e-book readers

[sadude]

E-book readers have been around for a while. But from what I've been reading and seeing they've recently come of age-- the prices have come way down, and the technology has greatly improved. Do you have one? Have you used one? What are your thoughts on them in general and on specific models? Likes? Dislikes?



I have an iPad already and it's great for reading web content, but not so great for full books (though I've certainly done it). So I'm looking for an e-ink device to complement it for distraction-free and longer-term reading.

[Ap2000]

It's a complete waste of money and the apple thing is disgustingly high priced. But that's the only thing that horrible company is good at anyway, overpricing their sub-par, enclosed systems.



Just get a cheap netbook and you can do infinitely more things with it.



I'd never ever buy such a thing and I can't understand why anybody would want to buy one since it's use is so so so extremely limited for the price.



I like to compare e-book readers to netbooks with a mobile phone analogy:

Buying one of those bastards is like buying a mobile phone that can only read SMS that you paid for.



HATE

[neshcom]

If you truly just want a device that only reads ebooks and nothing else, a Kindle is your best bet. Buying books on the Kindle store will let you read them online through a browser, on a Kindle device, or even on an iOS or Android device through the Kindle app. But this is only if you want something that is just ebooks.



In any other case, buy your books through the iPads Kindle software.

[Melon]

Yes, yes, we all know how you feel Ap. Now tell us where the e-readers touched you. I had the same conversation 10 times with him in the chat when I was looking for mine.





Personally I have a Kindle (the latest 3G model). I chose it over the nook because amazon's book prices are cheaper and they had a larger selection. Plus around that time there were the rumors of B&N declaring bankruptcy. Though there are a couple of neat features the nook has, for instance, so long as you're inside a B&N store, you can read any book in their catalog for an hour and you can share books with your friends that also have a nook. It also allows for sd card storage (which is a feature I really wished the kindle had, because I hate deleting things) I didn't like the LCD screen at the bottom of the nook though.



Comparing the two, I also thought the kindle looked sharper. Er, the text on the screen looked sharper. The page changes are so quick now that it's not a distraction. Not as fast as turning the page yet, but not so slow that reading feels cumbersome. Nesh's post reminded me that I have synced my kindle to the PC and phone, but since they hurt my eyes I've only messed around with that feature once.



If you read a lot either will be a good buy. I love that I can have hundreds of books on it and not have a room full of books without a home. Plus it's so slim I can carry it in my bag and have room for other useless items that take up more space in my bag since I have this compulsion to carry my life with me in case I up and leave on a whim.



I didn't bother with sony's reader. Wasn't impressed.

[Ap2000]

[quote name='Petit Melon' post='88796' date='Dec 10 2010, 05:11 PM']10 times[/quote]



2 times <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /noway.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':sad:' />



I knew you were going to say this when I shit into this topic. :>

[Melon]

[quote name='Ap2000' post='88798' date='Dec 10 2010, 11:53 AM'][quote name='Petit Melon' post='88796' date='Dec 10 2010, 05:11 PM']10 times[/quote]



2 times <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /noway.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':sad:' />



I knew you were going to say this when I shit into this topic. :>

[/quote]



killing me softly with his song wait, what



I'm disappointed you didn't talk about your penis like I thought you would. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... >/hmph.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

[Sabaku Ika]

I have a Sony Reader Pocket and it is amazing and wonderful. However, since I bought it, the competing Kindle has gotten cheaper and it always had more features, so if I needed a new one, I'd probably go with that.



But as for an e-reader being a waste of money, it probably is, but no more-so than shoes or oatmeal.

[Haru]

If I was to go with any eBook reader, it'd probably be a Novel. It's basically a miniature iPad.



A question though; what format do eBooks tend to come in? My MP3 player has .txt reading abilities (perfect for when I'm writing and leave off in a certain place and can't remember where I was), and if eBooks come in .txt, I'll never have to get one.

[neshcom]

[quote name='Haru' post='89179' date='Dec 15 2010, 04:24 PM']If I was to go with any eBook reader, it'd probably be a Novel. It's basically a miniature iPad.



A question though; what format do eBooks tend to come in? My MP3 player has .txt reading abilities (perfect for when I'm writing and leave off in a certain place and can't remember where I was), and if eBooks come in .txt, I'll never have to get one. [/quote]

You won't usually find TXTs e-books. I think ePUB is the most common file type? Wiki on e-book formats.

[Sabaku Ika]

Mine (sony pocket) can read .txt books and you can find them easily online, but they have none of the formatting that books are meant to have, so they are really awkward to read.

[sadude]

So I got the Kindle in December, and went through all 7 Harry Potter books on it. It would've probably taken me longer to go through the actual books because they're less convenient to hold while, say, standing up on the subway and trying to not fall.



I've also used it to read A Christmas Carol, and am now making my way through a chess book I made a custom pdf of. I've also gotten a few book samples from Amazon, and having the ability to preview books like this is really nice. (I haven't bought anything from Amazon's Kindle store, though, due to DRM.) But I mainly use it for two other things: book abstracts and certain news articles. For the abstracts, my employer partnered with another company to provide these to its employees, and one of the many formats that that other company provides them in is for the Kindle. And certain news articles, I've been using calibre.



Go get calibre to manage your ebooks. Even if you don't use it to actually manage your ebooks, it has a great feature where you can pick one of the hundreds of pre-defined sites (including ones in Japanese and other languages), and it'll download articles from that site and format them for your e-book reader. It even works for some subcription sites, too! Meaning, if you're a subscriber, it logs in with your info and gets the content for you.



Amazon released a firmware update for the Kindle recently which improves the newspaper-style navigation, too, which now makes this an absolute joy to read.



Samples: