E-book readers - your opinions? [Archive]

Stan_Lite

21-06-2010, 12:56

In an effort not to derail and clutter the book review thread, I thought I'd make this one.

I recently bought a Sony PRS-600 Reader Touch. The main reason I bought it is that my job means I work away from home for a month at a time with no access to a bookshop. I am confined to reading whatever I bring with me or whatever I can find on the rig. Some rigs have a "library" where people will leave any books they don't want to keep for others to read if they want. This one doesn't so I have to make do with what I bring. If I have a quiet month, it's not unknown for me to read 3 or 4 books while on the rig. I usually carry 4 books with me just in case - I can't really carry any more due to the weight and bulk. That's all very well and good but once I'm on the rig, I'm stuck with what I took with me. If I get there and decide I don't fancy any of the books I brought, I'm stuffed - I just have to read them anyway.

Now that I have the reader, I don't have that problem any more. I quite literally have a library of thousands of books I can choose from. I have 200 or so already on the device and I can download any book I can find on the internet (for the appropriate fee). I no longer have to decide which books I'm likely to want to read while I'm away, nor do I have to lug 2 kilos of paper around with me.

I find the reader comfortable to hold, easy to read and easy to navigate. Page turning is achieved either at the touch of a button or, because I have the "Touch", a swipe of the screen. I can also store photos on it (albeit in black and white), I can play music through it while I read, I can make notes and mark pages for later reference and I have access to a dictionary - all in one device. Marvelous.
I do still like the feel of a real, paper book in my hands but the convenience of this device more than makes up for the tactile loss. All in all, I'm delighted with it and consider it to be the best £230 I have spent in a long time.

I'd be interested to hear how other people get on with them (or not) and peoples opinions on them.

karbon

21-06-2010, 13:01

ill tell you once the iphone 4.0 software laucnhes

leowyatt

21-06-2010, 13:17

The one Burble's got is very nice

LeperousDust

21-06-2010, 13:53

I think they're of limited use personally, i like them, but at current prices i'd never buy one. In your situation as you say its perfect though, quite simply! I'm impressed with the hardware and as e-ink evolves were onto something good hopefully :) So i'm all for them, i just think a lot of people have them for the wrong reason. Also a real e-reader is far far far and above better than any LCD device pretending to be one (ip** i'm looking at you! :p)...

Kitten

21-06-2010, 13:58

I think they're nice, but I don't have any reason for one. I love the feel of a good book and will carry one with me everywhere. However the only place I'd really use a reader would be on holiday and for the cost, I just wouldn't trust myself with it anywhere it might get damaged. I also stare at a screen for so long every day, I think it's good to get away from it when I want to relax and read. I always have a few books loaded on my iphone though, just in case I get stuck somewhere without a book *FEAR*

Glaucus

21-06-2010, 14:11

I think they're of limited use personally, i like them, but at current prices i'd never buy one. .

This and after using an Ipad. I would have no problem reading books on it for very long periods so would make a much more sensible option. Smart phones are far to small.

Stan_Lite

21-06-2010, 14:35

I've tried reading books on an LCD screen and found it a horrendous experience. I can read on my e-reader for hours very comfortably.

Glaucus

21-06-2010, 14:42

I've tried reading books on an LCD screen and found it a horrendous experience. I can read on my e-reader for hours very comfortably.

have you tried on an ipad though. LCD screens differ massively and the Ipad screen is very easy to read from IMO.

Stan_Lite

21-06-2010, 15:44

have you tried on an ipad though. LCD screens differ massively and the Ipad screen is very easy to read from IMO.

I haven't tried an ipad. I would have no other use for one. I spend more than half my time on the rig where my existing laptop and e-reader fulfill every need I have far better than an ipad would.
When I'm at home, I would have very little use for it either having easy access to 4 PCs and 3 laptops. If I bought one, it would just end up being a very expensive e-reader.

The Sony Reader is ideal for me as all I want it to do is allow me to read books. Regardless of how good the ipad screen is, I doubt very much whether any backlit screen would be as comfortable to read as an e-ink screen. Also, the ipad weighs 1.5kg whereas the Reader Touch weighs a measly 286g. I wouldn't fancy trying to read in bed for more than 5 minutes holding onto the ipad.

