What gadgets did you use before the Sony Reader?

[DougFNJ]

Hey all,

I was curious what everyone's ebook reading experience was before the Reader came about.

I started with a US Robotics Palm Pilot back in 1997. This Monochrome Device could hold some books, but the lighting was bad, and the screen was a bit too small to read thm with. I was able to tolerate very short storys, but paperbacks were staying.

Sony came out with a brighter and full color screen, so I purchased a music playing brilliant color Clie. I tried the Ebooks on there.....same experience.

I attempted a couple of Windows devices that sported more multimedia capability, but no matter what devices I would purchase I always found they could handle my PDA needs and muti media needs so much better.

I saw the ebook readers released a number of years ago, and looked at them, thought about purchasing, and never pulled the trigger because I felt I would do the same thing with those readers that I had with my Palm Pilots and Pocket PC's, read short stories. All of these screens IMHO were ok for short stories, but there was nothing like reading a book from a book. Those devices tried to simulate it, but nothing caught on for me. I periodically looked for what was available, and began to see pre-reviews at the beginning of this year that announced and discussed the Sony Reader. They piqued my interest talking about the E-Ink technology, and paper look of the screen. Everytime I looked for one, I read articles about Sony still not ready to put them out, release date changed again, "great device, will they ever release it?" I eventually stopped looking.

Monday I went Christmas shopping with a buddy of mine and we walked into the Sony Store. Right in the front 4 demo units of the device I thought would never be released. I picked it up, looked at it, and liked what I saw and felt immediately. This was exactly what I was looking for. The perfect screen for the paperback experience. I didn't buy it right then and there. I wanted to see what my budget allowed after shopping, and I wanted to look up reviews and opinions before I made up my mind.

That device wouldn't leave my mind after I saw it. I am a gadget guy, when I come across a gadget I like, my mind wanders frequently back to that device for curiosity. I want more info, I need to know more. So google here I come. Quite a few reviews posted out there, back and forth, nobody giving it their full seal of approval, but nobody saying to not buy it. I found this site, and read users experiences with it, alot of your ideas on what you were seeking in a reader very similar to mine, and that sealed my decision. Merry Christmas to Doug, this would be my gift for myself.

Tuesday, I went to lunch at my local mall, and went to Sony Store to purchase my new toy. I looked at it a bit more, slapped down the debit card, and purchased. I went to the car, opened her up, looked through the manual, read a few excerpts that were included in the Reader, and the decision was validated. This is what I have been searching for for quite awhile, an Ipod for books.

Where PDA's were great for my organizational needs, the limited size for the e-books were not meeting my needs. I have found this Reader to be perfect. The size of the screen is precisely what I was looking for, the device satisfied 2 things, the look of a regular page of a book, and the ability to carry numerous books while away from home and office. I read up to 4 books at one time, and am usually able to carry 1-2 at a time. I am definitely looking forward to what this technology brings to the arena as E-ink advances.Judging by how quickly this seems to be selling with virtually no marketing, just buzz alone....think about the potential once we see a commercial or an ad.

I look forward to hearing other Mobilereaders experiences.

[NatCh]

My pre-e-ink experience was all Palm, various models starting all the way back in March of '96 with my venerable Pilot 5000. But it was very much a side-light for my main reading, due to the tiny screen, and the gastly battery life.

I considered other e-reading platforms, but none of them had good enough feature sets to get me to jump.

Since I got my Reader ... hmm. I just realized I haven't so much as cracked a p-book for liesure reading in since I got the Reader! I've even got my Bible reading on the thing. I guess that says it pretty well.

[HarryT]

My experience was virtually every model of iPaq that first Compaq, and then HP, brought out, finishing up with an iPaq 4900-series model with a full 640x480 VGA res screen. I tried Palms, but just didn't "click" with them, whereas for me the Pocket PC was just a "natural" thing and, for me, the iPaqs were always the "Rolls Royce" of Pocket PCs. I went through a range of different book reading software, eventually finishing up with "uBook", which is still far and away my favourite reading software.

[slayda]

Started ebook reading on computer. Got a Palm Z22 - too small. Moved to Palm TX - still use it. And now Sony Reader. Don't even like to hold a large pbook now.

[Hadrien]

None for me.
Couldn't read books on a screen before e-ink, the screen was ruining the whole experience.

