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Old 09-04-2008, 04:25 PM   #1
denkbert
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Student looking for E-Reader with integrated text search

Hello everyone,
I've been lurking in these boards for quite a while now (some four years or so) and finally made sort of a decision to actually actively inform myself about the current e-reader market situation instead of waiting for the perfect device to come out (which could quite well be an Apple device, the "iBook Read" or something ... well, I wouldn't be surprised) ... anyway, since university textbook prices are really sucking the very lifeblood out of me and since I'm not willing to carry two and half pressed, bleached and bound trees in form of books around every time I go to university, I've decided that I'll get myself an ebook reader.

I do have, however, some sort of expections about the functions this ebook device should have. Since the company websites weren't, well, that informative, I thought you guys might help me out a bit

So, here are the things I'd like to see supported:

- In-text search. I don't actually care whether the device has an actual keyboard, a slave touchbad or a virtual keyboard or something like this integrated, but I would really want the device to sport some possibility of searching in the documents.
- Support for PDF files, regardless of the file being a PDF filled with images (unprocessed book scans) or a normal text-PDF.
- Support for images in JPG and, if possible, PNG.

Some optional, but not that important things I'd like to see in the device:
- Support for east asian languages, in my case japanese. Since I'm studying japanese language, history and literature, I will, in one or two years from now on, use sources in japanese languages and I will want to read these sources on my e-reader as well. Optional because I don't really need this option right now.

It'd be also quite cool if the reader offered the possibility of creating your own sorting options, comparable to mp3 playlists. I would use this option to thematically sort my books.

So, well, I'd be really grateful if you could tell me whether a device that meets my wishes actually exists (and what device that would be) and if not maybe give me a hint for other devices that would meet at least some of these wishes.

Many thanks in advance
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Old 09-04-2008, 05:09 PM   #2
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Greetings denkbert

Unfortunately as you may have already seen, there is no current e-ink device that does everything that you want

Quote:
Originally Posted by denkbert View Post
- In-text search. I don't actually care whether the device has an actual keyboard, a slave touchbad or a virtual keyboard or something like this integrated, but I would really want the device to sport some possibility of searching in the documents.
Searching text is as far as I am aware only available on the Kindle. It may be available on the iRex Illiad, but as i don't own one, I'm not sure.

Quote:
- Support for PDF files, regardless of the file being a PDF filled with images (unprocessed book scans) or a normal text-PDF.
PDF support is currently best on the Illiad, due to uts larger size and touchscreen, and the Sony PRS 505, which has the best support in the 6" readers.
Quote:
- Support for images in JPG and, if possible, PNG.
I believe that all the readors on the market provide support for JPEG and GIFsand I trhink PNG as well but am not sure of the last. The Sony has a few more shades of grey available, I believe, which does provide a sharper image.
Quote:
Some optional, but not that important things I'd like to see in the device:
- Support for east asian languages, in my case japanese. Since I'm studying japanese language, history and literature, I will, in one or two years from now on, use sources in japanese languages and I will want to read these sources on my e-reader as well. Optional because I don't really need this option right now.
Native support for fonts and other languages is best on the Cybook Gen3, which allows you to easily load any TTF font.
I believe the Hanlin v3 also offers support for chinese at least, not sure of Japanese or other asian languages. Similarly, the Soribook does provide support for Korean, but againg not sure about other languages.
The Sony does support other languages, if the fonts are embedded in a PDF, but native support is not available without hacking the firmware, as far as I know.
The Kindle unfortunately does not support any non western language, as some of our members have found.

Quote:
It'd be also quite cool if the reader offered the possibility of creating your own sorting options, comparable to mp3 playlists. I would use this option to thematically sort my books.
Sorting is bit of a mixed bag. First, except for the Illiad & I THINK the Hanlin v3, which have folder support, all have a flat single level file listing. The Gen3 does allow sorting based on File Path, Name, etc but is still quiet limited. Am Not really sure of the options available on the others.

I think the Illiad may provide many of the things you are looking for, but as I don't have one, perhaps someone with it could enlighten us with its capabilities.

