Ask Engadget: Best gadget to read e-books?
By Paul Miller 
posted May 2nd 2007 12:40AM
posted May 2nd 2007 12:40AM
It's a late night edition of our week of Ask Engadget, complete with that fancy new logo and more of your questions. Like always, send your queries to ask at engadget dawt com, and we'll air the best of 'em here for discussion by your fellow readers. We got some great responses to Dan's question yesterday about HDTV shopping, and now Anna (from Switzerland) wants to know about e-books:"What would be the best PDA or other gadget to buy to read e-books on the go? Is there anything that could be used to read them in PDF format?"
Of course, a couple things pop quickly to mind, but there are several drawbacks to the current crop of e-ink devices, especially with viewing PDF documents -- namely, 8.5 x 11 PDFs become unreadable when sized to most e-ink screens. So what say you guys?
Of course, you could just read real books....
I haven't really found a device that can function as a good eBook reader- I was in the market for a Sony eReader but then realized that the fragile nature of e-ink panels doesn't mix well with any sort of generic carrying device.
P.S.
A brief note on durability. Both of my readers travel with me a LOT. The screens are not that fragile, and I frequently throw them into my flight bag, briefcase or coat pocket. Both the iLead and V8 have extrodinarly resilient screens and I have yet to scratch one so that I could not buff out the scratch.
I personally have and love the iRex iLead e-ink reader. While the screen size is somewhat smaller than 8.5x11, it is nonetheless large enough that I have no trouble reading standard fonts of 8.5x11 pages. Furthermore, iRex has been very supportive of community development on the iLead. My one complaint when I first got it was that it did not support encrypted e-books, leaving one mostly to Project Gutenberg. However they are in the process of releasing Mobipocket support on the reader (this month), removing that worry.
While the iLead is a bit expensive compared to the others, the built in wacom tablet (ability to take notes) and WiFi add significant functionality to the wonderful device.
Finally, while I have an iRex branded one as opposed to the "eFlyBook" branded one, I am a pilot and do keep terminal procedures on the iLead. I cannot state how nice it is to be able to keep thousands of approaches on the iLead so that I never have to worry about being caught out in a storm and not having the correct approach plate with me (I wrote a little script that automatically downloads them as they are released onto a CF card which I slide into my iLead).
I also own a Jinke Hanlin V8. While I do love this as well, and it costs almost $300 less, I would not trade in my iLead for anything out there right now.
Nokia 770 or N800, take your pick. Screen is super-high density and makes text incredibly easy to read. With FBReader you can rotate the screen so the device is in portrait mode and use the rocker buttons on the top to page up and down. Plus, you have a Debian computer in your pocket. :D
Totally agree with Ryan. My 770 is a great e-book reader. The only downside to FBReader is that it can't read .lit files. This is easy to handle using ConvertLIT, which does a good job. You can also stash your books compressed to save space on your mmc. Battery time reading books is fantastic, and sleeping my 770 will last for days.
Like Ryan said, you have a wifi, bluetooth enabled computer to boot, and there are a ton of other great apps for them. The only bad things I've found with my 770 is the processor is a little weak for some ajaxy sites (though gmail works fine) and the handwriting recognition is garbage.
Best of luck! (Pick the Nokia!)
I have been really enjoying the Sony e-book reader with books purchased from the Sony Connect store. Highly readable with a super-long battery life, and no issues so far with screen fragility after many hours traveling. The screen is boring but incredibly readable for purchased/.RTF/.DOC content.
Many PDFs are however too highly designed these days to be very compatible with readers like this, so wouldn't recommend anyone buying it exclusively for this purpose.
I'm actually really happy using my cellphone as an ebook reader. I've used both the Nokia 6600 and the Cingular 8125 (HTC Wizard) for reading ebooks. The screen is pathetically small, but the device is something I already have with me. Thus I carry around a sizable chink of my library in pocket and have access at a moments notice. PDF is somewhat unsuited for ebook-ish setups as you cannot alter the text/margins/etc. to suit the current environment. I use Mobipocket format, and I like it.
I think iriver's is sleek but I don't know a lot about this stuff (I'd like to know more though). Do you guys know of any reader with mp3 support? I've seen some here on engadget but I don't remember which (the iLiad has a headphone jack but I don't know if it plays music file formats).
It only works for text books, but my Palm m500 works great. It isn't powerful enough to do pdf, but with the open source application PalmFiction it can display just about everything else.
Reflective (no backlight necessary when lit) black and white low resolution screen is the bad news. The good news is that the battery life is ridiculously long, you can pick one up on Ebay dirt cheap, and it was the first model Palm produced that used SD cards. An update is required if you want to use cards larger than some arbitrary limit (my 1GB card required it) but it works fine after that.
Sometimes I wish I could have full formatting, particularly for scientific books which are not well suited to this model. However, novels are ideally suited and you can essentially have a library in your pocket.