Pebs

21-06-2010, 22:49

I'm lucky in that I have no need for one. I adore the physical presence of books, reading is a huge part of my mental wellbeing (drama much?!). I've had access to the afore mentioned reader and while it does exactly what it says on the tin it left me wanting.

God I sound nuts don't I. I'm lost without books, it's really that simple.

karbon

21-06-2010, 23:03

iphone 3gs is far far too wee. ill update when i get an iphone 4 with a better display.

Garp

21-06-2010, 23:26

I've pretty much completely switched over to FBReader on my Nexus One (and my N810 before that).

It does take a little getting used to reading on an LCD, but I found that switching it over to white text on a black background gets rid of any eyestrain problems and reading is a joy.

Yes I love the tactile aspect of books, yes I miss it, but I do have to be pragmatic. Books can be a PITA, take up a lot of space and are heavy.

Stan_Lite

22-06-2010, 04:14

I adore the physical presence of books,

Yes I love the tactile aspect of books, yes I miss it, but I do have to be pragmatic. Books can be a PITA, take up a lot of space and are heavy.

Given the choice, I'd rather have a 'real' book any time as well and I'll still be reading paper books when I'm at home for the most part but the Reader is a practical and convenient solution to the issue of having to lug around heavy books when I go to work.

Pebs

22-06-2010, 11:05

Given the choice of nothing to read or the reader, it's a no brainer really. Glad it's keeping you sane :)

Kitten

22-06-2010, 12:20

Stan_Lite

22-06-2010, 12:57

I wouldn't say I'd be completely lost without a book to read but I would miss it a lot - especially at bed time. I like to read at least one paragraph before I go to sleep - no matter how tired or pished I am. I'm not as hardcore in terms of volume of reading as a lot of you guys but I do like a good read.

Actually, having had a think about it, if I was told I had to either give up reading or whisky, the whisky would be history :shocked:

Pumpkinstew

22-06-2010, 13:09

I had a Sony PRS-300 to play around with at work and wasn't very impressed.

As a way of easily storing lots of books it works but as a reader I had a lot of issues with the screen. Firstly it wasn't black and white it was grey and a darker grey, so although the reolution may have been the dogs danglies the contrast was rubbish.
Secondly it 'blinked' whenever I turned a page (the on pixels went off and vice versa) which would annoy the hell out of me if I had to turn more than few pages. Lastly the anti glare wasn't very effective making it hard to use outdoors or even under fluorescent lighting.

Your's is obviously a newer model, so maybe things have improved.

Burble

22-06-2010, 15:17

The one Burble's got is very nice

It is indeed :) It's an iRiver Story and I think it's fantastic.

As much as I like physically having a book in my hands, it just isn't practical to take a stack of books when I'm travelling and the iRiver solves that perfectly.

One of my colleagues here (in Frankfurt) has an iPad and I tried the Kindle app earlier - I still don't like reading books off of LCD screens. Never have and quite probably never will. The eInk screen on the iRiver is perfect though, sure, it takes a couple of seconds to refresh but I don't get sore eyes after reading it for a few hours like I do with an LCD screen.

Battery life is a big thing for me too, an iPad with it's 8 (or whatever) hour battery life wouldn't be good enough, I don't want to find the reader running out of charge part way through a flight. I bought the iRiver in December (I think) and I have only charged it once - it's still on that same charge and the battery is showing 1 out of 3 bars remaining.

volospian

28-06-2010, 09:02

Stan_Lite

28-06-2010, 09:27

Stan,

Carrying on from the books thread, I can see exactly why you'd want one, and I was impressed with the one I had a look at, but I'm not sure I travel enough to warrant spending that amount of cash on a reader.... If they were maybe sub-£100 I could see myself seriously considering one, but for now, my needs just don't justify the expense.

Although the wife would love me to buy one, so she could throw out all the lovely paper books taking up space and getting dusty in my "office", lol :)

I must confess, I balked a bit at the cost and was hoping a decent one would come in at a lower price but, after waiting for several months, I decided the outlay was justified and bit the bullet. I wish they were cheaper but needs must.

Garp

28-06-2010, 10:11

Carrying on from the books thread, I can see exactly why you'd want one, and I was impressed with the one I had a look at, but I'm not sure I travel enough to warrant spending that amount of cash on a reader.... If they were maybe sub-£100 I could see myself seriously considering one, but for now, my needs just don't justify the expense.