The only option that I can think off that provides everything you are looking for would be a non e-ink device like a Tablet PC. THe disadvantage is that you have to use a pc, and the lowered battery life.
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Old 09-04-2008, 07:22 PM   #3
denkbert
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First of all, thanks for your (very fast) answer

Since I'm a german citizen, the Kindle is currently not an option. That may, however, change after or during the Frankfurter Buchmesse (rougly translated as "Frankfurt Book Expo"); during the last days, some rumors spread that Amazon would be introducing the Kindle to Germany, and, if it's a success over here, maybe in all of Europe.

I also heard that the Sony PRS-505 will be introduced at that Expo as well, so we Europeans won't need to import the readers anymore if we cannot afford the 500€ (thats around 712 bucks in USD) for the iLiad book edition or the 600€ (855 USD) for the iLiad 2nd Edition ... compare those prices to the US prices and you'll soon feel the sour taste of being ripped off really bad ..

I've also rethought my wishes about the reader - comfortable (or the least uncomfortable) PDF support would actually be my top priority since most of my study books and research papers are actually PDF files.

So, I'll mostly use the reader for scientific work when doing research on history and writing essays, what do you think would be the best option ... waiting for a better reader to appear? Or going for one of the current-generation devices?
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Old 09-04-2008, 10:33 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by denkbert View Post
So, I'll mostly use the reader for scientific work when doing research on history and writing essays, what do you think would be the best option ... waiting for a better reader to appear? Or going for one of the current-generation devices?
The best of the current drop for your needs is most likely the iLiad. I don't normally recommend waiting, but in this case there is a good chance that at least one vendor, out of the many in the race, will produce a device with a 9.7" screen that is head and shoulders above the iLiad for students and researchers. However, it may cost about as much as the iLiad and these devices will appear next spring at the earliest.
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Old 09-05-2008, 04:14 AM   #5
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I use my iLiad for the purposes you describe (I'm a graduate student myself) and I'm quite happy with it. PDF support is very good. Searching text within non-PDF files is supported with FBreader. Searching text within PDF files is still a work in progress, though the community developers are looking into it. The iLiad supports multiple fonts, but does not ship with the non-Latin fonts, so you'll need to install those. (If you have a Japanese file you'd like me to test, I can do that. I don't have the energy to dig up a Japanese PDF myself right now.) Since the iLiad uses Linux, you can create symbolic links to files, which I think would give you the "playlist" sort of feature you mentioned, though you'd need to use a shell or file manager to do it.

There are also a number of very good expanded PDF viewers developed by the community that offer extra features, such as column navigation or the ability to mark and extract excerpts.

I was able to buy my iLiad second hand for a good price, but that was right after the Sony Reader was introduced, and many people were switching. Still, you might check around and see if you can find one used from someone you can trust. (I bought mine here from a member who'd been around for a while.)
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Old 09-05-2008, 09:38 AM   #6
denkbert
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Thanks again for your answers

Now, I'm a bit skeptical about the iLiad and this isn't just because of the high price (I might as well get myself two EEE PCs for that price). I've read a couple of reviews and while most of them were quite positive, at least one user seriously complained about how the company handled guarantee issues (which they, frankly, didn't) when the display of his reader broke (they offered him a repair at a cost of 275€ - that's over 390$ - and refused to treat the incident as a guarantee issue). I don't really know whether I want to pay large sums of money for a product that, besides other issues like battery runtime, gets next to no support from the company ...

Well, enough polemic for now

I have uploaded a couple of documents with japanese fonts and I'd be glad if some of you guys would take a look whether they work in your ebook readers Again, many thanks in advance

http://www.denkbert.de/stuff/psgj2_h...es_nanking.zip

This is an essay I wrote about the massacre of Nanjing by the japanese imperial army during WW2. There is a table with japanese characters on the second last page - I'd be glad if you could check how they come out in your reader and if you could have a look at how the footnotes in the text are being displayed.

http://www.denkbert.de/stuff/nobiagari.pdf

This is an all-japanese text about a japanese monster called the "nobiagari". The text displays hiragana as well as kanji and in different font sizes. I'd be glad if you could check whether the file works in your readers.

http://www.denkbert.de/stuff/nobiagari.zip

The same text as the PDF above, but in MS DOC file format. The font file for the kanji is called "MS Mincho" and should be installed in all Vista and most XP systems.

Thanks again for your kind answers and the help you're offering I really appreciate it!
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