E-ink ebook readers? anyone tried one?

[robert1325]

Besides audio/music, I love to read, so I was wondering what you think about E-readers like the sony prs-505/500....:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/02/s...ps-this-month/

 

[carlosgp]

I think this may be The One

http://www.bookeen.com/ebook/ebook-reading-device.aspx

 

[robert1325]

a bit on the expensive side tough.... 350 euroos

 

[jbloudg20]

The sony reader looks really cool, and is a fantastic design. We have them for sale in our University Co-op, and I have my interest piqued.

 

[AlanY]

This is the sort of product that really appeals when you first look at it, but then when you look deeper it's not really as nice as it purports to be. The killer thing for me (from what I've read) is that the PDF reader isn't particularly good. If your PDFs are not optimized for the particular size of its screen, apparently they look weird and can be hard to read. All of the electronic books I have are in PDF format, and most are scanned from actual books, so I can't really control the formatting and optimize it for the screen, though software tools apparently do exist for making attempts at this (but I don't have any real confidence in Sony's software-writing ability after the multi-year disaster that's been SonicStage).

It would be worth the money if it could just view PDFs well, without any hassles, even if it still didn't have either searching or text annotating/markup/comments (which it doesn't, other than "bookmarks").

 

[RYCeT]

I'm interested to see this gadget matured. I love to read. I agree w/ AlanY, I don't have any confidence in Sony's software writing ability.

 

[GAD]

e-books seem like such a natural killer-app/device, and I've yet to see one worth a damn. I really REALLY wanted to like the tech, but there's something about a physical book.

When I'm researching, I need a keyboard, so I just use the computer. When I'm reading for enjoyment, I'd rather have a real book. I've sampled or tried probably six different e-book devices and they all just didn't do it. I think a big part of the problem is that they try to make them inexpensive.

GAD

 

[robert1325]

check out these forums:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/

The ilaid seems ok with pdf I think. I don't have many pdf files. The sony software is allright ( the prs505 has drag'ndrop functionality) you can get all sorts of conversion programs.

 

[AlanY]

Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen the iRex iLiad before, but it looks like it would fit my criteria. Pity it's $700. At that price, it's not an impulse buy for me.

Edit: From this link on their site:
http://www.irextechnologies.com/file...ur%20iLiad.pdf (PDF)
About PDF files, it says:
"Due to the high resolution and brightness of the iLiad display in many cases the resizing the A4 [letter] to an A6 size will still be readable, but an original 11 point height text will result in an 7 point height text on the iLiad."
That's really the problem with all these readers and PDF files. The iLiad has a higher resolution than the Sony reader, but still, 7 point text is verging on the hard to read (even printed on paper). On the Sony reader it would be probably illegible.

 

[Aevum]

wouldnt it be cheaper to get a basic PDA,
acer makes a PDA thats around 250 euros and has wifi and bluetooth, use it as a text reader, you also have something to check your mail, browse the net,

or get a 8gb touch, with apple releasing the SDK, i suppose that a text and PDF reader is not far behind,

 

[Wodgy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aevum /img/forum/go_quote.gif wouldnt it be cheaper to get a basic PDA, acer makes a PDA thats around 250 euros and has wifi and bluetooth, use it as a text reader, you also have something to check your mail, browse the net,

That's not a bad suggestion, though I would suggest the One Laptop Per Child gadget instead, because the screen has a special high-resolution greyscale mode for reading books. It also converts to tablet form. Unfortunately in tablet form you can't write on the screen, but it's cheap (even though you have to buy one for charity). And it's completely open source.

Quote:

or get a 8gb touch, with apple releasing the SDK, i suppose that a text and PDF reader is not far behind,

There actually is already a PDF reader on the iTouch. You can access it through files downloaded to the Touch via binary bookmarks, on the iPhone via email attachments, or if you're online, by just navigating to a PDF URL. Pages rotate with the device, so you get a decent width if you hold it in landscape view. Using your fingers to scroll is pretty natural. The display is 163 ppi, which is slightly less than the Sony device, but it does subpixel text rendering, which the greyscale Sony e-ink device cannot do, so they're probably roughly equivalent in terms of text quality in indoor light. And you get an iPod as part of the bundle.

Here's an easy app for putting documents on your iPhone/iTouch:
http://www.insanelygreattees.com/news/?p=51
and here are some photos of how the PDF reader looks:
http://pimm.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/photo-371.jpg
http://www.insanelygreattees.com/new...phoneafter.jpg
The first photo is poorly shot, but you get the idea.

Note that this also works for Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, text files, and RTF files. No conversion needed.

Once the SDK arrives, I imagine someone will develop an app that allows annotations as well. It wouldn't be hard to do, given that the PDF rendering (Quartz) libraries are already on the device.

 

[jinp6301]

i think lan had one of those and it supposedly has killer SQ, comparable to the imod iirc.

 

[ronin74]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wodgy /img/forum/go_quote.gif There actually is already a PDF reader on the iTouch. You can access it through files downloaded to the Touch via binary bookmarks, on the iPhone via email attachments, or if you're online, by just navigating to a PDF URL. Pages rotate with the device, so you get a decent width if you hold it in landscape view. Using your fingers to scroll is pretty natural. The display is 163 ppi, which is slightly less than the Sony device, but it does subpixel text rendering, which the greyscale Sony e-ink device cannot do, so they're probably roughly equivalent in terms of text quality in indoor light. And you get an iPod as part of the bundle. Here's an easy app for putting documents on your iPhone/iTouch: http://www.insanelygreattees.com/news/?p=51 and here are some photos of how the PDF reader looks: http://pimm.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/photo-371.jpg http://www.insanelygreattees.com/new...phoneafter.jpg The first photo is poorly shot, but you get the idea. Note that this also works for Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, text files, and RTF files. No conversion needed. Once the SDK arrives, I imagine someone will develop an app that allows annotations as well. It wouldn't be hard to do, given that the PDF rendering (Quartz) libraries are already on the device.

An excellent suggestion, I've been looking for a reason to buy an iPhone. I have a number of novels and reference documents on my pda, via PDF and Adobe ebooks. I'm using an old Palm Zire 71, time for an upgrade.

 

[Aevum]

i didnt know the touch had the same motion sensor as the iphone,

plus, im waiting for the touch V2 with BT,

 

[MH79]

I just read ebooks on my mobile phone.