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Old 11-22-2007, 10:50 AM   #1
majutsu
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Which has biggest display - on the market or planned?

I'm looking to match 8.5x11 inch paper display. Unfortunately, something tells me this is a long time coming.

Everybody is marketing their silly paperback size things (Kindle now) as if that were a positive. I never cared about carrying about 1 novel on plane. What got me was carrying about big, heavy Textbooks in school and now Technical/science/math books and computer reference guides. Since I always carried about a notepad with same dimensions and a notebook with same dimensions, this won't bother me.

Anybody feel the same way?
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Old 11-22-2007, 10:55 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by majutsu View Post
I'm looking to match 8.5x11 inch paper display. Unfortunately, something tells me this is a long time coming.

Everybody is marketing their silly paperback size things (Kindle now) as if that were a positive. I never cared about carrying about 1 novel on plane. What got me was carrying about big, heavy Textbooks in school and now Technical/science/math books and computer reference guides. Since I always carried about a notepad with same dimensions and a notebook with same dimensions, this won't bother me.

Anybody feel the same way?
Not really. However, right now the eInk device most closely matching your desires is the iRex iLiad. It's rather high-priced, but it works quite well according to most who own it. Battery life on the iLiad sucks compared to the 6" devices like the Hanlin, Sony, Bookeen and Amazon, but we deal with things as they happen, yes?

Derek
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Old 11-22-2007, 11:05 AM   #3
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If you want textbooks, then you should look at the Kindle. I don't know if the textbooks are any good. I am looking into it now. Give me a couple days to see if there is one I will need for Spring. I'll buy it, and review it.

Edit: I just looked, and the textbooks I need are not available for the Kindle.

Last edited by Nate the great; 11-22-2007 at 11:30 AM.
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Old 11-22-2007, 11:47 AM   #4
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Etextbooks and readers for students just aren't here, yet, in my opinion.

I have a Sony 500 that I love except that I can't buy any textbooks for it and if I scan the pbooks myself (an incredible chore) I end up with PDFs that I convert using pdflrf (available from this forum) which works but each file is many Mb and they are not at all ideally viewed on my Sony. It is difficult to flip back and forth between sections of any ebook on it and there's no searching or highlighting available on it. So if this is your primary goal, I would look at an Iliad (I don't have one) or else a laptop or UMPC but only if you are willing to scan the pbooks yourself. Ughh. You can "rent" some textbooks from CourseSmart in ebook format but you can only read these online and the cost is half the list price of the pbook for only 180 days.

The Kindle might change this situation. For example, I see that Amazon offers well over ten thousand titles in their Science category including some that lead me to believe that they may soon offer real textbooks in Kindle format. Sony and Mobipocket, at least today, are still way behind in this category and they offer no content that resembles anything technical at all. If Amazon continues at the forefront of content offerings, then it's just possible you will be able to buy etextbooks from them but if so you will only be able to read them on a Kindle. I'd recommend that you see if the textbooks you're likely to need are listed there. Also, the search and highlighting capabilities of the Kindle would make studying more practical on it than for on a Sony.

So for me, my Sony is great for novels and such. I have some technical content on it but I can't do serious studying with it. I do some studying on my laptop but mostly on material I have had to scan myself. That means most of my studying is still done using dead tree books.
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Old 11-22-2007, 12:17 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by majutsu View Post
I'm looking to match 8.5x11 inch paper display. Unfortunately, something tells me this is a long time coming.

Anybody feel the same way?
I'm waiting for a larger screen too. 6" is less than current paperbacks that have a printable area of about 7" and definitely not suited for reading papers that are letter-size pdfs (what I want to do). Jinke has announced V9, a 10" device that is supposed to be available in a couple of months.

Of course then there is the problem of price. If 6" devices cost between $300 and $400 and an 8" is $700, the 10" will be probably way beyond what I'd be willing to pay.
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Old 11-22-2007, 12:32 PM   #6
HarryT
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An A4 eInk display would probably cost $1500-$2000 to manufacture at present - that's the price to the device maker, not the retail price. We'll have to wait a couple of years, I suspect, for prices to fall to the point where they're affordable for the mass market.
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Old 11-22-2007, 01:14 PM   #7
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When PlasticLogic starts to manufacture flexible displays, i expect to see A4 formats beginning to mid 2009 for a reasonable price.
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Old 11-23-2007, 12:22 AM   #8
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Jinke that makes the hanlin v3 is planning a 10" eink device (hanlin v9) at the end of December.

I emailed them about it though and they said the 10 inch screens from the eink company are coming slow (maybe because of the order or 6 inchers from amazon?), so who knows when they'll actually be here.

I'd love to get text books, but I don't think there's anywhere to buy them yet. I think I'll end up trying to just get a copy of wikipedia. I'm not actually in uni anymore so I don't need specific text books, and a lot of the info I'd find in text books is also available through wikipedia or other free content, though I would like a bigger screen. For now I'll probably by a cybook or a hanlin v3, and then buy a v9 or whatever else is around in a year or two when they come out.

Price is a concern for anyone, but I'm more concerned with finding the best device for me than saving money. The iliad does have the biggest screen, but I don't think the iliad is worthwhile because of the reported low build quality, and lack of battery life from having unnecessary wifi and other complexity. Even if the iliad was 400$, I think I'd rather buy a simple, solidly built, reliable device that will just show me my content, and display it for a long time.

I have such a hard time making decisions but I think I'm finally narrowing in on one :-P
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