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Choosing an ebook reader
I'd very much appreciate people's advice on choosing an ebook reader.
I played with a Kobo (the basic model) in Smiths and very much liked it. However, reading an online review made me have some second thoughts.
I like it partly because the page control is in a good position for me (bottom right corner), but the review commented that the button was a little stiff and that after 100+ pages the RSI started to kick in. As someone who's prone to RSI, that's definitely a potential problem.
I have to rest my books on a stand as I can't hold them in my hand, thus buttons in the middle bottom are a pain.
The other catch with the Kobo is that you can't load books from Amazon (though it may be possible to use a site that strips DRM - has anyone used these?)
What are the pros and cons of ebook readers that you've tried?
I want easy to use, intuitive menus, simple to use controls, bookmarks, etc.
I'm not bothered about colour or wireless access or annotation, or anything beyond reading books.
I played with a Kobo (the basic model) in Smiths and very much liked it. However, reading an online review made me have some second thoughts.
I like it partly because the page control is in a good position for me (bottom right corner), but the review commented that the button was a little stiff and that after 100+ pages the RSI started to kick in. As someone who's prone to RSI, that's definitely a potential problem.
I have to rest my books on a stand as I can't hold them in my hand, thus buttons in the middle bottom are a pain.
The other catch with the Kobo is that you can't load books from Amazon (though it may be possible to use a site that strips DRM - has anyone used these?)
What are the pros and cons of ebook readers that you've tried?
I want easy to use, intuitive menus, simple to use controls, bookmarks, etc.
I'm not bothered about colour or wireless access or annotation, or anything beyond reading books.
no subject
I get the impression that the only e-book reader that can use Amazon's books is the Kindle. I could be wrong, though.
(though it may be possible to use a site that strips DRM - has anyone used these?)
I have no data on that, because as a matter of principle, I don't buy or use DRM'ed ebooks.
I get my ebooks from the following sources:
* http://www.fictionwise.com (who sell non-DRM'ed books as well as DRM'ed books)
* http://www.smashwords.com (who only sell non-DRM'ed books)
* Baen Free Library http://www.baen.com/library/ - a range of SF&F books, for free! Baen regard it as, from a marketing perspective, the equivalent of giving out free samples so that people will come back for more. It seems to work, too.
* http://www.gutenberg.org - It's worth checking here anyway, because I've been burnt a couple of times buying an ebook which I later discovered was out-of-copyright and available for free from Gutenberg.
* and lots and lots of fanfic, which I download and convert to EPUB format.
I'm not bothered about colour or wireless access or annotation, or anything beyond reading books.
Good, you don't need them.
* Regarding colour, avoid it! Colour means that the battery life can be measured in hours rather than days. Using e-ink is actually nicer, anyway. I was amazed, when I bought my Bebook Neo, how very readable it was. It's much better for daylight reading than a standard colour computer screen.
* Wireless is overrated. I thought wireless was going to be cool, but I found that it wasn't worth the extra money I paid for it, because lots of sites I tried to browse with the reader looked terrible and didn't work. And it was easier to upload books by connecting the reader directly to my computer anyway.
* Annotation is nice, but ultimately useless if one can't export the annotation back onto one's PC.
I want easy to use, intuitive menus, simple to use controls, bookmarks, etc.
I like the interface on my Bebook Neo; it has a touchscreen, which one uses with a stylus, but also buttons for navigating, which one can use instead of the touchscreen if one is so inclined. You might not like it, though, because the buttons are in the centre bottom of the device. On the other hand, I find it easy to hold the device in one hand and hit the next-page button with my thumb, I haven't found it to be stiff or RSI-inducing, and I'm prone to RSI myself. And I have to say I like using the touchscreen too.
The menus and such on the Neo are straightforward, I think. The look-for-ebooks-to-read part is basically a filesystem browser, so it's up to you to organize the ebooks in folders to your liking. Which is an advantage and disadvantage, because you have to organize it yourself, but on the other hand, you have complete control over how it is organized.
If you want info on the Kobo, ask
Other things to consider would be:
1) is the memory expandable? (with a SD card or a microSD card, for example) It makes a huge difference if you can just put your books on a card and plug it in to the reader; it means you aren't limited by the size of the storage on the reader, because even if the size of the cards it can take is limited, you can put your books on more than one card if need be.
2) what formats does it understand? PDF? EPUB? HTML? Especially if you're going to get your ebooks from different sources, a wide range of format support is essential, unless you want to spend your time converting your ebooks into a narrow range of formats.
And if you can find a user-forum for the reader you're investigating, that can be much more valuable for information about it than reviews, because reviews just give initial impressions, not long-term usage quirks.
no subject
I like Calibre, which is like iTunes for ebooks - but it works with multiple readers, links to multiple bookstores and tells you in the search results which have DRM and which don't.
I found a DRM-stripping tool for Kindle, runs on the PC, but fiddly to set up. If you buy a Kindle book, you can download it (still in locked form) via your Amazon account, though I suspect that won't work unless you have a Kindle registered to your Amazon account, for obvious reasons! I dare say that something as forward as a website or handy-packaged Windows tool would be shut down very quickly.
