So Misguided

Wired magazine did an interesting round-up of e-book readers (old crappy ones not included).

Wired blog: e-book readers

The list includes:
Amazon Kindle
HanLin eReader V3
Sony Reader PRS-505
iRex Iliad
Bookeen Cybook Gen3
Seiko-Epson
Fujitsu
NUUT NP-601

Sony Reader apparently looks the nicest. iRex is powerful and practically an e-ink Tablet PC ($700). Bookeen, which I’d never heard of but was recently introduced to by Bruce Batchelor (thanks Bruce), is noted as the lightest and thinnest. Watch the Bookeen video to see how lithe it is. And the Seiko-Epson, Fujitsu and NUUT are not currently available in North America.

I predict that 2008 or early 2009, I’ll be using some device that lets me read ebooks and more. Maybe iPhone will come to Canada. Maybe there will be a fab new device developed that does everything I want. Maybe I’m crazy.

Posted by Monique at 11:41 AM. Filed under: Books • News • Technology •

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i saw the sony reader in seattle recently; border’s had a display unit that you could use and handle. it is pretty too luck at, nice to hold, and the screen was frankly amazing. i actually thought the screen was paper until i picked it up and started using it. no glare, easy on the eyes.

the big problem was the speed. “turning” a page was so slow that it interrupted the flow of your reading, and cruising through the menus was also frustrating. there was enough lag that you start to wonder if the button you pushed actually registered with the device (so you push it again). disappointing, because i was otherwise completely sold on it.

susie.

If you have a cell phone there is no need to wait for Kindle or iPhone. Modern middle of the road cell phones make great eReaders. What you give up on screen size you more than get back in portability and not having to spend $400. If you have internet connectivity you can install straight to the phone. I get free books from http://www.booksinmyphone.com

I’ve been playing with a slightly earlier version of the Sony. It’s OK, but not something I’d buy with my own money. Reading books from Sony’s e-book store is quite pleasant, but it doesn’t play well with material sourced from anywhere else. While it can display pdfs, Word documents, and plain text files, they usually fall somewhere between being a bit mangled and being completely unreadable.

The Iliad looks pretty tempting, though, especially if they can bring the price down a bit. I’d pay $500 for one, but not much more.

Hmm, good tips. Thanks for filling me in on your experiences. I haven’t seen the new e-ink yet so it’s cool that it is that convincing.

I do read news on my current phone but I could definitely upgrade the phone. It’s a bit hard to read off of and I certainly couldn’t read a full book on it. The screen is too small and I’m a fast reader. It’s a bad experience overall. (Ok for news but that’s about it. Completely frustrating to even look at movie listings and descriptions—that’s more a site problem though.)

I actually don’t find the page-turn on the Sony to be that bad. It’s disorienting when you first see it (in order to refresh, the screen has to quickly flash a negative image of the page) but in practice you learn to ignore it very quickly—just like you don’t notice the process of turning pages in print. I’m about 100pp into my first book on the Reader and it’s no longer an issue for me. The more troubling aspect of the screen is its tendency to ghost—trace images of the two or three most-recently-viewed pages always remain visible. Still, it’s early days for this stuff, and it’s a much more satisfying reading experience than squinting at an LCD.

The menu system isn’t much fun, though—fortunately you spend so little time in it that it’s not a deal-killer.

Wow, very useful tips.

I’m interested in ebook things and these help a lot.

Thanks.

I like the Sony reader the best for now.  However, I am still not convinced that e-book readers are here to stay.  Look at how thin Apple Air is.  I would rather have a fully functional ultra-thin notebook than an e-book reader.