If you can accept the lack of positional formatting and can get your content into text form (sometimes not a trivial undertaking) then I can't think of anything to recommend over an old black and white Palm.
I used an m505 for a while as my primary reader, and I'll agree that the 500 series are highly useful for inexpensive and portable text reading. Even with the low-res screen, I had the thing going at 6 point font so I could fit more, and it was perfectly readable.
That said, I upgraded eventually to a Palm Tungsten T3, and I don't think I'd go back. The jump from 160x160 to 320x480 is significant; I can fit nearly a page at once in landscape mode, no squinting required, and a 512mb SD card gives me more storage than I'll ever need for books. And it's powerful enough to play SNES games, if you get bored!
As for PDF, forget about it. Readers do exist on the Palm for PDF, but they're kind of ludicrously slow and the resolution just isn't there. Nor will it be on any other platform; I have trouble with PDF on a 1024x768 monitor, never mind a portable.
Software-wise for a Palm, you're best off using TiBR Pro on the Palm (reads PalmDoc, text, and zTxt) and converting to text with a desktop app. If you need pictures, I'd recommend going to HTML and using iSilo Reader, which is a great little program for browsing hypertext. You can actually rip an entire site or a portion thereof into one file and read it like you were on the Web; it's great for commuting.
My solution for reading plaintext and html books and PDF files has been a Palm device called a Tapwave Zodiac. It's the cheapest Palm device you can purchase with a 480x320 screen, running OS 5. Plucker with Sunrise XP handles text documents, web sites and RSS feeds; MetaViewSoft's PalmPDF is acceptable for viewing PDF in half-page wide mode; GrxView Lite for comics and other image-based reading, and all three are available freely.
I use and recommend Bookr on a custom firmware PSP.
PSPs can be had for $169.00 now and can even get as low as $139.00 with rebate (ends tomorrow night I think)
Once you downgrade a PSP to firmware 1.5 then upgrade it to Dark_AleX's custom firmware (3.40 OE-A is the latest) then you can run all kinds of homebrew and Bookr is one of those homebrew apps.
Read about Bookr here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/bookr/
There's screenshots of it in action too. It can read text files and also PDF files. I use the free Windows app ABC Amber LIT Converter to convert .lit eBook files to text files and then copy them over to the PSP.
Bookr is awesome for this and you can even make it so it sets the CPU to a lower speed so it saves on battery power. Very configurable too. You can change background color, text color, font type, font size, etc..etc.
Bookr also does pdf's. and there is pepviewer for comic books or theres a new one out that reads cbr/cbz.
on the lowest setting cpu you can get 20 hours of reading time from a single charge.
I also have an Iliad and am very happy with it too, I've been watching the e-Ink landscape for well over a year and after a lot of research and getting sick of waiting for a better option chose to drop my pennies on the iRex Iliad in March, I haven't been disappointed.
Comments on things I've tried:
Bookr: Good idea, not quite there yet. The PSP's screen is nice, but when it comes to PDFs, there's no right way to orient the screen.
Palm Pilots: Low res means not a lot of text can be put on the screen, and the screens tend not to be too large. Reading PDFs is bad, because first they have to be converted, second, you lose almost everything that makes PDFs nice (portability, highlight/comment marks, bookmarks, print-like layout).
Cell Phone: Small screen, so tons of scrolling. Most commonly owned phones don't support TXT files, let alone PDFs. The "phones" mentioned are more like PDAs than anything else.
Dedicated eBook Readers: The iLiad looks nice, as does the Sony Reader, but they seem expensive. Isn't it possible for someone to make a $100 device with the eInk screen?
My biggest complaint about the e-book landscape is none of these new e-readers supports ereader.com's e-books. I have about 2 dozen ebooks from their site that I've used on my iPaq 4700 and its VGA screen.
Porting those books is a mandatory requirement for any e-book reader I pick up.
Yup, Nokia 770, or N800. Everyone is amazed at all the neat stuff I can do with it, but mostly I think the praise is just because of the wonderful screen.
I have wondered this exact same question. What I really need is something that is essentially an LCD screen with storage. Currently, I read them on my laptop. I've considered getting a tablet PC for this, but I can't find one that I think is thin enough [or that I could turn on its side]. Even if the battery life isn't too hot, I don't read for more than a few hours at a time. I still have no idea what to get.
I want to second Bookr for the PSP. Once you tweak the settings to your liking, it is really the most pleasant reading experience outside of books I've found. Hold it vertically and make the left shoulder button the page-advance so it's right at your thumb, and it's really quite cozy.
But I probably do more reading on my (video) iPod: it's always in my pocket, ready to go with the various books I have on it whenever I get stuck waiting for something. It's not perfect, but the scroll works nicely, and it's always there.
If you need to read PDFs with the formatting intact, then something close to A4 size is really required. I can read PDFs on my Palm PDA (use the freeware palmPDF, not the 'orrible Adobe reader/converter) but it's a pain to have to scroll around the page.
