ebook reader, again

max72

I would like to have a feedback on the ebook readers.
We had in the past a discussion about the models available and the pdf rendering, and I would like to have an hands on review.
I had an iriver Story, that is using my wife. It renders rather well epub docs, but pdf are not so good on it.
I can rotate the screen, or zoom (only with respect to the center). There is not a continuous page mode. So a single column manual in landscape mode is not rendered well (propeller, propbasic, catalina), and a 2 columns is troublesome. For instance a scientific article is a really difficult read. N&V is even worse.
Translating from pdf to epub with calibre is useless.
Do you have any successful experience with an ebook reader and (in case needed) a pdf translator chain?
Thanks in advance,
Massimo

Leon

My Dell Streak Android tablet works very well with PDFs and Kindle books.

John Abshier

I have the newest Kindle 6 inch. Native PDF with the device held sideways gives an accurate presentation but the text is very small. I don't like zoom and pan. Amazon will convert the text to Kindle format, but that conversion is a disaster for scientific articles. I personally haven't seen the 9.7 inch Kindle, but it has specifications that look good. The Adobe reader (from Adobe) for Android on a Droid X displays PDFs accurately but again the screen is too small for me to read without zoom and pan.

John Abshier

Mike Green

I have a Kindle. I convert my e-Books to either .mobi or .aws format using Stanza, then download them to the Kindle. Amazon also has a web service that will do the conversions for you and either download them wirelessly to the Kindle for a small fee or e-mail them to you for direct downloading. I think Stanza is multi-platform, but I'm not sure. It works very well for me on my MacBook.

Bean

I have a nookcolor. It does pdf very well. You can even download pdfs from a website and view them.
I had the b/w nook and it was not nearly as good.

Bean

Martin_H

I have a Kindle. There are lots of free public domain books and many cheap Amazon books. I throw it into landscape mode while reading PDF's and that works pretty well for downloaded tech books from Safari.

marksmith

Just go ahead and delete them from your Reader device. They will still be stored on your computer (if you have a non-wireless unit) and in your account. You will not have to purchase the books again.

max72

Thanks for the feedback.
Massimo

mickal

I briefly had an e-reader. I was given it for Christmas by a relative. I saw a price tag of $500 , evaluated it and politely I told them I couldn't get the hang of reading comfortably from it. If it was a hundred bucks I could have accepted. I didn't see the value in it, low on features for getting around books, USB only way to add content. I noticed tech books I searched for on amazon in subjects like electronics or programming were near the price of buying the actual book so that was another reason not to feel good about it.I have heard some public libraries share books this way but I guess that is a very limited set of material? Seemed like you had to have good light in the room to read. Possibly the price has influenced my negative opinion but I don't think they seem to be better than reading from my laptop.(excepting size & battery life) This was all formed within a half hour with the Reader and I expect I am in a minority.

LoopyByteloose

I tend to agree with mickal, after all books are wonderful gadgets - no batteries and much better than scrolls. The whole concept of a paperback in your hip pocket really doesn't morph into electronics well.

For better value, I have a netbook that I tote everywhere and use for reading PDFs.

There are problems with reading any LCD screen in direct sunlight, while the printed page has none whatever.

This week the Taipei Times made mention of the iPad and all its copycats. Basically they said that Taiwan's electronics industry has very high hopes for these products, but it is also quite wary about the public accepting them. If I could easily scan my entire library into one, I would be more inclined to show more interest - but I am something of an used book colllector.

potatohead

I like printed material because it's "always on", and I can write in it, highlight, fold corners, attach tabs and just generally make a personal mess of it.

For reading material where I won't be making a lot of notes, I think the readers are great for casual experiences. Too much money for me though, just for that purpose. The e-paper kinds, with the paper like displays are very easy on the eyes, and I like that look a lot. They are slow though. I wouldn't want to use them for reference material. Too many downsides.

