my decision in choosing a device to read on.
How the fuck do you know that they're bad when you haven't even looked at one? I guess you're a Apple fanboy shilling freely for them who is unable to see past the RDF. Maybe you think looking at one will make you disloyal to Apple? In that case, I rest my case. For others who never looked at a e-reader, try it once, you may like it.
Note: e-ink is not suitable for tasks like color rendering, browsing etc. so it doesn't really compete with laptops or tablets but is really great for reading.
So I installed the kindle app on a windows vm at home, and synced it to the current book that I was reading.
30 minutes later, I had one hell of a headache. No thanks.
I suspect that most of the time, this sort of issue is caused by the fact that most LCD monitors are fairly low quality. It's very much a case of "you get what you pay for".
The iPad should have had a dual screen with both e-Ink and LCD, but at least the LCD is an IPS panel.
Really, I'm curious if this oft repeated 'fact' is substantiate by anything other than anecdotes.
Common sense helps.
When you're looking at a TFT screen, you are, effectively, staring at a rather bright lamp. It's not like we've just found out recently that this kind of thing is not good for the eyes.
I've sat behind desktops and laptops with CRT and LCD and other types of displays. I've done so for 10-15 hours at time over extended periods. I have 20/20 vision without the need for glasses, and am checked regularly.
A word of warning for ya. I was in the same category a few years ago - spent hours daily sitting in front of the monitor with no ill effects whatsoever. Was proud of it, too.
Then my eyesight rapidly dropped to the point where I need eyeglasses in half a year...
Re:iPad?
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Anonymous Coward
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Yes, there is plenty of evidence. A backlight causes prolonged constriction of pupils while eyes are focused at close range. This leads to fatigue, and will eventually get you glasses.
From your own link:
Many individuals who work at a computer experience eye-related discomfort and/or visual problems. However, based on current evidence it is unlikely that the use of computers causes permanent changes or damage to the eyes or visual system.
Eye-strain can often cause temporary headaches and such, but show us solid evidence of permanent effects.
Hint: if they equate eink to ebooks they probably are new to ebooks.
Seriously... while I think the iPad is a poor choice in ebook readers it sure as hell isn't because it has a color screen that doesnt require an external light source to make it readable. In fact, my choice currently is an iPhone. Why? Because I have it with me ALL the time. I can read at night while my girlfriend is sleeping without having a light on and finally, it can do lots of other things besides being a book. Oh, and turning pages doesnt take an insanely long amount of time like e-ink does.
Also, the iPhone offers you many options in terms of ebook readers. Stanza is the one I use, but if you have a kindle, you can use the Kindle reader and read the books you have already "purchased" there. Built in web browser for online repositories.
It's not, I believe, about being 'better' as in 'healthier' but rather 'better' as in 'more comfortable'. I've been using computers for 20 years now, like you I've done it for over 10 hours at a time on both LCDs and CRTs, and it may have not affected my eyesight but it certainly made my eyes *hurt*, to the point that by the time I finished whatever was I doing, all I wanted was to lie down in bed with my eyes closed shut.
I haven't used an eInk device yet, so I can't tell you if they're any better, but for me I abandoned the prospect of using an LCD screen for serious reading a long time ago, and I think any serious reader will have done the same. If you're a light reader, sure, a good Tablet PC makes a lot more sense from a price/flexibility standpoint, but if half the promises of eInk are true, for any serious reader a separate, *proper* reader is a necessity regardless.
-- No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
That's why you only use the computer for 10 minutes each hour, right?
Re:iPad?
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Anonymous Coward
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When you're looking at a TFT screen, you are, effectively, staring at a rather bright lamp. It's not like we've just found out recently that this kind of thing is not good for the eyes.
Only if you stare into the thing with black text on a blaring white background.
Proper ergonomics on transmissive displays involve reversing that. Darkened backgrounds and appropriately light text (the "Goldilocks" contrast zone--not too grey and not too white) absolutely solve the comparative disadvantage compared to paper.
Not to mention they are so freaking slow. I can read half a page in the time it takes most e-readers to flip to the next one. I think I am going to get the HTC HD2, the screen is just a little smaller than the Sony Pocket Reader but it is still big enough to be readable and pocketable, unlike the ipad. It isn't e-ink but I can use it for everything else as well.
Eventually when e-readers come down in price, the technology improves, and it is established that e-books aren't going to rape you in the ass pricewise I may consider picking up an e-reader.
Clue: e-ink does not melt your eyes like a TFT with a backlight...
Right. And I suppose you have replaced your computer monitor with an e-ink screen.
Since most of us spend all day in front of a computer staring at text on a TFT screen with backlight, I can't imagine that a little casual reading with it will "melt [our] eyes" if they haven't been melted already. Besides, at this point, haven't most of us learned how to reduce eye-strain by turning down the brightness or moving the monitor farther away or other things?
Re:iPad?
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Anonymous Coward
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They absolutely blow LCDs and CRTs away for reading purposes
That's the key point then, isn't it? People might want do more than just reading on expensive devices.
I have a kindle dx & i'm now thinking of selling it & getting an ipad. The e-ink screen just isn't worth it. Lets say I'm reading a technical pdf & I see an interesting point. Sometimes I'll want to open google/wikipedia, or cross reference 2-3 other pdfs at the same time. That takes ages on the DX, to the point where it's nearly impossible. Also the notetaking sucks, you can't really email, etc. So I'm not really married to the screen any more, seeing as I already use lcd monitors.
Re:iPad?
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Anonymous Coward
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Hope you enjoyed your eyes.
Every time ereader devices are discussed, someone brings this up. On the other side, some people say that the low contrast, dark grey on light grey display that doesn't work in the dark gives them migraines or something.
Here's a newsflash: personal computing devices are personal. Given experience with both, some will choose one, and others will choose the other, and both will be correct.
For my own purposes, I've been watching and experimenting with electronic book readers for a long time, with the goal of finding something with:
High resolution
Fast page flips
At least a little battery life, like a few hours
E-Ink satisfies 1 and 3. It doesn't satisfy 2, so I've been waiting for something else to come.
There is a very simple test to see if you would like eInk over an LCD. Go to the piratebay, find your favourite author and download a book... start reading it on your computer monitor.
If you don't go buggy eyed, bully for you. Many people have a very hard time reading LCD.
I've used the Kindle, Nook and played with a Sony one. I'm getting an iPad. I read stuff on my iPhone all the time and it doesn't bother me any more than reading paper for the same length of time.
eInk IS good for reading a book. It's not good for much of anything else as far as I can see. Maybe one day when they figure out full color eInk that's fast enough to do video, but until then I'll go with LCD or OLED when it's affordable.
I have enough shit to carry, I flatly refuse to pay $260 (actually, more like $500 for the big screen) for a uni-tasker device. The iPad that I plan to get is the $599 one. Let's see, $489 for a kindle DX to read books, or $600 for an iPad to read books, browse the web, watch videos, do e-mail, give a presentation, play Super Monkey Ball, etc. Even allowing for a bit of eye-strain, which again, doesn't seem to be an issue with me, there is no contest here. I am disappointed that it doesn't have multitasking or a camera, but compared to the competition, there is NO comparison.
-- I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
you can read a page second? holy shit dude. I wish I was so awesomely exaggerant that it only took me 30minutes to read war and peace (20min reading, 10min turning pages.
You care, you're just not aware that you care. I stare at a computer screen for hours on end too. This is not the same as traditional reading. You're moving your eyes around a lot when you do day to day computer stuff (web browing, writing a paper, programming, gaming, whatever). You pretty much move your eyes at a fixed rate at a fairly slow pace (compared to jumping around looking at different parts of the screen) when you read.
So nobody is going to stop with the e-ink is better for the eyes "FUD" any more than they're going to stop with the "saturated fat is bad for you in large quantities" "FUD".
That's called aging. It's normal, unfortunately. Many people discover they need glasses once they reach a certain age. For me it was 30. It didn't go bad over night, it got bad over a long period of time and I unconsciously compensated for it until I realized one day I couldn't read a street sign. My conversations with my eye doctor, personal experience, and much searching of the internet have led me to the conclusion that using a computer monitor can not damage your vision permanently, but can cause temporary effects like tired eyes, headaches, and reduced night vision. So can watching a bunch of TV or a number of other activities. I do notice after a day in front of the computer that my night vision is reduced, but If I don't use the system on Sunday, for instance, I have no problem Sunday evening.
-- I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
In every single review of every mass produced e-ink reader I've read they have mentioned the painfully slow page turning speed of e-readers, so I'm sure I'm not the only person annoyed by it. The technology is moving so fast I'm sure we'll have nearly instantaneous page turning soon so to me it makes no sense to buy an e-reader right now.
And yes, if you have a pocket e-reader such as the Sony pocket reader it does only take a few seconds to read a page.
Agreed. I do have an SLR, and when I want to take good photos I use that, but I usually use the camera in my cell phone. The difference, however, is that the images from my SLR with a good lens are many orders of magnitude better in all ways (other than composition) that shots from my cell phone. I find the experience of reading on a Kindle only marginally better than reading on my iPhone.
-- I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
Agreed. I have three different dedicated e-book devices, but my current e-reader of choice is Stanza on my iPod Touch. It's not as nice to read on as the bigger devices, but it's always with me, and it works in the dark.
-- Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
I was of the same opinion as you, until I saw a sony e-reader, then a friend's Kindle. They absolutely blow LCDs and CRTs away for reading purposes, they simulate printed paper to such an extent that you can't read them in the darkness, they need a active light source around like you need for real books.
This is a feature?
Anyway, I'm with the GP. I've seen a Kindle and I don't see what the excitement is about. It doesn't seem any better to me -- in fact, IIRC, the contrast was rather poor. And as far as a TFT with a backlight "melting your eyes" -- they do have brightness controls, and some laptops have ambient light sensors that turn the brightness down automatically. I think I keep my backlights dimmer than most people do, but given that, I don't have a problem.
Heh. I remember trying out an iPod Touch for ereading once. I converted an
A4 page into a clean black and white bitmap and copied it over (this was in the
days when you had to unlock the device and install all sorts of software just
to make it work). Long story short: the page was absolutely unreadable.
If the only type of ebooks you expect to read are glorified ASCII/UTF-8
text files, then you've got it easy.
And in my case it happened when I was eight. And got worse. I was reading a crapton of actual books, ergo paper books are bad for you. To increase anecdotal muddiness my eyesight is now not getting worse and I'm reading a lot with N810, so backlight simply must be good for you.
Personally, I don't really think the equipment or the act itself is really harmful. (And how would blinking less constantly and consistently alter the geometry of the eyes?)
In every single review of every mass produced e-ink reader I've read they have mentioned the painfully slow page turning speed of e-readers
This tells me that rather than this issue being a significant problem... the critics of ereaders simply dont understand the usage of the device.
I expect that these reviewers are not using the ereader, but are simply pressing buttons on them and seeing how sharp the text is. The page refresh rate is similar to a paperback book.
Seriously, when reading a novel the page refresh is a non-issue, however, when reading some sort of technical info, or a textbook where you want to be flipping the page back and forth a lot, yeah its a problem. Since the reading device you've stated is a PRS300 (a sony pocket) which is basically incapable of rendering anything except novels, page refresh isn't an issue.
Im still amazed at your superhuman reading speeds, a PRS 300 renders aprox 60% of a normal page of text... since you've revised your reading speed from 1page/second to 1page/few seconds (lets say 4 seconds) which puts your war in peace reading record at about 3 hours...
are you sure your not exaggerating just a slight amount... care to revise your 1page/few seconds to 1page(60%normal)/15 seconds which is... how do I put this... more human (even though it is still extremely fast, I wouldn't put it past certain people to be able to read&comprehend war and peace in 9h)?
I'm assuming 1 page on a PRS 300 contains far less content than 1 page of a standard novel, Mr. Pedantic, as that is the way it works on the e-readers I have tried for pocket devices. And sorry but I've played a little with a Kindle and the 505 and the refresh rate is so annoying it is the sole reason at the time I didn't purchase one. I'm sure some people would get used to it but reading for me is supposed to be a joyful experience, not a frustrating one. So no, I don't think it is that the critics don't understand the usage of the device, it is that you all are still beta testers for a new rapidly evolving technology.
Blinking less doesn't have anything to do with geometry. Blinking moisturizes the eye, preventing it from getting dry. If you don't blink often enough, for whatever reason, the eyes will get sore eventually.
Yes, clearly the e-ink industry has enough money and cares enough to pay hundreds of people to post on slashdot and dozens of other sites supporting their gadgets. This obviously makes enormously more sense than the hypothesis that people tend to form and express their own opinions, just as you have done here. You don't care about e-ink or any claimed utility thereof. Great. That's fine. So when people talk about e-ink, just ignore them, and make your decision based on the factors that you do care about. However, you should realize that nobody here really cares about your opinion enough to stop expressing their own, whether you call it FUD or not.
Perhaps a more productive thing to do would be to say "I don't feel that e-ink really adds any value in my case. If anyone else feels likewise, let's have a thread here discussing the relative merits of devices on which one could read an ebook quite independently of the display technology.". Then you might actually gain some information that would be useful to you (that is, if you are actually interested in said information and not just whining so you can see your words on the internet).
So, how about it? For owlnation's sake, if anyone reading this doesn't feel that e-ink is valuable to them, but is still interested in ebook readers, let's have a discussion about them here.
Bah. Real men fry their brain with not one, but two good old CRTs! At 30 kg a piece! ^^
-- Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Re:iPad?
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Anonymous Coward
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You should check the metadata on your link... it's from 2005 and deals exclusively with CRTs.
There is NO evidence because tech routinely outpaces the lifespan of a scientifically meaningful clinical trial. It would be like trying to measure the effect of modems or Sonic clinically, when they've been phased out of relevance. What there IS plenty of is unsophisticated superstition on par with fear of microwave ovens.
Light is light.
Re:iPad?
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Anonymous Coward
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having to post anon since Ive gone over my karma limit for the day.
I'm assuming 1 page on a PRS 300 contains far less content than 1 page of a standard novel, Mr. Pedantic,
No point in assuming, it's about 60% of a standard novel page's contents if you get something from gutenberg or other raw txt. 40% if the book has been typseset and formatted, eg a purchased book.
I get this number from my 505 which has a 6" screen and displays 30 lines of average 11 word lengths (note: this is from a pure *.txt file, so there is no wasted space other than intending the start of paragraphs...purchased books give 22lines of 10words). A normal paperback book I read has 42 lines of 11 word lengths. This gives about 71.5% (or 48% for purchased books) the text of a normal paperback. the 300 is 5" so 71.5*5/6=59.5... ~60 (40% for purchased)%
as that is the way it works on the e-readers I have tried for pocket devices. And sorry but I've played a little with a Kindle and the 505 and the refresh rate is so annoying it is the sole reason at the time I didn't purchase one.
And thats entirely my point!!! you and the critics "played a little" !!! If you had really used the ereader you would find that "turning a page" on an ereader with optimized text (in this case the sony 505 using ePub) takes ~1second.
Compare this to paperback where it takes.75sec.
I am using a totally non-scientific method of timing my reader called the "steamboat" method... I count 1 steamboat aloud and by the time I am at "ohhh" of steamboat the page has turned. This is in contrast to the "mmbbb" of steamboat when turning a page in a paper book.
Now rightly, there are some formats which take a very long time to render. eg imaged pdfs, the type where the pdf isn't text but is an image of text, takes perhaps 4 or 5 seconds to render properly... I would care about this since the actual image rendered is too small to read anyway, so I dont read any of these books (waiting for a large screen reader for these).
It takes me 45seconds to read a page formatted on my 505... so a 1second flip really doesn't bother me. it doesn't break my concentration at all, and is arguably less concentration breaking than turning the page, since it takes less movement.
Your argument certainly has validity for textbooks or other books where you can quickly scan the page looking for specific text. But for novels -which is what the prs505 and prs300 was made for- page refresh is a non-issue.
I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is up with you e-ink greybeards? LCD does not 'melt your eyes' literally or figuratively. Do you read this page and all other websites using an eink screen? If not, why does an LCD suffice for most computing activities (including reading), but is then suddenly inappropriate for reading?I look at an LCD perhaps 8 hours a day with no eyestrain, as do millions of office workers.
LCD is a much better general purpose screen, deals with colour for photography and diagrams, lets you use the device to browse the web and play games, by sacrificing some battery life.
For this reason I think general purpose devices like the apple slate will overtake ereaders very quickly in the marketplcae. You're welcome to your eink screens though; I won't try to claim that they make your eyes bleed, they're just less useful than an LCD or OLED.
fwiw, i was paranoid about getting a new screen, and i stared at a lot of them carefully before buying. biggest problem i could see was the quality of the coating on the screen. some just made text hard to focus on, even though the panel was expensive. in the end i got one that had the cleanest coating i could find.
second thing, i get dry eyes a lot, and that's just from forgetting to blink.
No, you don't need to have e-ink to read ebooks, but it certainly helps - the difference between active and passive screen is one for me, is important. You can (and I have) got by just fine reading on a PDA, LCD or whatever. But I really do notice the difference reading paper (electronic or otherwise) - it's just generally far better for my eyes and reading comfort. If I can't read in the dark, so be it - I can't read a 'normal' book in the dark either, and despite having had the capability to read on PDA/phone/computer for ages now, I still bought hardcopy books, because they were more pleasant to read.
I have used an eReader. Both LCD and eInk versions. And I would make the assertion that it _does_ matter a damn.
It's just more comfortable reading for extended periods on a passive display - maybe you have no problems with it, but personally I just cannot face reading 1000 pages on an LCD/TFT/CRT. Especially when I want to sit outside and read, where the active displays suffer from bright sunlight.
And if they do, that's fair enough. Don't get an eReader. For me? The reading experience is the critical thing in my eBook reader, and everything else is pointless fluff. Once I've got a vaguely good way to get stuff onto my device, and enough space/battery life, then that's it.
For that use case, eInk is the tool for the job.
The post you are replying to did not mention Kindle or DRM. Yes, some people here will not consider the Kindle because of the DRM. And some people here - maybe other people to the anti-Kindle people - will consider an iPad. We aren't all the same person with the same opinion.
The market is flooded with "portable devices with LCD screens that let you read things and access the Internet". I thought this was supposed to be a geek place, yet people act as if there'll be nothing available until the Ipad is released...
Indeed. The interesting thing is that, when non-Apple colour "e-readers" are announced, there's no end of comments from people pointing out the e-ink issue, and the real benefits of devices like Sony's and the Kindle, even if it's not clear if the new product doesn't have these. But with the Ipad, there's been no end of hype about it being some kind of super e-reader, even though we know it doesn't have these features...
Re:iPad?
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Anonymous Coward
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i use computers all day too. however, i don't hold them nearly as close to my face as i would a book. if you sit that close to your screen, then i'm honestly surprised you don't need glasses. its well documented (there are various links all over this thread, go and find one, if you can't, maybe i'll come back and post it. however, if you were really reading this thread and not just looking for people to point out how they're wrong, then maybe you won't find it)
I think this has to be a personal preference and it will vary between individuals. I never had any problems with reading on my CRT/LCD on my computer, and so far have much preferred the backlight LCD on my ancient RocketEbook reader to any newer e-book reader on display, because I can read it in the dark. Seriously - the main places I'd use an e-book reader, that is in bed at night, on a plane, as a passanger in a car - are all places where a significant amount of the time, it's useful to be able to read sans flashlight/overhead light... The rest of the time, it's just as easy, cheaper, and IMO a better value to just read a paperback.
I thought I was the only one who thought reading in the dark was important. Glad to see I'm not alone. The reason I put reading in the dark up there is it's one of the few plusses for me to an e-book vs a physical book. If the e-book has all the same failings as a paper book, why am I spending ~$300 extra to read it when I can spend $0 extra to read a paperback?
To be honest, I used to use a rocket e-book reader constantly. But I found that either I had to pay more for the e-books than the paperback (still generally true) or put up with horribly formatted conversions of online Fan Fiction (I used to like reading this when I didn't have money but lots of time to read), or read old books from gutenburg that I didn't want to read. I got a job and I started buying paperbacks again and haven't looked back.
That said, I've got some online released books I'm interested in again (they are free postings), so maybe eventually I'll look at a newer e-reader, or figure out how to convert onto my old RocketEbook...
Yeah, and that is becoming very close to being true. As phones advance they will have ereaders in them. Right now iPhones do. I would be extremely surprised if there wasn't already multiple ebook reading software out for android. I used to read ebooks on my palm pilot (which if you recall eventually made phones). I know there are ereaders for blackberrys. Now, regular cellphones don't currently have the resolution to make reading enjoyable (though some do have ereaders), but "smart phones" do, and more and more smart phones are out each year.
All netbooks are "e readers" now that is correct. My girlfriend reads books (mostly checked out from the seattle public library) on her computer. She could just as easily do so on a netbook. She actually prefers the laptop to her phone, though reads on both.
That is one of my points actually, that ebook readers will be more popular if they aren't just ebook readers. The defining factor of an ebook reader, as was suggested, is NOT eink.
Actually, the latest reference in that document is basing stuff on data from 1996 (most of the references are from the 80s or early 90s) and well... LCDs (and monitors in general) have certainly changed a lot since then. Basically... that information is no longer to be taken as gospel and is not about current technology.
Doctors now say that really, LCD displays are not bad for the eyes at all, and what is bad is the setup of the screen (not an issue with a portable LCD like a phone) and the lack of blinking you do when reading for long periods of time (which isn't related to LCDs at all and is a problem for eInk too).
Here is a timely blog post on the NY Times for slightly more info...
Basically... eInk isn't really any better, lacks in contrast, and is not good for reading in low light situations.
I think the eInk industry has done a really good job at making people believe something that isn't true. People's eyes go bad as they get older, your LCD monitor probably isn't the cause though.
There is some difference however between computer work/play and reading. I find that I can work behind my computer for 8 hours a day without problem. However I am constantly switching between tools (when developing), switch between screen and some paper or documents, have a conversation with fellow developers in between etc. Also I try to glance up from the screen at least once every few minutes so I can relax my eye regularly (for a few seconds is enough).
Reading however often is more focussed and concentrated. You can read a book and be immersed in it for 1 or 2 hours without break. If I do that on a computer screen, then my eyes get really tired and sore, and pretty quickly too.
I have a kindle which I like (still like paper better apart from the fact that taking many books with me is too heavy). The ipad, if the screen quality is very good and when used quite dimmed could be good enough, I don't know yet and won't know until I've seen one and could try it for at least 1 hour. We'll see.
But I do remain that reading on a computer is something else than doing most other types of computer activities.
I read more often on my iPhone than on my Kindle, just because of the portability. But if I'm home with both the phone and the Kindle in reach, I'll use the Kindle. Admittedly, since I live alone, I don't have to read in the dark, but in most ways, I prefer the Kindle.
-- Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Eye-strain can often cause temporary headaches and such, but show us solid evidence of permanent effects.
Why? I don't believe that permanent effects exist, and I don't read the phrase "melt your eyes" to imply permanent effects in its colloquial use -- if I'm going to be reading from a device for an extended period of time, I don't want temporary headaches either.
When you're looking at a TFT screen, you are, effectively, staring at a rather bright lamp. It's not like we've just found out recently that this kind of thing is not good for the eyes.
Most devices with TFT screens let you lower the brightness of the backlight. So the assumption of a "bright lamp" is absolutely unjustified.
You can further lower the light reaching your eyes by using a black background and a light coloured text colour. This way, effectively less light reaches the eyes with TFTs than paper books (or e-ink). When reading e-ink, you have less control over the light reaching your eyes than in TFTs, so maybe you jumped on to your common sense without thinking.
-- Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
-- Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
Re:iPad?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
there is also evidence mounting that the light shining in the eyes-thing has a disruptive effect on human circadian rhythms. tv/video gaming, and web-surfing, as well as reading on a backlit device are all purported to be contributors to the effect. (saw it in science news. can't remember the issue. but there are other sources.)
Follow-up question: what's available in Canada?
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mattcsn
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· Score: 1
Either available domestically, or with a minimum of shipping hassles?
Re:Follow-up question: what's available in Canada?
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Funny
Paper.
Re:Follow-up question: what's available in Canada?
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Unfortunately in the desolate winter wasteland that is Canada, we do not have trees, papyrus, or other sources of plant fiber with which to create this 'paper'. Instead we must resort to using parchment made from clubbed seals.
Re:Follow-up question: what's available in Canada?
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Craig.Engbrecht
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· Score: 1
Well much to the amazement of those who think Canadians live in Igloo's or eat raw seal meat and fat... We live in houses, have cars, and actually have a large variety of trees... But more to the point, most e-readers or digital devices are available to Canadians, and if they are not available directly, they are available for a reasonable cost of transportation to Canada from other countries, one of which has caught my eye would be the Foxit eSlick, I personally like the PDF reader they produce, and also think it looks suitable to be used and has good specs from what I have read.
Anyway laterz
Re:Follow-up question: what's available in Canada?
by
notjustchalk
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· Score: 1
These are what's easily available in Canada. There are tons more, but all have to be shipped in for a extra $ (including the Kindle).
Eink Readers
Sony's portable reader ebook line are available (current models are the 5" screen PRS300 and the 6" screen PRS600). Look around on Dell.ca or Ncix, they sometimes go on decent sales (e.g. ~200+ for the PRS300). Sadly, the PRS500 (imo, the best one) has been discontinued, though you might find some on clearance every now and then. There is a 9" model, the PRS900 "Daily Edition" but for whatever reason, it's not available here (yet?).
Astak Mentor (6") and EZ Reader Pocket-Pro (5") ebook readers, from Newegg.ca. The 5" is the newer and more featureful version.
Foxit E-slick 6" reader from Newegg.ca
Amazon Kindle can be shipped in via amazon.com, but overpriced and crippled without whispernet, imo.
Non-Eink Readers
Aluratek Libre Ebook Reader is sold by Costco & Dell. Uses a 5" reflective LCD screen which is much nicer on the eyes than Eink (higher contrast), but much less battery time. Cheaper too (sometimes down to $150 on sale), fwiw.
Ectaco 5" Jetbook-lite - exactly the same unit as the Libre above, but cheaper (~$125 right now at Newegg.ca
Fry: "Why's everyone wearing those rings?"
Amy: "Guh! Because nobody wears them anymore! Rings are stupid!"
Fry: "I think they look cool!"
Amy: "Shh, don't let anyone hear you say that!"
Man: "Hey, did that lad just say rings are cool?"
Amy: "No. He said they're stupid."
Man: "Cool!"
I still use my N800 daily...
by
IANAAC
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· Score: 4, Informative
It reads pretty much anything non DRM I can throw at it, and it fits in my pocket.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
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TheRaven64
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· Score: 2, Informative
and it fits in my pocket
I have a 770 and an iRex iLiad and, although the 770's screen is one of the nicest TFT's I've ever used, the iLiad's eInk is much nicer. The form factor, however, is a problem. The 770, which is the same size as the N800, fits (along with a folding keyboard) into a jacket pocket. The iLiad doesn't. That means I can take the 770 to a lot of places where the iLiad would be inconvenient. I'd love to have a device with a fold-out or roll-up eInk screen that was the same physical size as the 770 (or smaller) when not in use. I use the iLiad in my house and for reading in the park during the summer, but I couldn't just slip it into a pocket when I got into town to read in a coffee shop when I've finished shopping and that dramatically reduces its usefulness. An eBook reader should be at least as portable as a thin paperback, and ideally more so.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
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yelvington
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· Score: 1
I use my N800 daily, too... to play Klondike. The FBReader software is a terrible user interface. A pity, really.
So I've tried to use my laptop. I've tried installing Amazon's Kindle for PC under Wine. It installs but won't run, so I don't know if it's suitable for reading or not.
Calibre seems intended for downloading and feeding data to devices like the Sony reader.
All in all, the laptop doesn't seem to be a good candidate for curling up with a book. If I perch it on my stomach it has a habit of spontaneously loading up Hulu and rotting my brain.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
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godrik
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· Score: 1
I have been using my Nokia N810 to read ebooks recently. It does not have the all the pros of a dedicated e-book reader like non bright readable screen and long battery but it is enough for the occasional (non-drm encumbered) e books I read. If I was reading more on ebook I would probably go for a dedicated device. However none of them really caught my eyes...
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
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fm6
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· Score: 1
That's fine, as long as you don't care about:
Reading stuff with graphics that won't fit on that tiny display.
Being able to use your reader during a prolonged separation from any power source. The N800 does do extremely well, but not the thousands of page turns (independent of time) that you get with an electrophoretic display.
Reading stuff that isn't available without DRM. Forget the religious issues for a minute: if you're on a 24-hour plane ride, you're soon going to get tired of reading what's available for free. It's good for distracting yourself for brief periods (and the main reason I pay those extortionate 3G data charges), but for serious anti-boredom, I want something that you have to pay for — which is never going to be available without DRM of some kind.
Right now I make do with a smart phone and a tablet computer for portable reading — but if I traveled more, I'd buy a Kindle faster than you can say "Best Seller" and screw the cost.
Being able to read under bright sunlight
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
by
IANAAC
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· Score: 1
...if you're on a 24-hour plane ride, you're soon going to get tired of...
oIf I'm on a 24 hour flight, I'm going to get bored with any tech soner or later.
I travel with my netbook, my n800 and my Blackberry. Between those three items, together weighing less than 2 pounds tucked away in a small messenger bag, I can do pretty much whatever I need to, be it work or entertainment.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
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beermad
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· Score: 1
And now FBReader works on the N900 I can finally retire my N800. And run my Linux programs while I'm reading...
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
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Zerth
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· Score: 2, Insightful
if you're on a 24-hour plane ride, you're soon going to get tired of reading what's available for free.
If I'm on a 24-hour plane ride, I'll probably be spending more time pestering the crew about how the plane stays in the air so long.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
by
notjustchalk
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· Score: 1
That's fine, as long as you don't care about:
Reading stuff with graphics that won't fit on that tiny display.
Eh, graphics aren't a big selling point on Eink displays either - I mean, I could easily argue against the grainy(160 ppi vs the N800s 225ppi) b&w pics that are the norm on any Eink device.
Being able to use your reader during a prolonged separation from any power source. The N800 does do extremely well, but not the thousands of page turns (independent of time) that you get with an electrophoretic display.
I'll give you that, but the N810 does have the added advantage of ubiquitous and cheap replacement batteries (so lots of spares can be had and shared between this unit and cellphones). Also, the "unlimited use if you don't change the screen" selling point is also not 100% accurate. The cpu continues to run while reading, so it does continue to eat up battery (even in suspension) - running whispernet, mp3s in the bg, etc also kill battery in a big way.
Reading stuff that isn't available without DRM... I want something that you have to pay for — which is never going to be available without DRM of some kind.
YMMV - Baen's library is DRM free, as are a handful of smaller ebook vendors. As well, there are lots of DRM removers (something I have no issues using if I already own a book). In the end, this is up to the reader - we're all different creatures, after all.
Being able to read under bright sunlight
The N810 (not the N800) has a transflective screen which works just fine under bright sunlight (the brighter, the better), so there is an option.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I never use FBReader, I use evince, which is/much/ nicer. Still, a bit lacking, and something specific to the nokia tablets would be welcome
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
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masmullin
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· Score: 3, Informative
This plane runs on love baby
Happy valentines day.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
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fm6
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· Score: 1
Are we having the same conversation? We're not talking about electronic entertainment in general, we're talking about e-readers. One of the limitations of an n900 is that you can't use it to read DRMed content. When I go on a very long plane ride, I take a lot of reading material, and it would be nice to save the bulk of books. Any device with a screen and lot of memory saves you the bulk, but unless you have some kind of DRM support, you're stuck with free (or "liberated") content, and for a long trip that won't cut it.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
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fm6
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· Score: 1
I didn't say the flight was nonstop. Flights from the U.S. west coast to India can easily take 24 hours, including time for a refueling stop. And that's if both ends of the trip are major travel hubs. If you leaving from or going to the boonies, add an hour or two, and maybe a lot more if you have to wait on a connection.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
by
oji-sama
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· Score: 1
I use my N800 daily, too... to play Klondike. The FBReader software is a terrible user interface. A pity, really.
I dislike the interface as well, but once you get a book open and in landscape mode the reading experience is rather nice. (I prefer the program's own scrolling from the settings instead of the scroll bar. Much prettier. I think I also decreased the font size a bit.) Adding books is not nice whatever you do.
-- It is what it is.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
by
Hurricane78
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· Score: 1
Creationist airplane. Doesn’t believe in gravity. ^^
-- Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
by
PCM2
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· Score: 1
if you're on a 24-hour plane ride, you're soon going to get tired of reading what's available for free. It's good for distracting yourself for brief periods (and the main reason I pay those extortionate 3G data charges), but for serious anti-boredom, I want something that you have to pay for — which is never going to be available without DRM of some kind.
If you can't be entertained by Alexandre Dumas, Charles Dickens, Jane Austin, Miguel de Cervantes, Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, Daniel Defoe, Edith Wharton, Walter Scott, or ANY of the many, many other authors whose works are not protected by copyright... if you absolutely must buy something because nothing else will appease you... then frankly I pity you.
-- Breakfast served all day!
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Insightful
if you're on a 24-hour plane ride, you're soon going to get tired of reading what's available for free.
Are you kidding? The bigger and best part of world's literature has its copyright expired before I was born. Your statement makes perfect sense for people that only like this year best sellers, but for the vast majority there's more goood quality free content that they can handle.
Re:I still use my N800 daily...
by
mknewman
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· Score: 1
I use a Toshiba E805 PocketPC with 640x480 and eReader.com's reader. Been using it for over a decade (ereader, I had a Casio before this one) and it works just dandy, and I take it everywhere. I couldn't deal with a reader that I had to carry, I just slip mine in a pocket and am off. Also, being able to hold it with one hand is great as well.