If you're looking for a reader for text-based documents, then a PDA is worth a look. My Palm TX has a great screen, good battery life (as in several hours of continuous use, not days) and, of course, it also plays MP3s and movies and runs thousands of apps and does all the organiser stuff.
The big advantage of a PDA, though, is that it fits in your shirt pocket or purse, so it's easy to always have it with you.
I have to agree with Scott above - I've used my Nokia 6680 for the past two years to read ebooks in mobipocket reader and it's suited me just fine. Before that I used my Palm Vx with CSpot as a reader. I grant you that neither of these would be ideally suited for pdf use although both were capable of having a go :-)
At this moment however, I'm waiting in for the doorbell to ring and the DHL man to deliver my Nokia N95 which should make my reading experience so much more pleasant!
Incidentally, two key PC applications for wrestling down my ebook collection into one format are WavePDB from CNPUG.com and ABC Amber LIT convertor. Both tremendously useful as my collection has grown and devices changed over the years. If anyone can suggest other convertors as useful I'd be interested to hear.
Still searching for the holy eGrail ...
I've been reasonably happy with Sony's eBook Reader (PRS-500) for 'purchased' material. And, hard to believe, I've found some classic science fiction online (ex. ee Doc Smith). As others have mentioned, PDF is pretty awful so far on the device. Small! Even setting the device to L text doesn't help much. I've also found several freebies that do not handle special characters correctly, so I've got a couple books that are so garbled that they cannot be read. Lack of backlighting is annoying and frustrating, but the battery life is really fantastic!
I also have a Nokia N800 that promises to be excellent, but so far hasn't been too very useful. Hard to get content onto the device. And the screen is small, but hi-res. Battery life so so ... even w/o wi-fi on.
Also have a blackberry 8700 that has promise, but alas, pathetic storage for anything but simple text files.
I'll know that the device finally is 'the one' when I can hop into the hot tub with it, or sit in the vicinity with a good story (sorry, too late to get too graphic ... but you rabid readers probably know where I mean).
And a true (legible) standard format for all devices would really be nice ... ah the promise of PDF unrealized ...
I am pretty happy with my Treo 700P as my eReader. I've been reading bookes on my Palm pilot since my Palm IIIc days, and as such I've got a great library going. Also I've been with Ereader.com since it was peanutpress.com and I think they've got the best selection out there. Although the screen size is small on the Treo's, the fact that it's always with me is a huge bonus as I never know when I'm going to have some free time to read for a bit. The screen is bright and crisp and after a bit you get used to reading on the small screen.
To me anything that runs Mobipocket Reader. Mobipocket belongs to Amazon, therefore you get something like iTunes for books, you can buy lots of em for the Mobipocket Reader. Also you can download a converter for free, that lets you convert all sorts of documents, including PDF. It also keeps the images from those documents. You could also, AFAIK, automatically update RSS feeds onto your PDA. Or if you buy a dictionary from them you can automatically translate words with 2 clicks, or get a definition.
I'm using it on my UIQ phone, works great, and I would go for a phone again, because it's just more practical using one device for everything. My choice would be the Meizu M8, when it gets released. The screen has a very high resolution, could be a bit bigger though, but that keeps the device small. It is also a phone. Should run Windows Mobile, so Mobipocket Reader runs on it. And it's a MP3/video player. So all you need is that phone.
I have a Sony Reader which I use 99% of the time. I haven't touched a paper book since last november when I bought it. I also have been known to use my N800 on the occasional PDF. As an everyday book reader the N800 would suffice but it does not excel. The Sony Reader on the other hand I couldn't be without, it goes with me everywhere and is rarely out of arms reach.
If you can find it:
http://www.amazon.com/NEC-LitePad-Tablet-933-MHz-Pentium/dp/B00008MNDW
The NEC Versalite Tablet. One of the first ones ever to come out with decked out specs. Had wireless and everything. I saw one on ebay the other day for 1400 used. But I'm sure you can find them cheaper somewhere...in fact if you do, please email me and let me know.
I don't think a single device will ever serve all needs. Pocket PCs and smartphones are small enough to take wherever you go but suck for displaying PDFs and illustrated text. E-readers and tablets/laptops are better at this kind of content but too large to lug around all the time.
Personally I find that reading novels on my Samsung SCH-i730 (WM5 slider phone w/ 3" screen) is much more convenient than reading an actual book. Not only can I have an entire library in my pocket at all times, the phone is lighter and easier to handle than a book, backlit, has adjustable sized text, is searchable, and never loses my place. Reading linear content on a small screen is much more convenient than you might think. You end up with far more "pages", but it's a nice amount of text for the eye to read and page changes are instantaneous.
For reference materials and the like I prefer to use my tabletPC or desktop computer. I'm sure eReaders are great, but to me they just occupy an awkward middle ground. If they're big enough to display a full sized page, they're probably not a whole lot smaller than the TabletPC which is more versatile.
