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It's 2010; What's the Best E-Reader?
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It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.
It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.
Answer: (Score:2, Insightful)
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
Re:Answer: (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Answer: (Score:5, Insightful)
The don't have e-ink. Game over.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
The iPad has iInk (which is just a revolutionary way of saying it has an LCD screen).
Re:Answer: (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Answer: (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
A laptop.
Personally, I'd have said "a netbook", but maybe I'm just splitting hairs.
Re: (Score:2, Redundant)
I use a desktop, it has a 28 inch screen.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Pirate Bay is the best source for books? I don't think so. Project Gutenberg [gutenberg.org] 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 [bungie.org] is "wonderful"), or just about any site [deviantart.com] which allows teenage girls to publish a "book." But then,
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
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!
Re:Answer: (Score:4, Informative)
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 [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.
The Sony (Score:5, Informative)
By a very long mile. Great format support, including many open formats, great quality too.
Re:The Sony (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
I've heard the Iliad is amazing, but I think it's about 700$.
Re:The Sony (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:The Sony (Score:5, Interesting)
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!
Re:The Sony (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
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 ac
Re:The Sony (Score:5, Informative)
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: (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
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. Wha
Re: (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.
Re:The Sony (Score:4, 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...
Re:The Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:The Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
Didn’t you all swear to boycott Sony, after the rootkit debacle? ;)
I hate to say it... (Score:2)
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 th
Re:I hate to say it... (Score:5, Informative)
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 still use my N800 daily... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, 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
Re: (Score:2)
I use my N800 daily, too ... to play Klondike. The FBReader software [fbreader.org] 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 [amazon.com] under Wine. It installs but won't run, so I don't know if it's suitable for reading or not.
Calibre [calibre-ebook.com] 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 spontaneo
Re: (Score:2)
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: (Score:3, Insightful)
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: (Score:3, Informative)
This plane runs on love baby
Happy valentines day.
Ipod Touch + Stanza (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Just got a Nook (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).
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, 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: (Score:3, 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 [gutenbergnews.org]. They have countless public domain books available.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
The Book. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Did I mention how expensive each volume is?
Not waterproof?
No backlight?
Search feature?
I'll hang on for Book 2.0...
Re:The Book. (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:The Book. (Score:4, Funny)
You're right. I've lost count of the times when I've been on a long flight and needed a few thousand books to read.
You take your shelves with you on the bus? (Score:2)
That must be a real nuisance.
iPhone/iPod Touch + GoodReader app + pdfs (Score:2)
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 ment
The entourage edge? (Score:3, Informative)
Cybook Opus (Score:3, Informative)
I bought my dad a Cybook Opus [bookeen.com] 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.
Wrong question (Score:2)
For me not having to carry an extra, dedicated device is one big advantage for me. Desktop computers, notebooks, netbooks, tablets, and even cellphones
The Skiff looks nice, except for who controls it (Score:2)
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 bus
The most open/least crippled & versatile.. (Score:3, 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.
Fooled me once, shame on you... (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... (Score:5, Interesting)
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:your numbers don't make sense (Score:5, Informative)
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:Fooled me once, shame on you... (Score:4, 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.
It's all about content (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Entourage Edge - Duel Screen reader (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.entourageedge.com/entourage-edge.html [entourageedge.com]
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.
It hasn't been invented yet. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Notion Ink Adam (Score:3, Interesting)
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 [gizmodo.com]
160 hours of battery life. Screen can be switched to B&W mode. HDMI out for 1080p video playback. Open source friendly. etc. etc.
Re:Kindle (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:Kindle (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
It's hard to imagine a feature more significant for an e-reader than running X11.
Re:Kindle (Score:5, Informative)
Please mod parent up (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.
Pure FUD and lies. (Score:4, 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.
Re:Pure FUD and lies. (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, 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.
The wireless data is a bad thing (Score:2)
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.
Re: (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
You don't seem to understand the word "sell" (Score:2)
If they sell me content, it's no longer theirs, it's mine. To do with as I please.
Re:Kindle (Score:5, Insightful)
One word: 1984 [slashdot.org]
Re: (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 gre
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
"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...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
leaves out the iPad doesn't it?
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
Re:Kindle (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:Kindle (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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I am personally very happy with my Sony PRS-505, and are taking a really good look at their new 600. It's light, sturdy, and surprisingly DRM free.
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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.
Re:iPad? (Score:5, Informative)
Hope you enjoyed your eyes.
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...
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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
Re:iPad? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
It's called "lighting" (Score:3, 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 "me
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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 dia
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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.
e-ink is good in many ways, but far from perfect.
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You're creating a false dichotomy; for instance, it could be slang for a well-understood phenomena.
Re:iPad? (Score:5, Informative)
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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.
Came here to see someone recommend the iPad. (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.
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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.
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Re:iPad? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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Yup, I bought the Astak EZ Reader because of its price, open design, memory options and PDF reading capability. I was not disappointed.
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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.
http://en.smartdevices.com.cn/Products/V7/200912/04-40.html [smartdevices.com.cn] is the V7's spec sheet, which is what I meant to link.
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The Aztak EZReader Pocket Pro does DJVU and if you download & install Calibre you can convert DJVU to any other format.