Works for me, unit is small enough to carry with a screen big enough for me to read. Stanza works well enough and I also have music, movies, games etc.
Yeah, I'll agree on this one. The iPod Touch's DRM doesn't negatively affect Stanza, a (currently) free app for iPod/iPhone and Windows (and maybe other OSs too but I don't bother to care).
You can open just about any eBook format in Stanza including text or rtf, then it shares wirelessly to your iPod in the correct format without you even having to save it as a converted file anywhere. The function is simply beautiful and effortless, and it made this iPod I was given from a poor mp3 player that can't even do ogg (I mean really c'mon now Apple can't you do anything right but UIs?) into my new killer app.
Black background with white text and dynamic brightness adjustment have all let me get by without eye strain on my iPhone. I get that e-ink is no doubt better, but the non dedicated devices still tend to have options that don't make your eyes bleed...
Me too. The best part is I ALWAYS have it with me, so I can read a few pages waiting in line, etc. BTW Stanza on the desktop sucks, but on the latest iTouch it's fast, clean, and distraction free. I haven't used a DRM book yet--there's plenty to read in epub and other Stanza-compatible formats. calibre (open source) is a good, but slow, book manager that converts most formats to the epub that Stanza likes, and will act as a server so you can pick up the books over wifi from your Touch.
Just got a Nook
by
zwede
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Reason I went with the Nook is that it accepts non-DRM epub files (kindle does not).
For its intended use it is OK. But it also has its issues. The menus are sluggish. I have had a few crashes (automatic reboots).
I'm sure ebooks is an area where we will see massive improvements in the next year or two. Faster e-ink screens, in color, and touch sensitive (rather than having a separate touch screen).
Where do you find epub files that are cheaper than the same book for the kindle?
I considered the other readers based on the fact a kindle is locked. I found that Amazon would have the same book at half of the price as other online ebook sites.
Re:Just got a Nook
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
The same place the majority of the internet finds DRM free music.....
If your files are non-DRM epub, you can convert them to just about anything else, including formats the other readers can handle.
I've only got problems with DRM'ed files and so chose my reader based on if its DRM has been cracked yet. I buy, then crack and backup so I no longer care about the future of the vendor or its ability to "recall" products.
Re:Just got a Nook
by
BerntB
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Can the Nook handle password-protected PDFs? (Some publishers sells ebooks like that.)
-- Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
Re:Just got a Nook
by
sowth
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· Score: 2, Informative
Are you brainwashed or a shill? There are plenty of places to get legal ebooks for free. You don't have to pay anything. Start with Project Gutenberg. They have countless public domain books available.
I just got a Nook, took, and I'm quite happy with it for the reasons you mention. I also kind of like supporting a brick and mortar store that gives Amazon a bit of competition. The latest software release has helped speed it up quite a bit. The menus are now quite responsive.
Re:Just got a Nook
by
Joe+Tie.
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Are you brainwashed or a shill?
I'd ask the same of you. Everyone knows about project gutenberg, that's not what he's asking. He's asking about stores with current content which have cheaper prices alongside comparable selections. I don't know the answer to that, but I can still tell his question is valid.
Are you brainwashed or a shill? There are plenty of places to get legal ebooks for free. You don't have to pay anything. Start with Project Gutenberg. They have countless public domain books available.
I am referring to non PD book. Lets say, Dan Browns Latest, or something by Harry Turtle Dove. When looking for that, amazon has the best prices.
I use feedbooks all of the time.
Even better, lets say, I want to actually pay for my local paper and a couple of magazines I like to read.
I'm interested in getting a Nook, but I haven't been able to find any rundowns of its PDF display capabilities. I'd be looking at reading a lot of CS papers, which are typically two-column with graphics. Could you try putting something like this paper on your Nook and seeing if its readable? Perhaps post a few pics?
Could you try putting something like this paper on your Nook and seeing if its readable? Perhaps post a few pics?
Of course you're probably already aware of it, but PDFs are generally not well suited for small-screen reading. I know you asked for testing with a Nook, but I put it on my Sony PRS-600 just for kicks. It turns out that it works very well with the almost instant Zoom/Pan feature of the reader, no hassle at all to read and pan it. Unzoomed it's readable after I cropped it tightly, but of course the font get's very small. I know this was not what you asked, but here is a pic from my bad phone camera anyway. The contrast is perfect and the font is smooth when viewed on the reader.
-- Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!:)
Re:Just got a Nook
by
Stele
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· Score: 2, Informative
I put non-drm books on my Kindle all the time. There is a free program called Calibre which can convert between formats and install the files on the Kindle automatically.
Re:Just got a Nook
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Actually, you can use Mobipocket's free application to convert your ePub's into mobi format which the Kindle reads no problem. Just copy them onto the Kindle over USB (it appears as a drive). Oh, and you can also backup all your ebooks (free or otherwise) over USB as well.
I'm interested in the Nook because it's very hackable (since it runs Android OS), so I was wondering whether there was any built-in reflow feature of the PDF reader that could intelligently deal with two-column layout. The PRS-600 does look nice, but I'm not as interested in it.
Oh, and by the way, since you solicit corrections in your signature, verbs are never conjugated with apostrophes. Apostrophes are meant to show missing letters in contractions. For example, I should have used "it's" when I asked
Could you try putting something like this paper on your Nook and seeing if its readable? Perhaps post a few pics?
and you should have used "gets" when you said
Unzoomed it's readable after I cropped it tightly, but of course the font get's very small.
You correctly used "it's" earlier in the sentence, where the apostrophe is used to denote that "it's" is a contraction of "it is".
Your English is already pretty good, but good luck continuing to improve it! It's basically a third grader's arts and crafts project of a language–I'm very thankful that it's my native tongue, since learning it has to be very difficult.
Came here to see someone recommend the iPad.
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 2, Funny
I came here to see someone recommend the iPad, inspite the fact that, It has orders of magnitude less battery life than a kindle & can't be used in direct sunlight and am leaving satisfied.
Re:Came here to see someone recommend the iPad.
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0, Funny
For someone that pretends to care about reading books your spelling and grammar are atrocious.
Re:Came here to see someone recommend the iPad.
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I'm not the parent, but for someone that trolls like you, I'm going to tell you that I read a lot in Spanish and I care a lot about Spanish grammar and spelling. I'm fairly confident that people around the globe care about their own language too.
If you are a scientist, you're coming to wrong conclusions, quite rapidly. Way to go.
Re:Came here to see someone recommend the iPad.
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
...can't be used in direct sunlight
Good lord! Are you saying the rumours of the daystar are true?!?
Astak Ez Reader Pro
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Nice. Works. Reads Adobe DRM'd books if you fancy that. If not, it's OK too. With the firmware upgrades fixing zoom problems, it's OK.
Thank you, for that. I ordered one yesterday and I would have had buyer's remorse if no one on slashdot thought highly of it.
Unless you're in US the answer is NONE
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Currently Kindle is the only ebook reader available in part of Europe but with very limited book catalog - so limited I did not buy one. Others offer no paid catalog at all, which pretty much means if I wanted to, well I don't know, read ebooks on my ebook reader (I know, I know - WILD) I would have to rely on pirated books only, so if I wanted to give author some money for his hard work (not Umberto Eco, read any of his books and you'll see he's not working hard:P ) I'd have to buy the paper version, which defies the whole point of owning an ebook reader.
Re:Unless you're in US the answer is NONE
by
TheRaven64
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· Score: 1
I've mostly read public domain and technical books on my eBook reader. DRM-free PDFs of technical books are available through InformIT and Safari Books Online and public domain / creative commons books can be downloaded from sites like feedbooks, which produce PDFs typeset for the exact dimensions of your device's screen. If other publishers don't want to make DRM-free PDFs available, then I'm more than happy not to buy their products...
Re:Unless you're in US the answer is NONE
by
LordLucless
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· Score: 1
Or you could buy non-DRM encumbered books. Despite what some industries seem to think, just because something doesn't have DRM doesn't mean it's pirated.
-- Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Re:Unless you're in US the answer is NONE
by
tepples
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· Score: 1
If other publishers don't want to make DRM-free PDFs available, then I'm more than happy not to buy their products
Unless you're in college and your assigned textbooks and literature books aren't available DRM-free.
(Managable) DRM issues asside, Stanza for the iphone is an excellent reader if you already have an iphone, and don't want to splash out for a dedicated reader. The screen is easy to read, books are easy to source and it's free =)
For the PocketPC - ubook is one of the better ones out there.
Re:Stanza for the iphone
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Oh please. The ipod touch and iphone have the worst displays on the market. You obvious don't read much if you think that shit is the best available.
I've read more than 200 books on my iPod touch (with Stanza) now and while I think that a larger screen is better and e-ink is better in certain conditions (enough light, slow and linear reading through a novel or so), I'm totally happy with it. The iPod totally vanishes behind the book I'm reading and what more to say about an ebook-reader?
I'm quite sure that the iPad will be a hit. It's not perfect, but it is a well rounded product offering much more than just an ebook reader.
E-ink is not as important as some people think. It does exactly one thing well (displaying static text with no backlight) and totally fails at all others. It's incredibly slow, it has no colors, it has low contrast and you can't have a decent user-interface with a touchscreen (because it is much to slow to offer good visual feedback, scrolling, or any other kind of animations). And the low energy consumption of the screen alone makes a difference only if the hardware beneath it is also very minimal. Put an e-ink screen on something like the iPad and it will run 15 hours instead of 10 on a charge. Bad deal.
I think the prices of e-ink readers will have to come down a lot or they will just vanish from the market. They are very limited devices after all.
I use a Nook
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Use a B&N Nook... like it... Cons: wish it had better battery life... and not as many titles available as with the Kindle.
the NOOK!!!
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Hands down... the nook is a far superior eBook reading experience to the Kindle, which is second in my opinion. I have owned both, and though the first firmware version for the nook was bugged as all get out, they fixed most of the issues before Christmas. (Unfortunately, for them, not before Walt Mossberg reviewed the errors of the initial OS.) Now, with their second upgrade and complete interface overhaul -- the second upgrade in two months! -- the nook flies, its battery life is extended, and the bugs have all been ironed out.
Moreover, how can anyone think that the Kindle's closed format is better? The nook allows a variety of formats to be read or purchased elsewhere and read on the device. Due to its Android operating system, several hacks are available allowing you to stream Pandora while reading and even browse teh web in a manner very similar to the Kindle. Most importantly, though, the nook's fonts and screen brightness are far superior to the Kindle's -- which is like reading on recycled paper, whereas the nook feels like you are reading on a new, white sheet of paper.
All in all, the nook is much better. However, this is a ridiculous poll, because over a million Kindle users who have never used a nook are going to, by default, vote for the Kindle. The Kindle was great. It is now subpar. And until they keep updating and ramping up the Linux operating system on the Kindle as regularly and as well as the Android system on the nook, the Kindle will continue to fall behind. The hardware on the nook is superior (replaceable battery, microSD card insert), and the operating system seems to be far more flexible. Game, Set -- nook. Can Barnes and Noble get enough people to try it to win the Match, though?
Finally, as an iPhone owner, you have to be insane to think that lit background technology will ever compete with eInk. Yes, eInk is slow but it is meant to be easy on the eyes. It is. I would never choose to read on my iPhone over my nook or Kindle. Nor would most baby boomers -- the biggest market for eBooks, probably, now that they are entering retirement. These are different markets in my mind. I think the iPad will be a flop when it comes eBooks. I hope so. Apple is evil!:>)
Featuring an easy to learn lift and turn interface, people can pick up a Book and just start reading! And Book has been specifically designed to interoperate with your existing Shelves(tm).
--
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I'm told they're a little short on internal storage though- even the bulkiest models struggle to contain more than a couple of thousand pages of text. Heavy too, and fragile. Completely DRM laden- the texts you buy are almost impossible to transfer to other devices, and if you lose the original you can't make a backup.
Ah yes, this old meme. Unfortunately, books fail hard at carrying capacity. One book I picked out of my shelf has 57 chars per line * 36 lines per page * 774 pages = 1588248 bytes, and one of those takes up a full pocket. I can have a few thousand of those in an ebook reader, which also takes up one pocket.
The Book's carrying capacity limitations are more than compensated by the longevity of its media, however. Years after your e-book reader is in your junk box or landfill along with the other hottest technology you bought this year, the books I keep and shelve will still be books rather than e-waste. For throwaway one-time reads that's OK by me. For writing with more staying power, though, that's a damned shame,
Heavy? Well, yeah. Look on it as impromptu free-weight training. But fragile? I can drop a book three stories on to solid concrete and have it survive essentially intact. Let's see you do that with an eBook...
Not waterproof?
Are you going to seriously tell me that a Kindle *is* waterproof?
Search feature?
I can riffle through a real book to find the section I'm looking for in a minute. There's also a handy section at the front called the "table of contents". For a finer-grained search, books that need them have something called an "index".
Unless you are paying extra for archival paper, your books will be crumbling before my flat text files become unreadable. I don't rely on the storage medium, I rely on the format.
But if you are a casual reader like most people here, you don't have any need to carry thousands of books with you. You carry one book with you, or if you're going on a trip, you carry a few.
Not to mention, the environmental impact of that entire bookcase of books is still far less than the environmental impact of the manufacture and operation of a single Kindle.
The day I have to recharge the battery in my books is the day I stop reading books.
Re:The Book.
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
how many of those can you read while waiting for one bus or on one flight?
actually its kind of nice to carry all the books of a series.
I recently re-read dragonlance chronicles+legends+soulforge+hourglass mage (thats 8 books for the record... a bit too much to be carrying around on vacation).
Since I've read 6 of the books before, I went through them very fast.
I did all this at my home, so its irrelevant (except that I seem to have misplaced some of the paper-back books:( )... but if I were on vacation it would be very handy.
Woosh indeed! It's almost like different people might have different needs than you! But that's obviously a ridiculous idea.
-- Everything will be taken away from you.
Re:The Book.
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
But I like physical books because they are physical things. Don't have anything against e-books, I've used my laptop to read a few and would love to pick up something better once the winner of the whole "omg tabletsssss!!" war is decided.
But at the same time any book I really like, I'm buying it in hardcover at least. I've got a very nice hardcover copy of The Hobbit with illustrations from Alan Lee, and will one day probably get a leather bound edition. I also just purchased an entirely new set of Harry Potter books in hardcover. So, for and because of, people like me there will always be a market for physical books.
I have multiple recollections of being on a month-long vacation with little to no internet, finishing the 6-10 books I brought in and wondering what to do. You only realize how good something is once you have it - Romans thought their lives were just fine with no TV, maybe one book in the house and no internet.
I read a lot when on holiday. I will probably demolish one book on the journey each way, and then one every couple of days whilst I'm on holiday. It gets quite heavy, especially if you want to ensure you have enough reading material that you don't run out (some authors write 'faster fluff'). So instead of 5-10 dead tree books in my suitcase, I have one eBook reader in my jacket pocket. The latter has my holiday selection, along with a collection of some favourites I like re-reading.
Re:The Book.
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
My 6 day flight from california to afghanistan (with layovers) was a huge success with the addition of my prs-600. There is no way i would have stayed sane without my entire library to read at any time.
I see your point. For some people it's probably the ideal solution. I guess I just don't get through books that quickly. If I'm traveling and I need something to read then I'll buy a new book. If I'm travelling in a foreign country I've got better things to do than read. It's kind of the same with MP3 players. I had a 40GB iRiver which had my entire music collection on it. It was ok but I'm happier with my 4GB iPod Nano because then I spend a little longer thinking about what to put on it. That way I can just press play and listen to something I know I'll want to hear rather than that Teach Yourself Japanese (or whatever) album that's several hundred tracks long and keeps on popping up even though you only copied it on there by accident. Each to their own, I guess.
-- Brain surgery - it's not rocket science!
Re:The Book.
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
But has the ebook reader helped you read them any faster? So why do you need to carry so many?
You carry one book with you, or if you're going on a trip, you carry a few.
That's true, but over the years I've acquired many many books, a few of them I'd like to read again, or just browse and look something up on occasion. They take up a lot of space in my apartment, and that's really inconvenient. Also I order a lot of books from abroad, it would be convenient to do that online and save shipping costs, too.
I don't actually use a book reader because of the DRM problems, but I'd like to otherwise. Paper books do have significant disadvantages.
Unfortunately, books fail hard at carrying capacity.
They also fail hard at being e-readers, which is what the question was about:)
I agree about the carrying capacity. It's akin to my mp3 player; I'll never listen to ALL my music on every trip, but it's nice not having to select a few CDs that I'm going to bring in advance. I used to bring 8-10 books on a week-long vacation, I'm glad those days are gone.
-- Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors!:)
most people grab a book, read it, then get another book. despite what/.'s will tell us about their insatiable reading habits, that's what most people do. needing to carry around tens or hundreds of books is a niche. i have no doubt that e-book owners have tens or hundreds of books on their device and regularly flaunt this to e-book non-believers, but they just aren't accessing all of those books on a daily basis.
there are some people that like tech for the sake of it, and involving tech in some aspect of their lives tends to pique their interest. i am not immune to this by any means. i remember how my handheld GPS renewed my interest in hiking for a while. i didn't like hiking as much as i liked watching my path being plotted and knowing how much elevation i had gained. i think this is the main draw of e-books at this point in their evolution. one more shiny device to tote around for people with $300 burning a hole in their pocket.
for the rest of us, that like reading for the sake of reading, a regular books is lighter, easier to read, open formatted, more durable, can be purchased used at a discount, and cheaper than an ebook and moreover it's ownership is transferrable. not to mention that publishers have drastically reduced their costs and passed on none of it to the consumer. i guess that's not a direct knock against e-readers, but if the books costed significantly less that sure would be a draw.
to be fair i think there are some uses that fall outside of traditional book reading that may work for ebooks. if you consume many periodicals... students with a ton of back breaking textbooks... for example.
as for their popularity among the masses, i live in a million+ person city and i can count the number of times i've seen someone reading an e-book on my hands. maybe people keep them at home.
I can riffle through a real book to find the section I'm looking for in a minute. There's also a handy section at the front called the "table of contents". For a finer-grained search, books that need them have something called an "index".
I can page-down through a thousand page txt file in a minute as well, but I rather use grep.
Unless you are paying extra for archival paper, your books will be crumbling before my flat text files become unreadable. I don't rely on the storage medium, I rely on the format.
Sorry, but that's just not true. First of all, nearly every hardcover book you can buy these days is printed on acid-free paper. Note that that study measures the acid-free adoption rate fifteen years ago; it has gotten better since then.
But even your every day low quality non-acid-free paper is going to last a lot longer than any digital format. My dad still has hundreds of pulp scifi paperbacks from the heyday of the era that he bought used. Many are older than seven decades. They feel a little bit "old", and the paper is yellowing, but they're still perfectly readable, and they should still last for a lot longer yet.
Basically, my point is that while the format itself of an ASCII text file will probably be readable hundreds of years from now, you sure as hell aren't going to have managed to preserve your files for that length of time. You're arguing an inconsistent point; the format of "books" will be readable forever. You're making an apples-to-oranges comparisons of individual books on the one hand, which will eventually decay, versus the format of digital files on the other hand. It's not a fair comparison.
Give me a way to store an eBook that you think is going to still be readily usable a hundred years from now without any further modification or periodic maintenance transformation of formats. There isn't any. If you think there is, just tell me one way someone from 1970 could have stored digital information that would be easily readable on a computer today, and then realize we're talking about a much longer gulf of time than that. A paper book, on the other hand, will always just work.
Also, you assume that computers will exist at all many hundreds of years in the future; depending on how we manage our climate change issues, or nuclear warfare issues, that might not be true at all. If society collapses, books will still be perfectly readable; computers will be nothing more than what the ancient Mayan ruins to us.
Woosh indeed! It's almost like different people might have different needs than you! But that's obviously a ridiculous idea.
I will grant that others have different needs than I. However, let me offer up a supporting anecdote: I am another one of those people who typically reads only one book at a time (two is stretching it). I am pretty sure I represent the majority of people on that point. I don't particularly need access to the contents of thousands of books at all times. I'm already in front of the computer for many hours every day as it is anyway, so I would just find whatever I needed to find then.
I go to the library, I check out a bunch of books all at once, and then I read them one-by-one, carrying whichever one I happen to be reading with me whenever I go anywhere requiring waits (doctor's office, Metro, etc.). It's practically free; I've only found a couple books so far I wanted to read that the library didn't have, and I was able to purchase those used for about $5 each shipped from Amazon in hardcover. Now compare that to the starting costs of a Kindle (what is it, $200? $300?), and then an incremental cost of, what, $10 per book?
If all you need to do is be able to read one book at a time, and this is where you and I differ, the library makes the most sense by far.
I can riffle through a real book to find the section I'm looking for in a minute. There's also a handy section at the front called the "table of contents". For a finer-grained search, books that need them have something called an "index".
Maybe metal punch cards with ASCII text will suffice. Make it out of something magnetic and you can include metadata:) Heck, have the first batch of cards show how to make a magnetic/optical reader. Something like vellum would work, but you'd have to take care of it. Wood pulp I wouldn't trust past 100 years, less if it gets hot and humid.
Other than maybe bitmaps, I can't think of any other data that I haven't had conversion problems or media problems at some point. But I've managed to keep plain text files for 30 years, moving them from punch cards to Apple to Amiga to DOS to Linux. I do have books going on 60, but only because they stay in a controlled environment, I don't expect them to last very long if civilization went to crap.
And I wouldn't exactly call Mayan unreadable, as new works are being written in Mayan today. Well, Eastern Branch Mayan, anyway.
PS, I have cardstock punch cards my Dad wrote before computers used magnetic tape that are still readable by hand, although I don't have hardware for them. But I can drop them in a scanner and write code that will convert the image to text.
Featuring an easy to learn lift and turn interface, people can pick up a Book and just start reading! And Book has been specifically designed to interoperate with your existing Shelves(tm).
The way I see it, all e-book readers have at least one fatal flaw that defeats the whole purpose of the thing. The Kindle, etc. are too large and drm encumbered. Likewise, most devices have proprietary quirks and restrictions I just won't bother dealing with.
Only the iPhone/iPodTouch + GoodReader app + pdfs combo actually satisfies my mobile book reading needs: I'm carrying the phone anywhere anyways, the screen size has proven itself big enough for reading (though one has to get used to it) the app mentioned has pretty good functionality and dealing with bare pdfs (wish it supported djvu, alas) spares me from corporate arbitrariness and other bs.
Using this combo, I wonder why anyone would want a Kindle or similar non-pocket sized devices. If you have to carry something large, why not just get a book instead?
I thought this too, until I tried to read a novel on my ipod Touch. Admittedly, I used Kindle software rather than GoodReader, so maybe it makes a difference. But I found that having the pages come in such small chunks made reading very tedious.
Still, I like having ebooks available on my Touch and my Blackberry. Since I always have at least one of them with me, any time I have to wait around somewhere, I have reading material at the ready.
I'm a woman. I carry a purse. The Kindle 2 in its cover is no significant burden. The iPad, however, would not be able to fit in my purse.
The iPhone has the massive advantage of fitting in my pocket (which is a feat, the pockets on girl pants are TINY). However, i rarely read on the thing. I have the Kindle app and Goodreader, and I just don't read on it, unless I am desperate. I suppose it's a combination of the small screen size and the backlight, but I get a headache after just a few minutes.
Sony eReader
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Interesting
I bought my gf the Sony eReader a year back and she loves it. The fact that it reads PDFs and several other types of files she enjoys makes it the smarter choice. The Kindle has too many lock down features. It's amazing to say this about a Sony product, but it's surprisingly open for what you get. The battery life is great and the eInk is a cool thing as well. I'm waiting for the color version of the eInk to become a bit cheaper on these eReaders before I buy myself one. I read way more mags than I do books and the bright screen on laptops and i-Products hurt my eyes after extended periods.
Absolutely. Frankly, I'm surprised at Kindle's popularity given the Reader's existence. For my Sony Reader, I used to just copy the books over in txt format by mounting its drive, now I use calibre to manage my books, including conversion to Sony's LRF format if I feel like it. Calibre is open source, available for both Windows and Linux, and it's really a better piece of software than Sony's bundled library management tool.
I have the discontinued PRS-505 and am very satisfied with it, seems like newer models have made significant improvements, too. We're really seeing very rapid improvement for e-book readers, I think. The 505 is just over 2 years old, already discontinued and replaced with faster, touch-interface, higher capacity devices. Give them 5 years and we'll have an excellent selection of readers available.
And anyone saying that a laptop does everything a reader does is missing the point. Readers have e-ink, but that's not their only advantage. Readers are lighter and thinner than most books and so are a great way to carry some reading material for transport, waiting halls, etc. Plus the battery lasts far longer than that of any computer. Reading in bed is a pleasure with e-book readers.
Got the PRS600 a few months ago. It's a real pleasure to use. Big advantage for my aging eyes is the ability to enlarge text. In addition the content available via project gutenberg is terrific. Touch screen is ok but slow when compared to devices like the iphone. Several times I've touched the screen and been uncertain as the whether the sony was reacting.
-- That means turning it over to our tame racing driver, the sig.
The one with DJVU support
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Most seem to try and sell subscriptions and whatnot, which is easy to see with the extra connectivity and mobile plans and I dunno what else. Thing is, I need access to information, not to be turned into a revenue stream in return for some token carrot. So, I need something with a good screen, open format support (and `EPUB' is not the be-all end-all, TYVM xml lovers), and, well, maybe open enough that I can hack new formats and a better UI into it. Also high on the wishlist are ease of feeding, like by taking AA batteries (the `wikipedia in your pocket' thing takes AAAs, which is close but not quite there), and ease of interop with my other devices. Maybe bluetooth, but a memory card slot of sorts is probably simpler; it allows for easily swapping out libraries of books. Bookmark systems, annotation systems, you name it.
The thing is, the current crop is desperately looking for a `sales channel' model. That doesn't help me get stuff done. Until then, I'll wait for the price to drop.
Re:The one with DJVU support
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Paracelcus
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The Aztak EZReader Pocket Pro does DJVU and if you download & install Calibre you can convert DJVU to any other format.
-- I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
Re:The one with DJVU support
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peragrin
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· Score: 1
exactly. i am staying away until all books have one or two DRM formats so that i can change readers over time.
I am not buying the same book three times because my reader died, and the new model doesn't support the old format.
-- i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
The entourage edge It's not available yet (set to ship in March 2010), but it looks like its got what most people want and then some. I might be getting one myself. I've been hesitant, like most, because of price, ease of use, screen size, etc...
It's not too much more than some of the other readers, so it might be a nice alternative.
http://www.entourageedge.com/devices/entourage-edge.html
Re:The entourage edge?
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dogmatixpsych
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· Score: 1
Thanks for posting that. It looks really good. I still think the iPad is ideal for me but that looks like a great contender, although it is heavy (comparatively) - 3 lbs vs the iPad's 1.5 and the Kindle's 1 1/8 lbs.
I ordered an edge. (I refuse to use their unconventional capitalization, though). I have a little extra cash from some consulting, and I shopped for a good six months. Far as I'm concerned, the price is reasonable (meaning I had enough) and the capabilities look good. I"ll let you all know what I think when mine arrives late March.
-- Best wishes,
Rogers George
One area I'm glad not to be an early adopter...
by
thereofone
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· Score: 1
Hopefully e book readers will follow the digital camera capability/price ratio trend.
Can be good if you have good eyes for reading 6-8pt fonts...:P Works for me anyway...
Re:Follow-up question: what was softwood lumber
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
...dispute about then seeing how we have no trees? and let me fix the last statement Instead arrogant morons must resort to using parchment made from clubbed BABY seals.
My Smartphone
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I use my E65 as an e-reader also. I can do, almost everything with it.
I bought my dad a Cybook Opus for Christmas - sturdy, simple, wasn't too expensive, just epub support, no ties to a publisher/DRM. Not used it myself but Dad seems pretty happy.
Yeah, but look at any demo video of this thing and you can't fail to see how incredibly slow and clunky the user interface is. You tap somewhere and get no feedback at all. A few seconds later the screen flashes and something happens (or not). This must be the most disconnecting and confusing way to use a device ever. I couldn't use such a thing for more than five minutes before throwing it at the wall. Even looking at the video is maddening.
E-ink is just fast enough now for slowly reading through linear books (like novels) and really totally sucks for any more complex user interface or for anything that requires to quickly move around, skim pages or in any way interact with the screen.
I just can't believe that they even think of producing and selling this. This thing will be EATEN by the iPad, e-ink or not.
Its NOT the size of a piece of paper... the 8.5" by 11" advertising (that you just bought hook line and sinker) is the size of the entire device.
the PLQ screen size is about the size of a sheet of paper __With the margins removed__ (I actually took the measurements and drew them on a piece of paper... its rather exact to a no margined piece of notebook paper).
For the price of an "ebook" that goes bye-bye when my Kindle, iPad or other device dies, gets its firmware updated or broken, I can get the real, dead-tree version of the book. If I have room in my luggage for an "e-reader", then I can bring the actual book.
-- I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
How slowly do you read? I typically can go through a book on a single plane ride. that means I take 3 books on vacation. One to go, one for at the beach, one for the return trip. I still run out on long trips (2 weeks or more). The value of the ereader is the ability to take MANY books in that one book spot.
No actually... you can redownload your books when/if you get a new kindle. It sucks having to purchase the hardware again, but hey, maybe you shouldn't have been reading in the bath anyway.
Probably the best device for reading books is not an e-reader. If you want to use books in the old style, but digital, there dedicated e-readers could be good enough, and are several good ones. But if you have to carry a device anyway, maybe that does more than just reading ebooks is part of the things that adds weight (in both senses) to other alternatives.
For me not having to carry an extra, dedicated device is one big advantage for me. Desktop computers, notebooks, netbooks, tablets, and even cellphones are alternatives that can do a lot more than just reading books. Portablility, good enough screen, battery life, are factors that are important too, and that several of those alternatives have. And you have their functionality too (internet, work, etc). Convertible notebooks (i.e. the Asus T91 or Lenovo S10-t3), tablets (yes, even the ipad), or big screen cellphones (iphone, droid, n900, etc) are good enough book readers and provide a lot more than most of the dedicated ones
When somebody makes a laptop that lasts upwards of 3 days of frequent usage, has a negligible sleep-to-on time, has a screen that can be both fast emissive & non-emissive(slower if necessary), the size of a EEE, and costs less than $500, I will drop all my other devices except for a phone.
It doesn't need to play 1080P, have good 3d capability, or be fast enough to trip export restrictions, so I don't want the stars, just the moon:)
While I have a large screen cellphone, that is just because of the lack of a good portable long life multifunction device. I'd rather have an itty-bitty cellphone and my wish-list multifunction device. Until said miracle device arrives, I'll get by with a dedicated book reader that last for weeks, an EEE that lasts a long flight, and a large screen cellphone that lasts at least 2 days.
Re:Wrong question
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OttoErotic
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I think that dedicated ereaders will turn out to be a dead-end technology like mini-discs and that this is one of those "back in my day" moments: this generation (myself included) are still emotionally invested in traditional presentations of text, so ereaders that mimic books to some degree seem like the natural way to go; the same way my parents still prefer physical media for audio and video. Once the next generation grows up primarily with ebooks, the need for this in-between, pseudo-traditional technology will fade. I love books, but my library gathers dust now while I do all my reading on my (small screen) Blackberry. Plenty of people "can't understand how you can read on that tiny thing" but it's perfect for me: backlight means I can read in the dark without a lamp; adjustable text size and color; quick bookmarking and annotating; and smaller chunks of text mean that I actually read more, as I've started sneaking in a page or two during what used to be dead-time. Not perfect for everyone, but it's been enough to prove to me that there's nothing sacred in a 6"x8" sheet of text.
The big thing I'm waiting for now is an open, standard format that combines media-types. I would kill for an ebook/audiobook combo where I could bookmark what I'm reading, plug my phone into my stereo, and have the audiobook pick up at that bookmark for my drive home. Hell, why not video too? You read halfway through the battle of Helm's Deep, hear the rest on audio during your drive, and see the battle scene from the movie when you get home.
-- "Once in Hawaii I had sex with a 102 year old male turtle. It is difficult to argue that it was consensual." - Steve Ma
I think you're missing what makes eBook readers good - it's not that they're a 'nostalgia gadget' it's that they have a passive display, like 'real' paper. PDAs capable of reading ebooks have been around for ages - 10 years back my Palm would do it just fine. The problem is with the display - an 'active' display is just harder on the eyes than a passive one. That's not something you can really address, just perhaps converge as tech gets better.
I'm not totally sold on that being anything more than just marketing. Admittedly I tend to read in darker environments where backlighting is a must, but even in bright sunlight I've never had a problem with my LCD screen, and I have particularly terrible eyesight. I've only done limited comparisons of course, but the slower refresh rate of e-ink screens negates any advantage they might have for me. Out of curiosity I just browsed around a bit to try to find any real studies that have been done on user preference but didn't come across anything. Have there been any independent studies on this? Am I going to go blind, or am I just abnormal in my preference?
-- "Once in Hawaii I had sex with a 102 year old male turtle. It is difficult to argue that it was consensual." - Steve Ma
Re:Wrong question
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I used to feel like you do about reading on LCDs. But that was before I received a Kindle as a gift. It took me about a week of heavy use before I got hooked. But now I realize just how much eye strain I get reading from an LCD screen. I'm not sure if there are studies, but my experience has been that the difference in eye fatigue is really noticeable.
