Thoughts on the eBook reader

[seeline]

Nice find, funkogre!

I wonder why they would need or want a patent to place ads within the text of a book. My guess is that they plan to change the ads periodically (like maybe every day!), so that maybe your purchase is not static.

You might want to check out the situation a bit more carefully, GA. The proposal also included "real," printed books.

[GA Russell]

Clave, why do you think that a patent would be necessary to place ads in a "real" book?

[seeline]

i have no idea! i think it's crazy.

[GA Russell]

Clave, you did me a real favor by putting me on to the MobileRead forum site. I go to it every day.

*****

Amazon has given (again, without warning or permission) the personal information of their Kindle customers to publishers such as the Wall Street Journal.

http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle/forum/ref...Type=tagsDetail

*****

Today's Guardian says that eBooks have reached their tipping point.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/1...m-ebooks-kindle

*****

Here's a video of an interesting eBook reader called the jetBook which uses an LCD screen rather than eInk. Pretty impressive.

[seeline]

I haven't had a chance to check your links yet, but I'm thinking "Eh" about B&N, as they're using encryption (DRM), too.

[GA Russell]

Here's a great (IMHO) article about the "explosive growth" of eBook sales.

http://www.idealog.com/blog/ebook-growth-e...ound-the-corner

[seeline]

Thanks for the link, GA!

I think that if (or maybe "when") Sony, B&N and Amazon (or any combination thereof) finally see the light and ditch DRM, things are going to change very radically. The whole formatting issue (using various programs) is another foolish thing about this, sort of like VHS v. Betamax but even *more* ridiculous. (Since there are so many companies competing to get their software accepted as the standard.)

BTW, there are a fair number of e-book stores where you can buy non-DRM'd books in various formats that are easy enough to convert for use the Kindle (all models). Fictionwise and Books On Board are 2 of them... I think Diesel is another, and definitely Baen (for sci-fi fans).

Edited August 24, 2009 by seeline

[GA Russell]

Top Ten Reasons why the Kindle won't be another iPod!

http://www.openculture.com/2009/08/top_ten..._for_books.html

1) When you buy an iPod, you can transfer all of your current music onto it. With Kindle you have to start buying all new books.

2) The paper-form book (aka “dead tree version”) is still the best technology for reading: fully portable, a nice thing to own and put on shelves, great for sharing, good in bed, at beach, etc. If you lose it or get it wet, no big deal—easily replaceable.

3) Music has constantly found new formats that improve on the old. Same for the iPod. It’s unquestionably better than that bigger, skipping CD player. Books haven’t been able to improve on the form for centuries.

4) Holding 100 albums in your hand is great. Holding 100 books? Not as much.

5) How often do you really go away for so long that you need 10+ books? (Bookstores are everywhere.)

6) Kindle is too expensive (see #1) and too big.

7) Books take much longer to consume, don’t work well in individual (shuffled) parts, and we often only read them once.

8.) Now that you can carry music on your phone, and the iPhone has bundled music, email, internet, and telephone in one small size, is anyone really willing to buy a bigger iPhone or Kindle just to read books on it?

9) Most of us spend more time listening to music than reading. We just do; it’s easier to do while we’re involved with other things.

10) Books: they’re better!

[seeline]

Yeah, I saw that last week. The writer said that he was being extremely tongue-in-cheek, but a lot of people seem to have missed the humor. Oh well.

[GA Russell]

Here is the French publisher Hachette complaining about Amazon's $9.99 price for best sellers.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0df31226-958d-11...144feabdc0.html

*****

Today (Monday) the new Astak EZReader Pocket Pro ships to those who pre-ordered it on their website. This is the one I have settled on for the time being. I still have bills to pay before I can think about buying an eBook reader.

[GA Russell]

Big news!

Amazon is returning 1984 to its customers along with the notes they took. Or they can choose $30 instead.

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55571

[medjuck]

I've had a fair amount of time with a couple of Kindles and have some thoughts. I didn't buy one but was given it. We use them a lot in my office because because it's a lot easier to take home one kindle than several scripts. We all upgraded to the new large one because it translates pdfs and gives you pretty well one page per page of script.

I've read several books on the KIndle now and found it quite satisfying. I finished an Alan Furst book while traveling in the country in Europe and could immediately order another one. If the type is too small for my aging eyes I can enlarge it with a click. That's one advantage. Another is that despite what someone said earlier, I don't really want to take War and Peace on an airplane in book form. And I do read several books while traveling.

My favorite things about it are the dictionary (just place your cursor beside a word and a definition pops up) and the search function. While reading the Furst books if one of his characters re-appeared and I couldn't remember who he was I just searched and found every mention of him in the book. I even went back to the earlier book to see if they might have been in it.

I got so used to the search function that I'm frustrated that the new Thomas Pynchon book is only available on paper: characters keep popping up and disappearing for a while and I can't remember who they are.