There really are a number of alternatives out there.
My first e-book reader was on a Palm VX, then a Dell Axim Pocket PC and now my tablet pc.
Both Adobe and Microsoft have a portable version of their readers and of course eReader has always been there when it was called Palm Reader (or something like that). MobiPocket also has a portable version. Haven't tried any on a Symbian OS phone though but I'm sure they are out there.
Any Treo can handle e-books as well as Windows Mobile.
I have the pro version of eReader ($9.95 USD), the free Microsoft Reader (free download from MS) and Adobe Reader (comes free on every computer) as well as MobiPocket (also free). With the four I pretty much have it covered for most books available.
If you sign up for the eReader and MobiPocket e-newsletters, they issue discount codes at least once a week. And a trick I use is to comparison shop. Amazon may have the book listed as an Adobe file but that doesn't mean it's not available in any other format. With the discount code from eReader or MobiPocket, you can usually get it at least 10 - 15% (sometimes more) cheaper.
My library will let you download e-books from their web site like borrowing a hard copy from the library.
Also, all the e-readers let you do some sort of highlighting, bookmarking or adding notes to the book and they are searchable.
The real problem is that book publishers still have yet to really get behind the concept. It seems like a no-brainer to me. You are in the book selling business, why not sell as many books as you can?
All of the e-book reader apps have some sort of DRM, publishers should just pick one. Or pick all three (or four or however many there are).
You'd be surprised how many books are NOT available in electronic form. I really thought this would take off more than it has (maybe now with the Sony Reader?). With e-books, you can literally have a plethora of books always at hand for your reading pleasure without the bulk or forgetting them on the bus or whatever.
What book publisher shouldn't want to sell you something to read?
Anyway ...
Nowadays I only use my tablet pc because of the bigger screen and being able to read in portrait mode. But when I used the smaller devices, they were very readable on the screen and always with me :)
My two cents anyway.
another vote for the trusty smartphone, always have it, small, backlit, not great for pdfs but its great for books.
I use my Palm Tungsten T3 for ebooks. Even downclocked it can handle anything I throw at it.
I have 3 devices at the moment for this purpose :
- i used to use a Vadem Clio 1050 Windows CE HPC to read all sort of document and ebook. the device was wonderful. it has 8" or 9" LCD, big enough to display PDF file, bright colour screen, battery life of about 8-10 hours, lighter than lightest laptop, can be viewed vertically or horizontally. PDF support can be hit and miss though, because it doesn't have enough RAM to display complex PDF. unfortunately when i had to bring laptop to work, it became rather cumbersome to lug it around, and it is not exactly easy to handle with 1 hand. so move to next.
- second device i had was an HP Jornada 360 LX. good to read text ebook as the screen was quite wide, very light, battery life was wonderful, around 15 hours or so. PDF was difficult to read though since the screen was not big enough. had fun with for about a year or so, but when i moved, i was forced to stand in the train all the way to work. the Jornada became very heavy after 30 minutes on 1 hand ;). so next ..
- back to my old and trusty handspring visor palm os based pda. good enough to read text ebook, battery life was the best feature. i can go up to 20-30 hours on a pair of rechargable AAA. besides, handling with one hand is as easy as can be. but of course file format support is limited with what you can convert nicely to pdb or prc file.
OK i'm a cheapskate :)
but the point is you have to think of what, where and how you are going to read it to determine the right device for you. big A4 device might be good to read PDF files, but if you are going to handle it with 1 hand, then think twice as eventhough it is very light at the beginning, but the form factor is not really suitable for 1 hand handling. not really a problem for 2 hand handling though.
on the other hand, small device is wonderful for 1 hand handling but it is not really suitable for PDF files reading.
phew .. thats my 2 cents.
I have the X41 tablet and Toshiba M200- both tablet PCs.
And I don't recommend getting a tablet PC for reading books for the following reasons.
1. Although X41's battery life is pretty good, it's still not enough for reading... same can be said for all laptops.
2. Viewing angle on M200 is awful. X41 is okay but still you can't read it very well with low brightness if you're in a well lit area. And then there's the fluorescent light reflection.
3. Weight- while X41 is not heavy for a laptop, it's still too heavy for reading what would otherwise be a few pages of journal articles.
4. Reading text for too long on LCD can be an eyesore.
5. It's extremely distracting to read and study while internet is accessible on the computer.
For these reasons I'm really waiting for a bigger version of iliad that will hopefully be available by the time I go to medical school.
By the way, iliad users- do you think it'll be useful for a medical student?
I intend to read mostly pdf files for journal articles and books... and those books tend to go over 1000 pages with lots of colorful pictures (color I can do without until they make color e-ink).
I'm intrigued by the wacom tablet integration though... is it comparable to tablet pc's?