On a recent 12-hour flight, I read nearly the entire time and I didn't feel nearly as bleary-eyed as I would have after an hour or so in front of an LCD. Not that an LCD-based device could have lasted the 10+ hours, let alone have more than half the battery life left like the Kindle did. And the delay between page turns is barely noticeable. It's only about half a second and I've adapted to it so that I hit the next page button before I'm finished with the current page so that I finish the page just as the new page displays.
For what it's worth, I've realized that most of my pre-Kindle objections were unfounded. The reading experience is great, though I haven't used other dedicated eInk-based readers, so I can't compare it with other dedicated readers. The DRM issue is purely on principle since I can convert my purchases to unprotected MOBI files. And if I ever get upset enough at Amazon to stop buying books from them, I can permanently turn off the wireless and buy from any number of sources like I would with a reader from a company that doesn't link it to an online source (i.e. everything besides the Kindle and Nook.)
If you're someone who reads whole books on a digital device, I'd recommend trying to find someone with a Kindle or other eReader who will loan it to you for a couple of days. If you're still not sold after significant use during that time, eReaders may not be for you. But I doubt that would happen.
The wireless data is a bad thing
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Rix
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· Score: 1
I don't want the manufacturer to have a back door into my reader to change it, delete my books, or spy on me at their whim.
Sony's offerings are quite a bit better. Longer battery life, higher DPI on the pocket reader, and support for the industry standard book format.
You don't seem to understand the word "sell"
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Rix
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· Score: 1
If they sell me content, it's no longer theirs, it's mine. To do with as I please.
The Skiff looks nice, except for who controls it
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RalphBNumbers
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· Score: 1
The Skiff Reader has a flexible touchable screen with more viewable area and resolution than the Kindle DX, while still being thinner and lighter. Unfortunately, it's still a bit vapor-ish, and I don't think the consortium of publishers backing it are the right people for the job. Online distribution needs a strong device maker and/or store manager to keep the old media types in line, otherwise they'll just keep raising prices and restrictions, trying to make sure there is no threat to their traditional businesses, until the new market is completely strangled.
The iPad is at the other end of the spectrum, it handles color and refreshes in miliseconds instead of seconds but it's also heavy and thick (what do you expect with a big glass covered IPS LCD screen and ~5x the battery capacity of any of it's competitors to power it). But it does have an extremely strong device/market centered backer, and I kind of expect it's descendants to prevail in the long run as low power and high power/contrast/speed/color display technologies converge.
-- "The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
Entourage eDGe & Sony PRS-505
by
spiritgreywolf
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· Score: 1
Being a voracious reader and traveling heavily on business, I had began reading e-Books on my Compaq iPaq years ago using Windows.LIT eReader. There was also other software called Micro-book that was very nice using good fonts and an easier contrast for reading. I think the cost of micro-book was like $14 total and was well worth the price.
I eventually abandoned the iPaq and moved to the e-Ink display of the Sony PRS-500 since it was larger and a bit easier on the eyes, then to the PRS-505. There is an open-source software application called "Calibre" that is absolutely EXCELLENT for converting LIT, LRF, RTF, and even RSS feeds and websites and other formats to be readily consumable on the Sony reader (and I believe it works with many others). The only drawback I have with the Sony is that I now have lots of technical books from Wrox, Apress and Wiley in PDF format and they are simply unable to render on the smaller e-ink display of the Sony. Seriously - don't even try to do it unless you want to piss yourself off.
I've already pre-ordered an Entourage Edge since comparatively it appears to have everything I would want - a much larger (10") e-Ink display, a second LCD touchscreen display and other features that I find exciting for e-reading and playing around with programming on the Android platform. I work in the medical field doing EDI integration for hospitals using various formats and "Integration Engine Broker" tools - and the Edge looks like it would be an AWESOME dashboard platform for medical apps. I don't know yet but for under $500 to get an Android platform, wireless connectivity, etc - it seemed too good to pass up.
-- Never have a philosophy which supports a lack of courage
You take your shelves with you on the bus?
by
Rix
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· Score: 1
That must be a real nuisance.
Sony makes a pocketable reader
by
Rix
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· Score: 1
And it's the same resolution as the larger ones, so has a higher DPI, thus even easier on the eyes.
I'd rather claw my own eyeballs out than read a book on my phone.
It's expensive, but if you can afford it (or get it as a gift like I did), it's quite nice. The big screen (9.7in, 824x1200px) makes reading PDFs easier than the other readers I've tried. It's really impractical to read normal PDFs on a 6" screen. Also, you can plug it into a computer and use it like any other USB storage device. In theory it has DRM, but I mainly use it to read PDFs (e.g. journal articles). Finally, it has wireless access at no additional charge. As long as you don't actually buy DRM'd books through Amazon, what's not to like?
Re:Kindle DX for academic work
by
masmullin
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· Score: 1
I hear that bookmarking and annotations do not work on PDFs on the kindle dx... is this true?
On the DX bookmarks work in the sense that you can mark specific pages and return to them easily. However, I'm not sure how those bookmarks are stored. So if you add bookmarks to a PDF and then copy it from the Kindle, I'm not sure how to view those bookmarks on a computer.
Annotations don't work at all on PDFs as far as I can tell. But given the very limited nature of the Kindle keyboard, this isn't much of a loss. I don't use annotations with books in native formats either.
Re:Kindle DX for academic work
by
masmullin
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· Score: 1
Hi Z8. Im really interested in the DX since it's been released in Canada. Could you answer some questions about it for me?
I've put off buying it because I heard that bookmarks couldn't be made and that the text isn't very good because 9.7" is too small.
1) how does this pdf render (http://www.3gpp2.org/Public_html/specs/C.S0005-0_v1.0.pdf) I picked this doc specifically because the pages aren't numbered normally. 1a) how quickly can you find section 2.3.1.1 ? 1b) is the text properly sized? do you have to turn the DX on it's size to "zoom" properly? 1c) how does the figure on page B-54 render? How long did it take you to find page B-54?
I have more questions I would like to ask you via email. Do you think you could contact me at masmullin AT gmail DOT com ?
How much capacity do you need?
by
Rix
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· Score: 1
Books are usually around 300kb.
Re:How much capacity do you need?
by
masmullin
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· Score: 1
depends on which books... some books contain pictures you know
I doubt if I will ever have want for more than 32GB of space for digital reading material in my entire life (ie the ereader simply needs to allow me to plug in an SDHC card)... I can easily suffice on 512MB
Re:How much capacity do you need?
by
KlaymenDK
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· Score: 1
Great! Point me the way to a half-meg reader for five quid!
;-) I kid, I kid. I wouldn't mind paying a tenner.
I have the Sony Touch 6" model, and while it definitely has its limitations, I don't understand why it isn't taken more seriously. (IE, all I ever hear about are the Kindle, the Nook, and the iPad.) It allows the most freedom in terms of format and purchasing--it does not require DRM. New books (not in the public domain) from the Sony bookstore have DRM, but you don't have to buy something from the Sony Bookstore. I can shop somewhere else, download from Google Books, or fill it up with research PDFs. As long as it's in ePub, PDF, TXT, rich text, or BBeB I'm good. Because there are multiple places I can go to in addition to Sony's Reader Store (Kobo, Fictionwise, etc) there's no problem if one store gets in a spat with a publisher. I can go to another store that isn't fighting with them. Also, and importantly in my view, Sony is not tracking what I put on the e-reader. (The big exception is again things purchased through the Sony Reader Store--which I don't really use.) There won't be any instances like Amazon's deletion of 1984, because the Sony software is set up to not have this kind of interface with its store. While e-readers have a long way to go, this was a good investment for me because I travel for work a lot. If you think it's worth it right now (for me it was), look at the Sony models. They're the most flexible available made by a reputable company. That said, I'm hoping the technology moves along quickly as it'd be nice to have color in something smaller than an iPad.
I don't know why Sony gets such a bad rap. I think it's because they're not advertising it well. They also tried to out-do Amazon with their Sony Store for the past 2 years before finally jumping on the ePub wagon. On the upside, they have come out with new versions - which was looking iffy 2 years ago when I bought the PRS-505.
I really like my 2 year old Sony PRS-505. Excellent product that does exactly what it's supposed to do (at least for leisure reading). I take it pretty much everywhere if I think I'll have some downtime to read.
-- Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
Re:SmartQ v7
by
PolyDwarf
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· Score: 2, Informative
Ugh, replying to myself, but I put the wrong link... SmartQ has a lovely product naming convention; they've got a SmartQ 7 and a SmartQ V7, two different products.
After getting hooked on palm eReader on my old palm device, once that became obsolete I looked around at alternatives, long story short I now use FBReader on my laptop it's open source and supports the open.epub ebook format and pretty much all others, if i can't find a ebook in the format it supports there are many tools around for converting to.epub or another supported format
link - http://www.fbreader.org/
To me, the HTC HD2 because it offers the following advantages: - size = 0. Since I'll be carrying a smartphone anyway, the ereader adds 0 weight/space - cost = 0. Same reasons. ditto extra stuff to carry. - web browser, including offline (I do a surprising amount of "reading" off web sites, winhttrack is my friend) - color - video and music are nice extras - support for almost all formats - Wifi + 3g included, for free too since I pay for them as a phone. - wide choice of software
drawbacks: - smallish screen (4"3)... I'm waiting on the Dell Streak - LCD screen not as good as e-ink in bright sunlight (but better in all other cases) - good only for recreational reading, I wouldn't read a manual, course book... on it.
-- The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I agree, I'm even willing to go over to t-mobile to get it once it comes out in the US. The mobipocket reader in fullscreen works very well, even if the HD2 is winmobile hidden mostly by the Sense UI.
It really is the perfect size for me. A little big for a phone but still pocketable and the screen size is big enough to make it comparable to dedicated e-readers.
It isn't e-ink but those devices flip pages way too slow for me.
Re:for me, the HTC HD2
by
Crunchie+Frog
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· Score: 1
I'm going to second this. HD2's big high res screen combined with AlReader is now my preferred ebook reader.
Sure it doesnt have an eInk screen but with a nice dark grey background and just off-white font colour, it gives me zero eye-strain. Fonts and colours are fully configurable so use what works for you.
-- ---
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity
Versatility: all pure ebook readers suck. They only really do *one* thing, and they cost more than a netbook. I can use an itouch, ipad, netbook, or whatever to play games, surf the internet, watch movies, listen to music, and run all sorts of applications.
Cost: considering their extremely limited functionality, all pure ebook reader are *way* overpriced. Just buy books, or go to the library, or use the PC, or net device that you have anyway.
Portability: I suppose a PDA, itouch, or iphone would win. If you are okay with reading an entire book on a screen that is smaller than the surface of a credit card.
Battery life: not even an issue with a real book, or a home PC.
Easy to read: home PC - no contest. Although just reading a real book is not bad.
Storage: home PC - no contest. Real books lose badly. Then again: do many people really need hundreds, or thousands, or books with them at any given time?
Durability. Real books win easily. Try throwing your laptop, ebook reader, or whatever off the top of a six story building, or running it over with your car.
I'll feed the troll. I can tell right off the bat that you've never used one for more then a few hours. And that you have no idea what the market for book readers is like.
The joy of a dedicated eReader (like the Sony PRS-505) is that it does that one thing well. Multi-tasking is not always a plus. The current crop of e-ink based devices are excellent for leisure or other cover-to-cover reading where the refresh time of the screen really doesn't matter. That's it, that's all they're supposed to do. And frankly, they do it quite smashingly.
Cost is an issue still, but there are now devices available for under $200 (my price point was under $300, which is why I picked up the PRS-505 two years ago). The price of books... is stupidity on the part of the publishers. But there are hundreds of good books from Project Gutenberg, or the inexpensive and no-DRM books over at Baen. If you don't like the costs, then you're not the target demographic.
The portability of the current readers is just fine, about equivalent to a large format paperback, with the bonus that I can carry a few dozen books in about 1/3 the space and weight of a single large format paperback.
Battery life is a non-issue. The Sony's only require charging every few weeks, even for a voracious reader. Which means that on any given night, when I pickup my reader to do a spot of reading, the device is always ready. And when I finish for the night, if it's finally (after 2-3 weeks) dropped below 25% battery, I'll toss it on the charger overnight.
Clarity of the display of e-ink devices is excellent. Unless you're trying to read by candlelight, in which case most mass-market paperbacks are going to be equally difficult to read. More DPI would always be nice, but it's already up around 175dpi.
As for book storage - I have (5) 2 meter tall, ~1 meter wide book bookshelves filled with dead-tree books. It's a pain to deal with that quantity of paper if you move more then once a century. With the electronic versions, I can backup my entire library on a few CDs/DVDs. Which means I could toss a copy in the bank, at a friend's house, or email myself a copy at different webmail accounts. Which goes back to the portability argument.
In short, eReaders do an excellent job of their assigned task. Which is to present text on the screen and let me get into the book.
-- Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
There was an acer em250 selling at walmart for $228. Only slightly more expensive than an ebook reader, but it was a complete computer - capable of doing about 100X more than a netbook.
But don't forget: for many (most?) people, the ebook reader is an *additional* device. You probably already have a laptop, you already have shelves of books, I would not be surprised if you had an itouch, or pda, or something like that.
So you already have all these ways to read a book, does it make sense to spend hundreds of dollars on yet another device? Does it make sense to have another thing to carry around? For most people, I would say no.
Maybe the ebook is, in some ways, marginally better for reading a book; I doubt that makes it worth all the trouble and expense.
DRM also has a strong impact on the "portability" argument. How portable will your CDs be, if you MUST use reader X from company Y using DRM Z to read them ? How sure are you that 5, 10 years down the line, those 3 will not only still exist, but be competitive ?
-- The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
So you already have all these ways to read a book, does it make sense to spend hundreds of dollars on yet another device?
I absolutely hate reading pages and pages of straight text on LCD monitors. "Yet another device" doesn't apply as I would NEVER read a novel on anything I already own. My only choices would be buy an e-ink display device or carry around a physical copy of the book.
Does it make sense to have another thing to carry around?
Well, for me, it's either keep an e-reader on me at all times or carry which ever book I'm reading. Either way it's "another device"
I used to carry a paperback around with me wherever I went, and when I was done, it got 'shelved', and only a few special 'top books' get re-read particularly.
Now I carry an eBook reader around with me, and the books I'm done with, don't take up shelf space, nor do I waste paper. I think that's worth it.
You just made me compare a credit card with the screen of my phone, you bastard!
P.D.: Yes, the card is a bit larger.
-- We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
The most open/least crippled & versatile..
by
Paracelcus
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· Score: 2, Informative
IMHO, is the Aztak EZReader Pocket Pro 5" with the Ectaco Jet Book Lite as a follow up.
The Kindle is an expensive way to get locked in to a single vendor, as is the Nook. The Sony is crippled by very restrictive DRM. WiFi/Wimax is very tough on batteries and unnecessary to the functioning of an ebook reader.
-- I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
Re:The most open/least crippled & versatile..
by
Eric+Green
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· Score: 1
Sony's latest Readers do not impose restrictive DRM. Sony uses the standard open ePub format and the same Adobe DRM scheme as most of the other readers -- such as, say, Astak.
Re:The most open/least crippled & versatile..
by
Nixoloco
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· Score: 1
The Nook is not in the same category as the Kindle. It uses ePub or PDB DRM when you buy from the Barne's & Noble store, but supports side loading content from ePub or PDF. You can purchase content from just about anywhere that uses the standard ePub format with no DRM or with the Adobe DRM. I own one and have had to purchase a few technical books that were not available on B&N.
Also unlike Amazon, the ebooks you buy from B&N will work on many other readers.
Re:The most open/least crippled & versatile..
by
vcgodinich
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· Score: 1
Except that the Kindle also supports you loading books from other sources. convert your stupid non-industry-standard epub to txt or pdf and load it on a kindle.
Wow, that was hard
Re:The most open/least crippled & versatile..
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I too say the Ectaco JetBook Lite is the 'best' e-book reader. I've had one since Dec'09 and have probably read about 25 books on it in that time.
Relatively inexpensive at $150 list, but probably not worth more than $100. I bought one for ~ $80 from fictionwise.com, net of various promotions and rebates).
Uses AA's, and NiMH batteries run it for about 20-22 hours. Most readers use lithium batteries, and a couple years after purchase you will end up buying a new reader because the replacement battery isn't available, is too expensive. Some readers aren't designed for battery replacement.
The JBL has a very simple interface, is adequately performant, and the 5" diagonal transreflective greyscale LCD display is easy to read in most light conditions. No eye fatigue, but also no backlight.
Easier on my hands/wrists than a paperback over extended periods of reading.
Looks like a mass storage device (std USB mini-B connector), works fine in Linux, and supported by Calibre, a great e-book organizer and format converter.
The JBL supports Secure eReader DRM, but I prefer unencrypted content for all the same reasons why DRM music was a non-starter for honest customers.
About 100MB of internal storage for books, but also offers an SDHC slot.
Its slashdot so...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Half of the comments will be about how traditional books are far superior and the other half will be recommending an item with an LCD screen. If you're lucky you'll get a debate about DRM on Kindle.
As for now
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I have bought a Kindle DX. As for now, Kindle DX is great. The screen size is similar to the size of a manga book that sell in the bookstore.;-) PDF document viewing is OK. Purchase service is easy. I have great hope for it. However, I recommends to turn off the wireless service if not use. ??battery??
Over all, it is pretty good.
e-book reader wish list
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I'm looking for a reader with: -free 3G for low bandwidth things like wiki/rss reader (like kindle, but with a better rss display) -library e-book compatibility -touchscreen
does this exist yet?
Re:e-book reader wish list
by
masmullin
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· Score: 1
Donno about the free 3G, but the sony daily edition sounds similar to your needs.
Hint: It's not the 'open' ones...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
As always, it's not the open ones that are the best ones. Because the way the world works (and will forever work), the open ones will force its adopters to be years behind or delayed.
Re:Hint: It's not the 'open' ones...
by
Paracelcus
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· Score: 1
Do you ever actually do any research before you write? Reality is just the opposite of your statement.
-- I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
Re:Hint: It's not the 'open' ones...
by
masmullin
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· Score: 1
how did you understand the rant? I think Grammar is the opposite of his statement.
Less eyestrain. Because it reflects light instead emitting it, the contrast between screen and the environment is always well adjusted. Not enough light and you will be forced to adjust the lights of your room. With a LCD, you may even read in the dark, but your eyes will complain later.
It's lightweight. 3Gb in 0.5Kg, and even more books on your computer. Tired of increasing your object counter? buy an e-reader.
It reads PDF. The good: rendering is perfect. The bad: lightweight fonts (like Birka, used on most O'Reilly books) lack contrast. You can still read it displaying half the page in landscape.
It reads mobi and other open formats.
Amazon Store. If you are bored just download the 1st chapter of a dozen books. If you like them, you can buy in seconds.
It works. I won't stop using my Kindle no matter what because it really is a book, just not one made of paper.
Battery. e-ink only needs energy to change the page, not to keep it visible. I charge my Kindle once per month.
Big screen. It's able to show a whole PDF page without scroll. That's a big a plus for me. Hard to find on other e-readers.
Why not:
e-ink is just for books. It sucks for everything else, like magazines, browsing the web, games, or whatever.
You can get an iPad for the same price. An iPad has a real browser, games, apps, music, a 10 hour battery, and enough power to read PDFs and do who knows what once jailbreaked.
AZW = mobi + DRM. You can unprotect them with the unswindle hack, but it's a hassle. Needing authorization from Amazon (or whoever) to access your freaking books is so 1984-ish!
Please mod parent up
by
YA_Python_dev
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Anyone that thinks that the Kindle is even barely acceptable doesn't know the iLiad. Better hardware, open system (I installed an alternate PDF viewer on mine, with better features for my usage than the builtin one) and MOST important it's my device and my books.
With the Kindle, Amazon is just temporary allowing you to read their books on their device: they can at any time remotely delete books you paid for (it already happened and it WILL happen again, or they wouldn't have spent money developing this "feature"), remotely change the contents of "your" books even after you have paid and downloaded them (it already happened and once the capability is there it WILL be abused for censorship) and remotely disable functionality on the Kindle itself. All this without your consent.
Mark my words: if you buy books on the Kindle, 10 years from now you will not be able to read them without breaking anti-piracy laws, even if you think you can make backups now.
Please don't give money to Amazon for the privilege of raping your freedom to read books.
And, going back to the hardware thing, the bigger screens of the iLiads (8.1 or 10.2 inches) are waaay better for content that can't be reformatted on the fly (e.g. PDF files). Remember this is not an LCD, you can't scroll: a page must fit entirely on the screen.
-- There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
Re:Please mod parent up
by
kannibal_klown
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Unless I'm mistaken...
The biggest hardware advantage the Kindle has over the iLiad is the fact that the Kindle comes with a free data connection a-la Sprint.
I saw a lot of people, a lot, using their Kindles while commuting on to New York City for a 1-week class I was taking.
Combine that with Amazon's large one-stop library and it makes it a force to reckon with.
If not for those 2 items, I'd say the iLiad superiority might be a no-brainer.
I considered the iLiad for my business eReader since it had a large display and touch screen with note taking ability. But with a short battery life, long boot time, and high price, I figured if all three of those things were acceptable, I'd just get a tablet, which would also allow full web, email, and other applications.
Er, I have a much smaller e-ink reader and I can zoom into and scroll around PDFs just fine. It's not the most convenient thing in the world but given that most the non-reflowable PDFs I have are two or three columns of text, it's not much different than changing a page - I'm just pressing a different direction on the d-pad.
Re:Please mod parent up
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
The iLiad also costs twice as much, weighs more, and doesn't have nearly the number of books available to it.
You don't ever have to use the remote features on the kindle. Download your stuff, back it up, transfer it by wire. Get non-DRM stuff if you want. There's nothing wrong with the device itself, especially for the price.
Another option would be to buy used paper books. You can probably get close to a couple hundred of them for the cost of an iLiad.
Fooled me once, shame on you...
by
dpbsmith
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· Score: 5, Interesting
...fooled me twice, shame on me.
I bought a Nuvomedia Rocket eBook in 2000 over the counter at Barnes and Noble. (The company and products were acquired by Gemstar and marketed for many years as the Gemstar REB-1200).
The device itself was fine. More than good enough. 20 hour battery life and that was for real. I read many long novels for pleasure on it. I took it on trips and loved the convenience of being able to carry eight full-length books with me in a device with the same size and weight as one trade paperback. Of course 2010 devices are better in every way, but the Rocket eBook was good enough.
What was not good enough was DRM.
I've been taught a lesson. I am now the proud owner of over $300 worth of useless bits. They are encrypted and keyed to a serial-numbered hardware device which bit the dust last year. In theory, this is no problem, as the books and Gemstar's record of my ownership remains on the servers. All I need to do is buy a new device, call Gemstar customer service, have them reencode my books with the new device serial number, and download them again. Except that Gemstar doesn't exist, Gemstar customer service doesn't exist, and the servers were shut down long ago.
Because of another limitation of DRM--I couldn't share my books with my wife even if she had her own Rocket eBook reader, which she didn't, she didn't know that I had purchased an e-copy for $15, and bought her own paper copy for $15. She can still read her copy. She will still be able to read it twenty years from now. She can lend it to a friend. She can sell it on eBay. Scarcely five years after purchase, I cannot read mine and will never be able to read it again.
eBooks should cost far, far less than print books, not merely because their marginal cost of production is tiny, but because they deliver far less value than a print book.
I've seriously considered writing to Jeff Bezos and saying I will only buy a Kindle if he will arrange to get me free Kindle copies of all the books I bought, which the eBook industry has rendered useless piles of bits. The word theft gets thrown around rather casually with DRM gets discussed. Well, I feel that denying me access to the books I bought and paid for in good faith is theft. When the eBook industry, as represented by Amazon, is willing to make me whole, then I will start buying eBook devices and content again.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
by
Eric+Green
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· Score: 4, Interesting
The average print science fiction paperback sells approximately 20,000 copies (this is an actual number from an actual mid-level author who has a good reputation in the industry). The majority of the cost of a print science fiction paperback is not the marginal cost of production, which is miniscule -- it costs less than $1 to print and ship a typical mass-market paperback. Rather, the majority of the cost of a print science fiction paperback is related to the costs of creating the actual content -- the editor, the proofreader, the cover artist, and the author's advance, which is probably going to be about $12,000 on that paperback (and figure he's going to get around $8,000 more in eventual royalties before the book goes out of print). Baen appears to believe that if you price ebooks at approximately $2 less than paperbacks and sell them direct, you can make the same amount of profit that you made from selling paperbacks. That's probably a reasonable indication that the price of producing an ebook is not much less than the price of producing a paperback novel, because Baen can price ebooks this way only because they're selling direct, without the $2 markup imposed by the supply chain.
I do agree, however, that the DRM situation is one decided reason to avoid e-books right now. The DRM situation is driving piracy right now because I, like you, am not going to invest large sums of money into throw-away content. I have files on my computer that are 25 years old now, that have been faithfully transferred from one computer to the next first via RS-232 serial cable and XMODEM, and later via Ethernet and either FTP or a network file sharing protocol. They're all still (mostly) readable because I avoided proprietary file formats, even though the first computer involved in this chain was a Commodore 64 and the last one is an Apple Macbook Pro. I cannot conceive of any scenario where I would allow a proprietary file format with no means of translating it into any other format exist on my computer.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 0
An excellent comment. After reading accounts similar to yours over the past few months, I made the following decision when I was given a Nook for Christmas. I purchase my books physically, but find a source on the web to get a digital copy at no cost that I can place on my device. With a number of excellent conversion utilities out there in FOSS land, I'm able to convert everything to e-Pub and have all of my books with me where ever I go. Device lost/destroyed/stolen? No problem, as I have backups on my PC, and feel no guilt, as I've purchased them - without having to buy twice. Not everyone will agree with this (some because the whole point is to not HAVE to buy physical books, others because "it's stealing" to have an electronic copy that I didn't purchase), but I have no qualms.
Posting AC because I'm on a friend's laptop. I'm 'jitterman'
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
by
juancnuno
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· Score: 1
I've seriously considered writing to Jeff Bezos and saying I will only buy a Kindle if he will arrange to get me free Kindle copies of all the books I bought, which the eBook industry has rendered useless piles of bits. The word theft gets thrown around rather casually with DRM gets discussed. Well, I feel that denying me access to the books I bought and paid for in good faith is theft. When the eBook industry, as represented by Amazon, is willing to make me whole, then I will start buying eBook devices and content again.
You should! Cut-and-paste that whole comment and send it to him.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
by
masmullin
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· Score: 1
DRM is a serious issue... but so is theft. The internet was created to easily share text, its perhaps 10x easier to pirate a non-DRM eText than an MP3... the only thing stopping rampant piracy of ebooks is that no one wants to read a book on a computer monitor
With the rise of the ereader... book piracy is going to explode. DRM is basically a MUST when it comes to eText
However, your point is ENTIRELY valid. If you actually pay for the book you should have lifelong access to it, and shouldn't be crippled by only using a single piece of hardware (which may break) to read it.
I suggest that an international-government-sponsored agency handle the DRMing of eText so that the DRM isn't in the hands of corportations which 1) may go bankrupt thus causing customers to lose access to their books 2) are greedy and may intentionally force their consumers to repurchase their books (I had a bad experience with iTunes and DRMed music)
I suggest that this agency hold the DRM encryption along with the keys to the data. It can ensure that an individual has lifelong access to the books that are purchased, and can ensure "fair-play" where media is not tied to a single piece of hardware.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
by
Low+Ranked+Craig
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· Score: 3, Informative
eBooks should cost far, far less than print books, not merely because their marginal cost of production is tiny, but because they deliver far less value than a print book
Not at all true. almost everything that has to be done to produce a print book needs to be done to produce an e-book.
Editing, typesetting, formatting, proofing, marketing, artwork, etc all still needs to be done. Only the distribution is different. In one case you're printing a book (an automated manufacturing process) or you're publishing a book to an e-marketplace (a bunch of servers, software and bandwidth (not free)). The reality is that the great majority of the cost in producing a book is labor, and it's all still required, regardless of print or electronic distribution, so while printed materials may cost more to produce, the cost difference is not the huge amount that people seem to think it is.
-- I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Mod this guy up to 20, he hit the nail on the head.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
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swillden
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· Score: 1
I do agree, however, that the DRM situation is one decided reason to avoid e-books right now.
Unless you like Baen's content. No DRM there.
-- Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
by
arantius
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· Score: 1
eBooks should cost far, far less than print books, not merely because their marginal cost of production is tiny...
Not at all true. almost everything that has to be done to produce a print book needs to be done to produce an e-book.
Did you read what was written, and you quoted?
Editing, typesetting, formatting, proofing, marketing, artwork, etc all still needs to be done.
These are NOT marginal costs.
-- Health is simply dying at the slowest rate possible.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
by
Eric+Green
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· Score: 1
Indeed, I do buy a fair amount of Baen content. But as I point out, I can only consume so much sci-fi war porn before I want to read something else. I wish other publishers "got it" the way Baen does. Sad to say, book publishing is dominated by luddites who neither understand nor really want to understand anything even vaguely technological and who allow themselves to be swayed by the notion that DRM will stop piracy. I have the Kindle Reader on my Macbook Pro. You know how I could un-DRM any Amazon ebook, even without any technological help from pirate software? Simple. Just use the normal Apple screenshot program 'grab', make a screenshot of each page of the ebook as I flip through it, then run it all through a OCR program like VueScan. I can even automate the process via Applescript so I don't have to manually hit the snapshot button. Run the results through Calibre to convert to ePub so I can read the book on my Sony Reader. Done. (BTW, for the Baen fans, this idea is not original to me -- Lois Bujold used it in her 1990 novel The Vor Game, if I'm recalling correctly).
So what's the point of the DRM? Beats me, other than to attempt to tie people into Jeff Bezos's universe by making it inconvenient to read his ebooks on other readers? I dunno, but for some reason the luddites at the publishing companies, not understanding the difference between ebooks and mp3's, are bound and determined to prevent what happened to music publishers (which have lost half their sales) from happening to them, even though they don't understand why that's not going to happen to them. I mean, c'mon. *years* before iTunes made DRM'ed music available, Napster was sharing mp3's amongst millions of people. Has anybody seen *anything* like that happening with ebooks, even though, as I explain above, it's quite easy to "rip" a DRM'ed ebook to a plain ePub format and even though Baen's ebooks have been available un-DRM'ed for years? Hello? Hello?
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
While your 20.000$ for the author sound like much, an author actually gets 5%-10% of the book price. So, no reason to blame the author... Stackpole wrote a lot about that on his blog: http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=1057
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
But the cost of paper and ink cost. As well as shipping and storing the books.
I can buy paper backs with shipping cheaper then I can by the same book as E-Book. A friend of mine got a hardcover book with shipping cheaper then the E-Book version.
And when I say shipping then it's not local shipping. Its from England to Denmark (Europe)
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
by
neumayr
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· Score: 1
First of all, I don't advocate DRM in any form.
But DRM ebooks are in no way harder to reproduce than traditional dead wood books, provided you have an E-Reader.
Actually, it's easier - a shellscript driving a scanner and a glued down "Next Page" button is all you need.
-- Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
You are right that marginal price of actual production of a paper book is quite low. But distribution is costly, and publishers have to print a lot of books to be available in book shops, often a large part come back to be destroyed and recycled.
A a customer, I expect to buy e-books much cheaper than physical books, without lowering authors revenue.
Publishers are afraid of new media, or they want to take all profits from the productivity gains for them only. If they want to sell e-book at the same price than paper books, I will stick to paper.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Piracy is not theft, it's copyright infringement. That you think otherwise means that the MAFIAA has already won.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
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wintercolby
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· Score: 0
I'm sorry, but you're missing one of the key concepts of economics.
value != cost_of_manufacture + margin
value == demand/supply
The bottom line is that it doesn't matter what it costs to make, what matters is what the market will pay for it. That is the constant argument that is made for the price that is paid for every other good or service.
-- Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. --Aldous Huxley
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
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gknoy
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· Score: 1
Reasons like this are why I am a Baen customer. I read several years ago about Baen's disdain for DRM, and their feeling that the free advertising from free e-books is still a net win.
The first Baen book I bought was "In Fury Born". I was on vacation, and needed a scifi book. I was browsing a stack of books I'd never heard of, and was about to walk away, and then I noticed the "Baen" sigil in the corner. So, I picked it up... and have never regretted it. The book was excellent, and I've been reading (and buying) books by that author ever since.
If anyone from Baen ever reads this, Thanks. You've made me a loyal customer. Now, I can't wait until the next Honor Harrington book is out in paperback... (:
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
The line you quoted as "not at all true" is completely correct. He said the _marginal_ cost of production is tiny. Your point is that the bulk of the cost of producing books is in the fixed cost rather in the marginal cost, but that doesn't contradict the OP. But when you factor in distribution channels and all the overhead that goes into stocking brick-and-mortar stores I don't think the real cost savings isn't as negligible as you make it out to be.
Also his example demonstrates quite well his point that the DRM'd book delivers far less value.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
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bkpark
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· Score: 1
I've seriously considered writing to Jeff Bezos and saying I will only buy a Kindle if he will arrange to get me free Kindle copies of all the books I bought, which the eBook industry has rendered useless piles of bits.
While that would be nice, you are forgetting that there's no such thing as a free lunch—and when you bought your physical books, you were buying them with the explicit understanding that that's the only copy you got.
Imagine: if you buy hardcover version of a book, would you also demand that you should be given a free copy of the paperback (perhaps for a buck or so to cover the printing costs)? If you can't make that demand for printed copies (and most people would consider such demands unreasonable), why should you be able to make the same demand just because the copy is digital, instead of print?
