MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - O'Reilly IT Books - PRS-700, Iliad or ???

RufusA · 02-13-2009, 12:26 PM

I'm toying with the idea of an eBook Reader but like many am a little daunted / undecided.

I work in IT, and have a number of printed IT books, mostly O'Reilly publications et al, which I find somewhat painful to lug around and read.

I also like to keep abreast with technology so do the odd bits of studying, mainly IT books, O'Reilly Head First series et al, but with the desire to be able to mark / annotate things (for example, self test/progress pages).

It also would be nice to proof-read documents I've written (MS word doc or pdf), and something to read for leisure; Gutenberg Books or journals/magazines/news downloaded in the UK.

So I'm looking for an ebook reader that's compact enough to hold easily in one hand on a crowded commuter train. Has the ability to search for information (or at the very least can easily/quickly flick between an index page(s) in a book and a specific page number).

The ability to read books natively in an O'Reilly produced format would be good, but I don't object to a little tinkering if necessary. I believe O'Reilly now provide non-DRM PDF, EPub and Mobi formats in their eBook bundles.

Most of the stuff I read is just text, but there are the odd technical diagram, screen shot, or code snippet which would be nice to be catered for. For code etc. layout is important so re-flowing text and losing/introducing line breaks would be less than ideal!

Battery life isn't too important (no more than a couple of hours away from a laptop). Cost not an essential consideration but I don't want to spend £600+ to carry a few hundred pounds worth of IT material, particularly if I can buy something for less than £150, that will do 90% of the job, or buy 2 - 3 printed copies of any important books!

Any suggestions?

From a brief scan the PRS-700 and Iliad Book Edition are one of the few that offer annoation and searching:

How do the screens compare?
How usable is searching - can you search for a word / term in a single book, see a simple list of pages that match with a little context, then click to go direct to the page?
Is there anywhere to buy / see the PRS-700 or Iliad in the UK in action, or is it online / import only from B&H or similar?

Or would I be better ditching the annoation and buying a cheap refurb. PRS-505? How usuable is a non touch-screen for flipping between contents/ index and a page in a given O'Reilly ePub or PDF format?

If anyone uses reference / IT books in anger on an ebook reader it would be great to hear how you get on!

Many Thanks - Rufus.

02-13-2009, 12:26 PM	#1
RufusA Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: none	O'Reilly IT Books - PRS-700, Iliad or ??? I'm toying with the idea of an eBook Reader but like many am a little daunted / undecided. I work in IT, and have a number of printed IT books, mostly O'Reilly publications et al, which I find somewhat painful to lug around and read. I also like to keep abreast with technology so do the odd bits of studying, mainly IT books, O'Reilly Head First series et al, but with the desire to be able to mark / annotate things (for example, self test/progress pages). It also would be nice to proof-read documents I've written (MS word doc or pdf), and something to read for leisure; Gutenberg Books or journals/magazines/news downloaded in the UK. So I'm looking for an ebook reader that's compact enough to hold easily in one hand on a crowded commuter train. Has the ability to search for information (or at the very least can easily/quickly flick between an index page(s) in a book and a specific page number). The ability to read books natively in an O'Reilly produced format would be good, but I don't object to a little tinkering if necessary. I believe O'Reilly now provide non-DRM PDF, EPub and Mobi formats in their eBook bundles. Most of the stuff I read is just text, but there are the odd technical diagram, screen shot, or code snippet which would be nice to be catered for. For code etc. layout is important so re-flowing text and losing/introducing line breaks would be less than ideal! Battery life isn't too important (no more than a couple of hours away from a laptop). Cost not an essential consideration but I don't want to spend £600+ to carry a few hundred pounds worth of IT material, particularly if I can buy something for less than £150, that will do 90% of the job, or buy 2 - 3 printed copies of any important books! Any suggestions? From a brief scan the PRS-700 and Iliad Book Edition are one of the few that offer annoation and searching: How do the screens compare? How usable is searching - can you search for a word / term in a single book, see a simple list of pages that match with a little context, then click to go direct to the page? Is there anywhere to buy / see the PRS-700 or Iliad in the UK in action, or is it online / import only from B&H or similar? Or would I be better ditching the annoation and buying a cheap refurb. PRS-505? How usuable is a non touch-screen for flipping between contents/ index and a page in a given O'Reilly ePub or PDF format? If anyone uses reference / IT books in anger on an ebook reader it would be great to hear how you get on! Many Thanks - Rufus.