More interesting is what it's done to my need to own books. After I'd read my first books on a Kindle I seriously considered buying them on paper so I could add them to my already sagging book shelves. I've fought the urge. Soon I may not feel a need to burn cds of music I've downloaded. At my age you do start to wonder about all your physical possessions.

BTW The biggest downside of a Kindle is that illustrations don't show very well and I guess you can't get autographed copies of books.

Edited September 6, 2009 by medjuck

[GA Russell]

Thanks for your input medjuck! That's just the sort of thing I was asking for when I started the thread.

[A Lark Ascending]

Top Ten Reasons why the Kindle won't be another iPod!

http://www.openculture.com/2009/08/top_ten..._for_books.html

1) When you buy an iPod, you can transfer all of your current music onto it. With Kindle you have to start buying all new books.

2) The paper-form book (aka “dead tree version”) is still the best technology for reading: fully portable, a nice thing to own and put on shelves, great for sharing, good in bed, at beach, etc. If you lose it or get it wet, no big deal—easily replaceable.

3) Music has constantly found new formats that improve on the old. Same for the iPod. It’s unquestionably better than that bigger, skipping CD player. Books haven’t been able to improve on the form for centuries.

4) Holding 100 albums in your hand is great. Holding 100 books? Not as much.

5) How often do you really go away for so long that you need 10+ books? (Bookstores are everywhere.)

6) Kindle is too expensive (see #1) and too big.

7) Books take much longer to consume, don’t work well in individual (shuffled) parts, and we often only read them once.

8.) Now that you can carry music on your phone, and the iPhone has bundled music, email, internet, and telephone in one small size, is anyone really willing to buy a bigger iPhone or Kindle just to read books on it?

9) Most of us spend more time listening to music than reading. We just do; it’s easier to do while we’re involved with other things.

10) Books: they’re better!

You missed one. One of the fabulous things about the ipod (I never can recall where the capital goes!) is the shuffle facility; not sure if this would have much application for reading books except, perhaps, it might make sense of Finnegans Wake.

Interested by medjuk's positives - the immediate look up of unknown words and the ability to retrace where you'd met characters previously would be useful. Especially useful with Furst if you have all his books on your machine as there are characters who sneak in to other books like the mysterious Mr. Brown.

I could see this being very useful for studying literature. Imagine doing Othello for your exams and having those facilities. Sure beats pass notes.

Can't see myself using one though. Like others I like the ease of the paperback - I even find hardbacks irritating for pleasure reading. Always feel I need to be sat at a table.

[GA Russell]

7) Books take much longer to consume, don't work well in individual (shuffled) parts, and we often only read them once.

You missed one. One of the fabulous things about the ipod (I never can recall where the capital goes!) is the shuffle facility; not sure if this would have much application for reading books except, perhaps, it might make sense of Finnegans Wake.

Bev, it looks like you need to practice your reading!

[seeline]

I've had a fair amount of time with a couple of Kindles and have some thoughts. I didn't buy one but was given it. We use them a lot in my office because because it's a lot easier to take home one kindle than several scripts. We all upgraded to the new large one because it translates pdfs and gives you pretty well one page per page of script.

I've read several books on the KIndle now and found it quite satisfying. I finished an Alan Furst book while traveling in the country in Europe and could immediately order another one. If the type is too small for my aging eyes I can enlarge it with a click. That's one advantage. Another is that despite what someone said earlier, I don't really want to take War and Peace on an airplane in book form. And I do read several books while traveling.

My favorite things about it are the dictionary (just place your cursor beside a word and a definition pops up) and the search function. While reading the Furst books if one of his characters re-appeared and I couldn't remember who he was I just searched and found every mention of him in the book. I even went back to the earlier book to see if they might have been in it.

I got so used to the search function that I'm frustrated that the new Thomas Pynchon book is only available on paper: characters keep popping up and disappearing for a while and I can't remember who they are.

More interesting is what it's done to my need to own books. After I'd read my first books on a Kindle I seriously considered buying them on paper so I could add them to my already sagging book shelves. I've fought the urge. Soon I may not feel a need to burn cds of music I've downloaded. At my age you do start to wonder about all your physical possessions.

BTW The biggest downside of a Kindle is that illustrations don't show very well and I guess you can't get autographed copies of books.

I'm a huge fan of both the search function and the note-taking capabilities, also the highlighting - and the fact that all of those notes are automatically saved to a separate text file.

I've had mine since March now, and still love it - and, as you say, it's a lighter way to travel. (Both figuratively and literally.) I still love "real" books, and there are distinct advantages to each medium (paper and ebook), as well as disadvantages. Overall, I'm happy with both, and I think they can coexist peacefully.

One thing that I really need to be able to do is to sell or donate a lot of my personal library of books. it's been 7 years since I last thinned it out, and I need to do so again. Part of this has to do with very practical things, like the cost (and stress) of storing and moving lots of books. With used books being so easily available now (on the internet), I generally buy what little I want from used booksellers and/or trade for them via Paperback Swap.com And I borrow a lot from the public library. But the Kindle is a godsend in many ways - so much text can be stored on it, from books that I largely don't *need* to own in physical form anymore.