If Amazon can work out that kind of deal, you, as Amazon's customer, will be paying for that in other ways—which is probably why they didn't work out such a deal.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
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farble1670
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· Score: 1
Editing, typesetting, formatting, proofing, marketing, artwork, etc all still needs to be done.
many many books are just words and the "typesetting" is just fitting the words onto a page and is done by simple inexpensive software that can run on a PC. these same books have no artwork.
an e-marketplace (a bunch of servers, software and bandwidth (not free))
not free, but much cheaper than physically stocking the book onto shelves or warehouses and physically transporting the book to stores / consumers.
the cost difference is not the huge amount that people seem to think it is
yes, but is it more than, say, $0? publishers seem to want to charge us the same, if not more, for digital books.
Re:Fooled me once, shame on you...
by
Just+Some+Guy
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· Score: 1
Editing, typesetting, formatting, proofing, marketing, artwork, etc all still needs to be done.
Those are non-zero costs on ebooks?
-- Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I like the Sony PRS-505, but those have been discontinued...
Sony kind of shot themselves in the foot there: the 'budget' PRS-300 has a nice quality screen except it's too small, and the higher end PRS-600 has a decent size screen but gives you a lot more glare and a crappy contrast ratio, courtesy of its added touchscreen layer... There really is a huge difference though, I'd recommend you try to find a display unit somewhere before actually comitting to ordering one.
The nook looks nice (touchscreen is a seperate color LCD screen which does not muddle up the e-Ink display), but trivial operations like changing the font size are much more elaborate on those...
I don't see a need for a dedicated reader. I use to read books on my Palm IIIe (and I have a later model Palm I rarely fire up) so I know the convenience is nice, but I'm just not willing to pay big money for a dedicated device to read books. In a world rabbiting on about green this and green that, it seems wasteful to have single purpose devices, let alone the DRM infested offerings of the last 5 years. My laptop reads most formats very well, provided they're not crippled. It'll read crippled books too, if I'm dumb enough to buy them.
-- These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I just bought my wife a nook...
by
plazman30
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· Score: 1
I thought the nook had the best set of features. It's backed by a large bookstore that can negotiate decent ebook pricing. It has wifi and 3G connectivity. It comes with an SD slot for memory expansion. And it also supports PDF and ePub, so you could easily roll your own eBooks or download public domain ones from Google Books.
Re:I just bought my wife a nook...
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masmullin
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· Score: 1
for the record, how often is the 3G on the device used?
Re:I just bought my wife a nook...
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plazman30
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· Score: 1
Well, it was used the day we opened it to get the 1.2 update. It pulled that down and installed it before I could configure the wifi.
In reality, it won't be used that much, but will come in handy if we travel anywhere and needs something to read.
Re:I just bought my wife a nook...
by
masmullin
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· Score: 1
would you have purchased a non-3G non-wifi nook for $75 cheaper than the nook you purchased?
I own a PRS-505 which doesn't have 3G nor wifi (Living in Canada, sony was my only option for an ereader)... I cant really see how these two features are at all important in a 6" reader.
For a larger ereader like the kindle DX I can understand why 3G is important, to get the daily eText stuff like newspapers delivered to you in the car or at the office. Daily stuff would suck if one had to plug into a computer each morning.
I don't mean to criticize your choice of reader, if the Nook was offered in Canada I would have purchased it over the 505 simply because B&N has a way better selection of books vs Sony. But are the wireless capabilities really more than just a gimmick?
I have already been waiting for years to see a good eBook reader, but I'm still not satisfied with the dedicated readers on the market (especially the prices...).
So a few weeks ago I discovered that my Samsung Galaxy i7500 is one really awesome eBook reader (and it's even cheaper than a Kindle!). I have installed Aldiko on it and use it to read free books (Little Brother, all the Sherlock Holmes novels, etc.).
It's so much more appropriate for reading eBooks than one would imagine. A lot better than any paper book.
However, I also have to note that this method of eBook reading is not suitable for annotations or the like. Battery life is another concern, of course. But it's really just perfect if you want to read a novel in bed or on a train or wherever you would usually read a paper book.
-- Even a fool has a talent.
Best kids ebook format - QBook - Touchable Text
by
matrixskp
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· Score: 1
Disclaimer: I make it, so I'm biased. There's a vid on youtube http://youtube.com/kiwamedia or you can download the free iPhone app of one of our first releases Seb's Tail from itunes.
QBook is a touch enabled color children's book. I've been working on this for a number of years now, its the first ebook that features touchable text. You simply swipe your finger over the text to hear it read aloud, tap words to hear them or touch and hold to hear the word spelt and each book contains multiple languages (so far we have US English, Maori, Spanish, Portugese, French, Japanese, German and Italian... still working on Chinese), so its great for language development for both adults and kids. Kids love it because they can explore the words at their own pace. Parents can also record the story in their own voice.
I've talked with a lot of publishers and most of them have not migrated their childrens books to ePub format due to its lack of support for full color pictures and text styling (kids books often use lots of different fonts etc).
Its been well received so far and we have a large library of material which is due to be released over the next few months. We've spent a lot of time making the tools to build these books easily, we have a WYSIWYG editor that allows us to follow the format of the books and can then hit a build button and see the app running on the iPhone or iPad simulator.
We already have our books optimised for iPad and we believe that QBook takes full advantage of this industry changing device. We foresee this becoming a great educational tool for children as well as a language learning tool.
I personally read alot of material on my iPhone and the only down side is the screen size just isnt big enough. Of course the iPad resolves this issue and I think the iPad will become the market leader by the end of this year.
It's all about content
by
Eric+Green
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· Score: 2, Interesting
The situation in ebook readers today reminds me of the situation in portable digital music players in April 2003, the month Apple introduced the iTunes Store. There were literally thousands of portable digital music players out there, the vast majority of which looked like portable USB keyfobs as far as operating systems were concerned, all of which played open unencrypted mp3 files. Then there was Apple selling their own proprietary-DRM'ed music files -- but it was integrated with the computer hardware and with their iPod music players. In the end people decided the convenience of having one application handle all their content whether local or located on a portable device was more important than the DRM, and the iPod won the portable digital music player contest by a landslide.
Right now, there are only three players that integrate content, software, and hardware: Sony, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Amazon's Kindle wins the content war by a landslide, but their hardware looks dated and obsolete compared to the new readers from Sony and B&N. Sony's content situation is horrible -- books from Sony's ebook store actually cost more than paper books purchased in bookstores! The Nook right now is unobtainium and a bit unstable, as you'd expect from version 1.0 of a product, but is decidedly better hardware.
The wildcard is Apple. Will they do for ebooks what they did for digital music? The problem is that the iPad will have, realistically, a 5 hour battery life in normal usage, and that just isn't enough for most situations where I might haul my e-book reader. If I'm doing an intercontinental flight that is 10 hours long, a 5 hour battery life is a "don't even bother" for me. My Sony e-reader, on the other hand, will happily let me read books for 10 hours at a time, and still have plenty of battery life left, thanks to the e-ink display. It's just that my selection of content is rather limited -- all I have on it, for the most part, is Baen Webscriptions stuff (no DRM, reasonable prices), and you can only read so much sci-fi warporn before you're sick and tired of sci-fi warporn.
So I'm keeping my eye on Apple. But unless Steve Jobs has a change of heart on e-ink (which he sneers at) or there's some revolution in LCD technology that allows it to generate readable displays without a backlight and thus get decent battery life (don't care if it's as good as e-ink battery life, but it has to be at least competitive with the Nook's battery life!), the hardware simply isn't good enough. Otherwise I'd be reading books on my iPhone via Stanza or etc., which I'm not doing because realistically I only get three hours of battery life that way -- far less than if I fire up my e-ink based reader.
Oh, what about all these *other* ebook readers? Some of them have nice hardware and software. But it's all about content, in the end. I suspect they'll end up just like all those portable digital music players that plugged in like keyfobs -- they'll still sell, but the readers that allow a fully integrated content cycle (purchase, transfer, read) will be the ones that most people buy, because for most people, they just want to purchase books in a convenient manner and not worry about how they get onto the ebook reader.
Re:It's all about content
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
The problem is that the iPad will have, realistically, a 5 hour battery life in normal usage
So you're telling me that the iPad, with a small screen and an ARM SOC that consumes a miniscule amount of power, no spinning hard drive, and a GPU specifically designed for long battery life and cool operation...will have a shorter battery life than my 15" MacBook Pro, which lasts 7 hours in normal usage?
The iPad will have a 10 hour battery life just as my MacBook Pro has a 7 hour one, with wifi and Bluetooth active and the screen at about 2/3 brightness.
Re:It's all about content
by
itsthebin
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· Score: 1
lack of HSUPA is the only drawback I can see - HSPDA does not have the upload speed I want for good def video calling.
-- ...I obey the laws of physics....
Re:It's all about content
by
Eric+Green
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· Score: 1
I'm sorry, but I'm typing this on a Macbook Pro, the new unibody one with the "7 hour battery". and I get a 4 1/2 hour usable battery life. Granted, that's with WiFi, but the point is that an iPad is unlikely to have an actual 10 hour usable battery life.
And 10 inches is *not* a small screen. 10 inches is a typical netbook screen, i.e., *huge* for a portable device. Most ebook readers have 5 or 6 inch screens, a few have larger screens, but they're all e-ink screens which use power only when flipping to the next page. LCD screens, on the other hand, use power *all* the time -- a lot of it. Even an LED-backlit 10" screen is likely to use at least 7 watts of power in active use... and there's not a whole lot of space in the iPad for a big battery.
In short, I don't doubt that the iPad *could* have a "10 hour" battery life --*if* you turn the backlight down to levels so dim that you can't read the freakin' thing. Which is my problem with battery life on my Macbook Pro, I suspect -- I'm not as young as I was eleven years ago when I created this Slashdot account, and I can't see at such a dim level.
Re:It's all about content
by
masmullin
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· Score: 1
I have bought a total of 4 books from sony reader store
Three of these books were $1 each during the onedollarorbit sale... the other was "Dragons of the Hourglass Mage" which cost $9 (it was $30 hardcover at the time).
now all of this was before December of 09... so maybe things have changed in the past few months... but I dont think the sony ereader store books cost more than paper books.
Re:It's all about content
by
masmullin
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· Score: 1
I'm sorry, but I'm typing this on a Macbook Pro
Its ok... we all have flaws.
Re:It's all about content
by
vcgodinich
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· Score: 1
Too bad my Kindle's battery literally lasts weeks.
Actually, no. I tried a couple of the pre-iPod ones, and at least some DID NOT play unencrypted MP3 files. I had one, I think it was a "Lyra", that made strange squealings unless you "converted" your MP3s using a special licensed version of RealPlayer for Windows.
-- My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Re:It's all about content
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I'm sorry, but I'm typing this on a Macbook Pro, the new unibody one with the "7 hour battery". and I get a 4 1/2 hour usable battery life. Granted, that's with WiFi, but the point is that an iPad is unlikely to have an actual 10 hour usable battery life.
Well then there's something wrong with your battery.
Independent tests showed light document production, iTunes, and web browsing lasting over eight hours. 6.5 browsing Flash-intensive sites. The tests showed five hours with continuous downloading and movie playback, along with web browsing.
The AnandTech numbers have been seen by other users and reproduced by other tests. In short, your argument is that a device that consumes a tiny fraction of what a MBP does will last a lesser amount of time for the purposes of reading documents.
but the point is that an iPad is unlikely to have an actual 10 hour usable battery life.
Based on what, exactly?
Let's review: 1. You claim five hours of usable battery life on the iPad for use as an e-reader. This is based on an assumption that the battery life claim was overstated by 100%.
2. Independent testing showing a more power consuming set of tasks (active web browsing, not just document reading) yielded results that suggest Apple UNDERSTATED battery life by about 15% on a substantially more power-hungry device made by the same company.
3. Even your anecdotal claim of a 4.5 hour battery life in what you consider "normal usage" for a laptop results in 65% of the advertised battery life. Normal usage for a laptop, again, is substantially more demanding on power than use as a simple e-reader.
5. Testing of the iPhone for movie playback, a more demanding use than a simple e-reader, shows results in the 8-9 hour range. The iPad has a 10" display, which is indeed netbook-sized, but it also has a battery that is proportionally larger than the iPhone's, and battery life by volume scales substantially faster than power consumption by screen size. iLounge compiled results: .
So your claim that the iPad's value as a simple e-reader would be constrained by a "5 hour" battery life suggests a worse battery life than a full-blown MacBook Pro with a display nearly twice the surface area of the iPad 10", doing more intensive tasks than scrolling a text document. Your claim is unsupported even by your anecdotal experience, which would insist that the iPad would last a minimum of 7 hours, even based on your highly unrealistic experience.
Your claim would also contend that the iPhone and iPod touch, which can play video continuously for 8-9 hours and have a proportionally smaller battery, outlasts by nearly double the use of an iPad for the display of an.epub file.
The idea is patently absurd. The iPad will last at least 10 hours for simple e-reader functions.
Even an LED-backlit 10" screen is likely to use at least 7 watts of power in active use... and there's not a whole lot of space in the iPad for a big battery.
Now, this is nonsense. The iPad has a 25Wh battery, so a 7 W display alone would suck it dry within less than 4 hours... My 13" Macbook consumes about 10 W when browsing the net over WiFi on half brightness and that's not only the display, it's the whole machine.
Re:It's all about content
by
Sobrique
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· Score: 1
Depends a lot on the publisher. Some publishers don't have anything at all out. Some are charging more than 'dead tree', some about the same, some way less. I don't mind paying hardback prices, just for the convenience of _not_ having to carry around the hardback edition, but I do object to paying more for a book than I could pick a physical copy up for. (e.g. I'll play hardback price for 'early release' when the book would only be out in hardback, but when there's a paperback available, I don't want to be paying more than that).
Most of the cost of a book is in stuff other than the distribution, so I'm ok with them charging a useful amount for it, but I don't want to get ripped off either:).
Re:It's all about content
by
mr_matticus
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· Score: 1
Even an LED-backlit 10" screen is likely to use at least 7 watts of power in active use... and there's not a whole lot of space in the iPad for a big battery.
As another poster pointed out, this is just sheer lunacy.
A 10" display doesn't use anywhere near 7W on a modern MID.
As this very thorough test case depicts, using a 14.1" IBM R40 (a Pentium M system from long before the days of LED backlighting), the display unit used between 4.2 and 4.5W at full brightness. Needless to say, the LED backlight will shave 20% off that, and the step down in size from 14 to 9.7 inches will slice off a considerable percentage as well, given that the backlight must illuminate less than half the surface area.
So just for the sake of argument, we'll take a conservative 50% off the higher number and call it a day. This represents just a 30% discount for a screen half the size. That iPad display therefore is going to consume less than 2.3W.
That's a far cry from 7W. Also of note: the MSI Wind (a 10" netbook) was found to use 22W under full load. The Atom/945 Express combination has a combined TDP of over 18W alone--leaving 4W for the hard drive (2-2.2W on read/write), the display, the keyboard, speakers, and the trackpad (granted, the latter three are often idle when these tests are performed, but it still illustrates the low power consumption of modern LCDs). These displays just don't consume the power you think they do.
At normal load, when the Atom SOC is averaging 6W, a ~2.3W display is a pretty huge deal and greatly affects battery life. Even worse, on something like the iPad, with the A4 (assuming it's basically Snapdragon/Tegra) running barely 1W under normal load, it's a huge part of total consumption. But it's still just 2.3W.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Blio. Sure, it isn't available yet, but based on the demos of it, it looks promising. I think I will wait until Blio becomes available, then try it out on my netbook. If it stinks, then I will go out and get a dedicated e-book reader. But with color diagrams, embedded video, highlighting, and the ability to read out loud, I think it will be pretty cool, especially for textbooks. The only concern I have is whether or not the books will be locked with DRMs. I haven't heard anything about that yet.
Ectaco Jetbook lite
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
This device has a lcd screen like those old casio watches (which has the same "no eye strain" feature of e-ink), runs on 4 AA for 23 hrs (another model is advertised with builtin battery), 5" screen and costs $150. Ive seen this advertised at a local electronics store but with the 'backorder' status.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFN0qYcA2g4
I went for a Pocketbook 301
by
EdgeyEdgey
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· Score: 1
Actually I rarely read anything on the times list. The amazon kindle store has authors that I can never find in a book store without ordering the book and waiting weeks.
The reason I went with an e-reader was for feedbooks, Gutenberg and the other PD repositories.
Because I went with a kindle, I also pay for.. my local paper and my hometown paper, a couple of magazines, and then what ever author I am reading at the moment, if not in PD. Right now it is Turtledove.
I have the Sony - but the issue is DRM books
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
The sony is not bad (505 model), but I have a hard time buying from the Sony book store. The DRM sucks, and the store SUCKS.
I do get a lot of Free books from ManyBooks.net, and have started buying from the only Publisher that I think gets it.
I'm waiting for the txtr reader. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizpac_txtr. As of today it's not available, only for preorder. They want to sell it for 300 euro, but have dropped the wlan module. It runs linux, is supposed to read all major formats and they'll provide an SDK http://developer.txtr.com/Introduction.
When away from the house, I read on my OLPC XO running Ubuntu 8.10 with FBReader. I have Calibre on my desktop to convert anything FBReader can't handle into MOBI files that also work on my wife's 1st generation Kindle.
Yeah, it's not for everyone, requires a little hacking, and good luck finding one, but the dual-mode screen is great for reading outdoors, even in direct sunlight. It's also tough enough that I can take it anywhere without worrying about it and can charge it from almost any power source.
When I'm at home, I mostly read on paper. Call me old-fashioned.
I'm running teapot's ubuntu on mine. It's a great little machine but I'm hoping they decide to sell the 1.5 logic boards bare, it'd be infinitely more usable imo. The screen is the best tech to come out of the project, I wish other OEMs would license it. It's amazing even in bright sunlight.
The 1.5 board upgrade would be nice, but I don't think they will make it available. If you check the couple of places that sell XO repair parts, they don't even have the 1.0 boards.
There is supposed to be a couple of netbooks coming this year using the Pixel Qi screen, but they've been saying that for a couple of years, too. If somebody would make something like the Touchbook (http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/) with this type of screen technology, I'd be in heaven.
Pure FUD and lies.
by
aussersterne
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· Score: 3, Insightful
You can mount Kindle just like the Sony reader or any other USB storage device. Plug it into Linux and go. And then copy over all of the books you want, including (for example) the entire Project Gutenberg, which (unless I am very much mistaken) is not DRM-encumbered.
-- STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Re:Pure FUD and lies.
by
YA_Python_dev
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· Score: 3, Informative
Can you please be more specific? What do you think is not true in my previous post? I was explicitly talking about books bought from Amazon with the Kindle (which are all DRMed) and you reply saying that it's also possible to read non-DRM books from third parties. What's your point?
-- There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
Re:Pure FUD and lies.
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
As I had read the question was about the best e-book reader. Not the best source for content for one. So if you take away the concept of buying from Amazon I would still say the Kindle looks like a better deal. For as much as they're charging for the iLiad I will be able to buy the highest end iPad or probably HP Slate.
With the Kindle, Amazon is just temporary allowing you to read their books on their device
He said:
You can mount Kindle just like the Sony reader or any other USB storage device. Plug it into Linux and go. And then copy over all of the books you want, including (for example) the entire Project Gutenberg, which (unless I am very much mistaken) is not DRM-encumbered.
I use Calibre to convert XXX to/from ePub & mobi, where XXX is nearly any format, not (just) porn. It does a pretty good job at HTML, PDF, RTF, CBR, LIT, PDB - you name it, and has direct support for getting content onto a bunch of different hardware, including phones.
I like Calibre a fair amount, except that it has a habit of occasionally making none of my books readable on my Nook, when they were just fine before, and that it's failed to do a good conversion of some HTML files I've wanted to convert. (Actually, it kept thinking they were.zip files...)
Oh, and it's interface isn't localized for the Mac, making it feel very clunky on mine.
All in all, it feels like a decent early beta product, and seems to be the best general converter/library manager around.
-- 'Sensible' is a curse word.
It hasn't been invented yet.
by
mark-t
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· Score: 3, Interesting
We're getting close, but I don't think we're there yet.
My own expectations are:
color;
bistable display that consumes no power for a static image;
high contrast display, easily usable both indoors and out;
durable enough to withstand being stepped on without breaking;
utilizes SD cards or mini-SD cards for expanded storage for documents;
screen large enough to show a full 8.5x11" page without scaling it down;
high enough resolution to read smaller fonts (such as footnotes) without zooming;
screen update times of no more than a tenth of a second;
allows user supplied (PDF) documents to be displayed, and not just DRM'd documents; and
still costs less than a more functionally versatile device such as a laptop.
If a company can hit all ten of these requirements, I'd buy one in a proverbial New York minute.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
You forgot "variable backlight", makes married life better for those with a "read before you sleep" habit. - USB power - USB controller; can attach an external USB drive (so you can carry a pile of additional media on high density 2.5" or smaller portable drives)
Icing on cake would be:
- refresh rate fast fast enough to show motion pictures (say the 24fps of movies); would expect this to substantially reduce battery life - easy quick-change battery (and quick charge batteries) - wireless bi-directional open standards based communications; would expect this to reduce battery life - open OS so additional apps can be created, as new use cases are thought of - high res touch screen with stylus, for marking up pages, taking notes, etc. - static image on screen will not drain battery at all (unlike iphone, where app displaying static screen can drain battery in an hour) - bluetooth; for keyboards, mice, and assorted short range communications - flip out stand to use as display, vertical or horizontal - front facing camera, for VC, can VC in an inset window while doing other things like reading or reviewing a diagram - easy to mount on other machines as an external drive, wirelessly and wired (for higher speeds)
Basically, everything the ipad is not:)
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Do you really care if the display is bistable? If it'd allow you to read for a week without recharging but it wasn't bistable, wouldn't that be good enough for you? Take the Pixel Qi display for example. It's not bistable, just very low power. I'd still take it over e-ink. That goes for some other display types.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
MrMista_B
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· Score: 1
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
screen large enough to show a full 8.5x11" page without scaling it down;
That's a 14inch screen. It won't fit in anyone's purse, you'd need a backpack or laptop bag for it. Really you're looking for a laptop. Scaling will be a fact of life for ereaders.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
PhilHibbs
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· Score: 1
I think you'll be dead of old age before you see that list filled. Point 4 is a big problem, and if it fulfils all points 1-9 then what will a "more functionally versatile" device offer in addition to all this?
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
mark-t
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· Score: 1
I don't require a variable backlight. If I'm reading a book at night, I use a reading lamp, so nothing is lost if I require the same from an ereader.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
mark-t
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· Score: 1
Point 4 isn't that hard to fulfill... at least two black-and-white readers are coming out this year that are designed to be resistant to breakage, even if subjected to fairly high stresses.
What a more functionally versatile device would offer in addition to this is being able to run arbitrary applications, and not just be a document reader.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
mark-t
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· Score: 1
The iPad fails entirely on points 2, 3, 4, and 5. I wouldn't be surprised if point 9 is also an issue. Sprint's new ereader that will probably be coming out later this year meets far more of the requirements... but it still fails most notably on on point 1 and 8.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
mark-t
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· Score: 1
I hadn't heard of any non-bistable display technologies that could run for such a long period without significantly draining the battery. Yes, that'd be good enough for me, as long as the display was high contrast enough to be readable "like paper", that is, both indoors and out.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
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PhilHibbs
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· Score: 1
You're effectively asking for a discount in return for some artificial limitations being placed on it. That's just weird.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
You should probably hold your breath for a bit... Your suggested device won't exist for the foreseeable future, because it wouldn't sell, and can't be made at your price point.
The 8.5 x 11 is the main reason. So few people would want a device so large, it wouldn't be profitable to create. Maybe if it got mandated into an educational curriculum first, that could be leveraged to make it available to consumers. Still, even it that case, likely couldn't reach your price point.
Color e-ink, maybe eventually, but cost on that will stop it from reaching your price point for the foreseeable future, also, especially if you combine it into the larger screen size.
Aside from those two points, your device already exists, it's called the nook. You might say it's not as durable as you request, but if you put a good cover over it, it is.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
mark-t
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· Score: 1
The upcoming Bridgestone color ereader has a 13.1" diagonal, which is only nominally smaller than a letter sized page, and would based on most of my listed criteria be perfectly adequate for my tastes. It does not, however, have a very good screen update time (0.8s). I am also unsure if it will allow user PDF documents to be read on it.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
mark-t
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· Score: 1
Three of the biggest problems with laptops are points 2,3, and 4 in my list. Also, laptops are fairly heavy (usually because of their batteries), where document readers that use bistable display technology can be very lightweight because they don't drain the battery while showing a static image, and can thus utilize smaller and lighter batteries.
Yes, I'd need a briefcase or backpack for something that size, but one already needs one for the books and other reference material that could best be utilized by an electric reader of that size, so nothing is really lost.
When ereader developers get it through their heads that the device could be a godsend for people who often read things *OTHER* than fiction, in particular in the business and academic sectors, I suspect we'll start seeing some development in that area.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
mark-t
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· Score: 1
It's less a matter of having artificial limitations being placed on what might otherwise have been a general purpose device and more a matter of a document reader not requiring the complexity of a general purpose programmable computer in the first place, a reader being designed for a single very specific purpose. I do not believe it is unreasonable or weird to expect a simpler device to cost less than a more complex one.
Re:It hasn't been invented yet.
by
tomhudson
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· Score: 1
I want something more like an 8-1/2 x 14. Turned sideways, it almost exactly accommodates a 1920x1080 HD display. It would be big enough to have more than one person use it at a time, it has room for several terabytes of storage, and it can be made today using a 17" lapotp display panel. Also, it would be able to display 2 pages side-by-side "just like a real book".
AMOLED screens (like on the Nexus One) are great for indoor reading, particularly at night. Small, very good contrast, comfortable to hold, no external lightsource needed.
OTOH they're kinda crap outdoors.
--
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Best for Hackers
by
niftyguy
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· Score: 2, Informative
is the Onyx Boox - also rebranded as the Bebook Neo.
It has e-ink display, wifi, a wacom touch screen (mounted *under* the display - so that you don't get the glare issues that exist with other touch-screen readers), runs on linux, is completely open, and best of all
has a Debian based SDK!!! which allows linux users to write their own apps!
This is one of those "ill believe it when I see it" deals. Lets see if the hype meets reality. If it lives up to the hype... I'll be purchasing this (if it's sold in canada that is...)
Re:Notion Ink Adam
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
it has a rather low dpi 117.5
Hanvon n516 with the OpenInkPot firmware.
by
shocking
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· Score: 1
I have one of these - 5 inch e-ink screen, with the supplied firmware replaced with the OpenInkPort (http://openinkpot.org) stuff. Works well. Reads just about every ebook format there is. All the source code is open and can be compiled by yourself using a the cross-platfor environment IPLinux. You can even ssh into it from the USB connection (no wireless). I have over 2000 books and short stories loaded into a 2GB SDHC card that came with it.
I also have a Merlin HYGE0109B, with a 6 inch screen, but that's still running proprietary firmware, which only supports TXT and PDF. It gets a bit flakey when you have more than 64 books loaded. There is an OpenInkPort port in progress to this device, which is not complete yet.
Both these devices can be managed by the Calibre ebook manager, which runs under Linux, OSX and Windows (and there's also a port to FreeBSD, and possibly others)
The wireless access and ability to buy DRM'd books from one book store are not things I'm particularly interested in. I am aware that there are cracks for DRM'd epub books from B&N, as well as those using the Adobe DRM, but still, there's a bunch of classics out there, as well as independent publishers such as Baen. Visit Gutenberg.org, Feedbooks, to mention a few, and you'll be pleasantly surprised.
I intend purchasing a unit with a 10 inch screen when they become more available at the end of this year, so I'm able to view PDFs without having to zoom in. This is a good size for textbooks and other puiblications utilising diagrams.
Traditionalist - I still prefer...
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Call me traditionalist, but I still prefer DeadTree 1.0. No batteries, no online connection required, no sudden DRM-related erasures, does not date as new reader technology comes out.
Re:Traditionalist - I still prefer...
by
Sobrique
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· Score: 1
You're a traditionalist:).
I prefer dead tree to PDA/iPhone, but I moved to eInk (Sony PRS-505) because it's lighter than a paperback in my pocket, and I can carry multiple books at once. Since then, I've found it more portable, easier to read one handed, and generally very pleasant to have a 'pocket library' that doesn't take up precious shelf space.
I've got three possible platforms for "electronic reading":
A first generation Sony Librie (bought used in Tokyo)
An iPod Touch with Stanza
Various portable and not-so portable computers
Depending on what I do all three can be said to be the "best device". If I'm reading technical documentation, such as a PDF manual a computer screen with easy access to search and online services is clearly the best choice. Reading fiction outdoors when the sun is shining the Sony would be best. On the subway or on the bus the iPod is easily portable and lets me block out inane chatter.
No device is currently the best one for all possible uses, and there might be a while before a single "best solution" will be available. (Some kind of A4 foldable organic led display, with a touch screen and really fast searching would do.) In the mean time I plan to buy an Android phone with 800x480 resolution (or more) for reading fiction. I would consider buying a Notion Ink Adam though, but it wouldn't be quite as portable.
The software side is of course really important - On the server / computer side I use Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com) for converting content, pulling text from websites. You can also use it as a "content server", which is really neat.
The software for a ITouch/IPhone/IPad
by
trevorgensch
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· Score: 1
is it wrong to say that the best Ebook reader is via software on an Itouch/Iphone/IPad?
Very happy with products like Bookshelf for the IPhone. It read literally everything - pdf, lit, pdb, text, word etc etc I can hardly wait until the IPad comes out, as reading books on the larger screen will make it the best option for me.
Trev.
Was thinking reader, now want iPad.
by
guidryp
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· Score: 1
I haven't got the e-ink religion, so iPad for me all the way.
I was actually planning to get an e-reader, but when the entry price for iPad was announced, I switched to waiting for an iPad.
The only problem I see with it is waiting till the end of march to get one.
Re:Was thinking reader, now want iPad.
by
mdwh2
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· Score: 1
OOI, why not just get a (much cheaper) netbook? Or one of the various other tablets already available? If you don't care about e-ink, then there's a range of much cheaper devices to choose from, already available. Why wait, just to pay more for a product with worse battery life?
Re:Was thinking reader, now want iPad.
by
guidryp
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· Score: 1
Have you used a netbook? It's an exercise in frustration. Not to mention it isn't the form factor I want.
As far as various other tablets, where?
Check some hands-on videos for iPad vs netbooks or other tablets.
Everything else I have seen has clunky tacked on interfaces with sluggish response, While the iPad flies and glides. Also the iPad has a top of the line IPS screen vs TN crap on most competing devices, the screen might not matter to most, but I have an IPS desktop as well, I really don't like lesser screens.
There simply appears to be no contest in the experience delivered in terms of user interface/responsiveness/screen quality.
Re:Was thinking reader, now want iPad.
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Have you used a netbook? It's an exercise in frustration.
The only "frustration" I can think of is not emptying your wallet when buying a netbook instead of an iPad. I guess a lighter wallet is easier to carry.
Annotation is important for me
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I bought an Iliad just because you can annotate and draw on your documents. It was the only one with this capability at the time I bought it. Real books I read on real paper. I travel a lot, I hate to read on the screen, and like to leave the office to read longer documents. Therefore an eReader is perfect as mobile library, e.g. manuals and for documents to review . For that purpose you need annotation and PDF capabilities.
Andree
http://www.mobileread.com/
by
Lunatrik
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· Score: 1
Thought this would be a nice time to throw out a website: http://www.mobileread.com/
is a great community of e-book fanatics. Lots of research comparing different models, a nice flea market for deals, and the forums attached to Calibre, an awesome book-managing software.
Re:The Skiff looks nice, except for who controls i
by
joh
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· Score: 1
The iPad is at the other end of the spectrum, it handles color and refreshes in miliseconds instead of seconds but it's also heavy and thick (what do you expect with a big glass covered IPS LCD screen and ~5x the battery capacity of any of it's competitors to power it).
The iPad is about as heavy as an average book of the same size. Not really light, but also not really heavy for a book.
One
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Have you bought one yet? If so, which one did you find best and why?
Yes, I did buy one. The one I found best was the one I bought, because it's the only one I've used. In my experience, it is also the worst.
The non-recurring fee connection is simply great.
E-Ink is definitely worthwhile, I haven't missed color at all, and the eyestrain is negligible with it. I read a lot on my laptop/phone, and the difference is noticeable.
Amazon DRM exists, but it's been a non-factor for me so far. I get that it's a holy war around these parts, and I don't buy and DRM'd music, but well, if you're the kind it's going to bother, it's going to bother you.
Amazon customer support has been fantastic, including replacing my Kindle when a crack appeared on the screen. It was shipped out gratis, and I ended up with an extra charger out of the deal (the same charger works on my droid, so kudos for 'not being a dick' when it comes to USB standards.
As to reading on it - I forget that I'm reading on a device and my focus is entirely on the book I'm reading -- except I can look up the odd word, and it is a ton easier to hold. I'm re-reading a hard-cover book and I've actually been tempted to buy it for the Kindle so that I'd the built in dictionary and my arm wouldn't get tired in bed.
I've read around 30 books on it so far. Newspapers and magazines when traveling have been great too (kudos to the washingtonpost for making a daily purchase option available).
Re:Kindle and Whispernet
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
if your arm is getting tired, maybe you shouldn't jack off so much.
Re:Kindle and Whispernet
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
or maybe jack off more to build up strength and endurance.
Kindles are bit of a problem..Amazon is becoming a problem. DRM is regarding Kindles is shutting the books you paid for down. I am not that bothered as I can hack a kindle and stick half a million books on your kindle. My buddy in the USA founder of Juniper Networks and I laugh about this all the time. We both laugh regarding the data that is trying to be controllled.
