eBook reader

[ethanthescribe]

deamondea is looking at getting an eBook reader. What's out there? What's hot, what's not, and what should be avoided at all costs?

Comments

[chuckmck1]

An opinion only: pretty much all of the better e-readers have at least one drawback each at present, whether it be price, lack of user-friendliness, or the inability to download decent content once it travels from one country to another. Having said that - and having done lots of research, as I'm hoping to be selling e-readers in the bookshop by this time next year - the Apple iPad is probably the best of the lot; expensive, but worth it as long as you utilise the thing to its full capacity (in other words, use all the extra doohickeys that come with it). The Sony E-reader and Kindle are also pretty good, but make sure you go for the Sony with the bigger screen, or the Kindle Australia (as the US model won't download a vast amount of supposedly available content in Australia

[irishmark]

But the "there will be better models out next year" argument -always- applies to tech.
The trick is to do your research and not succumb to buyers remorse when the new models come out.

[chuckmck1]

That's certainly true, no question; where e-reader tech differs slightly, though (and I should have clarified this in my first post), is that it's really only over the past year that we've seen the tech advance to the point where the mass market is expressing interest in buying (regardless of the fact that e-readers have existed in more primitive forms for at least the past 15 years). Big companies are finally pouring serious resources into the tech, so, to all intents and purposes, we're talking about 'new' tech, as opposed to, say, DVD and CD players, or digital cameras, which have been around for a while and obviously get updated on a constant basis. With the older tech, certain models have been around long enough to prove themselves, and people will happily purchase a given model (even knowing it'll be superceded almost immediately) because they're aware of their individual requirements of that tech, and won't be looking to update for at least several years. With e-readers, however, there's no 'track record', so regardless of how

[exp_err]

There is no "Kindle Australia" (never was, though there's a lot of misinformation about that in ebay listings)) or current US-model Kindle (hasn't been a US-specific one in a couple of generations), only the international Kindle. The Kindle will download all the available content from Amazon, though exactly what is available depends on which country you have it registered to. Currently, there are nearly 500K books available from Amazon to Kindles registered to Australian addresses, and of course, you can also download in Kindle format from the Gutenberg library and a few other ebook sellers

[capnoblivious]

I've had few complaints with Kindle. The ones I have had are:
- The Kindle Australia store is very idiosyncratic as to what it stocks; roughly half the books I've looked for weren't there but were available in the US.
- It doesn't handle pdfs very well.
- It doesn't read epub format, which means I can't buy from some places.

These are minor issues because the vast majority of what I've read has been free downloads, and the vast majority of that has been through Project Gutenberg, who make a number of formats available. I've got huge swathes of literary history to explore - I don't need newfangled modern books!*

I love the device - it's worth getting one.

--
*Except some Stross and Doctorow and stuff, who also publish free ebooks. Also, the entire Vorkosigan series is available in many formants.

[curufea]

My complaints on the BeBook is the overcharging of the Australian store, the terrible service and you'd best buy it overseas, preferrably China as an Onyx Bioox.

But other than that - it handle's PDFs well, has good annotation features including a stylus - doesn't have a keyboard, but it's opensource and linux based.
Includes wifi and while it doesn't have exclusive ebook stores, it can get books from anywhere. So I'm happy with it. I 90% use it for PDFs for my course - which is online (the recent unit had 70 PDFs and 10 HTML pages in the eReserve). The rest of the time I tend to use it for PDFs of roleplaying games I've got from RPGNOW.

It doesn't read mobi or kindle formats - but does read everything else.

[editormum]

I think Sony and iPad have the most complete access right at this moment (through the use of some cool apps for the iPad), but there is a major difference in reading experience. The iPad is the usual glare experience (which many people have problems with, and if you plan to read outside on nice days, forget it), while the Sony has e-ink, which I love (just like reading a paperback except for being able to increase the text size!).

The new Sonys have much better compatibility and will read most files (and increase the text to readable sizes on PDF and rtf, which the old version doesn't). I've seen a Kobo though, and I actually like the interface and lightweight feel better than the Sony.

I don't know what I'm actually recommending any more, but if D wants to avoid the glare, you need to be looking at readers that are e-ink. That's my best advice right now. I'm not a fan of the DRM on Kindle, and I don't like any product that limits your options of where you can buy from.

[irishmark]

I recently got the smaller Sony Reader with the 5 inch screen from Borders. Smaller one because I always carry a book and the 5 inch is small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. The other ones are too large to carry with you everywhere, you need a bag

[ethanthescribe]

I think Target has a Sony e-Reader on sale quite cheaply at present. Don't know which model, though.
But I'm also starting to eye off the various Android pads that are starting to appear.
For Dea, something that will fit in a handbag that is easy to use is probably the top consideration. Wireless, 3g, multimedia etc are all lower priority.

[irishmark]

If you like I can organise to lend it to you for a couple of days so she can try it out. I know there are a lot of ppl with different models around so you might consider asking them too.

[irishmark]

In regard to Android pads, leave off till the Gingerbread models come out. Android 2.2 isn't designed for tablets.
At the moment Android 2.2 requires phone hardware if it is to be able to use the Android market (this can be hacked around) so if you get a stock model it is either a large phone (Dell Streak) or it hasn't got authorised access to the Android market, usually to a manufacturer market instead.
Gingerbread is meant to be tablet optimised to avoid this.

Also a tablet with an (AMO)LED or LCD screen is a pain to read outside where an e-ink display is like reading paper.

Battery life is also an issue. I charge my Sony Reader about every 2 weeks (and use it just about every day) where you are likely to need to charge a tablet every day or two. The long battery life means I never forget and have the battery die in the middle of using it.

[ethanthescribe]

... although so far I'm terribly impressed with my Android phone. Which will read epubs, pdfs, and also has a kindle app.
I find it just a bit on the small side for use as a book replacement, although I've got a bunch of stuff saved for emergencies.

Which is why I'm more than a little interested in the Android pads. But I'm also aware that they are very recent technology.