[paulkbiba]

I do all my reading on Palms. Currently I'm using my Treo 680 and I'm perfectly happy with it. I like the idea of having everything in one device. The Sony will never do it for me because it isn't backlit. Further if it can't read books in Mobipocket and eReader formats then it is pretty well useless to me. Most of my reading is done in those formats. I'm not about to take the time and effort to convert books from one format to another.

[jsuplido]

All Palms: from the USRobotics Pilot to the Clies to the LifeDrive. I still use the LifeDrive and Treo for quick reading.

Also, I've also explored what the Nokia 770 had to offer (too limited to me but nice screen resolution). eReader fullscreen on a 17" MacBook Pro also looks great.

For most of my reading, it's still the Sony Reader.

[flumbo]

I started with the first palm, moved on to the first Sony Clie. Went through three versions of clie, crappy hp phone, back to a palm T3. Dell pda, MDA cell and then the sony reader. Now the reader is my primary device, but I still read occasionally on my dash because I always have it with me.

Palm Pilot Pro
Sony Clie--s300-- monochrome screen
Sony Clie-- n770c-- Color Screen-- Hi-rez
Sony Clie -- NX 70v -- flip keyboard
Palm T3
HP 6315 PPC cell phone
Dell Axim 51v
tmobile MDA PPC cell phone
Sony Reader
(occasional book on a t-mobile dash)

I don't think reading on these was enjoyable until I got a color screen. It got better when Sony released the clie with a higher resolution screen than palm. I think the Palm T3 with the compact size and the large D-pad is my favorite of the PDAs for reading.

[Xenophon]

Laptop screen -> RCA REB1100 -> wife's Dell Axim X30 -> Sony Reader

Sony reader has the best screen of the bunch, but the REB1100 got the physical ergonomics best. Shame on Sony for not doing better than a 5 year old device!

Xenophon

[RWood]

Most od the eBook reading prior to the Reader was on either a laptop or a desktop. I had a Sony Clie but it was just never right. Also having to carry a cell phone plus the Clie was a pain. Then I got a Samsung i500 (Palm OS) with ill formed characters on a too small screen with backlighting that turns off 3/4th of the way through the page. (I read faster than that but it is hard to read quickly when you can't easily tell one character from another.) While I did get through a few books in about as many years so it is hard to calssify it as a reading platform.)

The Sony Reader answers almost all of my requirements. For me the ergonomics are fine and the reading experience is second to none. Yes, I still have pbooks and still use Acrobat files on regular computers.

[geekraver]

Siemens Simpad -> Nokia 770 -> Sony Reader

In a push I use my Pocket PC phone.

[jakeluck]

This little thing changed my life! My pre-sony ebook reading gadget was a laser printer. I was going through 200-400 pages/week. Now I do 80% of my readings on the PRS500, (wish i could spend the time extracting/reformatting/tocing/bookmarking PDFs in reading though).

[Xtremegene]

Plain old paper back books for reading; otherwise, I have a nice little Axim x30 that I tried doing some reading via MobiReader(?) and eReader, but I found the screen too small for my liking. Battery life isn't the greatest either on it. PRS-500 reading for the win!

[kacir]

my readers as the time went:
- PC and CRT screen
- an old, very old notebook - 286 with 2MB RAM, without
harddisk - I just booted from a flopy with "reader" SW and
book on it. Grayscale display 640x480
- a slightly better notebook. Color screen 800x600, harddisk,
enough memory to install [a very, very minimalistic] Linux
distro
- the ultimate reading notebook - Toshiba Libretto
- Cassiopeia A-11. A pathetic device (for a PDA),
but I never looked back to notebooks.
Black & White 480x240 LCD display
- Cassiopeia A-20 very big display - (for a PDA ;-)
B&W 640x240 LCD display
very low price on second-hand market, so I am
not afraid to toss it into a backpack.

Recently I am looking at the falling dollar (or strenghtening of my domestic currency). Very soon I might be able to purchase Sony Reader. It is complicated, however, because I live in central Europe. Fortunately a friend of mine is visiting USA and is able to bring one for me.

[BettyE]

My sequence was:

Rocket E-Book --> Sony Clie NX 70 --> Treo 650 --> Sony Reader

The PDAs were really too small - especially the Treo. I used them but the Reader is much better.

Betty