Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller
Concerning firmware updates, most ebook readers are in state or their initial release.
1 update for Sony 505 for ePUB support.
1 initial update for Kindle 2.
No update yet for Kindle DX.
A few updates for iRex iLiad and iRex 1000S. And their OS to me seems most advanced. It has its benefits, if it's not OEMs but developers themselves selling the units.
BeBook has regular updates, I guess its exactly the original ones from Hanlin. Same applies as for iRex.
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Quite true, but it seems that the Sony/Kindle do a better job of working correctly.
My Bookeen was a story of constant crashes. I'd also have to press the page forward key multiple times to get it to go forward. I read on here about people saying the Opus isn't bad -- at most one crash a day -- that's bad in my book. Turning out hardware with unsupported buttons also seems broken in my estimation
Furthermore, the Cybook is not designed to manage the number of books it can handle. If you load a few hundred books on board, you then have several issues. 1) It takes too long (45+) seconds to start up. 2) Try paging through the list to find a book and it takes forever.
Which leads me to folders as a point of comparison. I would like to have folders on either of my readers (Cybook or Kindle2), and I don't. However, I consider it a serious bug on the Cybook and a minor hassle on the Kindle.
First, the Kindle starts up virtually instantly. One reason I need Cybook folders is due to my hope that startup speed will improve as it will only need to scan the current folder and not the entire library.
Second, I have many options to the lack of folders on the Kindle. When I sort by name or author I can quickly go to a book by typing in the first letter of the name/author and skipping to that section of the library. If I hold down the next page button for a while I can skip ahead 5, 10, 20 or whatever number of pages (its not perfect, you have to guess how long it will skip ahead based on how long your are holding it down). I can also perform a search and find specific books in my library. Now, none of these are the way that I would ideally take care of this, but they are reasonable choices and they work. I don't have a Sony, but I understand its tags work quite nicely.
So, I guess that the difference is that Amazon/Sony have complete solutions -- they may not be designed quite the way that I would choose, but they are complete.
Now, I'm an adventuresome sort. I don't mind crashes or non-functional buttons. I don't mind poorly executed interfaces. That is, as long as you work to finish them. If things are half done, I expect to see an aggressive release schedule and a series of ongoing fixes. The lack of releases by Amazon/Sony don't bother me as much because I consider them to be finished products.