hy, i'm ross from italy, first of all sorry for the poor english.

i want to buy a reading device and the choice is between cybook and iliad (for warranty matters). the price isn't a problem. what i want in a reading device is:

1. good library's management (i like to have my ebooks in folders by author, series, genre, read/unread...and surf between them);

2. all my ebooks in one place;

3. read mobipocket (i don't care for PDFs);

4. battery duration.

so, help me make a choice!!!

bye ross

I don't know how the library management is on the iLiad, but there are lots of complaints about library management on the Gen3. But the Gen3 does have a better battery life then the iLiad.

Hi Ross
Welcome to the Forum

As for the best choice for you, if all your needs are equal, you have to split the difference, as neither of the readers does all 4.

While The Illiad does allow Resonably good library management, and folder navigation (if I understand it correctly) it does not have very good batter life, as compared to the Cybook (Hours instead of days).

The Cybook on the other hand does not allow folder navigation, and displays all your books as a list. While Booken has said that they may enable folder navigation in the future, there is no concrete promise and as such you can't really count on it. The battery life on the other hand will be much better then the Illiad, lasting from up to a couple of weeks to the illiads, 15-20 hours.

Both Support Mobipocket so that is not an issue.

As for carrying your whole library around, The Cybook does support upto 2GB SD Cards, and might get support for SDHC in the future, but again no promises. The Illiad can I believe use upto 8GB CF cards (I'm not sure of higher capacities).

The questions you have to ask, is

1) Is the size important. The Cybook is the size of a paperback book, easy to carry around with you and easy to use in cramped quarters. The Illiad is About the size or slightly larger then a A4 sheet of paper, so while you have a larger screen, it is more cumbersome to carry and use not to mention heavier.

2) Is it a purely reading device. Do you just want it just for reading, or do you want to be able to make notes on it, surf the web, run additional programs on it. If Its just reading, Then The Cybook should more then suffice, however if you want to do more, the Illiad might be a better option.

3) You said that you are not interested in PDF's, so that leaves out one of the main benefits of the Illiad, that is much better for PDF usage, with the larger screen and slightly better support.

4) How important is it to you to have your whole library with you at all times and be able to manage it on the device. The Illiad currently does have better options for that at the current time.


Personally, I chose the CyBook, as I wanted a dedicated reading device which i could easily carry around with me. I can toss it into my Jacket pocket or into my bag without really noticing its size or weight.


Correction:
Size of Illiad should be A5 not A4.

thanks for your prompt reply!

until a couple of days ago i had made up my mind to buy the cybook, all i wanted was a reading device to read my huge collection of mobipockets (by the way, i like to create my own files with the mobipocket creator, are these files read by cybook and iliad?). each one has its pros and cons, the big con with the cybook is the file management, the big one with the iliad is the life battery, as for the size, i don't know, but the iliad seems to me more solidly built (i have seen them only in photos or videos), but somewhere in the forum i've read that the iliad screen is more frail. so, right now i'm stucked...

What you think?

bye
ross

Both Support Mobipocket so that is not an issue.


But the CyBook's Mobi Reader is significantly better than the iLiad's, in my experience of having used both. The CyBook gives you a free choice of fonts in which to read the book, and properly supports all the "Guide" (navigation) items in the book. The iLiad has one fixed font (it can be changed, I believe, but it's not entirely straightforward to do so) and only displays a fixed subset of Guide items (eg there's no way to view a book's cover image, for example).

hy everybody,
i was surfing the net looking for images and video of the iliad and the cybook and i stumbled upon these on youtube:

cybook
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwXr5s5gRIc&feature=related

iliad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__zeXnxwYP4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdlPHxPNw-Y&eurl=http://6.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://www.google.com/ig/modules/youtube_videos.xml&nocache=0&up_prefs_version=

the iliad is so slow, i never noticed that! so, being an impatient person, i think that my choice would be the cybook, that appears sturdier of what i tought!

by the way, is the iliad really so slow?
bye
ross

But the CyBook's Mobi Reader is significantly better than the iLiad's, in my experience of having used both. The CyBook gives you a free choice of fonts in which to read the book, and properly supports all the "Guide" (navigation) items in the book. The iLiad has one fixed font (it can be changed, I believe, but it's not entirely straightforward to do so) and only displays a fixed subset of Guide items (eg there's no way to view a book's cover image, for example).

