The Rocket ebook I have is slightly larger then a paperback. Not much so. You can also use a Palm, which is much smaller then a paperback.
Memory is cheap. I have a (nowadays) scant 16 meg in my Rocketbook. That can accomodate 20+ books. So, if I run to the bathroom, I can actually choose what book I want to read out of many. This is great on trips. You can go on vacation, and in the space of one book, bring 30.
As for my Visor, I have 72 meg of memory in that. I can store more books then I could read in there. Keep in mind that readers (at least the ones that I have seen) store books compressed. Text is very easy to compress, so, you can fit quite alot in there. If the reader comes with a memory card slot, forget it. You could practically store a whole library with the larger cards nowadays (ok, not quite, but you know what I mean.)
As for uploading stuff to your book, with space like that, chances are you dont have to do it often. Its been a couple of months since Ive uploaded stuff to my Rocket. I have The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings series, the whole Wheel of Time series, and some other stuff I havent gotten to on there. Thats about a good 10,000 pages of text, easily.
There are plenty of converters for different formats, so, whether you have a book in pdf, lit, rb, html, doc, pdb, or text, its not a problem to swtich from one to another.
Its not as much of a problem as you would think.
I was wary of all this when I first decided to spend 250 bucks on an electronic book, but Im quite happy I did now.
I bought a Rocket Ebook about two years back, and I love the thing. Recently I got a Visor, and I use that as a bookreader sometimes, also, although its much easier to read on the REB.
Its very convienent to be able to do things like reorient a book, hold it and turn pages in one hand, read anywhere, in any kind of light, be able to bookmark and annotate, and then search on those bookmars and annotations. I can hit a button and bring up a dictionary. I can search on any word or phrase in a book. You can carry multiple books with you. Try carrying the whole Wheel of Time series, and Websters dictionary around with you the next time you go on vacation. I can guarantee you wont be happy:)
I think that copyrighting, or trying to make a "secure ebook" is fruitless. I have serveral hundred, if not over a thousand, books that I have downloaded from the net, various news groups, or gnutella. All someone needs is a scanner with some OCR software. Are they going to make all that illegal, too? If I wanted to, I could print out that secure pdf, and rescan it. Sure, it might be a pain in the ass, but it can be done, no problem.
Its a shame to see ebooks getting a bad rap, mostly because of security issues, and what I think is the fact that the publishing companies dont know how to market an ebook. Why not put a kiosk in borders where you can buy ebooks? It could burn a cd while you wait! What would it take, two whole minutes? Swipe your card, pick your books, and burn them. You would be out the door before someone who was waiting on line to buy a paper book.
I love my ebooks, and actually find paper books to be not as desireable (plus, they take up all that space!). That is just my opinion, and Im sure plenty of people agree, and plenty disagree.
Code Red: Exploits a secruity bug in Micro$oft IIS, winds up taking down Micro$oft Hotmail servers.
Damn. These guys are good at making money, and making themselves look stupid.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, you forget Velcro, too :)
Not quite so.
The Rocket ebook I have is slightly larger then a paperback. Not much so. You can also use a Palm, which is much smaller then a paperback.
Memory is cheap. I have a (nowadays) scant 16 meg in my Rocketbook. That can accomodate 20+ books. So, if I run to the bathroom, I can actually choose what book I want to read out of many. This is great on trips. You can go on vacation, and in the space of one book, bring 30.
As for my Visor, I have 72 meg of memory in that. I can store more books then I could read in there. Keep in mind that readers (at least the ones that I have seen) store books compressed. Text is very easy to compress, so, you can fit quite alot in there. If the reader comes with a memory card slot, forget it. You could practically store a whole library with the larger cards nowadays (ok, not quite, but you know what I mean.)
As for uploading stuff to your book, with space like that, chances are you dont have to do it often. Its been a couple of months since Ive uploaded stuff to my Rocket. I have The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings series, the whole Wheel of Time series, and some other stuff I havent gotten to on there. Thats about a good 10,000 pages of text, easily.
There are plenty of converters for different formats, so, whether you have a book in pdf, lit, rb, html, doc, pdb, or text, its not a problem to swtich from one to another.
Its not as much of a problem as you would think.
I was wary of all this when I first decided to spend 250 bucks on an electronic book, but Im quite happy I did now.
I agree about your points above.
:)
I bought a Rocket Ebook about two years back, and I love the thing. Recently I got a Visor, and I use that as a bookreader sometimes, also, although its much easier to read on the REB.
Its very convienent to be able to do things like reorient a book, hold it and turn pages in one hand, read anywhere, in any kind of light, be able to bookmark and annotate, and then search on those bookmars and annotations. I can hit a button and bring up a dictionary. I can search on any word or phrase in a book. You can carry multiple books with you. Try carrying the whole Wheel of Time series, and Websters dictionary around with you the next time you go on vacation. I can guarantee you wont be happy
I think that copyrighting, or trying to make a "secure ebook" is fruitless. I have serveral hundred, if not over a thousand, books that I have downloaded from the net, various news groups, or gnutella. All someone needs is a scanner with some OCR software. Are they going to make all that illegal, too? If I wanted to, I could print out that secure pdf, and rescan it. Sure, it might be a pain in the ass, but it can be done, no problem.
Its a shame to see ebooks getting a bad rap, mostly because of security issues, and what I think is the fact that the publishing companies dont know how to market an ebook. Why not put a kiosk in borders where you can buy ebooks? It could burn a cd while you wait! What would it take, two whole minutes? Swipe your card, pick your books, and burn them. You would be out the door before someone who was waiting on line to buy a paper book.
I love my ebooks, and actually find paper books to be not as desireable (plus, they take up all that space!). That is just my opinion, and Im sure plenty of people agree, and plenty disagree.
Code Red: Exploits a secruity bug in Micro$oft IIS, winds up taking down Micro$oft Hotmail servers. Damn. These guys are good at making money, and making themselves look stupid.