E-reader with annotation facility

[Vitara]

Hello, I am a new UK visitor to this very interesting forum. I am looking to buy an e-reader, but would like one which allows me to annotate the pages. I think this is possible with the iRex Iliad, which is quite pricey, but are there any others with this facility? Many thanks in advance and a very Happy New Year to everyone. Linda

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Vitara

Hello, I am a new UK visitor to this very interesting forum. I am looking to buy an e-reader, but would like one which allows me to annotate the pages. I think this is possible with the iRex Iliad, which is quite pricey, but are there any others with this facility? Many thanks in advance and a very Happy New Year to everyone. Linda

Hi Linda, welcome to MR.

The iLiad and the Kindle (which you can't buy in the UK) support annotation among the eInk readers.

Many of the LCD screen readers support it, but to be honest I think it would be a bit daft to buy one of those, unless annotation is absolutely CRITICAL to you.

[wallcraft]

I assume that the Kindle will most likely be available in the UK this year, and if you buy the US version now its wireless connection won't work in Europe.

On the iLiad, you would annotate PDFs using handwriting via the stylus. I don't think you can annotate MOBI files. You can merge the annotations into an updated PDF, and they can also be converted to typed text on a Windows PC.

On the Kindle all you have is TXT and AZW (MOBI) files, with other formats converted to AZW off-line, and you annotate them using the keyboard (which is ok for typing short messages). You can also "clip" an entire page of an e-book to the "My Clippings" TXT file, which also contains a copy of your notes. The number of clippings may be limited by the publisher of the e-book though.

I don't annotate myself, but I am impressed by the capability Amazon has squeezed out of the keyboard. Another area where the Kindle is ahead of the pack is all-documents search, which (according to the manual) includes your annotations. It will find all occurrences of the search term in all your e-books on the Kindle.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

I assume that the Kindle will most likely be available in the UK this year, and if you buy the US version now its wireless connection won't work in Europe.

Unfortunately it's rather worse than that; even if someone in the UK were to buy a Kindle on (say) eBay, they still wouldn't be able to buy any books for it from Amazon; Amazon will only sell you Kindle books if you have a credit card with a US billing address.

[bob315]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Unfortunately it's rather worse than that; even if someone in the UK were to buy a Kindle on (say) eBay, they still wouldn't be able to buy any books for it from Amazon; Amazon will only sell you Kindle books if you have a credit card with a US billing address.

Hmm... The initial post didn't specify whether her primary interest was in new, DRMed books, which do require a little help from Amazon, or in older, freely available (even in the UK ;-) ) books. If the latter, then Kindle is an attractive alternative.

Has there ever been a poll here to determine whether people buy readers in order to read DRMed vs free books?

[Roy White]

Plus the Kindle has a Dictionary which I have to admit would be way cool! I love using big words just for fun, especially when I can use them as Malapropisms and get Major Chucks out of it!!!!

I expect that within a year or two due to the success of the Kindle, someone like Microsoft or even Apple will put out a superb device that is awesome and has bells and whistles and I'll have to be forced to pounce on it! Until then I'm using my Sony reader and enjoying it.
I'd love to have a reader with a stylus that allows me to make notes or even draw pictures or doodle on my books like i do with paperbacks, and send and recieve email and surf the news if I want to and buy books as easily as the kindle on the fly so when i'm haunting borders or a library i could find a book i want, then buy it from online bookstore and save files of all sorts from the internet and use this forum and listen to music and write on easily by plugging in a roll up keyboard like this one http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/5a7f/

Hmm. And do tons of other stuff and be as big as a medium size hardback book.

Oh yeah. And do all my sleeping for me so I have more time to read!!!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Roy White

Plus the Kindle has a Dictionary which I have to admit would be way cool! I love using big words just for fun, especially when I can use them as Malapropisms and get Major Chucks out of it!!!!

AFAIK, all the mainstream readers except the Sony have dictionary support. It's an area in which Sony are, unfortunately, rather falling behind the competition. It is a VERY useful facility.

[JSWolf]

Of all the books I've read so far on the 50o and now 505, I have never once wanted to lookup any word in any dictionary.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Of all the books I've read so far on the 50o and now 505, I have never once wanted to lookup any word in any dictionary.

You obviously don't read Dickens . He uses a huge vocabulary of words which are no longer in common usage. Although one can, generally speaking, guess their approximate meaning from context, it's interesting to be able to look up what they actually mean.

When I read on a Sony and didn't have a dictionary, I too thought that a dictionary was no big deal. Now I have a really good dictionary on my Gen3, I find myself using it all the time.

[Alisa]

I was also used to just guessing from context not wanting to interrupt the flow of my reading that much but dictionary lookup with the Kindle (and I would suppose the Cybook as well) is so quick that I use it more than I thought I would. It's nice even for words I know but want to understand more deeply, too. I wish we could have more than one dictionary simultaneously, though. I'd love to have a good dictionary of technical terms without having to switch them in the settings. People who read books in more than one language would probably appreciate that, too.

[lmarie]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Of all the books I've read so far on the 50o and now 505, I have never once wanted to lookup any word in any dictionary.

I LOVE the dictionary on my EB1150 -- I use it all the time! I wish I'd had the ability to do this in a PB all those years, instead of having to roam about finding a dictionary and then wasting time searching for the word. Now it's just about instantaneous.

I'm a teacher, and it occurs to me that students would use the dictionary a lot more if it were this easy. Vocabulary is key in academic achievement.

For me, this is a major flaw of the Sony. Is it something that can be fixed by an update in future? If not, I doubt I'd buy the Sony.

[BTW, if anybody has a superb dictionary to recommend for the EB1150, please let me know. A number of words I've looked up (Random House Concise Dictionary) haven't been listed.]

[Roy White]

Thanks Harry. "I'm as ignerent as they come, and gettin ignernter and ignenter every day" (My Gramma used to say) and a Dictionary would go a long way in helping patch up my ignerntness!

Maybe I should have researched a bit more before I bought the Sony. My next reader is gonna ROK though!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Alisa

I wish we could have more than one dictionary simultaneously, though. I'd love to have a good dictionary of technical terms without having to switch them in the settings. People who read books in more than one language would probably appreciate that, too.

The Mobi devices - Gen3, iLiad, etc - support multiple dictionaries.

[Vitara]

Thanks so much for all your comments - I had been wondering about dictionary facilities too.

I am a teacher of dyslexic students and was thinking of buying an e-reader to help them with their reading skills. It is likely that newspaper articles would be more appropriate than books, which we wouldn't have time to read much of in a 40 minute lesson. However, for my own use, I probably would want to be able to buy books as well as access free ones.

It sounds as though the 'all singing and dancing' version that I was hoping for has not yet been developed, but the Kindle certainly sounds interesting, after a wait for us in the UK. Roy's 'bells and whistles' certainly sounds like what I am looking for!

I do have a notebook PC, so I shall perhaps investigate the possibility of downloading e-books onto that. I haven't tried. Might I have to download special e-reading software, or might it already be installed, with WORD for example?

Many thanks! Linda

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Vitara

I do have a notebook PC, so I shall perhaps investigate the possibility of downloading e-books onto that. I haven't tried. Might I have to download special e-reading software, or might it already be installed, with WORD for example?

Many thanks! Linda

Hi Linda,

I'd suggest that you download the MobiPocket Reader for Windows:

http://www.mobipocket.com/en/Downloa...ailsReader.asp

It's free and lets you read the most popular eBook format - MobiPocket. It will also allow you to open many other document formats - Word, HTML, PDF, etc.