You cannot control me, you never will and you cannot control slashdot either, Bit of a bastard when you are a guru!
Love you all;
NSN
-- All cows eat grass!
Converting *from* DJVU not an option
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
It's an open format and optimized to deal with scanned material -- for which there are many perfectly legal and honourable uses, TYVM -- which so many others don't. Try and get a decent PDF out of a stack of scans that isn't overly large.
But that again is the rub: I want something that's useful to me. Want an example? Say I have a veritable wall of tech manuals, of the kind that no amazon will ever sell. What better than to run all that through a scanner? To store it, though, you need something that can deal with that, which is what DJVU was designed to do. No point converting that to anything else. The reader must support it if the reader is going to be of any use to me.
BeBook running OpenInkPot
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Doesn't get much more open...
Searching & Indexing Capabilities
by
dbuttric
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· Score: 1
Does anyone have any experience with the searching and indexing capabilities in these devices?
I want to store my technical library in one of these, but have been resistant to switch, because I want searching and indexing that allows me to use this device as a decent replacement for that 'Technical Library Search' usecase, where someone asks some questions, and I can use this device to do one search and have the results, across all the documents that i have stored, displayed in a results list. for easy access.
Does anyone have any experience with these functions in a variety of readers?
FWIW, I have switched to reading almost exclusively on iPod Touch using Stanza (also available for iPhone).
I know everyone loves e-ink; I've looked at several e-ink devices and they look pretty great (especially the iliad, except last time I checked it was AUD$1000 here). I find the LCD screen is perfectly adequate for reading (I read at least an hour a day on this, usually more). It's not great in direct sunlight, but it's easily doable, and its rare that I want to sit out in the Australian sun and enjoy a nice book. I travel a lot and the benefits of a backlit screen are immense - I can read anywhere, in almost any conditions.
The battery life is pretty good - easily keeps me going for long trips (14-24 hours travel time) (I don't read the entire time), even listening to music occasionally as well. If it gets low I can always top it up from my laptop, too.
I like having it in a device I can also use for video, Internet, email, etc. Lots of advantages. I can live without e-ink for now. Plus the ipod Touch is around the same price as most entry level e-ink readers.
The biggest issue is lack of good, competitively priced content. There are some good stores in Stanza (which, incidentally, was bought by Amazon recently - wtf isn't the Amazon store in Stanza yet (Kindle)) but not enough to really make it easy/simple enough to get good content. You've got to look elsewhere.
You can download the Amazon Kindle app to your iPhone and read books bought from Amazon using that. It's similar to Stanza, when it comes to reading.
your numbers don't make sense
by
forand
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· Score: 1
First, you say that the average SF paperback sells 20k copies. Don't most paperbacks appear AFTER a first run hardback edition? Shouldn't these be included when discussing the single time costs (writing, editing, etc.)?
Second you say that it costs less than $1 a copy 'to print and ship a typical mass-market paperback,' then say that the majority of the costs are 'the editor, the proofreader, the cover artist, and the author's advance, which [sic] is probably going to be about $12,000 on that paperback.' So the author gets 12k (any royalties beyond this are going to be less per book) which equals about $0.60 per copy to the author. Do the editor, proofreader, and cover artist get more than this combined? But assuming they do then we are now about at the break even level between printing and shipping costs, so your assertion that the majority of costs lie in these aspects of publishing seems to be refuted by the only numbers you gave.
Re:your numbers don't make sense
by
Eric+Green
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· Score: 4, Informative
The vast majority of novels never appear in hardback. The number of fiction authors whose books appear in hard cover barely cracks three digits in any given year. In particular, a typical midlist science fiction author such as John Scalzi will virtually never have any of his books come out in an mass market hardcover edition -- if he wins an award or something which puts him into the ALA's "buy this" lists, there might be a special hardcover library edition put out, but not a mass market hardcover edition.
Regarding the actual numbers, I must admit that I simplified. As Scalzi explains on his blog, "In the course of the production of my book, it is touched and receives positive benefit from (in no particular order): A writer, an agent, an editor, a copy editor, an art director, an artist, a book designer, a marketer, a publicist, a distributor and a bookseller. As an author, if I lose one of those people, the final product — a saleable book — suffers in one way or another." But the point is that up-front costs before the book ever hits the printer are what comprise most of the costs for a typical trade paperback, not incremental per-unit costs. This of course is inverted for best-sellers, where the up-front costs are amortized over far more units, but there were only 157 fiction books that sold more than 100,000 copies in 2008. That's it, according to Publisher's Weekly, and I suspect the numbers for 2009 are little different. And BTW, authors typically get a percentage of the cover price that is about $1.50 per hardback, about half that per paperback. Just in case you're wondering. That gets applied toward their advance until they sell out their advance.
In short, the argument that ebook versions of a novel should cost way less than paperback novels due to a lower marginal cost of production simply doesn't match the actual numbers. The marginal cost of production is not the primary thing driving book costs, whether ebook or otherwise. Rather, it is the up-front sunk costs in the editorial department and the fixed costs for marketing and publicizing the book which drive the costs for most books. Then there are the best-sellers, those selling more than 100,000 copies... but those are a distinct minority and are the only ones on which book publishers make any actual profits. In all of these scenarios, the marginal cost of production is not going to be even $1 for a trade paperback and will rarely be over $1.50 for a trade hardcover (obviously the last big brick Harry Potter novels cost a teeny bit more due to sheer volume of paper needed to print a 750 page novel, but not *that* much more), meaning that if we're talking marginal cost of production as the difference in price between a paperback and an ebook, we're not talking about a huge difference in price. Clearly the expectation that ebooks should cost a lot less than paper copies of the books because of lower marginal costs of production doesn't match the reality that marginal cost of production really IS marginal even for paper books. A little less, okay. A lot less? Well, that money will have to come from something other than marginal cost of production... probably either author advance, or by publishing fewer books by more marginal authors (those who sell less than 20,000 copies). Either alternative is not very good for those of us who enjoy books and buy hundreds of books per year -- mostly *not* the 150 books on the bestseller lists.
Re:your numbers don't make sense
by
Nicolay77
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· Score: 1
You may be right, but this:
but those are a distinct minority and are the only ones on which book publishers make any actual profits
looks way too much like hollywood accounting.
-- We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
Re:your numbers don't make sense
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Don't forget that in the traditional model you produce a big run of the books, you sell them down the distribution chain, and you're done. Maybe if you think demand is high enough you produce another run of several thousands and try to sell those down the chain.
In the new e-book model your revenue stream doesn't end like that. If ten years from now some kid discovers your book series and wants to buy them you get your $10-$15 for each book that you would never see in the traditional model. Basically it gives you an idealized 100% efficient supply chain.
You're still forgetting some things, like how the wholesale price is still much less than the retail price, that there are many other indirect employees at the publisher that need to be paid too (PR folk, secretaries, etc.); also, the cost of advertising can be very large, easily more than what the writer, editor, proofreader, and cover artist make combined.
Still, I would very much like to see a source for those numbers he provided, because I'm very interested.
Re:your numbers don't make sense
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Have you actually read any published e-books lately? They certainly don't get the level of proof-reading that physical copies do, nor do they get much in design or production. Cover is lost on me too.
In fact, most published e-books that I've bought have been OCR'ed versions of the physical books with minimum proof-reading to handle OCR typos. I say "minimum" because they are rife with typos.
So spare me the comments about the level of production values for e-books. There aren't any.
Sorry but right now the winner is the old laptop: bigger screen with color, movies, even a keyboard. Some of the new ones are very cheap, light and with some ~10 hours of autonomy, totally silent.
They are not good in direct sunlight, but you can use them to surf the web, you tube, and write your things on social networks and anything else. A device with a black and white 6 inch screen that refuse to read an ordinary PDF or html file for ~400$ is just a joke: paper books are going to be better as long as ebooks don't come with color, movies, web navigation.
Just give me a light laptop with an hybrid screen please, so I can read / work outside.
Re:The Skiff looks nice, except for who controls i
by
masmullin
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· Score: 1
The iPad 2.0 which I expect to have a reflective screen option (re: Pixel Qi like tech) will be an amazing device. It will be a serious eReader with this tech.
right now the iPad is a great "portable internet" but a poor ereader.
In my experience the Astak EZ Reader 5" is the best deal out there. No, it does not have wireless connectivity. No, it does not have its own repository. But you can buy books from anybody and have no problem whatever. It runs Linux, has 8-shade grey-scale (not 4 of the cheaper ones or 16 of these $700 jobs). You download the book to your desktop or notebook, then transfer it via USB. The price is a winner too, you can find it some places for $199 - $230. (There's a used one on eBay for $189 Buy It Now, claims only 2 weeks' use.) They also have a 6" model for not much more.
I keep seeing this, and I do not understand where it comes from. The Kindle is locked in the same way that Windows is locked - you can only run Microsoft software on Windows unless you have a brain.
The Kindle can wirelessly download books from Manybooks.net, Baen and many other sites. It does this for free with no interaction with Amazon. You can back these books up and copy them to other Kindles as well.
I don't think I would call that "locked".
Is the lightbook actually possible?
by
wholcomb
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· Score: 1
It doesn't seem possible to buy e-ink though for less than $3000. Is this a situation where sales are only going to large companies or is there another reason it's hard to buy e-paper?
I have a nook and like it...
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laird
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· Score: 1
I have a nook, and I like it quite a bit. In particular: - It's very open. Plug it into a computer and drag PDF or ePub files onto it. And MP3 files to listen to, or JPG or PNG image files (for 'wallpaper'). xkcd makes for great b&w 'wallpaper'. This means that you can easily write a script to (for example) pull down the latest news in an RSS feed into an ePub (via feedbooks), and drop it onto the nook. This is much nicer than having to pay Amazon to send files via wireless into the Kindle. - The color, touch display. eInk is great to read, but is so slow that it makes interaction painful. On the nook much of the interaction is on the color touch-screen, so you can tap on a button and see it respond immediately, etc. - it is an android device, so it is easy to write software for it, and to 'hack' it to run such software. So (http://www.nookdevs.com) there are already good RSS reader, web browser, etc. - It has WiFi and 3G data, so you can buy books anywhere, and (with lightweight hacking) read RSS feeds, etc., via WiFi. Apps don't use 3G (that would be costing b&n money, which would not be cool).
The other interesting development is that there are dozens of generic eReaders coming. Remember how last year digital picture frames popped up everywhere? This year it will be eReaders. Pretty soon, for $150 you will be able to buy eReaders with SD or MicroSD card slots that will play all of the standard formats (ePub, PDF). This may do for eBooks what the iPod did for music, which will be great for people who like reading books, but may not be good for people who sell books. Perhaps authors will start selling direct? These devices are coming from a wide range of companies, all with pretty much the same specs. So it is shaping up to be a large, competitive market. Fun for consumers!
Re:I have a nook and like it...
by
reason
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· Score: 1
Note that you can plug a Kindle into a computer and drag PDF or mobipocket files onto it. And MP3 files to listen to.
axim x50v
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I like my toshiba axim x50v. Paid around $80 on ebay about 4-6 months ago. Received it in perfect condition. I wouldn't mind having a larger screen but I've read and enjoyed a number of books on my pda. I've got a pair of 1gig sd cards which are more than adequate for plenty of books. I wouldn't suggest trying to read pdfs though.
Saving up for the Que
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
PlasticLogic's business-class entry into the eReader market. Why? Standard business formats accepted (pdf, word, excel, etc.), basic markup/notes, nice size form factor, and the screen is made out of plastic.
My favorite demo of their product was them slamming a boot down onto the screen with no damage done. My eReader is going in my bag, being used for school to get rid of all those piles of books I have to carry, and will be tossed around and abused. A glass screen makes no sense, as it would break.
Of course, until then, since I try to avoid DRM books (I buy print and make my own personal-use eBooks) I'll stick to using my tablet PC. After all, printing to Windows Journal allows me to use highlighters and pens to mark up my eBook quite easily.
I'm also waiting on the QUE. Right now it doesn't look like there are any UK distributors lined up, which is annoying; especially when PlasticLogics is a Cambridge University spin off.
Of course what I really want is something like a QUE, but with a colour screen. I can't see one of those turning up for some time though - although I seem to remember that there are working prototype colour eInk displays.
--
Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
What limits my book purchases...
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Fished
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· Score: 1
What limits my book purchases is not my ability to afford books. It is having time to read books. The biggest cost of the book, for me, is the 5-10 hours of my time (at an arbitrary $50/hour) that I'll spend reading it. Most books, I will only read once. In this way, books are fundamentally different from Music, and that's why they've taken so long to "go digital" (and why libraries seem to work so much better for books than for other "media.") I don't particularly care about eBooks being cheaper. What I care about is being able to access them anywhere I have a computer, make notes, care a library in my pocket, etc. Books are not music, and not movies.
-- "He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
Well, normally I wouldn't but...
by
deisama
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· Score: 1
There's a version for the iPhone, iPad, Windows Phones, Blackberry, and even a desktop version.
Of course the biggest advantage of the software reader vs a hardware one, is that you have your phone with you all the time. So if you find yourself with some unexpected free time, you can always pull the phone out and read for however long you want to. Its great for when you need to kill 10 or 15 minutes. Which would be too short to warrant bringing dedicated hardware for.
Comics don't hurt my eyes when I read them on the lcd screen, but the style of comics is such that your eyes naturally move around more following the art, so you're never staring as intensly at the screen as you would reading pure text
I still use my N810 daily...
by
5pp000
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· Score: 1
I have an N810 and I agree -- the screen is plenty good enough, I've never had a problem with the battery life, and I carry it everywhere in a hip pouch.
I think the big problem with the N810 is with the marketing -- what's an "Internet Tablet"? I think they should call it a "pocket netbook", which describes it much better.
-- Your god may be dead, but mine aren't!
That is exactly why you would want an iPad- choice
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SuperKendall
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· Score: 1
(DRM) leaves out the iPad doesn't it?
No, not really.
For one thing, the book reading software - it doesn't even ship with the iPad. You download it like any other application...
And if you take a look at the iPhone App Store, there are MANY book readers there already most of which will probably also have an iPad update soon.
Not to mention it has excellent PDF support built in from scratch.
Why more people aren't suggesting the device that has the most choice of formats (DRM and no) is rather mysterious. Well actually it's not so much mysterious as it is sad that some people turn away from choices without being fully informed.
-- "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's capacitive, has a touchpad on the back, it uses the pixel Qi screen (transreflective, best of e-ink and LCD), has a camera and uses Android
Perfect
The Elephant in the Room
by
SuperKendall
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· Score: 0
Well there certainly are a lot of choices mentioned here. The Kindle, Nook, iLiad, Sony reader...
But there seems to be something a little, well, lacking from the list. Some other reader, that might be another popular option. What could it be?
Oh yes, the iPad. Of course it's not a valid answer now since it doesn't ship until March.
Which begs the question, when a device that is going to potentially upend the market comes out in under two months, why are you asking this question now? To take a snapshot of the eBook market B.IP. for historical research?
I mean, at the very least you'd want an assessment of all potentially useful devices, and the iPad is as much a candidate as any of the ones listed even if you have some misgivings.
-- "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's called "lighting"
by
SuperKendall
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· Score: 2, Interesting
The number of people that don't yet have a ebook and "don't get" the concept if e-ink is staggering. Clue: e-ink does not melt your eyes like a TFT with a backlight...
First of all, I love books. I greatly prefer printed text above everything for reading.
BUT.
eInk is still quite far from printed text for readability - the contrast is not great, the "paper" is rather greyish. I do prefer reading books on an LCD to the Kindle, and I have read whole books on an iPhone.
But - the reason why an LCD might have "melted your eyes" is because eye strain is easily caused when you try to stare at a bright LCD screen in an overall dark room. In short, it happens because it CAN happen. With an eInk display you have no choice but to provide enough ambient light to read in - if you simply provide that same level of light with any LCD they are not actually that hard on your eyes at all.
And with an LCD you have the possibility for real full-color illustrations in an eBook, along with all of the other things you can do on a screen with a high refresh rate.
I love the idea behind eInk, I really like the idea of it in a reader, but I don't think yet it is good enough to beat out a really good LCD for a good reading experience - and the iPad ships with an IPS panel which helps a lot with quality of output. Perhaps it's using cheap LCD's in the past that have "burnt your eyes out" - I can't stand using them either.
-- "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Hint: if they suggest the iPad, then they have no clue about ebooks.
I know a few people who own Kindle's and have tried them out; I have used a Nook briefly at a store.
After that I just downloaded the Kindle reader for the iPhone and I am content.
If you simply take care to provide some ambient light, LCD's are perfectly fine for reading. It's easier to turn them on and start reading without decent light, which can cause more eyestrain - in situations where you'd have to put down the eInk display because you couldn't see well enough to read.
-- "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Unquestionably Sony
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Unquestionably the Sony for the price / capability tradeoff - but the non touch screen version (friends with the touch screens one find them a little harder to read) - and I suggest using Calibre software rather than Sony's software.
And for those that are thinking of the IPAD.
Its a different market altogther - My sony goes weeks on a single charge. I dont need to worry about DRM or hacking from WIFI. I can load up months and months of books so the lack of wifi if fine - it makes the device safer. When using calibre - it works with Linux (which I uses) or Mac or windows and any book I read on it - I know I can read again on my next ebook reader and my next one. It's very easy on the eyes. It uses virtually no power except when changing the page so I have convinced them to let me use it during take off and landing on planes (not invariably but more often than not - you wont succeed with that with an IPAD - and would be breaking the law if u did)
THINK BOOK - if its a book you want as close to a book as possible with more benefits - not disadvantages. My NETbook fills other needs very well but the Ebook reader is irreplaceable !
I found a couple of websites to download some Public Domain/Creative Commons books, only one of which really ended up appealing to me. I realize that sounds like a pretty trite struggle, but I assure that it was significant for me because Gutenberg Project is blocked in good ol' China, so I had to find an alternative source, namely Manybooks.net. After that, the struggle turned to finding a decent and preferably GENUINE eReader that actually uses eInk/ePaper or whatever you want to call it that was cheap enough for me. I don't believe that these devices should have bluetooth or wifi or all that fancy battery eating crap because I want to use the damned thing to read! If I want all that other crap, I use my phone or netbook which are both perfectly portable, have all those capabilities and have decent batterylife to boot, the netbook even has a built-in card reader, so I have no need for connecting my device to my computer when I can just plop the card in there. So, I ended up buying a Chinese brand, Teclast ( to us here), which just last month started selling its eReader named "K3" ( http://www.teclast.com/zhuanti/tl-k3/ ). Apologies for the link to the Chinese website, but it's all they have for the moment. At any rate, I got it for a number of reasons: it doesn't have wifi or bluetooth, it reads most file formats I could possibly want to use with it (mainly epub) and it was about half the price of any other eReader I could find here. Now, from what I've heard the US price will be about $220, which is not exactly cheap, but I can tell you that if you can make it to China, you can get it for about 1250RMB, which is roughly $170.
The long and the short of it is I want an eReader to read books. Other functions, to me, are somewhat useless on these devices, especially the ones that drain the battery faster.
Consider the Notion Ink Adam
by
UltimateNinja
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· Score: 1
It's not actually an ebook reader, but
by
func
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I use my Iphone for reading most books these days. Back in the day, I used to travel a lot for work, and usually had a stack of books on my crusty old palm pilot, which was nice for carrying around, especially since I used it for a lot of other things as well.
These days, I don't go anywhere without my phone, and I find the screen just fine for reading books. A lot better than the old palm pilot. Since I'm already carrying the phone, the e-reader is basically free.
The best ebook reader is not an ebook reader, but rather a phone: The Moto Droid is about 850x450 pixels in about 3.7 diag inches, and makes reading PDFs a delight. Best of all, it fits in your shirt pocket. Do that with a kindle, nook, or apple brick. Uh-uh.
If you want it to act as a phone as well, the best eReader is the iPhone. If you don't, it's the iPod touch.
Everything sold as an eReader has two fatal flaws. First, they're all way too big, in order to have a page size big enough that they can pretend they're like paper books. An eReader should fit in a shirt pocket.
Second, e-Ink displays are horrible. They're grey-on-grey text, and the half second flash and delay on page turning is terribly distracting. LCD is the only way to go at present.
(Yes, I actually do read on my iPhone; I've read over thirty books on it so far this year.)
- E-ink has perfect size, it fits big pocket (and it is really readable) - good to read in the bed or on the beach - most of my reference library for the job is there (in html) - open (I could add my own SW or fix it, if needed), with SW updates flowing - battery life: it takes 10 days between charging, and device is never switched off - it is dedicated device and does the job - perfect match if I could link it with 3G phone via USB. - on meetings, I take notes on the paper
I am monitoring progress, and I plan to buy new E-reader, but - bigger screens are vulnerable (we are waiting for plastics instead of glass) - all added functionality increases power consumption and size - if I need 3g, wifi, divx: another device - I watch movies on TV with beer and remote: can not do it on PC - if I want laptop, I use laptop.
So, no new device impressed me enough to get one. I expect one to two years: new technology with bending screen could make a difference. So far, it is nothing new: just incremental progress. Nothing worth going for.
On the other hand, it is niche product. Biggest shop in Ljubljana reported to sell only 100 devices in the year. (lack of slovenian E-books).
I am in this particular niche: While SW become user friendly, I am still machine friendly. (Aged over 50, learned FORTRAN in 1974).
It's simply the best ! Oh, and I got family working in IREX, but of course I won't tell you that.
Something with a Pixel Qi screen
by
eremos
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· Score: 0
I think the Pixel Qi screen technology (LCD but you can turn off backlight for direct sunlight e-ink like display) will bring some excellent products this year.
The Notion Ink Adam (due in June) already looks great, but is a little too big for casual reading. Will be great for textbooks, manuals and notes though.
100% retail markup not required for eBooks?
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Don't bricks and mortar stores usually have to near double the wholesale price in order to cover the costs of a physical presence? (rent, rates, staff,...) For a $20 retail book that cost marginal $1 to print & ship to the store the 'paperless wholesale' price would have to be $9 - right? and the 'e' markup can be much smaller than 2x...
I'm happy with it... mostly. You gotta plug it in everyday if you read it all day long, but it does have expandable memory up to 8 gigs, both wifi and modem and works flawless under Linux with Calibre working unexpectedly well, I say unexpectedly because in my version it's not officially supported but still sometimes I open it and my periodicals have been automatically uploaded to my suprise and they rendered well. Some of the plain txt file conversions with Calibre don't go so well, but haven't really fiddled with it yet. Haven't tried the web-browser or rooting it, but I can't imagine it would be very pretty, you might get a couple of hours out of it, but I think I would gnaw off my hands trying to type this summary of it onto the somewhat painful keyboard, of course I can't stand touchpads either. Comes with a somewhat limited dictionary, it can't find multiplexural. my summary wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention, Don't use it to play music, you get like an hour maybe two out of it and it's dead as a doornail. But maybe it was because I wasn't using headphones, sound was good, but still why'd they put such a teeny battery on the thing if they're going to sell it for close to 300 dollars!! I'd require either a longer Cable or easier battery swapping if I were to buy one for a friend, because they are fun to play with.
The fact that the iPad supports all of the books ever written, not just those that can be rendered on newsprint, is all you need to know. That wins the contest right there. Most books are in color. Many books are entirely made of photographs, such as art or recipe books. Even if a book is all text, the cover is usually color. Even business books are filled with color charts. Supporting the whole library is key. Further, it supports audio video so it supports future books, such as a book for learning Photoshop that includes video of painting techniques.
Secondarily, the touch user interface that lets you just turn the page is fantastic. You don't have to use buttons to read. The device becomes a book. A child can operate it without instruction. No nerd corps is required to help people to read a book.
The full Wi-Fi n and HTML5 Web browser based entirely on an open source, standards-compliant Web decoder is the modern equivalent of having a dictionary built-in. Hyperlinks in books take you right to the Web, and you have Google and Wikipedia and Oxford.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of bookstores, so you can buy from Amazon or Kobo or iBooks or use any of the ones that are filled with free public domain books. The open ePub format is supported in iBooks and many other reading apps. I work in publishing and iPad is the only reader that's generating excitement among publishers. We know that the master copies of these books can be translated to iPad and retain their quality, whereas on other readers you are degrading the master when you put it on there. You have to fix color charts, rework even basic things to make a book work on other readers. With iPad you just make an ePub. Your color photos and charts still work. The labor is much less and the result is much better on iPad.
The iPad battery can play 10 hours of video, which likely means 15 hours of book reading. It charges via USB and there are many juice packs, so you can get as much battery time as you need. This year at CES they had wall sockets with 2 AC and 2 USB in them.
The iPad adjusts its screen brightness to your surroundings so you don't wear out your eyes as on other readers. (Do not repeat that awful myth about LCD being harder on eyes than e-Ink... that is a joke at the best of times, ridiculous from a Slashdot reader.)
At $499 it has a premium price over other book readers, but you get much more. Not just full color and touch, but also 4-20 times the storage, much more speed, a built-in iPod, built-in and 3rd party apps, many games, Podcasts, and it can even run Skype. So it is a book reader with a PC and iPod built-in for many users. If the iPhone is prologue, it will be easy to get 2 years of everyday use from this device, and often even more. And Apple Stores provide consumer grade support, replacing faulty devices on the spot, and offering free help with any technical issues.
The fact that iPad runs on an open source Unix core OS means it is reliable and interoperates well with the Internet and other networks. Everyone who contributed to BSD, Mach, WebKit, OpenGL, and other open source projects and open standards that are represented in iPad should be extremely proud of themselves. This is the closest to Neal Stephenson's Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (read The Diamond Age) that we've come yet. Of course everyone at Apple should be proud also. This device has been described for decades and is sorely needed, much moreso than another Windows netbook.
I have been looking at them aiming to buy an eReader . So far I have not found the one I like. It supports several formats (PDF, EPUB, FB2, RTF, TXT, HTML, PRC, JPG AND MP3) and the feature set seems OK... I am not trying to advertize them, as I DO NOT own one I don't know if they are any good, that's just what I want to know!
I like the fact that they do not have wireless nor touch screen.
In any case, I am holding for (i) the 7in readers to be widespread and for the electrowetting technology to come out (I am sure that will decrease the price of current readers).
Any windows mobile telephone with a good screen
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I've been reading e-books on my windows mobile smartphone. Dim the backlight to its absolute minimum, use a black background and some yellow/amber letters and you're good to go. (dimming the screen gives you longer battery time and allows you to read where traditional books would need more light.)
It display's practically any format you want and has a color screen. It also doubles as a phone, browser and can run multiple other games. Currently I'm using one with 800x480 resolution and a big screen, that definatly is a plus.
Battery time is like any phone, pretty bad the more you use it. But you can read a couple of hours without a recharge.
Re:Any windows mobile telephone with a good screen
by
bemymonkey
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· Score: 1
With, say, an hour of browsing the web, 20 minutes of phone calls, an hour of gaming (SNES emulator usually) and two hours of reading, my smartphone (Milestone now, but I used to have WinMo phones too) has about 36 hours of battery life. Heavy use (say four hours of browsing and gaming, an hour of phone calls and 4 hours of reading) cuts the total run time to about 24 hours... and that's all with WiFi on permanently (unless out of range, in which case the phone switches to cellular data) and IM/VoIP apps all running and connected in the background.
Reading with the backlight on low doesn't draw a lot of power, so I'm sure you could get 12 hours straight of reading out of a full charge... It's not really a problem these days.
I use my iPhone with the free app Stanza. Tens of thousands eBooks available, there are free converters of all eBook formats available for your desktop, and Stanza uses a common format.
Plus: I use it in dark or dim lighting, so e-Ink isn't needed.
Minus: I does use battery power and there are limited charges on iPhone batteries, so e-Ink would be a benefit;^).
-- Keep Doing Good.
Re:iPad? Bunk!
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Informative
It's a common myth, just like sitting too close to the TV or reading in the dark. Eye strain (fatigue) does not lead to glasses. Eye strain is a temporary condition and is not cumulative..
I quote from your article: "Vision problems experienced by computer operators are generally only temporary and will decline after stopping computer work at the end of the day."
I built the website for the first e-book reader back in the 90's. Franklin's product line had consisted of e-translators, e-bibles, homework-helpers, and other highly specialized/dedicated devices. They acquired someone who had been making an e-book device and had begun deals with many publishers. I believe (but don't really know) that the publishers got cold feet and effectively killed the deal and the e-book reader. It was just another late 90's blown out budget building an expensive system that never went live. God! I miss those days!
Great for reading in bed, and one of the few iphone apps where you can turn off the damn auto-rotation.
Doesn't support every format but a few, I just convert on my desktop first.
Really quite a good interface for reading as well. Easy to de/increase font size with the ol' pinch manoeuvre
10 hours? More like 15...
by
SuperKendall
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· Score: 1
Just a quick note on battery life - the stated time is 10 hours browsing or playing video.
So if I'm on a plane and have turned off Wi-Fi - I fully expect to get more than ten hours from an iPad. Apple's estimated battery times are usually pretty good.
-- "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Re:The Sony - The best option at the moment
by
benmhall
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· Score: 1
I'd also opt for the Sony.
A friend gave me his PRS-505. I find it to be fine. Not great but fine. No doubt the newer ones are nicer. The 505 reads ePub very well, handles PDF, works with the pilot Digital Editions Library service offered in my municipality (borrow eBooks for two weeks at a time.) It works well in Linux and Mac OS. Getting books on and off is a snap, just using drag and drop. Battery life is good. The Sony Reader store has a reasonable collection of books at a decent price. It's generally not cheaper than a print book from Amazon.ca but the format and selection is convenient for me. The old Sony eReader Store used a proprietary locked-down format that nothing else could handle. Thankfully, the new Sony Reader Store now sells books in ePub format.
Now, the ePub books sold at the Sony Store are DRM-encumbered. This, of course, is very bad. (See other comments for good examples of why.) Having said this, if you live in a country with sane fair dealing/fair use laws, you can, with a little work, find reasonably straightforward ways to remove the DRM from the books sold at the Reader Store.
Piracy is bad, so is treating your customers as thieves by default. I won't ever pirate a book; nor will I invest in a locked format that I can't use as I'd like. I buy almost all of my music on-line now because I can finally buy MP3 and AAC files without DRM. I won't buy into digital movies or Blu-Ray because of the DRM. I was very reluctant to buy into electronic books until a I had a good source of DRM-free ePub books.
Thankfully, publishers seem to be getting this faster than the music and movie studios. Pretty much all O'Reilly books are now available as ePub. The Sony Reader Store sells ePub that you can eventually turn in to standard DRM-free books. The situation appears to be getting better. One can now read books purchased through the Sony Reader Store in Linux and with ePub software for phones. The situation with Sony reminds me of iTunes pre-M4A. Yes, you could buy an album electronically but you had to burn it out and rip it back to side-step the DRM. Not terribly user-friendly but not horrible.
To me, the worst thing about eBook readers is that vendors are locking customers in to closed silos. A Nook can't read Kindle books, Kindle can't read the ubiquitous ePub format. All the while, you can walk down to the store and buy the print version without any of these limitations for about the same price. This is madness.
Privacy concerns are also a problem. The thought of a device, with an always-on wired connection, allowing companies to remove books post-purchase scares me. The thought of Amazon knowing what page I am on of every book they sell me also bothers me. In all of this, Sony, of all companies, looks the least bad. Go figure.
No doubt it's early days. I think you'd be nuts to buy anything that can't handle ePub and PDF. I also wouldn't buy anything that locks me to a single supplier of books.
I've now tried both of them and I'm sorry to say the Kindle wins by far. Both can read PDF files and shows up in Linux as usb mass storage devices, which is great and what I was after.
But, the Iliad has 2 major shortcomings for my use.
1. It cannot be charged over USB. I needs a power supply. A short usb-cable I can live with, but I'm not gonna lug around a power supply everywhere I go. 2. It takes a good 60 seconds to boot up. It feels like an eternity. If I want to read a book I'm not gonna sit looking at it for a whole minute before I open the covers!
Re:Kindle Dx vs iRex Iliad
by
boombaard
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· Score: 1
What were you using it for? All the DX can do is display PDFs. It can't search, bookmark, annotate, and probably not zoom.
The iliad can do all of these things, and has a folder structure view in the filelist as well. For any kind of reading other than passive reading, the DX (with its larger screen) is about as useful as a Dinky Toy.
One feature that I don't see mentioned in this discussion is the ability to read graphics files out of.zip or.cbz archives. The standard e-reader screen (6-7 inches) is not very good for Letter or A4 sized color comics, but works very well for black & white manga. As far as I know, only the iRiver kindle can read.zip and.cbz for this purpose, but there are probably other readers out there with the same ability?
It goes everywhere, it's small/lightweight, 3G coverage, and has great battery life.
Typical consumers don't use eReaders
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Typical consumers don't use eReaders. They buy books. So that's a weird thing to bring up. But that does lead to one reason why DRM is such an anti-feature.
When you can lend your mates a favourite book without them too needing a kindle (or other DRM-level compatible device) then DRM won't be a problem.
You can do that with books.
When you can sell it on the second-hand market like books (or just put it in a car boot sale), then DRM won't be a problem.
You can do that with books.
etc.
DRM stops all those things you do with books which is what the typical consumer uses.
Nerds buy eBooks and they either don't care about DRM or do. For those who don't care about DRM, they seem to think everyone shouldn't care about it and think anyone who does must be mentally disturbed or something.
Oddly, those who don't want DRM don't mind if YOU have it, but don't want it forced on them, even by the back door.
