I have been using a iRex Digital Reader 1000s for a couple of weeks now, and even though it has some major drawbacks that people here have commented also on Kindle (slow page turning, slow loading, skyhigh price..) I still got stuck on it and with a couple of developments I would get one myself. Many criticized annotating on Kindle, and yes even though it's not as flexible with annotations fed in with keyboards, it has an advantage over the digital pen/stylus feeding of iRex: you can search your annotations. Being able to search through text (including my annotations) is actually one of my main arguments for having an electronic reader. Blooy and Homeboy pointed out that students read mostly by scanning and speed reading, well, yes that is the way you search through text with a traditional book, but, i you can search certain words and phrases, you might even be quicker. It has worked well for me, I prefer reading all documents, articles etc even books electronically from my laptop just for that reason. Why I like the reader, is that it's still more comfortable to hold than my macbook when reading and because it's better for my eyes.
I know there's a long way to go to make these devices "perfect" and really usable, but I don't think it takes that long. I would prefer e-reader in notebook-form, with sheets of electronic paper bound together, to increase the feeling of paper and enabling the affordances of paper in navigating through the pages. Anyone know anything about solution like that?
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I have been using a iRex Digital Reader 1000s for a couple of weeks now, and even though it has some major drawbacks that people here have commented also on Kindle (slow page turning, slow loading, skyhigh price..) I still got stuck on it and with a couple of developments I would get one myself. Many criticized annotating on Kindle, and yes even though it's not as flexible with annotations fed in with keyboards, it has an advantage over the digital pen/stylus feeding of iRex: you can search your annotations. Being able to search through text (including my annotations) is actually one of my main arguments for having an electronic reader. Blooy and Homeboy pointed out that students read mostly by scanning and speed reading, well, yes that is the way you search through text with a traditional book, but, i you can search certain words and phrases, you might even be quicker. It has worked well for me, I prefer reading all documents, articles etc even books electronically from my laptop just for that reason. Why I like the reader, is that it's still more comfortable to hold than my macbook when reading and because it's better for my eyes.
I know there's a long way to go to make these devices "perfect" and really usable, but I don't think it takes that long. I would prefer e-reader in notebook-form, with sheets of electronic paper bound together, to increase the feeling of paper and enabling the affordances of paper in navigating through the pages. Anyone know anything about solution like that?