Author: John Thompson
Date:   11-17-09 08:50

Hi. I'm trying to find out about eReaders and what people who actually own them think of them. Are they easy to use? Can you put .PDF files on them easily? Apparently the Kindle only allows you to read books bought from Amazon. Is that true? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

John Thompson
www.iPublish-net.com

Author: Jeanne Gassman
Date:   11-17-09 11:10

John,

You're in luck. Part of my graduation lecture for my MFA in Writing is on e-readers. Some things about e-readers you might want to know:

The two most popular e-readers are the Kindle DX and the Sony Reader. The Kindle DX is a larger version than the older Amazon Kindle and is promoted as having a more viewable screen. Amazon uses a proprietary format (meaning you can't copy works from the Kindle to your computer or other devices). All text is black-and-white, and there are limitations to downloading graphics and/or photos. For example, some Kindle versions of books don't include the actual graphs but summaries of the graphs. You can make notes on the Kindle, but the notes may not show up on the same page as the text. The Kindle doesn't use page numbers. You find "sections," making it difficult to use a Kindle version for any type of formal paper. Readers have to push buttons to change screens. There are two pending lawsuits against Amazon over the Kindle from the American Council of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind, both claiming the Kindle discriminates against the visually impaired. Apparently, the Kindle has a read-aloud feature, but you have to be able to see to activate it. :)

The Sony E-reader offers a touch screen, 3G wireless access, and open formatting. Users claim it's easy to upload PDF files. This e-reader also has a black-and-white screen. Amazon has more titles available than Sony, though.

Barnes & Noble has recently introduced the Nook, another generation of E-readers. B&N purchased Fictionwise last year and plans to release over 700K titles for the Nook. You will be able to browse book choices in the B&N store, even preview a few chapters, I believe. The Nook has a touch screen, wireless downloading features, and color selection panel. The text, however, is in black-and-white. The Nook was supposed to be available this month but has been delayed until Dec. I don't know if that's good or bad news. B&N is also offering downloads for your I-pod, I-touch, and Blackberry.

Two other E-readers of note are the I-Rex and the ASUS. The I-Rex has a touch screen and has contracted with B&N to market their books in their stores. The I-Rex can download most formats, including PDF.

The ASUS is a leap forward from the I-Rex. It has a hinged dual screen that folds shut (much like a printed book). The dual screens are in color, making it a good choice for books with photos, graphs, illustrations, etc. In addition to the usual wireless features, ASUS includes a mic for Skype, the cheap Internet phone service. ASUS is also one of the cheapest E-readers out there: Advertised prices list it for under $200.

My neighbor has a Kindle DX, and he was kind enough to allow me to play with it a bit. I was unimpressed. The push-button page turning is annoying and rather clunky. This is just my personal opinion, but the product reminded me of an Etch-A-Sketch with text. If you're shopping for an E-reader, I would advise you to Google the product names I've mentioned, and shop around. Take your time. The E-reader is evolving fast (I've had to update my lecture several times in the past three months alone!), and the prices are coming down. I think Sony, in particular, hopes to make their E-reader a big Christmas item, but the competition may be too stiff (both in terms of features and price).

Hope that helps.

Jeanne

Author: James Duffy
Date:   11-17-09 17:32

My son gave me and my wife a Sony Reader last Christmas. We share it, so we swap back and forth between the Sony and traditional books. I love the fact that it holds so many books at one time. When we travel, we just load up with 3 or 4 new titles and we're good for a few weeks. Since I do much of my reading in bed at night, I love that it has a built in light. Now the room stays darker so my wife can get to sleep easier while I'm reading, or vice-versa. We have the touch-screen version, which has less contrast than the non-touch screen version or the Kindle. That's the only thing I wish was a better on it-- the contrast. But the touch screen allows us to make notes with a small built-in pen. This comes in handy when I'm proofing a new manuscript I wrote. Rather than work with large reams of paper, I load it in, read comfortably, and highlight text to change with the pen. All in all, I'd recommend it.

Author: Josh Lemay
Date:   11-20-09 20:03

I'm a discount member for Barnes&Noble and they've sent me quite a few e-mails about the Nook. It seems very nice. Obviously they're biased, but point for point, most everything about the Nook is better than the Kindle as far as their graphs are concerned.

Aside from that, I believe they have a few Nooks in most of the stores, too. This is really nice, since you can see what you're buying and play around with it before you do. If you want to check out what it looks like, take a stop by your nearest B&N and ask about it. As far as I am lead to believe, the Nook will have in store specials along with it, too. And the fact that the Nook can "loan" books to other Nook users is a really nice addition(neither the Kindle nor the Sony Reader can do that). You can loan one of your eBooks for a specified amount of time and it'll automatically come back to you/be deleted from your friends then. I assume, through this, you might be able to buy your friends a book and then send it to them through your Nook permanently, too. Or at least if you can't, I bet it'll be a feature in the future since it seems obvious.

I read Piers Anthony's newsletter on his website every month and he had one mentioning the Kindle and the Sony Reader(he bought both, to see how they were). Him and his wife both prefer the Kindle, although he did say there were some pluses about the Sony Reader(the .pdf usage and a few other things). The Nook hadn't come out at that time, though. Who knows if he'll grab one and check it out(I assume not, since three similar devices is sort of overboard).