In response to the med student
As I mentioned, I use the iLiad for approach plates, which are images. The tablet is nice because it allows you to notate right on top of the pdfs. Furthermore, the "scribble" function is real time that is to say there is no perceptible lag between making a stroke with the pen, and the stroke appearing.
I order some A5 papers from a print shop which are white and lite. The print shop also punch the holes in the paper so I can just put them on my notebooks.
I print them out, but my problem is the printer can not print duplex on A5, I can only print manually. If some one can suggest a good printer can print duplex on A5 (my paper is a little thin for some printer also), I will be much appreciate d.
I'm using for the last two years a DELL X50v (for VGA), nearly exclusively for book reading.
Of course, no pdf.
for software, I'm using gowerpoint's µbook.
VGA on a 3.7" screen is quite nice.
The iliad irex reader seems nice, but does it has backlit ? And is the luminosity adjustable ? Most of my ebook reading is a night in the bedroom : no other lights, and the ereader must not awake the wife.
I recommend my Nokia 7710, with its bright, high resolution (640 x 320) screen and pdf.
Several have mentioned the N800, and I'm sure that would be a sweet gig.
For years I used my monochromed Palm m500 with it's nice backlight for reading, and still recommend the device, but now I've moved on to my Palm TX. The widescreen, along with eReader, provide a nice reading experience in both landscape and portrait modes. To boot, the Palm platform has hundreds of freeware programs in it's library, a result of having been the top dog in the PDA world once upon a time for a long time, and still being endeared to users now. Making it do whatever you want can happen for far less money than most similarly speced devices.
Adobe supports the palm platform, and so has pdf support for it.
Use your PDA. I have a sprint 6700 and it is primarily where I read. It is what I have with me and it is my preference even when I have paper because you never read a book in on sitting. And paper does not have auto-scroll.
About PDF. It is for document sharing not reading. Never use PDF for reading. There are hard page breaks! Import it into Mobipocket or another format and read it that way.
I use MS Reader and purchase books from ebooks.com. I always have a couple stored on my storage card and read when I can. I has helped me reconnect with reading novels. I also like the interactive dictionary (highlight and look up), bookmarking, and highlighting features. This was a function that I didn't even consider when I went pocketPC Phone 3 years ago but something I use everyday now!
Not quite a direct answer, but RepliGo is a very good reader - I print my PDFs to repligo format and there's a reader for lots of platforms, even Nokia series 60 phones. I use it on my TMobile MDA (HTC Hermes) at the moment.
As a not-so-proud owner of an old Rocket eBook and an REB 1200 I’m through trying to find a decent eBook reader. The latest incarnations are no better. They are expensive, fragile and who knows how long the service will last (Gemstar?). I use eReader on my PowerBook 12”. What is needed is a company that actually uses the product it develops and not charge an arm and a leg for it.
I'm another Mobipocket/cellphone user (TMobile MDA WinMo 6)
Mobipocket is just a fantastic format and the reader software is fairly lightweight and VERY quick on my device.
I use Mobipocket mainly because NY Public Library lends ebooks in that format. They also lend in protected PDF, and I get angry when a book is only offered in that format. PDF SUCKS ASS for protected ebooks...Adobe has some ridiculous mishmash of software that SHOULD allow me to read them, but I haven't figured it out yet...and now there seems to be some sort of Flash "Digital Editions" software that's supposed to open my "library," but my downloaded books never show up. And of course -- no way to send them to my MDA.
I started off using Vertical Reader with my HP200LX, and it made for a pretty nice reading experience. Then I got CSPot for my first set of Palm devices, and I currently use Palm Reader as my ebook reader on my Treo 700p. I have read a lot of books with this.
I started reading e-books on the Palm platform in 1997 on a Palm III. I've been through Handspings, Palms, and Clies. The best all around has been the Clie PEG-SL10. B&W, it has a memory stick slot and uses AAA batteries. I have tried handhelds with Li-Ion batteries but they always die at inopportune times. The best part about the SL10 is it can be had on ebay for as low as $10. I have one I use regularly and keep two as spares. ;)
I have to say my standard for a reader may be a little different than others. I don't want to carry anything extra. Which is why I have purchased the HP Ipaq 6315 phone a couple years back. It has the largest touch screen I have seen on a cell phone, brilliant screen, long battery life, adjustable fonts, contrast, and formats, windows mobile, a media reader, pdf reader, MS Word, and an SD card reader which can store up to 4 gigs these days. I have read nearly a hundred books on it, I have listened to thousands of mp3's, watched a couple movies, taken many pictures (albeit lousy quality) surf the web hourly, and I even make phone calls from time to time. In my opinion it is not a matter of which extra device to carry around, it's how to pick the right pocket pc that will allow you to do everything you want to do, without having to lug around several devices. Because honestly who knows when you are going to want to pull out your phone and read your favorite e-book. If you haven't seen it, trust me the screen is large enough to be comfortable for even the most irratable eyes. It is two years old, so the technology is old these days, even though the iphone has taken the same features and is claiming to be cutting edge technology. The moment I find a real upgrade to this phone, I'll be purchasing it, at any cost. Email me if you have any questions.