It all depends on intended use case. I find eInk makes a much more comfortable and enjoyable read. Smart Phones are perfectly acceptable for some cases. The biggest factor is how long are your reading sessions. Remember all the ebook readers support drm-free books, they just don't sell them that way. I'll break down common use patterns for electronic reading.
Commuter: If you're on the subway, your short read means eye-strain is less of an issue. Plenty of lighting so any screen is fine. Battery usage is irrelevant. You'll likely have a bag so the extra device doesn't matter. It's a toss-up, I'd personally lean towards eInk since it's more comfortable. I think the kindle for it's blog support is best in this case (the nook probably has a hack to do this).
Traveler: You could be reading for 6 hours on a flight, you'll want the eInk. Battery usage is also important. You'll have a bag and plenty of lighting. Definitely use an ebook reader. No wireless on plane so books will have to be preloaded, any of ereaders are fine. If international you'll want an ebook reader with wifi (nook).
Opportunity reading: smart phone wins hand down. It will be with you when you're stuck by chance waiting for an hour.
Home reading: Long reads with lighting. eInk will provide ideal reading experience. Any ebook reader is fine since other capabilities don't matter much since presumably you'll have a computer nearby (no need to play mp3's are look up wikipedia on kindle).
Bed reading: Short reading in low light, smart phone is better. eInk will need a light.
Classroom: Use the textbook. Neither smart phones nor readers can display large graphs. Readers also can't do color figures. Absent of those restrictions the search, annotations and note-taking (not your classnotes!) features are nice. I think it'd be hard to follow along with a small screen of a smart phone. But if you want to take classnotes you'll need old-fashioned pen and paper or a netbook.
Reference Library: Similar restrictions to classroom but allows you to take your whole reference library which you can't just do with textbooks. May need to use phone and reader at same time. Larger screen and easy operation might be a plus. Depends on whether you need your library when you're unprepared like unexpectedly helping a friend (use smart phone) or you are prepared like going to a conference (use a reader, preferably a kindle DX for large screen and better PDF support).
For me the best e-book reader sofar is the iRex Digital Reader 1000S. It is not cheap, but it does A4 pdf and has no DRM issues. I need it mainly for technical papers in pdf format. But it also does e-books from Gutenberg or other source very well. Its main shortcoming is the very poor support of html.
I was going to buy a Sony eBook reader last year, then noticed the eee 900 sitting next to it for $50 more. I love my netbook, but might still buy a Sony just because the e-ink is supposed to be gentler on the eyes.
I've used all my Blackberries for e-book reading with Mobipocket. I sure don't see the reason to by a unit that only does e-books. With my Blackberry I listen to music, play games, read emails, and fiction e-books. Oh, I can also use it for phone calls. The e-book readers seem to be developed for people who don't have mobile phones or for corporations that need to find yet another gadget we don't have lying around at home already.
I have a Kindle and I can use it several hours each day and charge it maybe once a week - and that is with turning the wireless on and doing some poking around online. The battery will last something like two weeks using 4-5 hours a day with the wireless off. And the screen is 4x the size of a Blackberry Storm or iPhone.
Your Blackberry (and mine, too) will last 3-4 of use hours without charging. So as long as you are happy with that, a Kindle probably doesn't make any sense for you.
A Kindle will last for the entire flight from Chicago to Sydney. If you haven't done that trip, I certainly recommend it. Sydney is probably one of the best places on the planet. However, if you don't go there, you may not need that kind of battery life.
I'm surprised...
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Anonymous Coward
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I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the most excellent Bookeen's Cybook Gen3 yet http://www.bookeen.com/ebook/ebook-reading-device.aspx
Pros (for me): Includes SD slot, mounts as disk in any OS. No wifi = no kindle censorship. Add additional fonts easilly. Improves itself constantly (see below). Replacable battery. Screen size is just right(tm). Cons: the "back to main menu" button is placed a bit awkward.
I bought it in 2008 and haven't felt an urge to buy another eBook reader since I got it because Bookeen is often releasing new Firmware for it; about once or twice per year. I recently installed the latest Firmware upgrade that includes faster page turning (it now turns pages in half a second on a 400k book even with full blanking and that has improved the battery life even further) and better PDF rendering, layout can be displayed by folder location etc.
I'm not affiliated with Bookeen, I'm just a happy customer.
I splashed out on a Sony PRS505 about 18 months ago and am very pleased with it. Yeah the menus can be sluggish but once you're into a book then it hardly matters. The most important factors were screen readability and eyestrain. I can read the Sony for hours and it's just the same as a physical book. Plus I've stuffed two complete Open University courses on an sdcard and so I can have them on-tap. Very cool.
Yeah I know others are better/worse/different but the 505 suits my needs and that's all I'm worried about:-)
Well, that is what I use. Instead of listening to the radio and hear people blabber about nothing while I am on my way to work, I put a disc or SD card with audio books(s) on it and listen to that. Righ now I am listening to 'Red Planet'. Luckily many are available in MP3 now. LotR I had to put into 4 CDs (including one for The Hobbit) from 55 CDs. With my new radio I put them on a SD card. Mono in 64 bit is good enough as it is only speech.
If I travel by train or plane, I just put them on any MP3 player and can read the books I desire during my trip.
-- Don't fight for your country,
if your country does not fight for you.
Not quite there yet for technical books
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Anonymous Coward
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I have switched to buying all my technical books as ebooks only (lack of storage space and need for Ctrl-F). So far I have found everything I wanted without DRM, or breakable. I really liked the watermark approach that InformIT used for one book: Each page says "From the Library of <MY NAME>". Excellent solution because I do not intend to illegally distribute my ebooks, but I want to use them freely on different devices.
I use Amazon to evaluate the books and buy somewhere else. InformIT, O'Reilly, Apress and eBooks.com have served me well.
As for the E-Reader itself, I tried a Sony with touchscreen in a shop and liked it. Good choice for novels. But I need a 10" screen and possibly color for technical books with illustrations. These look promisiing:
enTourage eDGe (love the concept, and this is very close to actual shipping)
Kindle DX: Can only be considered when it comes with first class PDF capabilities and when I can copy files back and forth via USB (maybe you can?).
Apple iPad: If I can easily use my PDF and.prc files with it, it is worth considering. Did this thing actually ship by now??
Microsoft Courier: Twice 7" would be to small. If it has the format of the enTourage eDGe it might be worth a look. Microsoft is quite good at making hardware:-)
Still nothing special about the Ipad
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mdwh2
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It's still irrelevant - the point is that if you're happy using a standard LCD to read from, then every single phone, tablet and netbook now count as an "e reader", and many of them are vastly cheaper than Apple's.
What's the point in paying more to get worse quality? And it's not just about screen quality, there's also battery life.
Not to mention that the Ipad doesn't even exist yet.
I have a Kindle and love it; my husband has a Sony and loves it. I can read HTML files but not RTF; he can read RTF but not HTML. He can read the ePub format, I can read the Mobi format. We both read books without DRM most of the time, but I have a few azw files from Amazon, and they can never take them away from me. You see, I download all my purchased books to my computer. I keep them in the Calibre library, where I can sort by author, series, and genre. I also can convert formats in Calibre. The good thing is that Calibre keeps the original format, so if I convert a plain text file to mobi for my Kindle it can be converted again to LRF/epub for my husband. Usually I convert RTF files to mobi, and HTML files to epub. I also leave Whispernet off when I am not downloading a book from Amazon. No reason to have it on otherwise; if I want to surf the Internet I have better devices.
We will both be looking at iPads when they appear in stores. I am doubtful that one could replace my Kindle; e-ink is incredibly easy on the (somewhat aged) eyes. But I see other uses for the iPad for which I cannot use my Kindle.
I would think that you would find a better discusion on the mobiread forum, since this is a forum for serious ebook readers. Personally, I would never call a backlit screen useful for serious reading. It doesn't work well in brightly lighted areas (such as outdoors), and the flicker causes eyestrain and fatigue. Reflective technologies such as eInk can be read for hours (like a book). Touch screens do reduce the contrast ratio for these type of screens.
Entourage Edge of course
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Anonymous Coward
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By far the ENTOURAGE EDGE looks the most promising. With a dual-computing enabled device, with two screens... The computer system runs Google Chrome and has touch screen , while the other screen has eINK and is thus good on the eyes and so forth... Also supports normal PDF files (of which I have thousands) and generic USB support
http://www.entourageedge.com/
As soon as they ship internationally, this is the one I want
Which ones can make PDF Reflow correctly?
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Anonymous Coward
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Which ones of the models you're talking about have right PDF reflow capabilities??
Most of the ebooks I have now, are PDF files, and have code examples (indented) and formulas.
Since the normal page size of any of this documents is A4, and just zooming an A4 sheet to the ebook reader screen would be almost unreadable, I guess some of this ebook readers would be able to make the PDf reflow.
I haven't seen any software yet (even full blown PC software) capable of making a PDf reflow consistently with the content (again, formulas, columns, etc...).
Do your ebook do this fine? Oh, and yes, I tried to convert my pdf files to epub or other ebook formats, and not stanza, or calibre, o mobipocket can produce files from those pdf's maintaining the format.
Thanks a lot.
Kindle supports non-DRM'd books
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aardwolf64
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I work for a publisher to create standards-compliant ePUB files. I use Calibre on my Mac (also available for the PC) to convert the ePUBs to a MOBI file. The MOBI file can then be copied straight to the Kindle. There's no DRM involved whatsoever...
Today, iPhone and Stanza, tomorrow...iPad?
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UttBuggly
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I looked hard at the Sony and Kindle units and got neither.
I use my 3GS, Stanza, and Comixology . Also have the USA Today and NY Times apps for news.
I like the single device aspect, and readibility is good. Not excellent...I'm > 50 and have reading glasses.
So, I'm considering the iPad. I did look at the latest Sony readers at Best Buy just yesterday and I still think color (especially for comics and news) and the larger form factor are what I want.
-- I am my own gestalt.
Kindle DX
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Anonymous Coward
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I'm not trolling, as I'm not actually suggesting this is the best eBook reader on the market.
I own one, and the "keyboard" on it is terrible. I wish they had simply not included it. The worst crime with regards to the keyboard can probably be solved with a software update; when using the "goto page" features, you have to press shift before each key. The numbers on the keyboard are shifted versions of the letters, but you would think that in context of a "goto" menu, it would automatically do that.
I bought the DX because of it's larger screen. AFAIK (and i haven't looked in 8 months), it's the only eBook reader with an 8" screen. For reading PDFs (why i bought it), there is simply no other option.
For the purpose of reading PDFs it's an excellent tool. For anything else, i don't recommend it.
Still, as soon as http://openinkpot.org/ supports the Kindle, i will be rooting mine with joy.
Kindle iPhone app will probably work on iPad
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mr_death
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... so that is probably the best play right now if you want a color screen, Amazon content, and pdf.
-- It's Linux, damnit! Pay no attention to renaming attempts by self-aggrandizing blowhards.
Most stuff wins
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Anonymous Coward
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Mark my word. The iPad will probably not be the best e-book reader at introduction, but I bet it will be the best ebook reader during 2010.
Look at what Apple did with iPod then iPhone and now iPad. The iPod brought legal digital music for a fair price trough iTunes Music Store. The iPhone brought applications for smart phones in masses trough iTunes AppStore(i have a nokia, it can't compared with the iPhone iPhone in such different league).
What will the iPad bring. Well most probably an BookStroe in iTunes. This is what will rock the iPad to become the best e-book reader 2010.
It' migt not have the best hardware, but that is overrated look at iPhone. Software, few beat iPhone OSX, Nokia does not, neither Microsoft Win Mobile, Google andrioid maybe one day in a distant future.
But it's the content that will make it the best, and here Apple has been smarter faster and better than the competitors. I would bet money they suceed in this too, even tough they are later to the game this time.
The Magical Pony 200x
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Anonymous Coward
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The best e-reader has
1) Color e-ink screen without flicker 2) Accurate stylus and finger touch-screen input 3) Support for ePub, PDF, HTML, and the usual text formats out of the box 4) Ubiquitous wireless internet access 5) One week of battery life while in use 6) An open SDK for third-party applications and third-party formats 7) A built-in news aggregator application with a better UI than a plain list that supports multiple mainstream sources as well as any standard RSS stream 8) Built-in podcast support including over-the-air updating 9) Effortless syncing to a PC, Mac, Linux, NAS (WebDAV and SMB at least), and online backup services 10) Price tag under $100 11) 10-year warranty minimum 12) 10-year guarantee of support and software updates 13) Unlimited guarantee of support of built-in formats in future devices 14) Escrow of all IP in case of business failure 15) All e-readers delivered by Unicorn Express couriers
And as soon as this magical device is released, an e-reader might be worth getting instead of paper books.
Since I STILL
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Anonymous Coward
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Since I STILL can buy a nice used thinkpad OR a NEW netbook for the same price or less, those are the best options. For an e-book reader (a limited function device at best), the price has to be less than $50, It must have a screen that can easily be read in full sunlight, as well as having an internal backlight for nightime reading. It does NOT need to play MP3 files or games, but it needs to read all ebook formats, and convert DRMed formats to non-DRMed formats like plain TXT and PDF files. It only needs 2-4 gig of ram, as that will store thousands of NON-DRMed ebooks.It should connect to a computer using a standard USB cable (no non standard connectors!). It doesn't need WI-Fi, or the ability to connect to the Internet.It doesn't need blu-tooth nor does it need to connect to a (cell) phone in any way. It must of course run linux, and use standard AA NiMH batteries that can be charged in the reader with the included AC adapter.
Until an ebook reader can meet all of the above, a laptop or netbook is a better choice, as for the same price it will do so much more.
Re:The Sony - The best option at the moment
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jp10558
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My biggest gripe about e-books that you buy is generally that you get less than you do with a paperback copy. I have to buy the reader @ $300 or so. I generally have DRM so I can't give it to my Dad to read and then donate it on to the local Legion or Library book sale. I can't really throw it in a closet and keep it for the rest of my life without taking time to convert formats etc... I can't drop it, or throw it around and not worry about breaking it. For all that, and I'm supposed to pay more per book as well? Why would I do that?
I suppose it only makes sense for die hard readers who need 200 books with them at all times (not I) or people who can't easily carry one or two paperbacks around...
-- Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
best?
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Anonymous Coward
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The s-slick had some problerms when it came out with battery charging. Presumably they fixed that, but I never bothered to check.
The Astak EZ-Reader is really a Hanlin v3 and can run openinkpot, not sure about the 5" one but is new but presumably the same as the 6" one with a 5" screen.
The Sony pocket...
Anyways, nook seems to have the best features for the price ATM. The Cybook is just grossly overpriced, while the rest are pushing it since they offer fewer features than the Nook. Most lack WiFi and that handy touch screen at the bottom
I chose the Sony PRS-600. It's a little pricey, but I prefer the 6" screen and it seems to support the most formats. The touch screen is cool, but I can't say I've taken advantage of the functionality except for clicking on words for the dictionary. I bought this to read books, not surf the net so I didn't really care about the wireless capabilities. I've already checked books out of my local library as well as found books to download. I won a Kindle DX last week and decided to stick with the Sony.
That's my 2 cents.
enTourage
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Anonymous Coward
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How about this one: http://www.entourageedge.com./
It's android based and you can read the book on one side and browse the web on the other. It looks nice but I admit i haven't tested one yet.
Bought Nook for the wife
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Anonymous Coward
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I bought the Nook for my wife and she's had it about a week now. Their in store features are not working yet, but they promise they will be coming. It was a spotty launch in my opinion, but my wife is thrilled with the device. Their online store still took about 30 minutes to get the book, though it said it would be faster. The navigation with the update last week is pretty responsive and she is thrilled with it. I put a pdf on it in seconds which I really liked. She was able to get books from the Seattle library easily and she's reading one from her book club now. Overall I currently like it and if they continue to add features, I think it's a great purchase for the same price as a Kindle.
I am currently converting my chess books into pdfs so that I can travel. I am very wary of all the current ereaders because I do not know if they will be able to:
1.) handle large pdfs
2.) have enough resolution to be able to display diagrams so that they can be read
3.) take notes and be able to fully save the info
Yeah this probably does not matter to 99% of the people, but why spend 4-700 bucks on something that does not necessarily fill all the needs.
I like the Sony readers. MP3 playback means nothing to me in a book reader - which is good since it has no way of sorting them. I specifically DO NOT want wireless connectivity of any kind. It's a waste of battery life for convenience that doesn't even make sense - I have 4GB of books loaded on my PRS-505; even if most are comics, I'm not going to run out of books in under a YEAR, much less need one in the next 5 minutes. Color touch screens are equally or more useless - just show me the book. I don't mind if the menu takes a second to draw each update; I have shortcut keys and it buffers them well, so I can just go *press press press* and wait a sec for it to do what I asked. It does TXT, and many other formats like PDF, LRF, EPUB, etc. Using the third party app "Calibre" I can manage the books easily and tag them all for quick retrieval. If you're one of those sensitive souls who feels wronged and raped for using a Memory Stick that cost $5 more than a no-name SD card... you can use an SD card. It's thin. It's light. It's solidly built. You can get a nice leather cover for it, and it will magnetically hold shut gently. You can leave it on for a week on the same page, no problem... you can charge it by PSP type chargers, or USB mini-B.
One warning - full-page PDF is usually technically legible, but not comfortably. Zoomed in, it upscales the text and breaks the formatting, killing any vector-based diagrams. Rasters like photos still stay visible. The only workaround for this, or PDFs that are just book pages scanned as graphics, is to hold "zoom" and have it rotate to landscape mode to read it a little bigger.
Don't know about upper size limits for book files - I have tried ~40MB PDFs heavy on graphics, and it seems fine.
very happy with my kindle 2 -- but.
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Anonymous Coward
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were i to buy a second device *today*, it'd be a sony. probably the touch. there's a new bookeen device that seems really interesting now, as well. (not the opus. the one that's a model 'up' from that one.)
any device that does not permit underlining and annotating is a non-starter. and the integrated dictionary on the kindle is great -- far more extensive than i would have expected. i didn't buy the sony first, because frankly i was mad about the fact that the earliest ones didn't even have *search* capability. it's an electronic device and doesn't have searching? wtf? back then, sony really didn't get it, and the reader was their red-headed stepchild. i'm still somewhat bitter about that -- it hurt sony's credibility in my mind. but the sony can be used to read e-books -- insofar as such exist -- from french, german, italian, etc. publishers. in those languages. that is the main (only?) reason i'd consider it.
since i'm not buying a second device anytime soon, i'll be watching for new developments. but no matter how pretty the new color screens will be (they will *have* to be reflective), if there's no possibility of underlining, annotating -- and now, if there's no integrated dictionary (really used to that feature, now), i still won't be buying.
publishing's elephant in the room:
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big_paul76
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"In the course of the production of my book, it is touched and receives positive benefit from (in no particular order): A writer, an agent, an editor, a copy editor, an art director, an artist, a book designer, a marketer, a publicist, a distributor and a bookseller. As an author, if I lose one of those people, the final product — a saleable book — suffers in one way or another."
Yeah, surprise, surprise, everybody thinks their own position, work, and revenue stream is essential.
The last 2 in that list of 11 positions are middlemen between the author and the consumer/reader. Pardon me if I (as a reader) don't see them as essential. The agent works for you, the author, and provides a service to you, the author, not me, the reader. If his services are valuable, it seems like it's up to you to pay for your own agent, actually.
As Cory Doctorow likes to point out, most of us find our favourite authors by word-of-mouth. So the assertion that the marketer, publicist, artist, and book designer are vital is um, unproven. Burden of proof is on the person who makes the claim. And, uh, as far as I can see, ugly-ass cover art and bad design are not necessarily an obstacle to a book's success, just ask Robert Jordan's heirs.
The assertion that everybody in the production chain is really really important reminds me of (I don't actually know if this is true or not, might be apocryphal) that thing about record execs in the 90s saying how MP3s weren't a threat, because, c'mon, who wants to listen to music on a lossy format?
You know what the real problem with books is? They cost too much. In 2008 dollars, John Updike's "Rabbit, run" sold for something in the range of 5 or 6 bucks when it was released. Currently it's only available in trade paperback at $20-25 a pop. The biggest cause of this is that, when you buy a book, you're not just paying for that book, you're paying for all the books that the publisher puts out and didn't sell, and get sent back to the publisher and get pulped. Bookstores get to take books basically on consignment, and send back the ones that don't sell.
Now this unique arrangement is designed to get Barnes and Noble to take a chance on unknown authors so they don't stock nothing but Stephen King and J.K. Rawling or something. This is the elephant in the room for the publishing industry, and e-distribution could solve it. So don't tell me that your cover art designer is an essential part of the supply chain, thanks.
-- The plural form of "anecdote" is "anecdotes", not "evidence".
Slashdot Mirror
A laptop.
Reads all file formats, browses the internet at hot-spots or anywhere with add-ons, variable brightness, 32-bit color, access to free bookstores (The Pirate Bay being the most popular free store) and much more functionality that one couldn't eke out of small overpriced pieces of shit like the Kindle or -- ha HA! -- the iPad.
And yes, laptops do run Linux
By a very long mile. Great format support, including many open formats, great quality too.
The Amazon Kindle. Is this even a legitimate competition?
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
I'm waiting to check out this one, with a 9" screen:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/18/asus-dr-950-9-inch-touchscreen-e-reader-brings-text-to-speech-an/
None of them have really, for my uses, caught up to iSilo for one of my black-and-white Palm systems. I mean, they're better, except they aren't small, portable, and able to use arbitrary quantities of completely DRM-free material with free conversion from basically any format.
Or if they have, they haven't yet revealed this. I really do prefer to have reading be a function of a device which I can do other things on, but none of the current of general-purpose gizmos are anywhere near the battery life of the Handera 330 (4+ hours with backlight on = ~20% of a charge at most; without backlight, I never even saw the meter dip).
I've been sorta hoping that after another round or so of gratuitous DRM, they'll come up with one that is a bit better thought through and can display plainish documents in some usable way.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Well, it's too early to say, of course, but the iPad looks like it might actually have potential. I have never purchased an e-reader before as I have always preferred books, and the quality of ereaders was just never good enough for me. This is the first product I might actually give a chance. Of course, the fact that it's more of a general purpose tool and not *just* for reading ebooks makes it much more useful.
Either available domestically, or with a minimum of shipping hassles?
Screw the e-readers... It's 2010. Wheres my flying car and jetpack already?
And i want some quasi-futuristic clothes too...
It reads pretty much anything non DRM I can throw at it, and it fits in my pocket.
Works for me, unit is small enough to carry with a screen big enough for me to read. Stanza works well enough and I also have music, movies, games etc.
Reason I went with the Nook is that it accepts non-DRM epub files (kindle does not).
For its intended use it is OK. But it also has its issues. The menus are sluggish. I have had a few crashes (automatic reboots).
I'm sure ebooks is an area where we will see massive improvements in the next year or two. Faster e-ink screens, in color, and touch sensitive (rather than having a separate touch screen).
I came here to see someone recommend the iPad, inspite the fact that, It has orders of magnitude less battery life than a kindle & can't be used in direct sunlight and am leaving satisfied.
Nice. Works. Reads Adobe DRM'd books if you fancy that. If not, it's OK too. With the firmware upgrades fixing zoom problems, it's OK.
Currently Kindle is the only ebook reader available in part of Europe but with very limited book catalog - so limited I did not buy one. Others offer no paid catalog at all, which pretty much means if I wanted to, well I don't know, read ebooks on my ebook reader (I know, I know - WILD) I would have to rely on pirated books only, so if I wanted to give author some money for his hard work (not Umberto Eco, read any of his books and you'll see he's not working hard :P ) I'd have to buy the paper version, which defies the whole point of owning an ebook reader.
(Managable) DRM issues asside, Stanza for the iphone is an excellent reader if you already have an iphone, and don't want to splash out for a dedicated reader.
The screen is easy to read, books are easy to source and it's free =)
For the PocketPC - ubook is one of the better ones out there.
Use a B&N Nook ... like it ... Cons: wish it had better battery life ... and not as many titles available as with the Kindle.
Hands down... the nook is a far superior eBook reading experience to the Kindle, which is second in my opinion. I have owned both, and though the first firmware version for the nook was bugged as all get out, they fixed most of the issues before Christmas. (Unfortunately, for them, not before Walt Mossberg reviewed the errors of the initial OS.) Now, with their second upgrade and complete interface overhaul -- the second upgrade in two months! -- the nook flies, its battery life is extended, and the bugs have all been ironed out.
Moreover, how can anyone think that the Kindle's closed format is better? The nook allows a variety of formats to be read or purchased elsewhere and read on the device. Due to its Android operating system, several hacks are available allowing you to stream Pandora while reading and even browse teh web in a manner very similar to the Kindle. Most importantly, though, the nook's fonts and screen brightness are far superior to the Kindle's -- which is like reading on recycled paper, whereas the nook feels like you are reading on a new, white sheet of paper.
All in all, the nook is much better. However, this is a ridiculous poll, because over a million Kindle users who have never used a nook are going to, by default, vote for the Kindle. The Kindle was great. It is now subpar. And until they keep updating and ramping up the Linux operating system on the Kindle as regularly and as well as the Android system on the nook, the Kindle will continue to fall behind. The hardware on the nook is superior (replaceable battery, microSD card insert), and the operating system seems to be far more flexible. Game, Set -- nook. Can Barnes and Noble get enough people to try it to win the Match, though?
Finally, as an iPhone owner, you have to be insane to think that lit background technology will ever compete with eInk. Yes, eInk is slow but it is meant to be easy on the eyes. It is. I would never choose to read on my iPhone over my nook or Kindle. Nor would most baby boomers -- the biggest market for eBooks, probably, now that they are entering retirement. These are different markets in my mind. I think the iPad will be a flop when it comes eBooks. I hope so. Apple is evil! :>)
Peace.
People seem to like the EZ Reader, for it is cheap and small.
Featuring an easy to learn lift and turn interface, people can pick up a Book and just start reading! And Book has been specifically designed to interoperate with your existing Shelves(tm).
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
The way I see it, all e-book readers have at least one fatal flaw that defeats the whole purpose of the thing. The Kindle, etc. are too large and drm encumbered. Likewise, most devices have proprietary quirks and restrictions I just won't bother dealing with.
Only the iPhone/iPodTouch + GoodReader app + pdfs combo actually satisfies my mobile book reading needs: I'm carrying the phone anywhere anyways, the screen size has proven itself big enough for reading (though one has to get used to it) the app mentioned has pretty good functionality and dealing with bare pdfs (wish it supported djvu, alas) spares me from corporate arbitrariness and other bs.
Using this combo, I wonder why anyone would want a Kindle or similar non-pocket sized devices. If you have to carry something large, why not just get a book instead?
I bought my gf the Sony eReader a year back and she loves it. The fact that it reads PDFs and several other types of files she enjoys makes it the smarter choice. The Kindle has too many lock down features. It's amazing to say this about a Sony product, but it's surprisingly open for what you get. The battery life is great and the eInk is a cool thing as well. I'm waiting for the color version of the eInk to become a bit cheaper on these eReaders before I buy myself one. I read way more mags than I do books and the bright screen on laptops and i-Products hurt my eyes after extended periods.
Most seem to try and sell subscriptions and whatnot, which is easy to see with the extra connectivity and mobile plans and I dunno what else. Thing is, I need access to information, not to be turned into a revenue stream in return for some token carrot. So, I need something with a good screen, open format support (and `EPUB' is not the be-all end-all, TYVM xml lovers), and, well, maybe open enough that I can hack new formats and a better UI into it. Also high on the wishlist are ease of feeding, like by taking AA batteries (the `wikipedia in your pocket' thing takes AAAs, which is close but not quite there), and ease of interop with my other devices. Maybe bluetooth, but a memory card slot of sorts is probably simpler; it allows for easily swapping out libraries of books. Bookmark systems, annotation systems, you name it.
The thing is, the current crop is desperately looking for a `sales channel' model. That doesn't help me get stuff done. Until then, I'll wait for the price to drop.
The entourage edge It's not available yet (set to ship in March 2010), but it looks like its got what most people want and then some. I might be getting one myself. I've been hesitant, like most, because of price, ease of use, screen size, etc... It's not too much more than some of the other readers, so it might be a nice alternative. http://www.entourageedge.com/devices/entourage-edge.html
Hopefully e book readers will follow the digital camera capability/price ratio trend.
Can be good if you have good eyes for reading 6-8pt fonts... :P Works for me anyway...
...dispute about then seeing how we have no trees?
and let me fix the last statement
Instead arrogant morons must resort to using parchment made from clubbed BABY seals.
I use my E65 as an e-reader also. I can do, almost everything with it.
I bought my dad a Cybook Opus for Christmas - sturdy, simple, wasn't too expensive, just epub support, no ties to a publisher/DRM. Not used it myself but Dad seems pretty happy.
Matthew @ Bytemark Hosting
Plastic Logic's Que. Screen the size of a sheet of paper = I can actually have all the design and datasheet PDFs I want with me, anywhere.
For the price of an "ebook" that goes bye-bye when my Kindle, iPad or other device dies, gets its firmware updated or broken, I can get the real, dead-tree version of the book. If I have room in my luggage for an "e-reader", then I can bring the actual book.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Probably the best device for reading books is not an e-reader. If you want to use books in the old style, but digital, there dedicated e-readers could be good enough, and are several good ones. But if you have to carry a device anyway, maybe that does more than just reading ebooks is part of the things that adds weight (in both senses) to other alternatives.
For me not having to carry an extra, dedicated device is one big advantage for me. Desktop computers, notebooks, netbooks, tablets, and even cellphones are alternatives that can do a lot more than just reading books. Portablility, good enough screen, battery life, are factors that are important too, and that several of those alternatives have. And you have their functionality too (internet, work, etc). Convertible notebooks (i.e. the Asus T91 or Lenovo S10-t3), tablets (yes, even the ipad), or big screen cellphones (iphone, droid, n900, etc) are good enough book readers and provide a lot more than most of the dedicated ones
I don't want the manufacturer to have a back door into my reader to change it, delete my books, or spy on me at their whim.
Sony's offerings are quite a bit better. Longer battery life, higher DPI on the pocket reader, and support for the industry standard book format.
If they sell me content, it's no longer theirs, it's mine. To do with as I please.
The Skiff Reader has a flexible touchable screen with more viewable area and resolution than the Kindle DX, while still being thinner and lighter.
Unfortunately, it's still a bit vapor-ish, and I don't think the consortium of publishers backing it are the right people for the job. Online distribution needs a strong device maker and/or store manager to keep the old media types in line, otherwise they'll just keep raising prices and restrictions, trying to make sure there is no threat to their traditional businesses, until the new market is completely strangled.
The iPad is at the other end of the spectrum, it handles color and refreshes in miliseconds instead of seconds but it's also heavy and thick (what do you expect with a big glass covered IPS LCD screen and ~5x the battery capacity of any of it's competitors to power it). But it does have an extremely strong device/market centered backer, and I kind of expect it's descendants to prevail in the long run as low power and high power/contrast/speed/color display technologies converge.
"The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
Being a voracious reader and traveling heavily on business, I had began reading e-Books on my Compaq iPaq years ago using Windows .LIT eReader. There was also other software called Micro-book that was very nice using good fonts and an easier contrast for reading. I think the cost of micro-book was like $14 total and was well worth the price.
I eventually abandoned the iPaq and moved to the e-Ink display of the Sony PRS-500 since it was larger and a bit easier on the eyes, then to the PRS-505. There is an open-source software application called "Calibre" that is absolutely EXCELLENT for converting LIT, LRF, RTF, and even RSS feeds and websites and other formats to be readily consumable on the Sony reader (and I believe it works with many others). The only drawback I have with the Sony is that I now have lots of technical books from Wrox, Apress and Wiley in PDF format and they are simply unable to render on the smaller e-ink display of the Sony. Seriously - don't even try to do it unless you want to piss yourself off.
I've already pre-ordered an Entourage Edge since comparatively it appears to have everything I would want - a much larger (10") e-Ink display, a second LCD touchscreen display and other features that I find exciting for e-reading and playing around with programming on the Android platform. I work in the medical field doing EDI integration for hospitals using various formats and "Integration Engine Broker" tools - and the Edge looks like it would be an AWESOME dashboard platform for medical apps. I don't know yet but for under $500 to get an Android platform, wireless connectivity, etc - it seemed too good to pass up.
Never have a philosophy which supports a lack of courage
That must be a real nuisance.
And it's the same resolution as the larger ones, so has a higher DPI, thus even easier on the eyes.
I'd rather claw my own eyeballs out than read a book on my phone.
It's expensive, but if you can afford it (or get it as a gift like I did), it's quite nice. The big screen (9.7in, 824x1200px) makes reading PDFs easier than the other readers I've tried. It's really impractical to read normal PDFs on a 6" screen. Also, you can plug it into a computer and use it like any other USB storage device. In theory it has DRM, but I mainly use it to read PDFs (e.g. journal articles). Finally, it has wireless access at no additional charge. As long as you don't actually buy DRM'd books through Amazon, what's not to like?
Books are usually around 300kb.
I have the Sony Touch 6" model, and while it definitely has its limitations, I don't understand why it isn't taken more seriously. (IE, all I ever hear about are the Kindle, the Nook, and the iPad.) It allows the most freedom in terms of format and purchasing--it does not require DRM. New books (not in the public domain) from the Sony bookstore have DRM, but you don't have to buy something from the Sony Bookstore. I can shop somewhere else, download from Google Books, or fill it up with research PDFs. As long as it's in ePub, PDF, TXT, rich text, or BBeB I'm good. Because there are multiple places I can go to in addition to Sony's Reader Store (Kobo, Fictionwise, etc) there's no problem if one store gets in a spat with a publisher. I can go to another store that isn't fighting with them. Also, and importantly in my view, Sony is not tracking what I put on the e-reader. (The big exception is again things purchased through the Sony Reader Store--which I don't really use.) There won't be any instances like Amazon's deletion of 1984, because the Sony software is set up to not have this kind of interface with its store. While e-readers have a long way to go, this was a good investment for me because I travel for work a lot. If you think it's worth it right now (for me it was), look at the Sony models. They're the most flexible available made by a reputable company. That said, I'm hoping the technology moves along quickly as it'd be nice to have color in something smaller than an iPad.
