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Originally Posted by Bob Russell
What I do really want is e-book reader application choice. It's all about a good PDF reading option. A full OS like Windows or Ubuntu would be ideal because of the added functionality, but for a reading device I don't consider it worth losing the extra battery life.
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PDF's do seem to be a sticking point. If I only wanted to read novels there are any amount of devices to select from, although the DRM thing still complicates the choice. But once you get away from text into more complex layouts and formatting it's a whole lot more demanding. Much of the material is created on completely different machinery (typically with considerably larger screens) or is referencing sizes like the A4 that dmaul1114 mentioned. Trying to cram some of that onto small screens often just doesn't work.
If something is truly 'pocket-portable' then it's simply too small to ever be much good for that sort of use. However, once you get to a decent sized screen then you're looking at either carrying something around your home or office by hand, or else carting it around in some kind of carry bag or briefcase. In that situation you're often not really gaining much by losing valuable screen size for a pretty small weight advantage. You might as well go for something that's somewhere nearer A4 in both shape and size.
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And Chris... you're right -- there may be some incredible devices in 2025!!!! I sure hope so, and that we're all around to see it! 
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True, but I said 2015, which is only 5 years away, not 15. I don't think that there's actually much of a technical barrier to building a machine that would suit you, me and dmaul1114 right now. My wild guess at 2-5 years is based on taking a punt on how long it might take for:
a) The whole ebook marketing/DRM thing to work through into something a bit more user friendly and
b) The manufacturers to turn their attention away from the ‘all singing, all dancing, read your book and play your movie’ approach towards something that is tailored more directly to just on and off-line reading and/or certain business and professional uses.
I’ve been buying, assembling and using computers running everything from CPM and MsDOS through to various flavours of Windows, Linux and Mac OS for around 25 years now. In my experience, the ideal configuration often seems tantalisingly close, but then drifts away again as the manufacturers follow mass market trends and also build to price points (which almost always means compromising something).
I’d love to see something that took the best features of an iPad and the current netbook style tablets, but there’s never any certainty about the direction things will take.
While I’m waiting, the HP tablet I’m currently using has a 12” screen and runs very quietly. It runs a lot cooler than many laptops, and I don’t notice heat as an issue when I use it. I’m getting 7-8 hours battery life, which is plenty for me, and I’m happy with the weight and bulk, even though it's well above that of an iPad. I could come up with more ideal specs, and it certainly wouldn’t suit everybody. But right now it probably does about the best job that I could expect for the particular set of tasks that I use it for.
Good luck with your hunt.
Cheers,
Chris