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Recommend On: A ebook reader
chaosisorder
Cupcake Princess and Pinny WhoreOregonRegistered User regular
Cupcake Princess and Pinny WhoreOregonRegistered User regular
Perused the old threads, but most are over a year old and technology, she changes like the winds. I want an ebook reader because I'll be spending the next several years in and out of the US and transporting books and finding english text won't be easy.
Necessary:
PDF support in some way - seems most of the free sites use PDF
Easy on the eyes for lighting - I r old.
Large book selection - if it's some proprietary format, I want to be able to get a boatload of books
Large storage or ability to add storage
Decent battery life - again, the excessive travel means I won't always have easy access to charging (USB charging readers would greatly please me)
Not terribly necessary:
Wireless downloading - Since I'll frequently be in countries and areas where this would be largely unsupported, I can happily rely on downloading to desktop and transferring
Blarge size - I r not that old.
So who has what readers and what do you love/hate about them? And if you have any favorite sites for books, bring 'em on!
Necessary:
PDF support in some way - seems most of the free sites use PDF
Easy on the eyes for lighting - I r old.
Large book selection - if it's some proprietary format, I want to be able to get a boatload of books
Large storage or ability to add storage
Decent battery life - again, the excessive travel means I won't always have easy access to charging (USB charging readers would greatly please me)
Not terribly necessary:
Wireless downloading - Since I'll frequently be in countries and areas where this would be largely unsupported, I can happily rely on downloading to desktop and transferring
Blarge size - I r not that old.
So who has what readers and what do you love/hate about them? And if you have any favorite sites for books, bring 'em on!
chaosisorder on
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But look, it's got gobs of ebook reader options. If you have a US iTunes account, there's a Kindle application, but there's also a bunch of others like Stanza and eReader, plus there are file transfer programs like Files Lite that will let you wirelessly transfer documents to and from your PC/Mac and your iPhone and have built in viewers for most common formats including PDF, .doc, .docx, .txt etc.
On top of that, you can buy a lot of books via the app store that come precompiled in reading software not to mention the option to buy them as audio books via iTunes.
The screen most likely isn't as good as an epaper device like the Kindle but you can adjust the brightness and a lot of the programs mentioned above will freely let you choose text and background colours not to mention change the typeface and font size of the document you are reading so you can find something which is comfortable for yourself.
I'm saying all this is available on the iPhone but naturally all of the above is also possible on an iPod Touch as well, including wireless transfer of files. The only advantage you'd get on the iPhone is being able to grab stuff off the internet if you aren't near a wifi.
It doesn't natively handle pdfs, but there are ways around it.
It is pretty pricey though (Last time I looked it was around $700 for the 2nd edition, $600 for the 1st, and they keep running out of stock)
There's a smaller Sony one for like $200 that I hear is nice, one of the downsides usually given is it has to get files from your computer, but for you it doesn't sound like that's a problem.
If you plug the E-Reader in itself, it just acts as a thumb drive and you can drag and drop the books into the appropriate directory and you're good to go.
The newer version (touch screen) didn't really catch my attention. The screen they added seemed to include a bit of haze, so I stuck to the older (505) non-touch screen version.
Edit: And if you're seriously into it, I would recommend it bar none over an LCD display/Iphone etc. It's much easier on the eyes.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. I've used my iPhone for pretty extensive periods of time and I'm generally prone to getting headaches from any type of light emitting source so it's not terrible but the e-ink displays are obviously going to have the edge in terms of reducing eye strain as they reflect light rather than emit it directly.
If I could get a Kindle in Canada, I might have considered it. But I think the Sony platform offers a ton a choice in terms of hardware and lots of selection/choice in terms of software.
While obviously too late now for you, it should be thrown out there that Amazon just released an International Kindle.
This sums up my opinions exactly as well.
I've got a PRS-505 and I love it - reads pretty much anything i throw at it, and if a file doesn't work straight away, there are cracking freeware apps to convert them to a format that will.
PDFs work great on it, though if you have one formatted for A4/Letter it may be a bit small to read, can convert comics from cbr/cbz to work fine on it, and SD/Memory stick support means you'll always have enough storage space.
Sorry folks, Canada isn't international enough for the international version of the Kindle.
Sony's eReaders are nice devices though.
I never finish anyth
It's an e-ink display, which is easy to read in any lighting condition. I read at least an hour per day, and usually only have to charge it once every two to three weeks. It doesn't have expandable storage anymore, but it holds about 1,500 books, and if you need more space, you can pull your books from the Kindle and store them on the computer. Amazon says their selection is now over 350,000, but that includes newspapers, magazines and blogs. None the less, the selection has grown massively since my wife got hers about two years ago, when it was only about 80,000.
It is a proprietary format, but there are sites out there that offer free books in the format, but they tend to be public domain ones.
Edit: And I know you said Wireless isn't a big issue, since you won't always be somewhere you can use it. But when you are, the wireless downloading is such an incredible convenience, it's difficult to put into words just how much I appreciate it.