My few experiences with iPads are favorable. The touch navigation actually works well for reference, and I would consider accumulating a significant library on one, given that I can always transcode, or simply move that material to another device in the future. Battery life is somewhat of a issue, as is overall reading conditions. Still, I miss the simple, analog notes and such. Overall, not worth it for me yet.

All in all, I find a simple notebook and pencil / pen robust, fast, cheap, effective. That could change, but I don't think it will for a while. We need UI advances, significant battery life advances, and probably some legal to get sorted before I feel really good about committing skills and info to devices that are as fickle and temporary as these things are today.

(reaches over to thumb through 6809 reference manual from Moto, thinking, "yeah, not yet")

Bean

mickal wrote: »

USB only way to add content.

This was my main reason for getting the NookColor. You can download PDFs from any website. And it does a very good job at displaying them.

I don't really care about downloading books. All I wanted was to be able to surf the web, check my email, download and view pdfs. Playing mp3 files while you read is kind of nice too.

If anyone has the same requirements, I highly recommend trying the nookcolor. I'm sold on it. The only downside is the 8 hour battery life. But I can live with it.

Bean

max72

I liked my e-book reader, and it appears my wife likes it too..
The advantages are comfortable display (you need good light), infinite battery life. Free books from gutenberg project are great on it, being possible to donload epub format. Even images are ok (my baby likes Beatrix Potter's Miss Moppet drawings on it too..)
Pdf documents are a major problem. Single column are acceptable (propbasic, catalina). Rotating in landscape the fonts are big enough, but I have not the continuous page option, so I have overlapping when scrolling.
Double column documents are a nightmare. Many pdf form the web have this format, and nuts and volts is unreadable.

Massimo

Leon

Amazon has just announced that they are now selling more ebooks than the real thing in book form.

Unknown

Loopy Byteloose wrote: »

This week the Taipei Times made mention of the iPad and all its copycats. Basically they said that Taiwan's electronics industry has very high hopes for these products, but it is also quite wary about the public accepting them. If I could easily scan my entire library into one, I would be more inclined to show more interest - but I am something of an used book colllector.

The problem is that I don't want to carry several electronic devices around and it is also harder to know who is or which device is going to win out. The Kindle has a lot of support from Amazon and there is competition from the iPad and other devices.

One of my co-workers left his iPod on the dashboard and it didn't work the next day. I was talking to someone and he said the instructions talk about humidity and he also said that the iPod is not designed to work more than a couple of years for that reason.

iTunes has had a lot of success but I also like old fashioned MP3's because I'm not trapped with any particular brand or store and the fact is that I can scan regular CDs at a higher bit rate than I can buy in the store. If your iPod dies and you don't have a CD backup then can you download the songs you paid for again for free? I don't know the answers to those questions but I like the idea of owning something tangible like a CD with words and MP3's don't come with words.

I also read in the news that a man is sueing Apple because his daughter dropped his iPhone while texting and it cracked the glass. The fact is these devices aren't durable. They don't have metal cases. The plastic scuffs and they basically disintegrate. I told my phone rep that the phone kept falling off my belt with a case so he suggested one that was padded so I bought one that he suggested and I didn't hear my phone fall off of my belt and it was run over by a car and the full price is around $300-$400 dollars for something they can't design to keep from falling off of your belt. I look at these companies like they don't really care about us which is why the man sued Apple for defective glass.

Leon

My Dell Streak is still in mint condition, after nine months of use. I keep it in a soft case, which protects it to some extent. It probably won't stop the glass breaking if I drop it on a hard surface, even if it is made from Corning Gorilla glass.

markaeric

I have a B&N Nook Color (which is only available in NA for now) as well. It uses a high quality LCD (with higher pix density than the iPad), instead of e-paper like typical readers. This makes it more flexible in the type of content it can display, but this in turn affects battery life which is still a quite reasonable 8 hours with wifi turned off. There's also already a huge hacker following, running custom Android builds (Including the just released demo SDK of Android 3.0!), and even Ubuntu Linux. IMO, it's the best e-reader/tablet bargain on the market.