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So .... the new kindle is really the only sensible choice for a device to be purely used as an ebook reader in the UK. The new reader is amazingly light, fast and responsive and £89 from tesco's. The Kobo has zero advantage over the kindle. Kindle has left and right handed buttons. An alternative may be get a kindle touch from Amazon us which might help with the page flicking.
You can load PDF's and many other types of books on it (Get Calibre - it's let you convert more or less any format into any other format you want - subject to DRM stripping of course).
Of course the 'Best' but more expensive option (except that its a backlit screen) would be a proper tablet - The Galaxy Tab (7 or 10 inch). Basically will let you use any ebook shop and supply with dedicated Kindle, Adobe, Nook, etc. I use my iPad 90% of the time but I have a new Kindle and am happy with it as a lightweight alternative to my iPad that i can use in the bath.
Hope that helps.
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It has a load of functionality you've said you don't need, but as a decent reader I quite like it.
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I don't know what books you're looking to read but Project Gutenberg now has a lot of its books available in various e-book formats.
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I was very tempted by the new Kobo Touch, but when my old e-reader died it had not been released in the UK so wasn't an option, and the Kindle was quite a bit cheaper. Even so, it's a very nice bit of kit, and arguably more open that the Kindle. It supports ePub format which I have a lot of, and I currently have to convert those for my Kindle.
My old e-reader could not support DRM, so stripping it off ebooks that had it was my only way to go. Not convenient at all, though usually possible.
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I just discovered there's an Android e-reader sold through Best Buy that I'm very curious about.
If price were not an object, I would recommend the iPad without hesitation, because it does e-books, .pdfs, and pretty much any format you could desire--and periodicals look wonderful on them. I don't have one myself, but my SO has one, and LOCUS looks great, ARCs look great, academic journals look great, graphic novels look great...but some of these are specialized uses. (And it does a bunch of other things, but that's beyond the scope of being an e-reader, and they're expensive.)
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It's very easy on the eyes, unlike back-lit devices like the iPad, and very light in weight. The buttons in the middle are only really used when selecting a new book or menu options, reading is simply the side buttons positioned both left and right, so you can change hands if one gets tired. A weird discovery is that you can just put it down on the table and you don't need to hold the book open, nor fiddle with bookmarks when putting it away; you just put it down, no need even to switch it off. It's been very straight forward to download stuff off Amazon. I downloaded a sample of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so I could read it on one.
It does PDFs, but so badly there's no point.
The major selling point of the Kindle will be, of course, that my own novella will be out soon ;-)
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Because it has a touch screen you also press on it to choose books, rather than having to endlessly down arrow.
I also particularly like that you can organise books into collections - which is handy when you have more than a page worth of them because you can find the one you want.
The software to load books on it is apparently awful, but Calibre, which is free, is really easy to use and it will convert nearly anything into a format that the eReader will be able to read.
Admittedly, I've only used the Sony and seen the Kindle, so I don't know what these features are like in comparison to the others.
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So .... the new kindle is really the only sensible choice for a device to be purely used as an ebook reader in the UK. The new reader is amazingly light, fast and responsive and £89 from tesco's. The Kobo has zero advantage over the kindle. Kindle has left and right handed buttons. An alternative may be get a kindle touch from Amazon us which might help with the page flicking.
You can load PDF's and many other types of books on it (Get Calibre - it's let you convert more or less any format into any other format you want - subject to DRM stripping of course).
Of course the 'Best' but more expensive option (except that its a backlit screen) would be a proper tablet - The Galaxy Tab (7 or 10 inch). Basically will let you use any ebook shop and supply with dedicated Kindle, Adobe, Nook, etc. I use my iPad 90% of the time but I have a new Kindle and am happy with it as a lightweight alternative to my iPad that i can use in the bath.
Hope that helps.
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I've not tried it for PDFs, but I know that
Kindle for me
If you're going for a dedicated e-reader the screens are all the same, you are buying based on book availability and ergonomics. Pretty much all the touch screen devices let you touch anywhere on the right half of the page to turn a page, so near the bottom of the screen should work.
The Kindle currently has two killer features for me: the books I want don't come out in other formats, and the Kindle software allows me to move from device to device with ease - it even syncs where you are in the book so going from iPad to PC, the book opens where you left off.
If you can buy a tablet - either Android or iPad, you get two huge advantages: the first being you can use several e-book shops, the second being you can use it for other things. It's amazing how handy having the internet with you can be, when you're somewhere new, exploring, need to find a shop, etc. It also definitely will have full-screen page turning.
Hope this helps, and you have my mail if you want to ask questions.
Re: Kindle for me
Re: Kindle for me
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The new smaller, cheaper kindle has half the battery and half the storage - though this still gives you a month of battery (allowing half an hour a day).
So far so good. I like it. I bought it on the recommendation of a couple of friends who have one each.
There are programmes that will convert other e-book formats to Kindle and the other way round, so you can archive your own stuff (as well as the stuff from Amazon being archived for you). You can also put your own documents on to Kindle and the version I have will read out text if you need it to (the new little one doesn't).
One thing I was a little wary of with Amazon is that you are dependent on the integrity of their archive unless you do your own (which I will).