Initially I was sold on buying the PRS-900 assuming sony & kindle were the only ones supporting highlight and annotate but then I've been reading posts here and came to know that there are a few other devices as well.

I predominantly read only pdfs. These comprise normal non-graphic books & research reports which tend to have graphs and tables (Annual reports & financial data of companies etc..). I mostly read at bed (so should be light enough) and don't like backlit displays. I don't really have any ebook store accounts & I'm not likely to signup for one either. The device will mostly be used in India. (So I'm not looking for anything that is locked to a country, As I don't connect to ebook stores, I guess this shouldn't be much of problem). All that I want to do is connect to a computer
transfer pdfs and read. My OS is Linux.

Having said that here are my requirements:

Absolute must haves:
1. Must have good pdf support
2. The ability to highlight & annotate is a must
3. Touch screen (since anything else makes #2 a pain).

Would also be nice to have:
4. wifi
5. Open APIs/SDKs
6. dictionary

I was initially considering the PRS-900 until it was pointed out to me that if it is just for pdfs may be I should get one with a larger screen.
(I initially posted here:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76328 )

The Onyx boox 60 seemed great with almost all that I'm looking for but it turns out that is a 6inch screen & may not be suitable. I don't mind pushing my budget more for the right device.

Thanks!

I have the Onyx Boox and while it's pdf support is decent, I wouldn't recommend it if pdf's are to be your primary media. The 6" screen is just too small for pdf's formatted for A4 or 8.5x11 pages.

There aren't many choices now though kindle dx and the Entourage Edge are both available. Neither would be my first choice though for different reasons. Of the soon to be released devices, the iPad and Notion Ink Adam look the most intriguing.

The Entourage eDGe offers great PDF support and will do what you need. The disadvantage is that it feels and weighs like a netbook.

there's a few other threads recently discussing this same subject.

a few links for you:)

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75821
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75937
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76142
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75918
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74714
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75592

I recently bought an IREX 800S and have many of the same requirements as you describe. I read mostly academic texts in PDF and the 8.1 inch screen is good for reading them. It will be more useful to you next month when PDF Zoom is implemented with a firmware update. At the moment it has selectable font size - which reflows the text so that anything is readable, but it can really screw up tables and charts.

Good luck with your search.

Hi

For the needs you state, I think you will be better served with a tabletpc.

It will do everything you are asking for but also be a full computer

Best regards,

Just for PDFs, take a look at Pocketbook 301+ forums. It is, in my opinion, the best PDF reader in the 6" class. I use it mostly for technical documents, heavy mathematics with graphics and it's great because:
1. Landscape mode with cut margins
2. Multiple-column mode (great for A4 or Letter sized papers)
3. Really portable, unlike 8" or larger screens.

Good luck in your choice!

I'm looking for something very similar for my wife. I'm kind of in the same boat as you, but for what it's worth, I'm hoping (probably naively) that Onyx sticks to their announced schedule and ships a 9.7" Boox in June or July, in time for the fall semester.

This seems like the perfect device for my (her) needs. She is an academic (humanities), and she has many many PDF scans of texts she's made over the years, which she refers to while writing papers. I am in software development, and I even have thoughts or trying to implement some kind of utility to simplify operations for her to accept electronic submissions of papers from her students, which she could also return to them electronically, with her handwritten notes (right now she still does this 100% on paper, or sometimes types her notes on computer to reference student text on paper, which to me is absolutely insane). Maybe not right away, but eventually. Not your intended use I know, but similar enough

Just for PDFs, take a look at Pocketbook 301+ forums. It is, in my opinion, the best PDF reader in the 6" class. I use it mostly for technical documents, heavy mathematics with graphics and it's great because:
1. Landscape mode with cut margins
2. Multiple-column mode (great for A4 or Letter sized papers)
3. Really portable, unlike 8" or larger screens.

Good luck in your choice!

Thanks for the input. I somehow missed this one during my initial survey. This does seem to fit my bill. It would have been so much easier for me to make the call to buy this had they put in a faster processor and more memory.
The way I see it:

negative:
Slower processor (than say PRS600)
Much lesser memory (PRS600 has twice as much ram: 128mb)
Older version of linux (but probably not much of deal)
More expensive.
some very strong positives:
Wifi & bluetooth!
SDK

Opening up the SDK seems very good but viewed that way 64MB ram is probably too restrictive. Clearly the slower processor and lesser ram should have made this less expensive than the competition but probably that cost was all absorbed into wifi.

