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Originally Posted by Wodgy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Without support for highlighting, annotations, or some other kind of on page notes, the problem is that e-books are less functional than their paper equivalents.
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I've used mine as a replacement for a textbook without issue. I don't generally write in or highlight my texts, I take notes separately. The multiple bookmarks support works just fine, at least for my needs. Regular books cannot, for instance, adjust text size automatically. They also can't be displayed in both landscape and layout format, and they don't allow you link directly to footnotes. Ebook readers do all of this and more, so I would say that they are at least "differently" functional.
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Originally Posted by Wodgy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
And for novel readers, wouldn't you rather curl up with an actual book?
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Not at all. I have no particular attraction to dead trees, and the screen is so immensely readable that there is little difference to me. I've read for hours on end on my Sony, just like with novels. In many cases, its smaller size is a real benefit for me. I get rather tired of holding up 800 pages for extended periods of time.
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Originally Posted by Wodgy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Right now, these seem like a technology (great screens) hunting for a usable solution. It's fine that they don't have wireless, contacts, music, etc., but they should be at least as usable as regular books or they'll never sell in bulk.
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I have a whole host of usable solutions that I make frequent use of. I'm a frequent traveller, often for long periods of time. I don't want to pack many books, and now I don't need to. I also like to keep up to date when I'm spending extended periods of time in non english-speaking countries. The connect store allows me to buy and read books that would otherwise be impossible to find in, say, Turkey.
My reader does happen to have music, and although that limits the battery life it's nice to curl up at, say, a coffee shop somewhere with a book and a soundtrack in one compact unit. I don't use it very often, regardless.
As far as selling in bulk, you have a definite point there. I think the biggest upside is also the biggest liability -- the screen. I've found that most readers aren't swayed by features like highlighting, but they are swayed by a sub-$100 cost. The screen is what makes this device viable, but it also makes it expensive. That could change in time.
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Originally Posted by Wodgy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
And at the very least they should support common formats like PDF directly, rather than oddball vendor-specific formats.
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Sony Readers, which are the most common hardware to my knowledge, support PDFs right out of the box. They also support simple .txt files, and convert .doc files. It's simpler than, say, putting most cd's on an iPod. The only problem is viewing a full size pdf document on a small screen. Homebrew solutions exist to serve this problem, but I think manufacturers would do well to implement pdf adaptation software into library management programs. The fact that I no longer had to print out 200+ pages of pdf documents a week was what really sold me on this device, so I'm happy to report that, with minimal effort (read: less effort than printing) pdf's are easily usable.