A Slate-type tablet pc is good. A convertible tablet pc adds the keyboard's weight. You can remove cd\dvdrom on the slate (if any) to shove some weight. Besides you can do other things to a tablet.
I must also recommend the Nokia N770 and N800. I have both, and use them pretty much for just E-Books. If you turn off the Wifi and dim the screen a bit, you get longer battery life. You can also find very inexpensive battery replacements, and chargers on EBay. I've found that getting files on the device is simple, and have read hundreds of books on the device. I had originally been interested in Sony E-ink devices, but the cost, DRM restrictions, and lack of backlight (can't read at night on a plane, for example) have prevented me from doing so. Finally, if you need something more, you can watch a movie or surf the web with the device (2x 2gb cards!). Anyway, that's a bit more than my 2 cents...
Because regular books are so 15th century...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg
Nokia N800, definitely. I used to have a Palm m505, loved that too, but now it's outdated, unfortuntely. The Nokia N800 has two memory card slots, a VERY good screen, reads PDF:s very fast (zooming the text is no problem), plus it has WiFi (i.e email and web browsing), games, radio, and so on. Since it's a Linux system you get more and more applications for it all the time. And: it's not extremely expensive, at least not compared to many other gadgets. Still it's relatively small and easy to carry around even in a tiny handbag.
Electrovaya Scribbler 3100 Tablet PC. 12.1 inch screen lets you read a PDF at 100%, while not being much bigger than a hardback book (.75 inches thick). Nub lets you flip through pages without having to use the pen. Runs Windows Vista too, supports up to 2.25 gigs of RAM, 2.5 inch HDD. Very pricey if you're just looking for an ebook reader, pretty decent if you're looking for a tablet or laptop.
I have an ancient Ipaq 3650 ...
and it is primarily my ebook reader for MS Reader format books.
Adobe Acrobat is pretty much unreadable.
MS Word/Rich Text Files are fine, I just don't like them for ebook reading.
haven't tried mobireader or the other various pocket formats...
but the great thing about this ancient piece of hardware is that I can use it in all of its full blown pda functionality, plus mp3's and videos, plus have the expandability of compactflash....
My wife's favorite is the backlighting.. so I can read through my insomnia without turning on a light in the room.
she found it real cheap on ebay almost 4 years ago, it can only get cheaper, right?
To the 6600 and Wizard guy: ouch. I feel your pain. I alternate between those two as phones, but I hate trying to read anything on them.
The Zodiac is the best Palm OS device by far, but you need to install third-party fonts to read ASCII text formatted for 80 columns.
The Nokia N800 is dream. I still had to futz with the fonts, but the pixel density is insane. Unlike the Zodiac, small point sizes are actually readable. The screen is the perfect size, as big as it can be and still fit in your pocket. And unlike all these other devices, the web browser isn't painful to use.
Another option is to eBay up a Fujitsu Stylistic tablet pc. I have one (3500 model), and while I don't use it for ebooks, I do use it to surf (added pcmcia wireless card), connect it up to my car stereo for mp3's, use gps software when I need to, etc. At around $250 for these kinds of specs; 500mhz processor, 256 meg ram, 15gig hd, 10.4" screen (1024x768), it's pretty darn cheap. It runs Windows 2000, so make sure your software will work with that. Another bonus is the ATI video driver includes screen rotation so you could go portrait if you wanted too. It even has a built in mic and speaker, so I loaded up Skype and make calls with it as well (makes a decent speaker phone that way, it also has a line out and mic ports if you want to use a headset with it).
Sony Reader is the bomb nizzle... One of it's best features is the ability to listen to music while you read. Storage is fantastic, I have a 4 gig mem stick I'll never fill up in mine. It's been in my "man purse" for the last year and 17 countries, with not a bit of damage to show for it. And the battery lasts for... months? I think I've only charged it 5 or 6 times. Now if Auduble would get on the bandwagon, I could keep all my audiobooks and e-books together...
I;ve been reading ebooks on my Axim X50v for years, its great on the VGA screen and with storage only limited by the size of my cards, I'm carrying around an entire library to choose from at any given time. Plus it does any format I care to install a reader for. So far I like eReader the best.
I use the HTC Advantage and the 5" VGA screen makes for a great e-reader. I think it's probably the best e-reader experience you'll get at the moment without a tablet or dedicated e-book device.
I had one of the Rocket eBooks way back when and I even upgraded it to a Gemstar book when they had their fire sale. Now ebookwise.com is selling the Gemstar-style books and content for them. I love the size, battery life and the screen size on the (now) eBookwise reader, and I'd almost rather read it than a paper book.
Add another vote to the Tablet PC column. Any decent e-book reader has to have a screen supporting portrait orientation. Too much time is spent scrolling otherwise. Look for something that weighs less than 2 kg.