If you're not opposed to Chinese made, check out the SmartQ V7 : http://en.smartdevices.com.cn/Products/SmartQ7/200905/27-3.html.
Also, http://www.mobileread.com/ is a focused e-reader forum.
After getting hooked on palm eReader on my old palm device, once that became obsolete I looked around at alternatives, long story short I now use FBReader on my laptop it's open source and supports the open .epub ebook format and pretty much all others, if i can't find a ebook in the format it supports there are many tools around for converting to .epub or another supported format
link - http://www.fbreader.org/
To me, the HTC HD2 because it offers the following advantages:
- size = 0. Since I'll be carrying a smartphone anyway, the ereader adds 0 weight/space
- cost = 0. Same reasons. ditto extra stuff to carry.
- web browser, including offline (I do a surprising amount of "reading" off web sites, winhttrack is my friend)
- color
- video and music are nice extras
- support for almost all formats
- Wifi + 3g included, for free too since I pay for them as a phone.
- wide choice of software
drawbacks:
- smallish screen (4"3)... I'm waiting on the Dell Streak
- LCD screen not as good as e-ink in bright sunlight (but better in all other cases)
- good only for recreational reading, I wouldn't read a manual, course book... on it.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
Versatility: all pure ebook readers suck. They only really do *one* thing, and they cost more than a netbook. I can use an itouch, ipad, netbook, or whatever to play games, surf the internet, watch movies, listen to music, and run all sorts of applications.
Cost: considering their extremely limited functionality, all pure ebook reader are *way* overpriced. Just buy books, or go to the library, or use the PC, or net device that you have anyway.
Portability: I suppose a PDA, itouch, or iphone would win. If you are okay with reading an entire book on a screen that is smaller than the surface of a credit card.
Battery life: not even an issue with a real book, or a home PC.
Easy to read: home PC - no contest. Although just reading a real book is not bad.
Storage: home PC - no contest. Real books lose badly. Then again: do many people really need hundreds, or thousands, or books with them at any given time?
Durability. Real books win easily. Try throwing your laptop, ebook reader, or whatever off the top of a six story building, or running it over with your car.
IMHO, is the Aztak EZReader Pocket Pro 5" with the Ectaco Jet Book Lite as a follow up.
The Kindle is an expensive way to get locked in to a single vendor, as is the Nook.
The Sony is crippled by very restrictive DRM.
WiFi/Wimax is very tough on batteries and unnecessary to the functioning of an ebook reader.
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
Half of the comments will be about how traditional books are far superior and the other half will be recommending an item with an LCD screen. If you're lucky you'll get a debate about DRM on Kindle.
I have bought a Kindle DX. As for now, Kindle DX is great. The screen size is similar to the size of a manga book that sell in the bookstore. ;-) PDF document viewing is OK. Purchase service is easy. I have great hope for it. However, I recommends to turn off the wireless service if not use. ??battery??
Over all, it is pretty good.
I'm looking for a reader with:
-free 3G for low bandwidth things like wiki/rss reader (like kindle, but with a better rss display)
-library e-book compatibility
-touchscreen
does this exist yet?
As always, it's not the open ones that are the best ones. Because the way the world works (and will forever work), the open ones will force its adopters to be years behind or delayed.
Why not:
Anyone that thinks that the Kindle is even barely acceptable doesn't know the iLiad. Better hardware, open system (I installed an alternate PDF viewer on mine, with better features for my usage than the builtin one) and MOST important it's my device and my books.
With the Kindle, Amazon is just temporary allowing you to read their books on their device: they can at any time remotely delete books you paid for (it already happened and it WILL happen again, or they wouldn't have spent money developing this "feature"), remotely change the contents of "your" books even after you have paid and downloaded them (it already happened and once the capability is there it WILL be abused for censorship) and remotely disable functionality on the Kindle itself. All this without your consent.
Mark my words: if you buy books on the Kindle, 10 years from now you will not be able to read them without breaking anti-piracy laws, even if you think you can make backups now.
Please don't give money to Amazon for the privilege of raping your freedom to read books.
And, going back to the hardware thing, the bigger screens of the iLiads (8.1 or 10.2 inches) are waaay better for content that can't be reformatted on the fly (e.g. PDF files). Remember this is not an LCD, you can't scroll: a page must fit entirely on the screen.
There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
...fooled me twice, shame on me.
I bought a Nuvomedia Rocket eBook in 2000 over the counter at Barnes and Noble. (The company and products were acquired by Gemstar and marketed for many years as the Gemstar REB-1200).
The device itself was fine. More than good enough. 20 hour battery life and that was for real. I read many long novels for pleasure on it. I took it on trips and loved the convenience of being able to carry eight full-length books with me in a device with the same size and weight as one trade paperback. Of course 2010 devices are better in every way, but the Rocket eBook was good enough.
What was not good enough was DRM.
I've been taught a lesson. I am now the proud owner of over $300 worth of useless bits. They are encrypted and keyed to a serial-numbered hardware device which bit the dust last year. In theory, this is no problem, as the books and Gemstar's record of my ownership remains on the servers. All I need to do is buy a new device, call Gemstar customer service, have them reencode my books with the new device serial number, and download them again. Except that Gemstar doesn't exist, Gemstar customer service doesn't exist, and the servers were shut down long ago.
Because of another limitation of DRM--I couldn't share my books with my wife even if she had her own Rocket eBook reader, which she didn't, she didn't know that I had purchased an e-copy for $15, and bought her own paper copy for $15. She can still read her copy. She will still be able to read it twenty years from now. She can lend it to a friend. She can sell it on eBay.
Scarcely five years after purchase, I cannot read mine and will never be able to read it again.
eBooks should cost far, far less than print books, not merely because their marginal cost of production is tiny, but because they deliver far less value than a print book.
I've seriously considered writing to Jeff Bezos and saying I will only buy a Kindle if he will arrange to get me free Kindle copies of all the books I bought, which the eBook industry has rendered useless piles of bits. The word theft gets thrown around rather casually with DRM gets discussed. Well, I feel that denying me access to the books I bought and paid for in good faith is theft. When the eBook industry, as represented by Amazon, is willing to make me whole, then I will start buying eBook devices and content again.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I like the Sony PRS-505, but those have been discontinued...
Sony kind of shot themselves in the foot there: the 'budget' PRS-300 has a nice quality screen except it's too small, and the higher end PRS-600 has a decent size screen but gives you a lot more glare and a crappy contrast ratio, courtesy of its added touchscreen layer...
There really is a huge difference though, I'd recommend you try to find a display unit somewhere before actually comitting to ordering one.
The nook looks nice (touchscreen is a seperate color LCD screen which does not muddle up the e-Ink display), but trivial operations like changing the font size are much more elaborate on those...
You insensitive clod.
Protoplasm. Quiet Protoplasm. I like quiet protoplasm.
I don't see a need for a dedicated reader. I use to read books on my Palm IIIe (and I have a later model Palm I rarely fire up) so I know the convenience is nice, but I'm just not willing to pay big money for a dedicated device to read books. In a world rabbiting on about green this and green that, it seems wasteful to have single purpose devices, let alone the DRM infested offerings of the last 5 years. My laptop reads most formats very well, provided they're not crippled. It'll read crippled books too, if I'm dumb enough to buy them.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I thought the nook had the best set of features. It's backed by a large bookstore that can negotiate decent ebook pricing. It has wifi and 3G connectivity. It comes with an SD slot for memory expansion. And it also supports PDF and ePub, so you could easily roll your own eBooks or download public domain ones from Google Books.
I have already been waiting for years to see a good eBook reader, but I'm still not satisfied with the dedicated readers on the market (especially the prices...). So a few weeks ago I discovered that my Samsung Galaxy i7500 is one really awesome eBook reader (and it's even cheaper than a Kindle!). I have installed Aldiko on it and use it to read free books (Little Brother, all the Sherlock Holmes novels, etc.). It's so much more appropriate for reading eBooks than one would imagine. A lot better than any paper book. However, I also have to note that this method of eBook reading is not suitable for annotations or the like. Battery life is another concern, of course. But it's really just perfect if you want to read a novel in bed or on a train or wherever you would usually read a paper book.
Even a fool has a talent.
Disclaimer: I make it, so I'm biased. There's a vid on youtube http://youtube.com/kiwamedia or you can download the free iPhone app of one of our first releases Seb's Tail from itunes.
http://kiwamedia.com/qbook
http://itunes.com/apps/kiwamedia
QBook is a touch enabled color children's book. I've been working on this for a number of years now, its the first ebook that features touchable text. You simply swipe your finger over the text to hear it read aloud, tap words to hear them or touch and hold to hear the word spelt and each book contains multiple languages (so far we have US English, Maori, Spanish, Portugese, French, Japanese, German and Italian... still working on Chinese), so its great for language development for both adults and kids. Kids love it because they can explore the words at their own pace. Parents can also record the story in their own voice.
I've talked with a lot of publishers and most of them have not migrated their childrens books to ePub format due to its lack of support for full color pictures and text styling (kids books often use lots of different fonts etc).
Its been well received so far and we have a large library of material which is due to be released over the next few months. We've spent a lot of time making the tools to build these books easily, we have a WYSIWYG editor that allows us to follow the format of the books and can then hit a build button and see the app running on the iPhone or iPad simulator.
We already have our books optimised for iPad and we believe that QBook takes full advantage of this industry changing device. We foresee this becoming a great educational tool for children as well as a language learning tool.
I personally read alot of material on my iPhone and the only down side is the screen size just isnt big enough. Of course the iPad resolves this issue and I think the iPad will become the market leader by the end of this year.
Right now, there are only three players that integrate content, software, and hardware: Sony, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Amazon's Kindle wins the content war by a landslide, but their hardware looks dated and obsolete compared to the new readers from Sony and B&N. Sony's content situation is horrible -- books from Sony's ebook store actually cost more than paper books purchased in bookstores! The Nook right now is unobtainium and a bit unstable, as you'd expect from version 1.0 of a product, but is decidedly better hardware.
The wildcard is Apple. Will they do for ebooks what they did for digital music? The problem is that the iPad will have, realistically, a 5 hour battery life in normal usage, and that just isn't enough for most situations where I might haul my e-book reader. If I'm doing an intercontinental flight that is 10 hours long, a 5 hour battery life is a "don't even bother" for me. My Sony e-reader, on the other hand, will happily let me read books for 10 hours at a time, and still have plenty of battery life left, thanks to the e-ink display. It's just that my selection of content is rather limited -- all I have on it, for the most part, is Baen Webscriptions stuff (no DRM, reasonable prices), and you can only read so much sci-fi warporn before you're sick and tired of sci-fi warporn.
So I'm keeping my eye on Apple. But unless Steve Jobs has a change of heart on e-ink (which he sneers at) or there's some revolution in LCD technology that allows it to generate readable displays without a backlight and thus get decent battery life (don't care if it's as good as e-ink battery life, but it has to be at least competitive with the Nook's battery life!), the hardware simply isn't good enough. Otherwise I'd be reading books on my iPhone via Stanza or etc., which I'm not doing because realistically I only get three hours of battery life that way -- far less than if I fire up my e-ink based reader.
Oh, what about all these *other* ebook readers? Some of them have nice hardware and software. But it's all about content, in the end. I suspect they'll end up just like all those portable digital music players that plugged in like keyfobs -- they'll still sell, but the readers that allow a fully integrated content cycle (purchase, transfer, read) will be the ones that most people buy, because for most people, they just want to purchase books in a convenient manner and not worry about how they get onto the ebook reader.
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
http://www.entourageedge.com/entourage-edge.html
It will be out in a month, but so far seems amazing. Runs on android. Has one side of e-ink and one of lcd.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Blio. Sure, it isn't available yet, but based on the demos of it, it looks promising. I think I will wait until Blio becomes available, then try it out on my netbook. If it stinks, then I will go out and get a dedicated e-book reader. But with color diagrams, embedded video, highlighting, and the ability to read out loud, I think it will be pretty cool, especially for textbooks. The only concern I have is whether or not the books will be locked with DRMs. I haven't heard anything about that yet.
This device has a lcd screen like those old casio watches (which has the same "no eye strain" feature of e-ink), runs on 4 AA for 23 hrs (another model is advertised with builtin battery), 5" screen and costs $150. Ive seen this advertised at a local electronics store but with the 'backorder' status.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFN0qYcA2g4
http://www.pocketbookreader.com/PocketBook_301.html
Does lots of formats (inc Djvu)
Takes 32gb SD cards
16 gray scale
Runs linux
[Intentionally left blank]
Gutenberg for one. Baen Free Library is another. There's no need to limit your book reading to current NYT bestsellers only.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
The sony is not bad (505 model), but I have a hard time buying from the Sony book store. The DRM sucks, and the store SUCKS.
I do get a lot of Free books from ManyBooks.net, and have started buying from the only Publisher that I think gets it.
http://www.baen.com/
No DRM and their books are under 8 bucks. Good stuff too if you like SF or Fantasy.
I'm waiting for the txtr reader. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizpac_txtr. As of today it's not available, only for preorder. They want to sell it for 300 euro, but have dropped the wlan module. It runs linux, is supposed to read all major formats and they'll provide an SDK http://developer.txtr.com/Introduction.
When away from the house, I read on my OLPC XO running Ubuntu 8.10 with FBReader. I have Calibre on my desktop to convert anything FBReader can't handle into MOBI files that also work on my wife's 1st generation Kindle.
Yeah, it's not for everyone, requires a little hacking, and good luck finding one, but the dual-mode screen is great for reading outdoors, even in direct sunlight. It's also tough enough that I can take it anywhere without worrying about it and can charge it from almost any power source.
When I'm at home, I mostly read on paper. Call me old-fashioned.
You can mount Kindle just like the Sony reader or any other USB storage device. Plug it into Linux and go.
And then copy over all of the books you want, including (for example) the entire Project Gutenberg, which (unless I am very much mistaken) is not DRM-encumbered.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I use Calibre to convert XXX to/from ePub & mobi, where XXX is nearly any format, not (just) porn. It does a pretty good job at HTML, PDF, RTF, CBR, LIT, PDB - you name it, and has direct support for getting content onto a bunch of different hardware, including phones.
Any other suggestions for this job?
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
We're getting close, but I don't think we're there yet.
My own expectations are:
If a company can hit all ten of these requirements, I'd buy one in a proverbial New York minute.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
AMOLED screens (like on the Nexus One) are great for indoor reading, particularly at night. Small, very good contrast, comfortable to hold, no external lightsource needed.
OTOH they're kinda crap outdoors.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
is the Onyx Boox - also rebranded as the Bebook Neo. It has e-ink display, wifi, a wacom touch screen (mounted *under* the display - so that you don't get the glare issues that exist with other touch-screen readers), runs on linux, is completely open, and best of all
has a Debian based SDK!!! which allows linux users to write their own apps!
How do the various ebook readers that support markup compare? Only readers with stylus support need apply, obviously.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Just sayin'
I gather the iLiad is kinda getting old however. Is there are more updated reader that provides good markup and freehand note taking?
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
It won't be out until June. However the specs are amazing and might be worth waiting for.
http://gizmodo.com/5471559/notion-ink-adam-tablet-caught-on-video-specs-finalized
160 hours of battery life. Screen can be switched to B&W mode. HDMI out for 1080p video playback. Open source friendly. etc. etc.
I have one of these - 5 inch e-ink screen, with the supplied firmware replaced with the OpenInkPort (http://openinkpot.org) stuff. Works well. Reads just about every ebook format there is. All the source code is open and can be compiled by yourself using a the cross-platfor environment IPLinux. You can even ssh into it from the USB connection (no wireless). I have over 2000 books and short stories loaded into a 2GB SDHC card that came with it.
I also have a Merlin HYGE0109B, with a 6 inch screen, but that's still running proprietary firmware, which only supports TXT and PDF. It gets a bit flakey when you have more than 64 books loaded. There is an OpenInkPort port in progress to this device, which is not complete yet.
Both these devices can be managed by the Calibre ebook manager, which runs under Linux, OSX and Windows (and there's also a port to FreeBSD, and possibly others)
The wireless access and ability to buy DRM'd books from one book store are not things I'm particularly interested in. I am aware that there are cracks for DRM'd epub books from B&N, as well as those using the Adobe DRM, but still, there's a bunch of classics out there, as well as independent publishers such as Baen. Visit Gutenberg.org, Feedbooks, to mention a few, and you'll be pleasantly surprised.
I intend purchasing a unit with a 10 inch screen when they become more available at the end of this year, so I'm able to view PDFs without having to zoom in. This is a good size for textbooks and other puiblications utilising diagrams.
Call me traditionalist, but I still prefer DeadTree 1.0. No batteries, no online connection required, no sudden DRM-related erasures, does not date as new reader technology comes out.
Depending on what I do all three can be said to be the "best device". If I'm reading technical documentation, such as a PDF manual a computer screen with easy access to search and online services is clearly the best choice. Reading fiction outdoors when the sun is shining the Sony would be best. On the subway or on the bus the iPod is easily portable and lets me block out inane chatter.
No device is currently the best one for all possible uses, and there might be a while before a single "best solution" will be available. (Some kind of A4 foldable organic led display, with a touch screen and really fast searching would do.) In the mean time I plan to buy an Android phone with 800x480 resolution (or more) for reading fiction. I would consider buying a Notion Ink Adam though, but it wouldn't be quite as portable.
The software side is of course really important - On the server / computer side I use Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com) for converting content, pulling text from websites. You can also use it as a "content server", which is really neat.
is it wrong to say that the best Ebook reader is via software on an Itouch/Iphone/IPad?
Very happy with products like Bookshelf for the IPhone. It read literally everything - pdf, lit, pdb, text, word etc etc I can hardly wait until the IPad comes out, as reading books on the larger screen will make it the best option for me.
Trev.
I haven't got the e-ink religion, so iPad for me all the way.
I was actually planning to get an e-reader, but when the entry price for iPad was announced, I switched to waiting for an iPad.
The only problem I see with it is waiting till the end of march to get one.
I bought an Iliad just because you can annotate and draw on your documents. It was the only one with this capability at the time I bought it. Real books I read on real paper. I travel a lot, I hate to read on the screen, and like to leave the office to read longer documents. Therefore an eReader is perfect as mobile library, e.g. manuals and for documents to review . For that purpose you need annotation and PDF capabilities.
Andree
Thought this would be a nice time to throw out a website:
http://www.mobileread.com/
is a great community of e-book fanatics. Lots of research comparing different models, a nice flea market for deals, and the forums attached to Calibre, an awesome book-managing software.
The iPad is about as heavy as an average book of the same size. Not really light, but also not really heavy for a book.
Have you bought one yet? If so, which one did you find best and why?
Yes, I did buy one. The one I found best was the one I bought, because it's the only one I've used. In my experience, it is also the worst.
The non-recurring fee connection is simply great. E-Ink is definitely worthwhile, I haven't missed color at all, and the eyestrain is negligible with it. I read a lot on my laptop/phone, and the difference is noticeable. Amazon DRM exists, but it's been a non-factor for me so far. I get that it's a holy war around these parts, and I don't buy and DRM'd music, but well, if you're the kind it's going to bother, it's going to bother you. Amazon customer support has been fantastic, including replacing my Kindle when a crack appeared on the screen. It was shipped out gratis, and I ended up with an extra charger out of the deal (the same charger works on my droid, so kudos for 'not being a dick' when it comes to USB standards. As to reading on it - I forget that I'm reading on a device and my focus is entirely on the book I'm reading -- except I can look up the odd word, and it is a ton easier to hold. I'm re-reading a hard-cover book and I've actually been tempted to buy it for the Kindle so that I'd the built in dictionary and my arm wouldn't get tired in bed. I've read around 30 books on it so far. Newspapers and magazines when traveling have been great too (kudos to the washingtonpost for making a daily purchase option available).
Kindles are bit of a problem..Amazon is becoming a problem. DRM is regarding Kindles is shutting the books you paid for down. I am not that bothered as I can hack a kindle and stick half a million books on your kindle. My buddy in the USA founder of Juniper Networks and I laugh about this all the time. We both laugh regarding the data that is trying to be controllled. You cannot control me, you never will and you cannot control slashdot either, Bit of a bastard when you are a guru! Love you all; NSN
All cows eat grass!
It's an open format and optimized to deal with scanned material -- for which there are many perfectly legal and honourable uses, TYVM -- which so many others don't. Try and get a decent PDF out of a stack of scans that isn't overly large.
But that again is the rub: I want something that's useful to me. Want an example? Say I have a veritable wall of tech manuals, of the kind that no amazon will ever sell. What better than to run all that through a scanner? To store it, though, you need something that can deal with that, which is what DJVU was designed to do. No point converting that to anything else. The reader must support it if the reader is going to be of any use to me.
Doesn't get much more open...
Does anyone have any experience with the searching and indexing capabilities in these devices?
I want to store my technical library in one of these, but have been resistant to switch, because I want searching and indexing that allows me to use this device as a decent replacement for that 'Technical Library Search' usecase, where someone asks some questions, and I can use this device to do one search and have the results, across all the documents that i have stored, displayed in a results list. for easy access.
Does anyone have any experience with these functions in a variety of readers?
Thanks.
FWIW, I have switched to reading almost exclusively on iPod Touch using Stanza (also available for iPhone).
I know everyone loves e-ink; I've looked at several e-ink devices and they look pretty great (especially the iliad, except last time I checked it was AUD$1000 here). I find the LCD screen is perfectly adequate for reading (I read at least an hour a day on this, usually more). It's not great in direct sunlight, but it's easily doable, and its rare that I want to sit out in the Australian sun and enjoy a nice book. I travel a lot and the benefits of a backlit screen are immense - I can read anywhere, in almost any conditions.
The battery life is pretty good - easily keeps me going for long trips (14-24 hours travel time) (I don't read the entire time), even listening to music occasionally as well. If it gets low I can always top it up from my laptop, too.
I like having it in a device I can also use for video, Internet, email, etc. Lots of advantages. I can live without e-ink for now. Plus the ipod Touch is around the same price as most entry level e-ink readers.
The biggest issue is lack of good, competitively priced content. There are some good stores in Stanza (which, incidentally, was bought by Amazon recently - wtf isn't the Amazon store in Stanza yet (Kindle)) but not enough to really make it easy/simple enough to get good content. You've got to look elsewhere.
First, you say that the average SF paperback sells 20k copies. Don't most paperbacks appear AFTER a first run hardback edition? Shouldn't these be included when discussing the single time costs (writing, editing, etc.)?
Second you say that it costs less than $1 a copy 'to print and ship a typical mass-market paperback,' then say that the majority of the costs are 'the editor, the proofreader, the cover artist, and the author's advance, which [sic] is probably going to be about $12,000 on that paperback.' So the author gets 12k (any royalties beyond this are going to be less per book) which equals about $0.60 per copy to the author. Do the editor, proofreader, and cover artist get more than this combined? But assuming they do then we are now about at the break even level between printing and shipping costs, so your assertion that the majority of costs lie in these aspects of publishing seems to be refuted by the only numbers you gave.
Sorry but right now the winner is the old laptop: bigger screen with color, movies, even a keyboard.
Some of the new ones are very cheap, light and with some ~10 hours of autonomy, totally silent.
They are not good in direct sunlight, but you can use them to surf the web, you tube, and write your things on social networks and anything else. A device with a black and white 6 inch screen that refuse to read an ordinary PDF or html file for ~400$ is just a joke: paper books are going to be better as long as ebooks don't come with color, movies, web navigation.
Just give me a light laptop with an hybrid screen please, so I can read / work outside.
The iPad 2.0 which I expect to have a reflective screen option (re: Pixel Qi like tech) will be an amazing device. It will be a serious eReader with this tech.
right now the iPad is a great "portable internet" but a poor ereader.
In my experience the Astak EZ Reader 5" is the best deal out there. No, it does not have wireless connectivity. No, it does not have its own repository. But you can buy books from anybody and have no problem whatever. It runs Linux, has 8-shade grey-scale (not 4 of the cheaper ones or 16 of these $700 jobs). You download the book to your desktop or notebook, then transfer it via USB. The price is a winner too, you can find it some places for $199 - $230. (There's a used one on eBay for $189 Buy It Now, claims only 2 weeks' use.) They also have a 6" model for not much more.
I keep seeing this, and I do not understand where it comes from. The Kindle is locked in the same way that Windows is locked - you can only run Microsoft software on Windows unless you have a brain.
The Kindle can wirelessly download books from Manybooks.net, Baen and many other sites. It does this for free with no interaction with Amazon. You can back these books up and copy them to other Kindles as well.
I don't think I would call that "locked".
On the subject, Martin Woodhouse claims that it's feasible to combine a sheet of e-ink together with a sd reader, solar cell and battery for $25.
Since Esquire ran their e-ink cover I've been thinking the parts must be relatively cheap.
It doesn't seem possible to buy e-ink though for less than $3000. Is this a situation where sales are only going to large companies or is there another reason it's hard to buy e-paper?
I have a nook, and I like it quite a bit. In particular:
- It's very open. Plug it into a computer and drag PDF or ePub files onto it. And MP3 files to listen to, or JPG or PNG image files (for 'wallpaper'). xkcd makes for great b&w 'wallpaper'. This means that you can easily write a script to (for example) pull down the latest news in an RSS feed into an ePub (via feedbooks), and drop it onto the nook. This is much nicer than having to pay Amazon to send files via wireless into the Kindle.
- The color, touch display. eInk is great to read, but is so slow that it makes interaction painful. On the nook much of the interaction is on the color touch-screen, so you can tap on a button and see it respond immediately, etc.
- it is an android device, so it is easy to write software for it, and to 'hack' it to run such software. So (http://www.nookdevs.com) there are already good RSS reader, web browser, etc.
- It has WiFi and 3G data, so you can buy books anywhere, and (with lightweight hacking) read RSS feeds, etc., via WiFi. Apps don't use 3G (that would be costing b&n money, which would not be cool).
The other interesting development is that there are dozens of generic eReaders coming. Remember how last year digital picture frames popped up everywhere? This year it will be eReaders. Pretty soon, for $150 you will be able to buy eReaders with SD or MicroSD card slots that will play all of the standard formats (ePub, PDF). This may do for eBooks what the iPod did for music, which will be great for people who like reading books, but may not be good for people who sell books. Perhaps authors will start selling direct? These devices are coming from a wide range of companies, all with pretty much the same specs. So it is shaping up to be a large, competitive market. Fun for consumers!
Enable 3D printed prosthetics!
I like my toshiba axim x50v. Paid around $80 on ebay about 4-6 months ago. Received it in perfect condition. I wouldn't mind having a larger screen but I've read and enjoyed a number of books on my pda. I've got a pair of 1gig sd cards which are more than adequate for plenty of books. I wouldn't suggest trying to read pdfs though.
PlasticLogic's business-class entry into the eReader market. Why? Standard business formats accepted (pdf, word, excel, etc.), basic markup/notes, nice size form factor, and the screen is made out of plastic.
My favorite demo of their product was them slamming a boot down onto the screen with no damage done. My eReader is going in my bag, being used for school to get rid of all those piles of books I have to carry, and will be tossed around and abused. A glass screen makes no sense, as it would break.
Of course, until then, since I try to avoid DRM books (I buy print and make my own personal-use eBooks) I'll stick to using my tablet PC. After all, printing to Windows Journal allows me to use highlighters and pens to mark up my eBook quite easily.
What limits my book purchases is not my ability to afford books. It is having time to read books. The biggest cost of the book, for me, is the 5-10 hours of my time (at an arbitrary $50/hour) that I'll spend reading it. Most books, I will only read once. In this way, books are fundamentally different from Music, and that's why they've taken so long to "go digital" (and why libraries seem to work so much better for books than for other "media.") I don't particularly care about eBooks being cheaper. What I care about is being able to access them anywhere I have a computer, make notes, care a library in my pocket, etc. Books are not music, and not movies.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
It'd be downright foolish not to plug my own product here:
http://comicreader.mobi
There's a version for the iPhone, iPad, Windows Phones, Blackberry, and even a desktop version.
Of course the biggest advantage of the software reader vs a hardware one, is that you have your phone with you all the time. So if you find yourself with some unexpected free time, you can always pull the phone out and read for however long you want to. Its great for when you need to kill 10 or 15 minutes. Which would be too short to warrant bringing dedicated hardware for.
Comics don't hurt my eyes when I read them on the lcd screen, but the style of comics is such that your eyes naturally move around more following the art, so you're never staring as intensly at the screen as you would reading pure text
I have an N810 and I agree -- the screen is plenty good enough, I've never had a problem with the battery life, and I carry it everywhere in a hip pouch.
I think the big problem with the N810 is with the marketing -- what's an "Internet Tablet"? I think they should call it a "pocket netbook", which describes it much better.
Your god may be dead, but mine aren't!
(DRM) leaves out the iPad doesn't it?
No, not really.
For one thing, the book reading software - it doesn't even ship with the iPad. You download it like any other application...
And if you take a look at the iPhone App Store, there are MANY book readers there already most of which will probably also have an iPad update soon.
Not to mention it has excellent PDF support built in from scratch.
Why more people aren't suggesting the device that has the most choice of formats (DRM and no) is rather mysterious. Well actually it's not so much mysterious as it is sad that some people turn away from choices without being fully informed.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
But since I work on it I'm a bit biased.
Check out the imminent notion ink adam
http://www.technoholik.com/news/sneak-peek-video-notion-ink-adam/
It's capacitive, has a touchpad on the back, it uses the pixel Qi screen (transreflective, best of e-ink and LCD), has a camera and uses Android
Perfect
Well there certainly are a lot of choices mentioned here. The Kindle, Nook, iLiad, Sony reader...
But there seems to be something a little, well, lacking from the list. Some other reader, that might be another popular option. What could it be?
Oh yes, the iPad. Of course it's not a valid answer now since it doesn't ship until March.
Which begs the question, when a device that is going to potentially upend the market comes out in under two months, why are you asking this question now? To take a snapshot of the eBook market B.IP. for historical research?
I mean, at the very least you'd want an assessment of all potentially useful devices, and the iPad is as much a candidate as any of the ones listed even if you have some misgivings.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The number of people that don't yet have a ebook and "don't get" the concept if e-ink is staggering. Clue: e-ink does not melt your eyes like a TFT with a backlight...
First of all, I love books. I greatly prefer printed text above everything for reading.
BUT.
eInk is still quite far from printed text for readability - the contrast is not great, the "paper" is rather greyish. I do prefer reading books on an LCD to the Kindle, and I have read whole books on an iPhone.
But - the reason why an LCD might have "melted your eyes" is because eye strain is easily caused when you try to stare at a bright LCD screen in an overall dark room. In short, it happens because it CAN happen. With an eInk display you have no choice but to provide enough ambient light to read in - if you simply provide that same level of light with any LCD they are not actually that hard on your eyes at all.
And with an LCD you have the possibility for real full-color illustrations in an eBook, along with all of the other things you can do on a screen with a high refresh rate.
I love the idea behind eInk, I really like the idea of it in a reader, but I don't think yet it is good enough to beat out a really good LCD for a good reading experience - and the iPad ships with an IPS panel which helps a lot with quality of output. Perhaps it's using cheap LCD's in the past that have "burnt your eyes out" - I can't stand using them either.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Hint: if they suggest the iPad, then they have no clue about ebooks.
I know a few people who own Kindle's and have tried them out; I have used a Nook briefly at a store.
After that I just downloaded the Kindle reader for the iPhone and I am content.
If you simply take care to provide some ambient light, LCD's are perfectly fine for reading. It's easier to turn them on and start reading without decent light, which can cause more eyestrain - in situations where you'd have to put down the eInk display because you couldn't see well enough to read.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Unquestionably the Sony for the price / capability tradeoff - but the non touch screen version (friends with the touch screens one find them a little harder to read) - and I suggest using Calibre software rather than Sony's software.
And for those that are thinking of the IPAD.
Its a different market altogther - My sony goes weeks on a single charge. I dont need to worry about DRM or hacking from WIFI. I can load up months and months of books so the lack of wifi if fine - it makes the device safer. When using calibre - it works with Linux (which I uses) or Mac or windows and any book I read on it - I know I can read again on my next ebook reader and my next one.
It's very easy on the eyes. It uses virtually no power except when changing the page so I have convinced them to let me use it during take off and landing on planes (not invariably but more often than not - you wont succeed with that with an IPAD - and would be breaking the law if u did)
THINK BOOK - if its a book you want as close to a book as possible with more benefits - not disadvantages. My NETbook fills other needs very well but the Ebook reader is irreplaceable !
I found a couple of websites to download some Public Domain/Creative Commons books, only one of which really ended up appealing to me. I realize that sounds like a pretty trite struggle, but I assure that it was significant for me because Gutenberg Project is blocked in good ol' China, so I had to find an alternative source, namely Manybooks.net. After that, the struggle turned to finding a decent and preferably GENUINE eReader that actually uses eInk/ePaper or whatever you want to call it that was cheap enough for me. I don't believe that these devices should have bluetooth or wifi or all that fancy battery eating crap because I want to use the damned thing to read! If I want all that other crap, I use my phone or netbook which are both perfectly portable, have all those capabilities and have decent batterylife to boot, the netbook even has a built-in card reader, so I have no need for connecting my device to my computer when I can just plop the card in there. So, I ended up buying a Chinese brand, Teclast ( to us here), which just last month started selling its eReader named "K3" ( http://www.teclast.com/zhuanti/tl-k3/ ). Apologies for the link to the Chinese website, but it's all they have for the moment. At any rate, I got it for a number of reasons: it doesn't have wifi or bluetooth, it reads most file formats I could possibly want to use with it (mainly epub) and it was about half the price of any other eReader I could find here. Now, from what I've heard the US price will be about $220, which is not exactly cheap, but I can tell you that if you can make it to China, you can get it for about 1250RMB, which is roughly $170. The long and the short of it is I want an eReader to read books. Other functions, to me, are somewhat useless on these devices, especially the ones that drain the battery faster.