I'll always love books - they're one of my greatest passions. In fact, I was deeply skeptical about e-reading devices before getting one myself, mainly because I didn't think there was decent enough technology to make reading on this kind of device a pleasurable experience. But I was wrong about that, insofar as the Kindle is concerned. (I've not had the chance to try any other e-reading devices, so I have no way to make comparisons, but I'm sure that some are pretty awkward and hard on the eyes.)

I also love the changeable font size option! It's a godsend for me (at my age).

Edited September 6, 2009 by seeline

[seeline]

I could see this being very useful for studying literature. Imagine doing Othello for your exams and having those facilities. Sure beats pass notes.

Can't see myself using one though. Like others I like the ease of the paperback - I even find hardbacks irritating for pleasure reading. Always feel I need to be sat at a table.

Bev, I kind of hate to bring this up, but your post is reminding me of your (and my) objections to MP3 players - before you (and I, and a lot of other people) bought one and tried it out.

I bet eventual price drops will make e-readers pretty common, though that's probably some distance in the future. You might even find yourself owning one eventually!

[medjuck]

BTW Does anybody use the "test to speech" function? I find it sort of creepy. It could even read a lecture I was giving that I had put on the Kindle. I thought I might just stand there and let it speak for me.

[seeline]

i personally can't stand it, but it seems like a lot of people use it for technical-type text. i can see that it might work reasonably for that, but it sure is *not* something i would be able to listen to for any length of time.

apparently it's also a big plus for visually impaired people, which makes sense.

[A Lark Ascending]

7) Books take much longer to consume, don't work well in individual (shuffled) parts, and we often only read them once.

You missed one. One of the fabulous things about the ipod (I never can recall where the capital goes!) is the shuffle facility; not sure if this would have much application for reading books except, perhaps, it might make sense of Finnegans Wake.

Bev, it looks like you need to practice your reading!

Ah, well there is a disadvantage...a tendency to skim read on screen, not that carefully! Or maybe that's just me!

[A Lark Ascending]

I could see this being very useful for studying literature. Imagine doing Othello for your exams and having those facilities. Sure beats pass notes.

Can't see myself using one though. Like others I like the ease of the paperback - I even find hardbacks irritating for pleasure reading. Always feel I need to be sat at a table.

Bev, I kind of hate to bring this up, but your post is reminding me of your (and my) objections to MP3 players - before you (and I, and a lot of other people) bought one and tried it out.

I bet eventual price drops will make e-readers pretty common, though that's probably some distance in the future. You might even find yourself owning one eventually!

Yes, Seeline, you could be absolutely right here.

Actually, I don't recall having any objection to MP3 players. I did have an irrational aversion to the iPod, simply because it seemed so all-embracing with a large chunk of trendiness about it. But, as you say, having had one for a year I am utterly besotted with it.

The same may well hold true of these e-readers.

[seeline]

Yes, Seeline, you could be absolutely right here.

Actually, I don't recall having any objection to MP3 players. I did have an irrational aversion to the iPod, simply because it seemed so all-embracing with a large chunk of trendiness about it. But, as you say, having had one for a year I am utterly besotted with it.

The same may well hold true of these e-readers.

Well, i was anti-iPod myself, until I got one! (after having a really bad experience with a supposedly comparable player.)

if the e-reading device is a good one, no, you won't skim any more than you might already with a physical book. I've only used the Kindle (v. 1 and 2) and it's *not* like trying to read on a computer screen. It's not exactly like paper, either, but it's far closer than a backlit computer screen could ever be (at least, the kind we have now). E-ink also works at quite a few different angles, much like "real" books - and unlike computer monitors and most flat-screen TVs.

Edited September 7, 2009 by seeline

[GA Russell]

Here is a list of lending libraries. That's right, libraries which lend eBooks either for free or for a small fee!

http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/EBook_Lending_Libraries

[GA Russell]

I got a jetBook Lite for Christmas!

I will soon learn how to download books and transfer them to my device. In the meantime I am reading a couple of books which came included - HD Thoreau's Waldon Pond and Lao Tzu's The Art of War.

My impression of the JetBook Lite is very favorable. It has a 5" screen which I thought might be too small, but it is fine. The Toshiba screen is very readable.

It did not take me long to figure out how to navigate through the system. Some eBook readers are counter-intuitive.

[ejp626]

I'm still debating this, but am in no hurry. For me, the ability to display PDFs is quite critical, but maybe even more important is the TIF format, since I have been converting literally thousands of pages over into TIFs (before OCR'ing them). But most likely TIFs will remain in the province of laptops, and I am not going to carry around a laptop and a Kindle-equivalent.

But most likely for books that I want to read on the train, I will stick with paperbacks. I even have a few books that I had in electronic format (from Project Gutenberg) that I went ahead and ordered in paperback.