When you get tired of e-books, you can get your newspapers from http://www.newsstand.com (one way to make the Sunday edition of the New York Times weigh less!!! Also New Scientist is an awesome magazine) and magazines from http://www.zinio.com. Zinio's even selling McGraw-Hill textbooks now.
Other devices, such as PDAs, do not let you run applications like Newsstand and Zinio.
I haven't tried a UMPC, but I have my doubts about whether the minimum resolution of 800 x 400 would cut it. If you can find a UMPC running Vista with a high-resolution display, that would definitely be worth checking out.
Sony Reader.
If you're comfortable with your computer (and I expect anyone doing the early-adopter thing with ebooks is,) use RasterFarian to reformat your PDF's.
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10402&highlight=rasterfarian
It takes an A4 PDF and runs it through a bunch of filters to make it very legible. If you have trouble with small text, it can break up a PDF's pages; so half a page of the PDF will display at one time, landscape. It looks and works better than I can describe it.
Any other text you can get into .RTF (damn near anything) it rocks on as well.
Big votes here for the Rocket eBook/RCA ebook/EbookWise/whatever iteration you can get. Sure its clunky and a bit heavier than PDAs available but the screen is very crisp for reading text/HTML and the battery life is great. Don't like the font? It takes any TrueType font you throw at it. I've read HUNDREDS of books on my readers and paper books just piss me off now. They don't glow so I can't read in bed after my wife has gone to sleep! Thats the major downfall to eInk to me, the lack of backlighting. (And the fact the readers are $500+ when you can get an EbookWise for $99.
http://www.ebookwise.com/
http://pics.spoon.org/Hardware/eBooks.jpg
http://pics.spoon.org/Hardware/eBook-text.jpg
But don't they limit you to what you can read? Don't you have to limit your book purchases to their website?
I have to also agree with the Sony eReader
Very impressed. Sadly it can VIEW PDF's but not well the dot pitch is just too low with the grayscale screen. What makes it suck is its SOOO CLOSE just a tiny bit more resolution and it would do it !! its not screen size its actual resolution. 800x600 at this level is not enough it needs 1024x768 OR higher color levels.
For everything else it rocks !! RTF TXT PDF are all native NO software needed POP the SD or MS card into a reader DUMP your files onto it and STICK it back in the player (this was a mandatory requirement for me to purchase)
I have been VERY happy with it.
eReader.com has a very wide selection of e-books for sale at decent prices, and a reasonable DRM approach. They have free readers that run on Palm, Windows Mobile, Windows, and Mac OSX. They also have a free utility that can format text files for any of the eReaders; this works great, for example, with the free e-books at Gutenberg.org.
I have been using eReader with a Sony Clie Palm device for years. It's easier to read than an actual book, because it is so easy to hold and bookmark. Any supported portable device with good screen resolution will work well, because you can adjust font sizes. Keep in mind that PDFs make font sizes tiny on a typical tiny portable screen; eReader doesn't work that way.
For a device, anything you already carry with good screen resulton - say 480x320 like my Clie or 320x320 like my old Clie - will work great. Or buy a used Clie or a new or used Tapwave Zodiak inexpensively. Or get a new or used Palm TX.
Mobileread has an overview of currently available E Ink devices: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix
Looks like there is the iLiad, and then all the others who share similar screen characteristics.
I'm very happy with my Sony Reader, but then, I don't try to read A4 PDF files on its 6" screen. (shrug)
If anyone is interested in a really in depth exploration of the various e-readers out there, they would do well to have a look at the e-book devices forums over at MobileRead.com
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=50
There's even a forum specifically on which one to buy. :)
I use my Dell Axim X50v in Hires mode (480X640) and either Tiny Reader or Mobi Reader to read E-book formats every day. I have a small library on my 2GB SD card and love every minute of it. For around $300, the pocket PC is one of the best readers available. My 70+ year old mother has an Axim X30 and uses it for the same reason, as does my brother. (My sister hates the concept and prefers paper... heh)
I've used the Gemstar REB1200 ebook for years and love it. It is a little substantial in size and weight (about the size and heft of a college text book - well maybe not that heavy) but the screen is amazingly easy to read, with a decent card you can store tons of books, and the backlighting is amazing. As the other person mentioned above, it's perfect for reading in bed after the wife is asleep.
The problem being, they are now out of business, but eBookWise has taken up the torch and is selling the old Gemstars (1200 is the larger one, the other old gemstar is the paperback book size one) as their own brand now.
The other downside is the loading of other type of content, but there are pdf converters which makes it a snap to purchase a pdf book, convert, and upload to your ebook (tho I just found out about that yesterday so I don't know how to do that yet).
All in all, the best device I've used. The Hanlin's look very appealing, but the lack of backlite will keep me from eInk for some time to come.
