Quote:
Originally Posted by desertgrandma
Welcome to MobileRead, bookwormanna.
From being a junior thru college? Thats a long time for an ebook reader to last........prices are going down all the timed, and new models are coming out consistently. By the time you get to college, you'll need to read textbooks on it, so make sure you device can support that.
The kindle is a great device, and has great customer support.
Best of luck.
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never thought of the textbook thing-that's a really great point
Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
Lets see, 6 years should be doable... but you have to be careful with it. A good bet might be the outgoing Sony PRS300. It should let you do most everything you want it to (well except buy books from Amazon), but its metal case and slightly smaller screen hopefully will make it more durable. The only negative from a longevity stand point is that the battery is not easily replaceable.
Just my thought on the matter.
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yeah, i'm super care with and protective of any tech stuff i have.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
Either of those will do you fine. They're solid, quality products.
You're going about it the right way: focusing on the books first. Stick to that approach.
You first need to determine where you're going to get your DRM'ed books.
Then decide how much control you need over screen presentation; font face, size, margins, line-spacing, presence/absence of header/footer bars, alignment, etc.might be nice...
Decide if library ebook access matters to *you*.maybe...depends on what my library has...
Decide if limited web-surfing/downloads matters.would be nice for fanfic reading
Decide if support for Audible audio books matters.not so much. i like seeing the words :P
Decide if text-to-speech matters.could be useful, not a big deal, though
Decide if SD-card expandability matters.does it? how many books do i really need to have on the device? doesn't the kindle hold somewhere like 3000? course, that doesn't do anything for me if i go with another one, lol
Decide if loaning *some* books out *once* per book-lifetime matters.nope. don't care about that.
Decide if touchscreen matters more than wireless.i like the wireless better i think. a small touch strip, like on the nook would be okay, but a full touch screen isn't what i'm looking for
Decide if dictionary support matters to you.that would be a really good thing for college
Decide if in-book search matters to you.again, useful for college
Decide if note-taking matters and how much.eh.
Decide how much the extra contrast of a Pearl eink screen matters to you.ya'll could probably tell me how much it matters better than i can figure it out myself...
It's your money, your reader, your choice.
Different people have different needs, different biases. There is no reader that can/will satisfy everybody; you just need a reader that will satisfy you. Today.
As for the future...
Well, with a bit of care, the hardware will likely last you as long as you'd like, so you'll be okay there.
However... In the consumer electronics business 5 years is a lifetime. The game is just geting started and there *will* be newer readers with significantly better feature sets coming down the pipe. And prices *will* come down, eventually. If there is a "must-have" feature missing from your affordable choices, you'll have to choose between waiting or going a bit higher. Which, might entail waiting. This is why you need to go through that list of options (and others I've missed; draw up your own specs) and decide what matters to you and how much.
Your budget is reasonable; there are quite a few quality readers available in that range with more to come within the next month or so.
What you need to do is get the reader that best meets your needs for now (and the near term) and let the future take care of yourself; as long as you're using the reader now and not letting it sit in a desk drawer somewhere you *will* get your money's worth.
Prioritize your desirable features, see how the available models meet your needs and if you're comfortable with the match, go for it. Afterwards, don't look back; don't second guess yourself. Whichever reader you get will not be your last. There will be other fun toys coming down the pipe, eventually. But between here and there you'll be doing a lot of reading, no? Remember, its not about the gadget, it's about you and your books.
Have fun!
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thanks for that list, it really helped. i liked the idea of having something smaller to use for reading books, and i figured it'd help me, down the road, avoid moving into my first place without bookcases everywhere[i'm sure i'll still have
some
]. but i hadn't really thought about how useful it could be for college stuff.