
Which ereader device should I buy? - iuguy
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2010/11/26/%E2%80%9Cwhich-ereader-device-should-i-buy%E2%80%9D/
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zdw
Reading linear books (novels, etc.), get an e-ink reader like the Kindle, etc.
You won't mind the page delay if it's one page at a time.

Reading tech books (manuals, reference material, etc.) get an iPad or
subnotebook. Much faster to flip rapidly through as there's a much smaller
page load delay, better search etc.

I'm so thankful for ebooks - there's a line in one of the perl docs that says
"You can't grep dead trees", which has always been my beef with paper docs.

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rosejn
I was pretty happy with my cybook before leaving it on an airplane. Don't go
Kindle, unless you want to support them after dropping WikiLeaks, thus taking
the freedom of the press and flushing it down the toilet.

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russell_h
I've got no beef with Wikileaks, but how do you construe the actions of a
private company as "taking the freedom of the press and flushing it down the
toilet"?

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russell_h
My girlfriend got me a Kindle 3 as an early Christmas gift, and while there
are a lot of things I wish it would do better (or at all), I actually really
like it.

From worst to best:

1\. The Kindle is pretty terrible for textbooks or other things used purely as
references (some people supposedly _read_ texbooks, I don't).

2\. The Kindle isn't too bad for technical books that you actually want to
read, but aren't going to use as references. For example I bought the Kindle
version of Douglas Crockford's _Javascript: the Good Parts_ and read it front
to back without much issue. Code formatting was my greatest concern, but its
not too bad. Sometimes when a code block flows between pages and you want to
flip back and forth it can be a little annoying, but overall not much worse
than having to turn a physical page back and forth. It can also display PDFs,
which I used to read Robert Love's book about Linux Systems Programming. The
PDF display functionality isn't the best, largely because it can't re-flow
text to make things a good size. But as long as this isn't the main reason you
want the Kindle, its not that big a deal.

3\. The Kindle really comes into its own for books of pure text you just want
to read front to back. My biggest gripe is that a lot of books in the Kindle
store seem to have been scanned in with pretty terrible OCR (some books are
perfect, but in others its comment for a '1' to be used in place of an '1' or
'i', or for some reason for 'F' to be used in place of 'I'). Since I've been
in College I haven't really done much recreational reading, but the Kindle has
really gotten me back into it. Since I received it about 10 days ago I've read
a Tom Clancy book, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Javascript: The Good Parts,
Red Planet and the Robert Love Systems Programming book (the name escapes me
at the moment).

The real value of the Kindle (or really any e-reader, the Kindle just happened
to be really cheap and reputable) to me is the instant delivery of books. When
I want to read something, as long as I have Wifi (didn't get the Whisper-Net-
whatever-version) I can find something to read. Even better, Project Gutenberg
has a huge collection of free Kindle-formatted ebooks. I can't normally be
bothered to go to a store to pick up a book, or even wait for one to be
delivered, and I don't like reading off of a computer or phone. But when I can
instantly have a book on a great screen, and even have a huge selection of
free ones, suddenly I find that I can't stop reading.

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funksta
Still waiting for an ereader with a screen > 9" and good PDF support. The
Kindle DX is oh-so-close, but it doesn't support PDF table of contents or
annotations. A touch screen would also be nice. Anyone aware of any other
products that meet these criteria?

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mickdarling
I have an Entourage Edge and it does have a nice big screen, I I know it
supports PDF's I use them all the time. Not positive about table of contents
support, but I can try that out in a bit.

It does have a lot of issues though. It has two screens, one e-ink, and one
LCD. It uses Android 1.6 right now and has no access to the Android Market.
The company that makes it has minimal resources and they are really not
supportive of developers. The LCD screen is resistive touch and its
responsiveness isn't great. You can get a very long time on a charge if you
make sure to turn the LCD off while you are reading.It isn't the worlds
greatest e-reader, but it might suit your requirements where nothing else
does.

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funksta
Interesting, thanks for the heads up. I'm going to wait for a device with a
single, big screen though.

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mickdarling
If the Plastic Logic E-reader was out I would suggest looking at that. I
played with it for about 30 minutes and interviewed a lead developer.

It was a super light, easy to ready, all e-ink, 8.5x11 touch screen. It worked
great in my hands, but they had manufacturing issues, and delayed retails
sales multiple times, and finally canceled that version. If it rears it's head
in retail shelves giv it a look.

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marcc
There are no scenarios where he recommends the E Ink Nook. Strange. It's
actually a decent device, but is there really no room for it in the market?

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burgerbrain
He recommends the "Nook" (not Nook color) in two cases:

>I want to be able to read ebooks that I check out from my local library:
_Nook_ or Sony Reader Daily Edition PRS-950

>I want to be able to go online and check email, use Wikipedia, read news,
etc. on my device: Kindle or _Nook_

He seems to prefer the kindle to the nook however because ebooks are
apparently cheaper on average, it has a newer eink display, the wifi version
is cheaper, and it's easier to use (whatever that means...).

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yannickt
Has anyone here tried the Kobo ereader? Could you share your impressions?

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burgerbrain
[Posting from my Kindle 3] buy a kindle! ;)