Just wait. Amazon and Barnes & Noble have just started a price war with their Kindle and Nook respectively. The Nook came down in price last week and Amazon quickly slashed the price of the kindle to $189 to remain competitive. Hopefully it'll start to have a knock on effect on markets outside of the US too.

Rich_L

28-06-2010, 10:36

That sounds just about perfect for your requirements, I'd consider the same if on a long trip or suchlike - as it is I'm finding that the Santa Barbara library system is really quite impressive so for about the first time since Uni I'm actually using a library - my problem is that I read so fast (I think I read all 3 Dan Brown books out at the time DVC, A&D, DF, on my flight to the US once lol) I find it hard to justify paying full price for a book so either pick them up in second-hand stores or car boot sales or as I'm now using the library.

volospian

28-06-2010, 13:58

What's the availability of eBooks like? Do they all support a common protocol, or do they have to be device specific?

Rich_L

28-06-2010, 18:56

Just wait. Amazon and Barnes & Noble have just started a price war with their Kindle and Nook respectively. The Nook came down in price last week and Amazon quickly slashed the price of the kindle to $189 to remain competitive. Hopefully it'll start to have a knock on effect on markets outside of the US too.I think they're missing a trick really, it would be awesome if they introduced a form of subscription model which could subsidise the e-reader too - imagine 'unlimited books' for $40 a month with a free e-reader or something, that'd be awesome :)

Garp

28-06-2010, 19:41

I think they're missing a trick really, it would be awesome if they introduced a form of subscription model which could subsidise the e-reader too - imagine 'unlimited books' for $40 a month with a free e-reader or something, that'd be awesome :)

It was pointed out that the NYT would save money by providing its subscribers with Kindles instead of printing, provided the subscribers were subscribed for more than 2 years I think it was. It seems highly logical to me to do that, just like folks do with mobile phones, stick it in with a pro-rata early termination figure. They'd save money and get to appear pioneering.

Pumpkinstew

29-06-2010, 21:31

What's the availability of eBooks like? Do they all support a common protocol, or do they have to be device specific?

Amazon will try to lock you into a proprietary format I think, but elsewhere the epub format is pretty popular.
Then there's PDF and txt which are resource intensive and a bit short on formatting options.

bam

30-06-2010, 13:46

I picked up a Sony PRS-505 about 2.5 years ago from the US, back when it was 2:1 $:£, for $270, at the time I was travelling weekly and spending 3+ nights away from home, I can honestly say it was invaluable. I had a small library at my finger tips in something the size of a paperback with a battery life measured in weeks.
I really like the screen and the flicker when changing pages doesn't bother me at all, after a while you get used to how long it will take to change page just like you get your finger into the next page when reading a normal book.
Having used an iPad too if my main requirement was a device to read books on I would still buy an eInk based device.

Burble

11-08-2010, 08:27

I'm falling out of love with my eBook reader in a big way.

A recent firmware update has meant that the damned thing is displaying text incorrectly. For example, in a book I just finished reading the word 'smile' would always be displayed as 'sirrle' which was a bit annoying but not a problem as such because it was easy to work out the word based on the context it was used in.

It's definitely the reader at fault because if I open the book on my laptop it is spelt correctly. At first this was a bit annoying, but now it's driving me nuts! I've had to re-read large chunks of a book because I've not been able to work out what the word is.

The other problem is that if I don't exit the book by going back to the books menu, it'll lose my place when either I shut down the reader or it shuts down automatically. That coupled with the slow refresh rate of e-ink screens makes it really frustrating and time consuming to find your place again.

I've been messing about with firmware downgrades but so far haven't managed to get it working. I resorted yesterday to opening the firmware in a hex editor and changing the version number of the older firmware to a higher number but it errors when doing the update saying there is a checksum error. The manufacturer has helpfully said that the reader is now discontinued as they've released a WiFi version.

Looks like I'll be getting myself a Kindle then.

Dymetrie

11-08-2010, 08:39

iphone 3gs is far far too wee. ill update when i get an iphone 4 with a better display.

Loved ebooks on my 3G and love them even more on my IP4.

It's so convenient to have a device which I can use, very easily, with one hand whilst on the tube (the other being used to hold on, of course :D).