True Harry T, but what I meant by that was he will still be able to read protected and other compatible mobipocket files.

As i don't have any experience with the Illiad, your comments on the better application of the Mobi reader on the Cybook are spot on and much appreciated.

the iliad is so slow, i never noticed that! so, being an impatient person, i think that my choice would be the cybook, that appears sturdier of what i tought!

by the way, is the iliad really so slow?
bye
ross

Ummm... eink is slow. Reading the book on eink is comparable to reading normal book - it takes aproximately the same time to turn the page.

Cybook has one nifty thing in the new firmware - page buffering. But that only works if you read really fast.

DrS

Cybook has one nifty thing in the new firmware - page buffering. But that only works if you read really fast.

DrS

It's not page buffering, but event buffering. One thing it's made a significant difference to is the speed of moving the "word selection" around the page when you look up a word in a dictionary. That's now much faster than it was before.

The Illiad is About the size or slightly larger then a A4 sheet of paper, so while you have a larger screen, it is more cumbersome to carry and use not to mention heavier.


Is that so? I was under the impression that it was about 70% of the size of an A4. Well...more than an A4 and not having the screen real estate of even 50% of an A4, that's not so good there is it...

Is that so? I was under the impression that it was about 70% of the size of an A4. I think bbusybookworm means A5 (half an A4). The device is about A5 size (plus 7mm), the screen is smaller.

yeah you are right, he probably means that.

I think bbusybookworm means A5 (half an A4). The device is about A5 size (plus 7mm), the screen is smaller.

Opps, my bad. It should be A5.

Thats the problem with not checking your post :grin: before posting.

Tend to type A4 so often, that even when I mean to type something else, it shows up instead. :smack:

I never check it either, always use the quick reply!!

hy, i'm ross from italy, first of all sorry for the poor english.

i want to buy a reading device and the choice is between cybook and iliad (for warranty matters). the price isn't a problem. what i want in a reading device is:

1. good library's management (i like to have my ebooks in folders by author, series, genre, read/unread...and surf between them);

2. all my ebooks in one place;

3. read mobipocket (i don't care for PDFs);

4. battery duration.

so, help me make a choice!!!

bye ross

I've got both the Iliad and Cybook. I don't think the Iliad will be worth the extra $225 or so given the needs you listed.

Cybook is a great little device and will run for a week or so on a single charge vs a day or two for the Iliad.

Cybook is tiny. It's ultrathin and superlight. It's hard to believe it can hold hundreds of books.

You will be happy with either, but I think Cybook is the better value for you.

At the end i ordered the cybook, it arrived yesterday, so far i've noticed only the bookmark bug...it's a little bit tedious but i usually read until the end of a chapter, so i can always recuperate the position using the table of contents of my ebooks! so i'm happy, i bought it for 300€ in italy, it was cheaper because the reseller (simplicissimus bookstore) was having discounts.

bye
ross

At the end i ordered the cybook, it arrived yesterday, so far i've noticed only the bookmark bug...it's a little bit tedious but i usually read until the end of a chapter, so i can always recuperate the position using the table of contents of my ebooks! so i'm happy, i bought it for 300€ in italy, it was cheaper because the reseller (simplicissimus bookstore) was having discounts.

bye
ross

Good choice! Did you get the Cybook with the new firmware? I was checking BooksOnBoard after a long trip and noticed that they have the new editions of the Cybook Gen3 (http://booksonboard.com/index.php?BODY=viewproduct&PRODUCT=5) available now... but I've been gone for a while so I don't know how widely available they are. Going to check now.