Battery life is really good. Apparently power is only needed when changing pages (to update the screen since it uses E-Ink) and for the wireless (which can be turned off). So depending on how fast you read it easily lasts for 8-16 hours of reading with wireless on and over a day of reading with wireless off. You can charge through USB or AC (which is done with a AC-to-USB converter that attaches to the end of the cable)
The wireless it uses is actually Sprint's cellphone network, not wifi. Pro's are that anywhere Sprint has coverage, you can surf the web, buy books, etc. Con's are that anywhere Sprint doesn't have coverage... I find that in the States coverage is pretty good. Pretty much if there are people, there's coverage. The US version only works in the US, I'm not sure about where the International version will work.
Book selection is okay-ish. I only say okay-ish because I read a lot of sci-fi and their sci-fi collection is pretty spotty. New York Times Bestsellers and mainstream stuff like that is all there though, and I believe the Kindle has the largest selection. Books run the gamut from $10 to free, but the majority are around $10.
You can buy books either through the device's built in book store or through Amazon (You link the Kindle to your account). If you're in the States it will get wirelessly sent to your device, usually you'll be able to start reading within half a minute from the time of purchase. I believe you can also buy books and then download and transfer them through the cable.
The Kindle 2 doesn't natively support PDFs, but you can view PDFs through a couple of means. 1) You can email the PDF to a special Kindle email that will convert the PDF into a format suitable for the Kindle for free. Process takes a few minutes. You can then transfer the file to the Kindle through the cable. 2) You can email the PDF to another special account, only this time the file will be wirelessly sent to your Kindle. Downside is that Amazon charges 15 cents or so for every PDF you convert this way. Conversion is pretty accurate for straight text PDFs. Ones that are image heavy and have funky text formatting can have the formatting all messed up.
Storage is 2 gbs, so it can hold literally thousands and thousands of books. It's internal memory though, so you can't upgrade it, but it seems like it should be plenty. (You can also upload MP3s and play them as you read, there's built-in speakers and a headphone jack. Oh and there's a text-to-voice feature that I don't use)
So yeah, it's pretty cool and it costs $100 less than when I bought it 4 months ago! :?
Not really. They're both damn near identical in size.
eh? the kindle 2 is 8" x 5.3" x 0.36" and the prs-505 is 6.9 x 4.8 x 0.3, the 700 is pretty damn close to the 505, . That might not sound like much on paper but in my experience (have a prs-505, 300 and kindle2 in the house) its the difference between fitting easily in a pocket or not.
I have a ton of stuff in non-DRM .lit format and a ton more stuff in .cbr/cbz. Can someone with experience tell me how well either of those converts to either the Sony or Amazon readers?
The .lit stuff converts very easily into a Sony format - Calibre is a great, freeware file manager for that type of stuff. Think of it like iTunes for your eBook reader that also happens to convert files from one type to a Sony Reader compatible type without any intervention on your part.
I've seen and worked with some processes for converting the CBZ/CBR files. Overall, unless it's black and white manga, it's not a very satisfying result. Even if it's manga, the general speed at which most people digest that type of content isn't really translatable to the e-ink technology (due to the slow screen refresh rate).
Mobileread is a great place to check out more information on this type of stuff.
I've stuck a fair few comic books on my sony reader too and I can concur wi this.
Western comics/graphic novels are usually in a fairly large format, so the text can be hard to read/illegible on the small screen (picture is sharp enough, just really small font size). Colour comics lose a fair bit of impact too because of the greyscale display, though it does a fantastic job considering it is just greyscale. You also have to watch double page spreads on the reader too - either split them up or rotate them before converting from cbr, otherwise they just look crap.
Manga is much better because of the small page format and the fact that it's usually in b&w to begin with, though you still have to watch your double page spreads, and the sometimes screwy page page order.
I don't mind the screen refresh time on the other hand - only takes a second or two to change the page, and i've got into the habit of pressing the next page button just as I'm moving onto reading the last panel of a page.
Btw, the Sin City graphic novels translate perfectly onto an e-book reader
I've been digging through mobileread. That is an awesome site for somene just getting started.
Thanks for the help all- I'm leaning towards the Sony versions, but I still have a few months for figuring it out before the massive move.
I'm thinking about getting one for my mom for christmas, and I figure starting to save for one now would be wise. She reads a lot but is also doing a lot of comp work with her business, so I figure this is a better way for her to get her books instead of going to the library (or worse, making us go and pick up books for her). Her tastes in books arent that eclectic, mostly crime/mystery with some historical fiction thrown in. She does like some "different" books, but it's usually stuff she finds on the Globe or Times reviews.
The thing is, my mom is poor. I mean, she works a lot but she can't afford 10$ a book, especially when the library is right there. However, I have heard of e-readers that support a library mentality, like where you can "take out" a book and have it for a certain amount of time before it becomes inaccessible. I would be willing to front a one time fee if I can make this kind of thing avaliable to her. Any info on this guys?
http://lifehacker.com/5382505/make-a-diy-kindle-from-tablet-pc
Comes in at about $200, and it's not the nice soothing e-ink, but if you don't have a problem with LCD reading, than this might be a way to go.