And if I get to the end of a chapter with only 5 minutes left before I have to get off then I can quickly switch over to a bit of Bejewelled 2 for the end of my journey! :D

Zirax

15-09-2010, 13:22

It was pointed out that the NYT would save money by providing its subscribers with Kindles instead of printing, provided the subscribers were subscribed for more than 2 years I think it was. It seems highly logical to me to do that, just like folks do with mobile phones, stick it in with a pro-rata early termination figure. They'd save money and get to appear pioneering.

Well this has just hit my radar:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Daily-Telegraph/dp/B0028K2YZO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM&s=digital-text&qid=1284552975&sr=1-1

I'm more of a Times reader normally but they haven't sorted out a kindle version. Now a 3g version with the newspaper automatically sent to you in the morning really appeals. It'll save queuing in the newsagents in the morning. Not sure if it's for me yet as apparently the content isn't all there yet, but £10 a month is not bad pricing! I can see this becoming the future for newspapers though.

Burble

15-09-2010, 13:33

I got a 3G kindle yesterday and it was the newspaper delivery that made me get the 3G version. So fat I've got a trial subscription to the London Evening Standard (£4/month) to see how I get on with it and first impressions are very good.

The kindle is a better reader than the IRiver I had before, no doubt about that.

Stan_Lite

15-09-2010, 13:59

I got subscription to the Times on the iPad. It's fantastic. I don't have to go to a newsagent and I can still get it the month I'm on the rig.

Burble

15-09-2010, 14:57

I think newspaper subscriptions are an excellent idea and a fantastic use for this sort of kit. I sat at lunchtime and read yesterdays Evening Standard and although it does seem a bit lacking to not have the paper in front of me, the convenience more than makes up for that.

Once the Times get their arse in gear and offer a Kindle version I'll be having that.

LeperousDust

15-09-2010, 18:47

Wow that i love the sound of! I'm priced out of the market atm, but it sounds ideal. I use my phone as a lot of people probably do for regular news. Android wise i have a widget with the latest headline i haven't read so i can check quickly. If its counted as BBC "breaking news" i get an alert in the notification area. Otherwise i just open the app via the widget and read whatever articles i want. Its easily my most regularly used widget :)

Burble

15-09-2010, 20:33

One more awesome thing about the Kindle is Whispersync which uploads your current position in your books to Amazon so if you use a Kindle app on another device (like I do with my iPhone) then when you open the book on the other device it'll take you to the point you were on the other device.

(I hate reading on the iPhone though)

Zirax

24-09-2010, 17:15

Mine arrived today and I have to say I'm sold. I am currently running a trial of the Telegraph and it's great so far. I can't say I'm missing the pictures either. Granted in later revisions I hope these are included. For £10 a month you just can't argue.
I was getting rather grumpy with the continual rising costs of the paper versions. Hopefully the times will get on the UK amazon site soon. I would genuinely love to see the distribution figures for the electronic versions.

I think most of my books are now going to be in the ebook format. I'm on the road too much to keep lugging books about. What we need now is for the publishers to start coming around and for someone to start the equivalent of itunes. Amazon have started the ball rolling, now we need another major player. There really is no excuse for the current pricing of the ebooks.

One final point, I'll be getting a leather case to protect it off ebay, £50 or so for an amazon one is taking the proverbial.

Burble

24-09-2010, 20:18

The Kindle is indeed, awesome. I was in Munich most of this week but still had my newspaper 'delivered' over 3G each day. Excellent.

Amazon sell 2 versions of the 'official' case, one at £50 which has a light in and one without for £30. I went for the latter which is still silly money really but I'd rather the thing was well protected as it'll spend a lot of it's life travelling around with me so it'll have a hard life.

Mondo

03-10-2010, 20:29

I love reading on my iPad. As an ereader ot works fine, I have about 40 books stored, and with ibooks and kindle app i can compare prices, download a book anywhere, thousands of free out of copyright books that would cost at least £0.99 in a book shop, like wuthering heights.

You also get free books to tempt you buying more from that author, books that is a start of a series and would have been full price.

With it's built in dictionary, ease of use, the pure practiciality of it wins it over the tactile feel of s real book.

I also have not bougg a real book since i got the iPad, i also read the Guardian a lot more now too, their website has the same article as their paper!!!! It makes buying papers redundant. I was going to subscribe go the Times Newspaper until i realise that.