For years I am using Palms with ReadThemAll software. It has a great scroll feature where you can just read the text from top to bottom of the screen and then just start reading from the top again - the next page will be already be there. Great feature - you can cuddle with your reader in the most comfortable position and you do not need to press any buttons at all.
I use a first gen CyBook reader. Poor battery life and a slight flicker in the screen. But it's a 8"x10" screen which holds more than a standard hardback page (and is color). What I want nobody makes. The Irex Ilead comes closest. The Iriver prototype looks good, (the clamshell one mentioned in engaget back in January) but only if it had screens the Irex size. Let me list the spec
's I'd like to see.
One - at least a 6"x9" screen and at least 1024x768 rez. Yes, it makes it big, but I can't imagine reading say on a PDA sized screen. For those who can, you've better eyes than me, Gunga Din.
Two - STANDARD REPLACEABLE BATTERIES. Like AA or AAA. Lithium batteries tend to die in 5 years or so, no matter what the use. And after 5 years, good luck finding a replacement battery. Standard rechargable NiMH don't have as much storage, but when die, I can buy a replacement anywhere and keep on reading. Furthermore, my purchase lasts longer than the battery it came with.
Three - A detachable cover, or a heavy leather cover to protect the screen. My CyBook has a nice leather cover, and the Iriver prototype solves the problem neatly with a clamshell design.
Four - It must have a flash card reader so you can load my books onto a card which can be copied and stuffed into offsite storage. That way, if you lose your reader, you can just buy another, and make a dup of your backup. No sweat.
A final note - reading in the dark is nice, but the ability to have your library with you is a luxury beyond price...
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned this yet. I still use my Newton MessagePad 2100 for the purpose of reading books & documents quite frequently. The screen is the size of a normal paperback and although there's no anti-aliasing of the fonts, it does work very well.
Pros:
- Very long battery life (I get about a month out of my Li-Ion rechargeable batteries).
- Easy to read grayscale screen, especially outdoors.
- The green backlight is very comfortable for reading in the dark for long periods of time.
- You can write/sketch on the book (depending on the format) and toggle your annotations on or off.
- Lots of classics have already been converted for the Newton (see http://www.newtonslibrary.org/, http://www.stillnewt.org/library/, and http://www.unna.org/) or can be converted on the fly.
- Many other formats can be converted on the fly, including: text, HTML), and LaTeX.
- You can read Newton Book packages in Firefox.
- Can be upgraded to use Compact Flash using ATA Support drivers.
- Is a pretty functional PDA with excellent handwriting recognition.
- There's an extensive collection of software available over at UNNA and an excellent community at NewtonTalk.
Cons:
- Bootstrapping a Newton can require jumping through quite a few hoops today (once done, transferring files is easy, but synchronizing data is nearly impossible).
- If the book's not already available in a Newton-compatible format, you may have to jump through more hoops to get there.
- PDF? Mmmm, not so much. You have to convert to HTML, RTF, TXT, etc., before you can try to move it over.
- Other e-book formats? Also a pain in the ass, or frequently not possible.
- It's older technology and hardware, so expect it to be a labour of love or don't bother.
So, while I, and many others, use a Newton for eBooks daily, you'll want to do a lot of research and soul searching before you go that route. But if you do and you love it... it's hard to pick up another PDA/E-book reader.
I couldn't live without my REB 1100, which will take any html file I feed it. There are two font sizes (small for ordinary reading, large for when my eyes are tired), a screen that will let you turn the device any direction for comfort or convenience, and backlight you can adjust to conditions. With a 64 mg card added, it will hold hundreds of books. It's a little heavy, but one gets used to that.
I also read on a Palm TungstenE. It lives in my purse and so I always have books with me, no matter where i go. the biggest reason I got it for reading is that occasiionally I buy an encrypted (boo, hiss!) book, and so I can't read them on the REB.
When my REB dies, I plan to replace it with the eBookwise, which is also an excellent device.
I use an old Nokia 9210 Communicator (9290 in United States)
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_9210_communicator-210.php
with Epocware´s Ebook Reader for Nokia Communicator.
http://nokia-9500-software.epocware.com/eBook_Reader.html
Is very rugged, hardly fits in a pocket, but it does fit.
You can think of it as a compact and stilished version of the HP Jornada 720 (with phone). You can hold the device and scroll the ebook with only one hand.
Probably my next ebook reader will be the Nokia 9300i communicator with Wifi.
This device is like the 9210, but thinner, slimmer, lighter and far more functional.
http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Page=2&Id=1459
The best thing is the screen aspect ratio. 640 x 200 pixels @ 110 x 35 mm,
wich i found the ideal resolution to read ebooks in a small device, because is wide enough, and the most of the time is ok to see only a portion of the page.
While this kind of device is perfect for txt documents, is a disaster for pdf.
Btw this two phones are probably the only ones in the market that can handle fax.
I honestly can't consider an ebook reader because I can't use it during airplane travel. the half hour, if things go smoothly, at take off and landing are times when I can take refuge in a book.