Nevertheless, I thing this is my top prefference as of now. I have some questions though:

1. The wiki here seems to state that it has an open SDK, but I don't see that mentioned or any content regarding that in their website. Where can I get more info on it?

2. Is the display as sharp as the PRS600?

3. Does this allow arbitary zoom of pdf and does it retain that setting when I flip pages?

4. Does it come with a web browser?

5. Is highlight & annotate possible? How are the annotations store. Can I export books with annotations to the PC?

6. Does it read password protected pdfs as well?

7. The documents I'll read might involve financial data of companies (probably targetted on A4 size), Have you tried reading a companies annual report in it?

Thanks a lot for all the info & sorry to bombard you folks with another bunch of questions.

those comments were on Pocketbook 302. (301 doesn't have touchscreen). Looking at some of youtube vids, the glare & reflections on this seems quite pronounced. On that terms how does it compare against the PRS900?

The way I see it:

negative:
Slower processor (than say PRS600)
Much lesser memory (PRS600 has twice as much ram: 128mb)
Older version of linux (but probably not much of deal)
More expensive.
some very strong positives:
Wifi & bluetooth!
SDK


Hi fragile,

I think you mistake PB302 for PB301+. PB302 has Wifi and touch screen, but should be avoided for now, because of the reflective screen. The first models ship with a glass screen that have a pronounced mirror effect. If you want the touch screen, it is probably better to wait for June or July, when the plastic screens arrive.

Concerning the SDK: it's not important IMO, unless you are a software developer. The Wifi: it's all a matter of preference. For me: good to have, but not a deal breaker.

The PB301+ is a EB600EM clone (revised in 2009):
- Processor: it's as fast as the Sony600
- Internal memory: ~400MB
- It does allow arbitrary zoom and retain the setting when flipping pages
- No wireless: No web browser.
- Notes: yes, but I never used them so I cannot comment.

I really like using my iRex DR1000s for exactly the kind of thing you're doing, but they may be selling them with the newer firmware now, which would alter your user experience from mine. Just tossing it out. However, there's a highly vocal minority here that continually complains about the DR and give the impression that they are horrible devices.

hmmm... I am a software developer. Opening up the API is good for non-developers too since it means that if becomes popular you'll get a lot of software for it. I play chess as well and its likely that these devices will be suitable for it. Anyway I'll wait till July. If anyone has any information on the SDK please do share it.

Regarding Irex DR1000 it is out of my budget besides at 10" it is probably too big for bedside reading...

Hi

For the needs you state, I think you will be better served with a tabletpc.

It will do everything you are asking for but also be a full computer

Best regards,After at frst getting excited about the big boox, I am coming ot this conclusion as well. If I had some assurance it would actually ship this summer and fall I might wait, but since there is only silence since it was announced, and the mid-sized one that was supposed to come out first is already delayed or cancelled, it's probably foolish to wait too long for that.

Therefor I am planning to spend a bigger chunk of money and just get the HP tm2t. It's got a nice combo wacom/conductive 12" touchscreen, a cool-running CULV processor with reasonable battery life, and only weighs 4 lbs, not to mention a switchable graphics for when you want to do something more intensive. I am coming around to thinking that in the long run it will be nicer to have a true single "convergence" device for my wife, not a bunch of different speicialized hardware that she'd have to all carry, sync, etc. As llong as you can accept the 4lb weight and ~6 hour battery limitation, the the tm2t seems perfect -- the only thing that would really have been nice to see on it is a Pixel Qi screen! But, lacking that, since my wife is dealing with lots of scanned PDF documents, even an LCD screen would probably be better on her eyes than a 6" eInk unit.

hmmm... I am a software developer. Opening up the API is good for non-developers too since it means that if becomes popular you'll get a lot of software for it. I play chess as well and its likely that these devices will be suitable for it. Anyway I'll wait till July. If anyone has any information on the SDK please do share it.

Regarding Irex DR1000 it is out of my budget besides at 10" it is probably too big for bedside reading...

How easy is it to develop a gaming application for these units?

How easy is it to develop a gaming application for these units?

I'm not sure, since I've not gotten a pointer to the SDK. But at any case I expect its only a certain genre of games that can be developed on these devices owing to the refresh rates of e-Ink. IOW, only games that don't involve graphics and animation. Typically turn based games like chess or the ones like soduku etc.. Given that there are quite powerful chess engines for mobile phones, I think it shouldn't be too difficult to get one for these devices as they are not as restricted as mobile phones in terms of compute power.

There are games like chess available for many eBook readers - eg Pocketbook and Onyx/Neo.