It will be a tablet with the new Pixel Qi screen and will run Ubuntu, Android and Chromium - http://www.technoholik.com/news/exclusive-a-sneak-peek-at-the-notion-ink-adam-tablet-specs-pics/
I use my Iphone for reading most books these days. Back in the day, I used to travel a lot for work, and usually had a stack of books on my crusty old palm pilot, which was nice for carrying around, especially since I used it for a lot of other things as well.
These days, I don't go anywhere without my phone, and I find the screen just fine for reading books. A lot better than the old palm pilot. Since I'm already carrying the phone, the e-reader is basically free.
Q: What's the best bicycle?
A: A car.
The best ebook reader is not an ebook reader, but rather a phone: The Moto Droid is about 850x450 pixels in about 3.7 diag inches, and makes reading PDFs a delight. Best of all, it fits in your shirt pocket. Do that with a kindle, nook, or apple brick. Uh-uh.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
If you want it to act as a phone as well, the best eReader is the iPhone. If you don't, it's the iPod touch.
Everything sold as an eReader has two fatal flaws. First, they're all way too big, in order to have a page size big enough that they can pretend they're like paper books. An eReader should fit in a shirt pocket.
Second, e-Ink displays are horrible. They're grey-on-grey text, and the half second flash and delay on page turning is terribly distracting. LCD is the only way to go at present.
(Yes, I actually do read on my iPhone; I've read over thirty books on it so far this year.)
It is almost two years I am in love with my E-reader.
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Hanlin_V3
- E-ink has perfect size, it fits big pocket (and it is really readable)
- good to read in the bed or on the beach
- most of my reference library for the job is there (in html)
- open (I could add my own SW or fix it, if needed), with SW updates flowing
- battery life: it takes 10 days between charging, and device is never switched off
- it is dedicated device and does the job
- perfect match if I could link it with 3G phone via USB.
- on meetings, I take notes on the paper
I am monitoring progress, and I plan to buy new E-reader, but
- bigger screens are vulnerable (we are waiting for plastics instead of glass)
- all added functionality increases power consumption and size
- if I need 3g, wifi, divx: another device
- I watch movies on TV with beer and remote: can not do it on PC
- if I want laptop, I use laptop.
So, no new device impressed me enough to get one.
I expect one to two years: new technology with bending screen could make a difference.
So far, it is nothing new: just incremental progress. Nothing worth going for.
On the other hand, it is niche product. Biggest shop in Ljubljana reported to sell only 100 devices in the year.
(lack of slovenian E-books).
I am in this particular niche:
While SW become user friendly, I am still machine friendly. (Aged over 50, learned FORTRAN in 1974).
73
Iztok
It's simply the best ! Oh, and I got family working in IREX, but of course I won't tell you that.
I think the Pixel Qi screen technology (LCD but you can turn off backlight for direct sunlight e-ink like display) will bring some excellent products this year. The Notion Ink Adam (due in June) already looks great, but is a little too big for casual reading. Will be great for textbooks, manuals and notes though.
Don't bricks and mortar stores usually have to near double the wholesale price in order to cover the costs of a physical presence? (rent, rates, staff, ...) For a $20 retail book that cost marginal $1 to print & ship to the store the 'paperless wholesale' price would have to be $9 - right? and the 'e' markup can be much smaller than 2x ...
I'm happy with it... mostly. You gotta plug it in everyday if you read it all day long, but it does have expandable memory up to 8 gigs, both wifi and modem and works flawless under Linux with Calibre working unexpectedly well, I say unexpectedly because in my version it's not officially supported but still sometimes I open it and my periodicals have been automatically uploaded to my suprise and they rendered well. Some of the plain txt file conversions with Calibre don't go so well, but haven't really fiddled with it yet. Haven't tried the web-browser or rooting it, but I can't imagine it would be very pretty, you might get a couple of hours out of it, but I think I would gnaw off my hands trying to type this summary of it onto the somewhat painful keyboard, of course I can't stand touchpads either. Comes with a somewhat limited dictionary, it can't find multiplexural. my summary wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention, Don't use it to play music, you get like an hour maybe two out of it and it's dead as a doornail. But maybe it was because I wasn't using headphones, sound was good, but still why'd they put such a teeny battery on the thing if they're going to sell it for close to 300 dollars!! I'd require either a longer Cable or easier battery swapping if I were to buy one for a friend, because they are fun to play with.
The fact that the iPad supports all of the books ever written, not just those that can be rendered on newsprint, is all you need to know. That wins the contest right there. Most books are in color. Many books are entirely made of photographs, such as art or recipe books. Even if a book is all text, the cover is usually color. Even business books are filled with color charts. Supporting the whole library is key. Further, it supports audio video so it supports future books, such as a book for learning Photoshop that includes video of painting techniques.
Secondarily, the touch user interface that lets you just turn the page is fantastic. You don't have to use buttons to read. The device becomes a book. A child can operate it without instruction. No nerd corps is required to help people to read a book.
The full Wi-Fi n and HTML5 Web browser based entirely on an open source, standards-compliant Web decoder is the modern equivalent of having a dictionary built-in. Hyperlinks in books take you right to the Web, and you have Google and Wikipedia and Oxford.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of bookstores, so you can buy from Amazon or Kobo or iBooks or use any of the ones that are filled with free public domain books. The open ePub format is supported in iBooks and many other reading apps. I work in publishing and iPad is the only reader that's generating excitement among publishers. We know that the master copies of these books can be translated to iPad and retain their quality, whereas on other readers you are degrading the master when you put it on there. You have to fix color charts, rework even basic things to make a book work on other readers. With iPad you just make an ePub. Your color photos and charts still work. The labor is much less and the result is much better on iPad.
The iPad battery can play 10 hours of video, which likely means 15 hours of book reading. It charges via USB and there are many juice packs, so you can get as much battery time as you need. This year at CES they had wall sockets with 2 AC and 2 USB in them.
The iPad adjusts its screen brightness to your surroundings so you don't wear out your eyes as on other readers. (Do not repeat that awful myth about LCD being harder on eyes than e-Ink ... that is a joke at the best of times, ridiculous from a Slashdot reader.)
At $499 it has a premium price over other book readers, but you get much more. Not just full color and touch, but also 4-20 times the storage, much more speed, a built-in iPod, built-in and 3rd party apps, many games, Podcasts, and it can even run Skype. So it is a book reader with a PC and iPod built-in for many users. If the iPhone is prologue, it will be easy to get 2 years of everyday use from this device, and often even more. And Apple Stores provide consumer grade support, replacing faulty devices on the spot, and offering free help with any technical issues.
The fact that iPad runs on an open source Unix core OS means it is reliable and interoperates well with the Internet and other networks. Everyone who contributed to BSD, Mach, WebKit, OpenGL, and other open source projects and open standards that are represented in iPad should be extremely proud of themselves. This is the closest to Neal Stephenson's Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (read The Diamond Age) that we've come yet. Of course everyone at Apple should be proud also. This device has been described for decades and is sorely needed, much moreso than another Windows netbook.
Has anyone got an Interead Cool-ER reader?
I have been looking at them aiming to buy an eReader . So far I have not found the one I like. It supports several formats (PDF, EPUB, FB2, RTF, TXT, HTML, PRC, JPG AND MP3) and the feature set seems OK... I am not trying to advertize them, as I DO NOT own one I don't know if they are any good, that's just what I want to know!
I like the fact that they do not have wireless nor touch screen.
In any case, I am holding for (i) the 7in readers to be widespread and for the electrowetting technology to come out (I am sure that will decrease the price of current readers).
xtracto
I've been reading e-books on my windows mobile smartphone. Dim the backlight to its absolute minimum, use a black background and some yellow/amber letters and you're good to go. (dimming the screen gives you longer battery time and allows you to read where traditional books would need more light.)
It display's practically any format you want and has a color screen. It also doubles as a phone, browser and can run multiple other games. Currently I'm using one with 800x480 resolution and a big screen, that definatly is a plus.
Battery time is like any phone, pretty bad the more you use it. But you can read a couple of hours without a recharge.
I use my iPhone with the free app Stanza. Tens of thousands eBooks available, there are free converters of all eBook formats available for your desktop, and Stanza uses a common format. Plus: I use it in dark or dim lighting, so e-Ink isn't needed. Minus: I does use battery power and there are limited charges on iPhone batteries, so e-Ink would be a benefit ;^).
Keep Doing Good.
It's a common myth, just like sitting too close to the TV or reading in the dark.
Eye strain (fatigue) does not lead to glasses. Eye strain is a temporary condition and is not cumulative..
I quote from your article: "Vision problems experienced by computer operators are generally only temporary and will decline after stopping computer work at the end of the day."
http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/fact-fiction-myths-about-eyes
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4174#
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/12/11/a-healthy-disregard-for-medical-myths-115875-21888103/
http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-nature/health-myths/tv-bad-for-eyes.htm/printable
http://www.pasadenaeye.com/faq/faq08/faq08_text.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6787928/Most-commonly-medical-myths-debunked-in-new-book.html
for a /. poll.
Or two: Ask respondents to rate economy e-book readers; and also e-book readers when price is no object.
I built the website for the first e-book reader back in the 90's. Franklin's product line had consisted of e-translators, e-bibles, homework-helpers, and other highly specialized/dedicated devices. They acquired someone who had been making an e-book device and had begun deals with many publishers. I believe (but don't really know) that the publishers got cold feet and effectively killed the deal and the e-book reader. It was just another late 90's blown out budget building an expensive system that never went live. God! I miss those days!
Great for reading in bed, and one of the few iphone apps where you can turn off the damn auto-rotation. Doesn't support every format but a few, I just convert on my desktop first. Really quite a good interface for reading as well. Easy to de/increase font size with the ol' pinch manoeuvre
Just a quick note on battery life - the stated time is 10 hours browsing or playing video.
So if I'm on a plane and have turned off Wi-Fi - I fully expect to get more than ten hours from an iPad. Apple's estimated battery times are usually pretty good.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'd also opt for the Sony.
A friend gave me his PRS-505. I find it to be fine. Not great but fine. No doubt the newer ones are nicer. The 505 reads ePub very well, handles PDF, works with the pilot Digital Editions Library service offered in my municipality (borrow eBooks for two weeks at a time.) It works well in Linux and Mac OS. Getting books on and off is a snap, just using drag and drop. Battery life is good. The Sony Reader store has a reasonable collection of books at a decent price. It's generally not cheaper than a print book from Amazon.ca but the format and selection is convenient for me. The old Sony eReader Store used a proprietary locked-down format that nothing else could handle. Thankfully, the new Sony Reader Store now sells books in ePub format.
Now, the ePub books sold at the Sony Store are DRM-encumbered. This, of course, is very bad. (See other comments for good examples of why.) Having said this, if you live in a country with sane fair dealing/fair use laws, you can, with a little work, find reasonably straightforward ways to remove the DRM from the books sold at the Reader Store.
Piracy is bad, so is treating your customers as thieves by default. I won't ever pirate a book; nor will I invest in a locked format that I can't use as I'd like. I buy almost all of my music on-line now because I can finally buy MP3 and AAC files without DRM. I won't buy into digital movies or Blu-Ray because of the DRM. I was very reluctant to buy into electronic books until a I had a good source of DRM-free ePub books.
Thankfully, publishers seem to be getting this faster than the music and movie studios. Pretty much all O'Reilly books are now available as ePub. The Sony Reader Store sells ePub that you can eventually turn in to standard DRM-free books. The situation appears to be getting better. One can now read books purchased through the Sony Reader Store in Linux and with ePub software for phones. The situation with Sony reminds me of iTunes pre-M4A. Yes, you could buy an album electronically but you had to burn it out and rip it back to side-step the DRM. Not terribly user-friendly but not horrible.
To me, the worst thing about eBook readers is that vendors are locking customers in to closed silos. A Nook can't read Kindle books, Kindle can't read the ubiquitous ePub format. All the while, you can walk down to the store and buy the print version without any of these limitations for about the same price. This is madness.
Privacy concerns are also a problem. The thought of a device, with an always-on wired connection, allowing companies to remove books post-purchase scares me. The thought of Amazon knowing what page I am on of every book they sell me also bothers me. In all of this, Sony, of all companies, looks the least bad. Go figure.
No doubt it's early days. I think you'd be nuts to buy anything that can't handle ePub and PDF. I also wouldn't buy anything that locks me to a single supplier of books.
I can recommend to check out the E-Book reader matrix. Myself I bought a Bookeen Cybook Gen3. The specification is similar to the well known Sony reader (800x600 resolution). In contrast to Sony they make the GPL source code of the non-proprietary parts available. I didn't try to build from source though.
Concise and to the point comparison of all e-readers in the market: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix
I've now tried both of them and I'm sorry to say the Kindle wins by far.
Both can read PDF files and shows up in Linux as usb mass storage devices, which is great and what I was after.
But, the Iliad has 2 major shortcomings for my use.
1. It cannot be charged over USB. I needs a power supply. A short usb-cable I can live with, but I'm not gonna lug around a power supply everywhere I go.
2. It takes a good 60 seconds to boot up. It feels like an eternity. If I want to read a book I'm not gonna sit looking at it for a whole minute before I open the covers!
One feature that I don't see mentioned in this discussion is the ability to read graphics files out of .zip or .cbz archives. The standard e-reader screen (6-7 inches) is not very good for Letter or A4 sized color comics, but works very well for black & white manga. As far as I know, only the iRiver kindle can read .zip and .cbz for this purpose, but there are probably other readers out there with the same ability?
The ENIAC Demo Competition
It goes everywhere, it's small/lightweight, 3G coverage, and has great battery life.
Typical consumers don't use eReaders. They buy books. So that's a weird thing to bring up. But that does lead to one reason why DRM is such an anti-feature.
When you can lend your mates a favourite book without them too needing a kindle (or other DRM-level compatible device) then DRM won't be a problem.
You can do that with books.
When you can sell it on the second-hand market like books (or just put it in a car boot sale), then DRM won't be a problem.
You can do that with books.
etc.
DRM stops all those things you do with books which is what the typical consumer uses.
Nerds buy eBooks and they either don't care about DRM or do. For those who don't care about DRM, they seem to think everyone shouldn't care about it and think anyone who does must be mentally disturbed or something.
Oddly, those who don't want DRM don't mind if YOU have it, but don't want it forced on them, even by the back door.
It all depends on intended use case. I find eInk makes a much more comfortable and enjoyable read. Smart Phones are perfectly acceptable for some cases. The biggest factor is how long are your reading sessions. Remember all the ebook readers support drm-free books, they just don't sell them that way. I'll break down common use patterns for electronic reading.
Commuter: If you're on the subway, your short read means eye-strain is less of an issue. Plenty of lighting so any screen is fine. Battery usage is irrelevant. You'll likely have a bag so the extra device doesn't matter. It's a toss-up, I'd personally lean towards eInk since it's more comfortable. I think the kindle for it's blog support is best in this case (the nook probably has a hack to do this).
Traveler: You could be reading for 6 hours on a flight, you'll want the eInk. Battery usage is also important. You'll have a bag and plenty of lighting. Definitely use an ebook reader. No wireless on plane so books will have to be preloaded, any of ereaders are fine. If international you'll want an ebook reader with wifi (nook).
Opportunity reading: smart phone wins hand down. It will be with you when you're stuck by chance waiting for an hour.
Home reading: Long reads with lighting. eInk will provide ideal reading experience. Any ebook reader is fine since other capabilities don't matter much since presumably you'll have a computer nearby (no need to play mp3's are look up wikipedia on kindle).
Bed reading: Short reading in low light, smart phone is better. eInk will need a light.
Classroom: Use the textbook. Neither smart phones nor readers can display large graphs. Readers also can't do color figures. Absent of those restrictions the search, annotations and note-taking (not your classnotes!) features are nice. I think it'd be hard to follow along with a small screen of a smart phone. But if you want to take classnotes you'll need old-fashioned pen and paper or a netbook.
Reference Library: Similar restrictions to classroom but allows you to take your whole reference library which you can't just do with textbooks. May need to use phone and reader at same time. Larger screen and easy operation might be a plus. Depends on whether you need your library when you're unprepared like unexpectedly helping a friend (use smart phone) or you are prepared like going to a conference (use a reader, preferably a kindle DX for large screen and better PDF support).
For me the best e-book reader sofar is the iRex Digital Reader 1000S. It is not cheap, but it does A4 pdf and has no DRM issues. I need it mainly for technical papers in pdf format. But it also does e-books from Gutenberg or other source very well. Its main shortcoming is the very poor support of html.
I was going to buy a Sony eBook reader last year, then noticed the eee 900 sitting next to it for $50 more. I love my netbook, but might still buy a Sony just because the e-ink is supposed to be gentler on the eyes.
Make America grate again!
I've used all my Blackberries for e-book reading with Mobipocket. I sure don't see the reason to by a unit that only does e-books. With my Blackberry I listen to music, play games, read emails, and fiction e-books. Oh, I can also use it for phone calls. The e-book readers seem to be developed for people who don't have mobile phones or for corporations that need to find yet another gadget we don't have lying around at home already.
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the most excellent Bookeen's Cybook Gen3 yet http://www.bookeen.com/ebook/ebook-reading-device.aspx
Pros (for me): Includes SD slot, mounts as disk in any OS. No wifi = no kindle censorship. Add additional fonts easilly. Improves itself constantly (see below). Replacable battery. Screen size is just right(tm).
Cons: the "back to main menu" button is placed a bit awkward.
I bought it in 2008 and haven't felt an urge to buy another eBook reader since I got it because Bookeen is often releasing new Firmware for it; about once or twice per year. I recently installed the latest Firmware upgrade that includes faster page turning (it now turns pages in half a second on a 400k book even with full blanking and that has improved the battery life even further) and better PDF rendering, layout can be displayed by folder location etc.
I'm not affiliated with Bookeen, I'm just a happy customer.
I splashed out on a Sony PRS505 about 18 months ago and am very pleased with it. Yeah the menus can be sluggish but once you're into a book then it hardly matters. The most important factors were screen readability and eyestrain. I can read the Sony for hours and it's just the same as a physical book. Plus I've stuffed two complete Open University courses on an sdcard and so I can have them on-tap. Very cool. Yeah I know others are better/worse/different but the 505 suits my needs and that's all I'm worried about :-)
Well, that is what I use. Instead of listening to the radio and hear people blabber about nothing while I am on my way to work, I put a disc or SD card with audio books(s) on it and listen to that. Righ now I am listening to 'Red Planet'. Luckily many are available in MP3 now. LotR I had to put into 4 CDs (including one for The Hobbit) from 55 CDs. With my new radio I put them on a SD card. Mono in 64 bit is good enough as it is only speech.
If I travel by train or plane, I just put them on any MP3 player and can read the books I desire during my trip.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I have switched to buying all my technical books as ebooks only (lack of storage space and need for Ctrl-F). So far I have found everything I wanted without DRM, or breakable. I really liked the watermark approach that InformIT used for one book: Each page says "From the Library of <MY NAME>". Excellent solution because I do not intend to illegally distribute my ebooks, but I want to use them freely on different devices.
I use Amazon to evaluate the books and buy somewhere else. InformIT, O'Reilly, Apress and eBooks.com have served me well.
As for the E-Reader itself, I tried a Sony with touchscreen in a shop and liked it. Good choice for novels. But I need a 10" screen and possibly color for technical books with illustrations. These look promisiing:
enTourage eDGe (love the concept, and this is very close to actual shipping)
NotionInk ADAM
PLASTIC LOGIC QUE
Skiff Reader
Copia
ASUS DR-950
Samsung E101
Kindle DX: Can only be considered when it comes with first class PDF capabilities and when I can copy files back and forth via USB (maybe you can?).
Apple iPad: If I can easily use my PDF and .prc files with it, it is worth considering. Did this thing actually ship by now??
Microsoft Courier: Twice 7" would be to small. If it has the format of the enTourage eDGe it might be worth a look. Microsoft is quite good at making hardware :-)
It's still irrelevant - the point is that if you're happy using a standard LCD to read from, then every single phone, tablet and netbook now count as an "e reader", and many of them are vastly cheaper than Apple's.
What's the point in paying more to get worse quality? And it's not just about screen quality, there's also battery life.
Not to mention that the Ipad doesn't even exist yet.
I have a Kindle and love it; my husband has a Sony and loves it. I can read HTML files but not RTF; he can read RTF but not HTML. He can read the ePub format, I can read the Mobi format. We both read books without DRM most of the time, but I have a few azw files from Amazon, and they can never take them away from me. You see, I download all my purchased books to my computer. I keep them in the Calibre library, where I can sort by author, series, and genre. I also can convert formats in Calibre. The good thing is that Calibre keeps the original format, so if I convert a plain text file to mobi for my Kindle it can be converted again to LRF/epub for my husband. Usually I convert RTF files to mobi, and HTML files to epub. I also leave Whispernet off when I am not downloading a book from Amazon. No reason to have it on otherwise; if I want to surf the Internet I have better devices.
We will both be looking at iPads when they appear in stores. I am doubtful that one could replace my Kindle; e-ink is incredibly easy on the (somewhat aged) eyes. But I see other uses for the iPad for which I cannot use my Kindle.
I would think that you would find a better discusion on the mobiread forum, since this is a forum for serious ebook readers. Personally, I would never call a backlit screen useful for serious reading. It doesn't work well in brightly lighted areas (such as outdoors), and the flicker causes eyestrain and fatigue. Reflective technologies such as eInk can be read for hours (like a book). Touch screens do reduce the contrast ratio for these type of screens.
By far the ENTOURAGE EDGE looks the most promising. With a dual-computing enabled device, with two screens... The computer system runs Google Chrome and has
touch screen , while the other screen has eINK and is thus good on the eyes and so forth... Also supports normal PDF files (of which I have thousands) and generic USB support
http://www.entourageedge.com/
As soon as they ship internationally, this is the one I want
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix
Which ones of the models you're talking about have right PDF reflow capabilities??
Most of the ebooks I have now, are PDF files, and have code examples (indented) and formulas.
Since the normal page size of any of this documents is A4, and just zooming an A4 sheet to the ebook reader screen would be almost unreadable, I guess some of this ebook readers would be able to make the PDf reflow.
I haven't seen any software yet (even full blown PC software) capable of making a PDf reflow consistently with the content (again, formulas, columns, etc...).
Do your ebook do this fine? Oh, and yes, I tried to convert my pdf files to epub or other ebook formats, and not stanza, or calibre, o mobipocket can produce files from those pdf's maintaining the format.
Thanks a lot.
I work for a publisher to create standards-compliant ePUB files. I use Calibre on my Mac (also available for the PC) to convert the ePUBs to a MOBI file. The MOBI file can then be copied straight to the Kindle. There's no DRM involved whatsoever...
I looked hard at the Sony and Kindle units and got neither.
I use my 3GS, Stanza, and Comixology . Also have the USA Today and NY Times apps for news.
I like the single device aspect, and readibility is good. Not excellent...I'm > 50 and have reading glasses.
So, I'm considering the iPad. I did look at the latest Sony readers at Best Buy just yesterday and I still think color (especially for comics and news) and the larger form factor are what I want.
I am my own gestalt.
I'm not trolling, as I'm not actually suggesting this is the best eBook reader on the market.
I own one, and the "keyboard" on it is terrible. I wish they had simply not included it. The worst crime with regards to the keyboard can probably be solved with a software update; when using the "goto page" features, you have to press shift before each key. The numbers on the keyboard are shifted versions of the letters, but you would think that in context of a "goto" menu, it would automatically do that.
I bought the DX because of it's larger screen. AFAIK (and i haven't looked in 8 months), it's the only eBook reader with an 8" screen. For reading PDFs (why i bought it), there is simply no other option.
For the purpose of reading PDFs it's an excellent tool. For anything else, i don't recommend it.
Still, as soon as http://openinkpot.org/ supports the Kindle, i will be rooting mine with joy.
... so that is probably the best play right now if you want a color screen, Amazon content, and pdf.
It's Linux, damnit! Pay no attention to renaming attempts by self-aggrandizing blowhards.
Mark my word. The iPad will probably not be the best e-book reader at introduction, but I bet it will be the best ebook reader during 2010.
Look at what Apple did with iPod then iPhone and now iPad. The iPod brought legal digital music for a fair price trough iTunes Music Store. The iPhone brought applications for smart phones in masses trough iTunes AppStore(i have a nokia, it can't compared with the iPhone iPhone in such different league).
What will the iPad bring. Well most probably an BookStroe in iTunes. This is what will rock the iPad to become the best e-book reader 2010.
It' migt not have the best hardware, but that is overrated look at iPhone. Software, few beat iPhone OSX, Nokia does not, neither Microsoft Win Mobile, Google andrioid maybe one day in a distant future.
But it's the content that will make it the best, and here Apple has been smarter faster and better than the competitors. I would bet money they suceed in this too, even tough they are later to the game this time.
The best e-reader has
1) Color e-ink screen without flicker
2) Accurate stylus and finger touch-screen input
3) Support for ePub, PDF, HTML, and the usual text formats out of the box
4) Ubiquitous wireless internet access
5) One week of battery life while in use
6) An open SDK for third-party applications and third-party formats
7) A built-in news aggregator application with a better UI than a plain list that supports multiple mainstream sources as well as any standard RSS stream
8) Built-in podcast support including over-the-air updating
9) Effortless syncing to a PC, Mac, Linux, NAS (WebDAV and SMB at least), and online backup services
10) Price tag under $100
11) 10-year warranty minimum
12) 10-year guarantee of support and software updates
13) Unlimited guarantee of support of built-in formats in future devices
14) Escrow of all IP in case of business failure
15) All e-readers delivered by Unicorn Express couriers
And as soon as this magical device is released, an e-reader might be worth getting instead of paper books.
Since I STILL can buy a nice used thinkpad OR a NEW netbook for the same price or less, those are the best options. For an e-book reader (a limited function device at best), the price has to be less than $50, It must have a screen that can easily be read in full sunlight, as well as having an internal backlight for nightime reading. It does NOT need to play MP3 files or games, but it needs to read all ebook formats, and convert DRMed formats to non-DRMed formats like plain TXT and PDF files. It only needs 2-4 gig of ram, as that will store thousands of NON-DRMed ebooks.It should connect to a computer using a standard USB cable (no non standard connectors!). It doesn't need WI-Fi, or the ability to connect to the Internet.It doesn't need blu-tooth nor does it need to connect to a (cell) phone in any way. It must of course run linux, and use standard AA NiMH batteries that can be charged in the reader with the included AC adapter.
Until an ebook reader can meet all of the above, a laptop or netbook is a better choice, as for the same price it will do so much more.
My biggest gripe about e-books that you buy is generally that you get less than you do with a paperback copy. I have to buy the reader @ $300 or so. I generally have DRM so I can't give it to my Dad to read and then donate it on to the local Legion or Library book sale. I can't really throw it in a closet and keep it for the rest of my life without taking time to convert formats etc... I can't drop it, or throw it around and not worry about breaking it. For all that, and I'm supposed to pay more per book as well? Why would I do that?
I suppose it only makes sense for die hard readers who need 200 books with them at all times (not I) or people who can't easily carry one or two paperbacks around...
Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
The s-slick had some problerms when it came out with battery charging. Presumably they fixed that, but I never bothered to check.
The Astak EZ-Reader is really a Hanlin v3 and can run openinkpot, not sure about the 5" one but is new but presumably the same as the 6" one with a 5" screen.
The Sony pocket...
Anyways, nook seems to have the best features for the price ATM. The Cybook is just grossly overpriced, while the rest are pushing it since they offer fewer features than the Nook. Most lack WiFi and that handy touch screen at the bottom
I chose the Sony PRS-600. It's a little pricey, but I prefer the 6" screen and it seems to support the most formats. The touch screen is cool, but I can't say I've taken advantage of the functionality except for clicking on words for the dictionary. I bought this to read books, not surf the net so I didn't really care about the wireless capabilities. I've already checked books out of my local library as well as found books to download. I won a Kindle DX last week and decided to stick with the Sony.
That's my 2 cents.
How about this one: http://www.entourageedge.com./ It's android based and you can read the book on one side and browse the web on the other. It looks nice but I admit i haven't tested one yet.
I bought the Nook for my wife and she's had it about a week now. Their in store features are not working yet, but they promise they will be coming. It was a spotty launch in my opinion, but my wife is thrilled with the device. Their online store still took about 30 minutes to get the book, though it said it would be faster. The navigation with the update last week is pretty responsive and she is thrilled with it. I put a pdf on it in seconds which I really liked. She was able to get books from the Seattle library easily and she's reading one from her book club now. Overall I currently like it and if they continue to add features, I think it's a great purchase for the same price as a Kindle.
I am currently converting my chess books into pdfs so that I can travel. I am very wary of all the current ereaders because I do not know if they will be able to: 1.) handle large pdfs 2.) have enough resolution to be able to display diagrams so that they can be read 3.) take notes and be able to fully save the info Yeah this probably does not matter to 99% of the people, but why spend 4-700 bucks on something that does not necessarily fill all the needs.
I like the Sony readers. MP3 playback means nothing to me in a book reader - which is good since it has no way of sorting them. I specifically DO NOT want wireless connectivity of any kind. It's a waste of battery life for convenience that doesn't even make sense - I have 4GB of books loaded on my PRS-505; even if most are comics, I'm not going to run out of books in under a YEAR, much less need one in the next 5 minutes. Color touch screens are equally or more useless - just show me the book. I don't mind if the menu takes a second to draw each update; I have shortcut keys and it buffers them well, so I can just go *press press press* and wait a sec for it to do what I asked.
It does TXT, and many other formats like PDF, LRF, EPUB, etc. Using the third party app "Calibre" I can manage the books easily and tag them all for quick retrieval.
If you're one of those sensitive souls who feels wronged and raped for using a Memory Stick that cost $5 more than a no-name SD card... you can use an SD card.
It's thin. It's light. It's solidly built. You can get a nice leather cover for it, and it will magnetically hold shut gently. You can leave it on for a week on the same page, no problem... you can charge it by PSP type chargers, or USB mini-B.
were i to buy a second device *today*, it'd be a sony. probably the touch. there's a new bookeen device that seems really interesting now, as well. (not the opus. the one that's a model 'up' from that one.)
any device that does not permit underlining and annotating is a non-starter. and the integrated dictionary on the kindle is great -- far more extensive than i would have expected. i didn't buy the sony first, because frankly i was mad about the fact that the earliest ones didn't even have *search* capability. it's an electronic device and doesn't have searching? wtf? back then, sony really didn't get it, and the reader was their red-headed stepchild. i'm still somewhat bitter about that -- it hurt sony's credibility in my mind. but the sony can be used to read e-books -- insofar as such exist -- from french, german, italian, etc. publishers. in those languages. that is the main (only?) reason i'd consider it.
since i'm not buying a second device anytime soon, i'll be watching for new developments. but no matter how pretty the new color screens will be (they will *have* to be reflective), if there's no possibility of underlining, annotating -- and now, if there's no integrated dictionary (really used to that feature, now), i still won't be buying.
"In the course of the production of my book, it is touched and receives positive benefit from (in no particular order): A writer, an agent, an editor, a copy editor, an art director, an artist, a book designer, a marketer, a publicist, a distributor and a bookseller. As an author, if I lose one of those people, the final product — a saleable book — suffers in one way or another."
Yeah, surprise, surprise, everybody thinks their own position, work, and revenue stream is essential.
The last 2 in that list of 11 positions are middlemen between the author and the consumer/reader. Pardon me if I (as a reader) don't see them as essential. The agent works for you, the author, and provides a service to you, the author, not me, the reader. If his services are valuable, it seems like it's up to you to pay for your own agent, actually.
As Cory Doctorow likes to point out, most of us find our favourite authors by word-of-mouth. So the assertion that the marketer, publicist, artist, and book designer are vital is um, unproven. Burden of proof is on the person who makes the claim. And, uh, as far as I can see, ugly-ass cover art and bad design are not necessarily an obstacle to a book's success, just ask Robert Jordan's heirs.
The assertion that everybody in the production chain is really really important reminds me of (I don't actually know if this is true or not, might be apocryphal) that thing about record execs in the 90s saying how MP3s weren't a threat, because, c'mon, who wants to listen to music on a lossy format?
You know what the real problem with books is? They cost too much. In 2008 dollars, John Updike's "Rabbit, run" sold for something in the range of 5 or 6 bucks when it was released. Currently it's only available in trade paperback at $20-25 a pop. The biggest cause of this is that, when you buy a book, you're not just paying for that book, you're paying for all the books that the publisher puts out and didn't sell, and get sent back to the publisher and get pulped. Bookstores get to take books basically on consignment, and send back the ones that don't sell.
Now this unique arrangement is designed to get Barnes and Noble to take a chance on unknown authors so they don't stock nothing but Stephen King and J.K. Rawling or something. This is the elephant in the room for the publishing industry, and e-distribution could solve it. So don't tell me that your cover art designer is an essential part of the supply chain, thanks.
The plural form of "anecdote" is "anecdotes", not "evidence".