I've been reading e-books for years now. Don't get me wrong, I do love the feel and weight of a real, dead-tree book. One of the scents that I remember from my childhood was that of musty books, that distinct smell of aged paper that is unlike anything else out there. However, as I grew older, my eyesight got worse and now I need the increased font size to enjoy a book comfortably.
Thus far, I've been using my smartphones or PDAs. My current device of choice is an iPod Touch. I've got Stanza, Bookshelf, Kindle and eReader installed on it as I have e-books in different formats. I'm in the middle of standardizing all my e-books to the .mobi format, or at least the ones that aren't DRMed. Fortunately, I don't have too many of those.
I love my iPod Touch. It's serving me well as my PDA. It does a decent job as an e-book reader but I'm starting to feel fatigue from the backlit and tiny screen. That's no fault of the iPod - it really wasn't designed to handle things like e-books. So, I'm considering getting a dedicated e-book reader like the Kindle. Actually, the Kindle's really the only one in the running although I have a dear friend who works at a Kindle competitor and I'm holding off until I hear back from him, or when the Kindle 2 price drops. Given that the iPads are getting ready to ship, I'm hoping that Amazon will drop the price in the next couple of weeks or so.
To be honest, what I would really like is an iPad. However, it's still a backlit screen which doesn't help my eyestrain. That, and I've learnt not to buy first-generations of any new technology having been burnt in the past. The 6" Kindle 2 appears to be the best bet of the lot. It's a little small for tech docs but I'll be mostly reading for recreation on it so I'm not expecting a problem.
Thoughts, anyone?
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2 comments:
Have you looked into any of the two screen e-readers that have been mentioned.
The ASUS one is supposed to be affordable with two large screens. Might be moving away from nicely portable though.Supposed to have been demoed and CES back in January.
I've looked at both the Sony and Nook e-readers, yes. The Nook's not terribly useful as we have no B&Ns up here. The Sony ones bracket the Kindle in pricing and...just didn't feel right.
The order for a Kindle 2 has been sent. Even if the price drops in response to the iPad, it should be in time for a price adjustment...
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