Forbes gives Sony Reader short shrift

[jæd]

Originally Posted by William Moates

However, it has made definite strides, and shows that a p-book-competitive e-book is much nearer....

When I read these threads I always wonder why people are so hung up about e-books... Books (whether paper or otherwise) only make up 20 % of my reading. All the rest are work related docs, newspapers and magazines. Now that I carry a e-reader around I don't carry all this around, and its starting to make people who do look very inefficient as they scrabble through their bits of dead tree...

Replacing paper books is just a bonus...

[jæd]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

The Sony Reader has received a lot of unfavorable press in mainstream media. This week, Forbes correspondent and Digital Duo co-host Stephen Manes joins the crowd by declaring, "Sometimes analog is better. For now the iPod of the literary world remains a philosophical construct, not an electronic one."

Feh... I tried to the read article online and there's a screen charging me for it. And there are no details on which formats are supported...

And one wonders why they pan the Sony Reader...!

[barneythett]

deleted // I am sorry for being a spammer

[tcv]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Further, it's exactly the agenda driven hype that makes folks dismiss reviews that are positive -- kind of a catch 22. (sigh) If reviewers were dedicated to presenting as impartial a review as possible on all things, then we'd actually have reviews that we could trust, instead of having to figure out and compensate for whatever agendas a given reviewer might be pushing (that's supposed to be their job as journalists).

It seems to be that, in general, those who agree with the reviewer will claim it a good review, while those who don't will claim bias. (Not saying you're doing that, NatCh, this is a general observation.)

The reality is, we don't know what is going on in that reviewer's head, only what he committed to paper. Also: One should never forget that people who write for a living need people to read their works. I think _this_ trumps all possibility for bias and prejudice. This reviewer has done his job just by the fact that we're still talking about his review.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by William Moates

Mycropht, I feel your English is quite good, and you made yourself clear.

I'll second that.

Originally Posted by barneythett

I have never fully understood why we believe that scrolling text will ever work on a small electronic screen, irrespective of the amount of money large corps like Sony throw at it.

Um. The Reader doesn't scroll text, it displays it as a full page at a time. And while 6" diagonal isn't huge, it's pretty close to the size of a mass market paperback page, so not really small. It's also e-ink, which is not like any other "electronic screen" presently available.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by tcv

Also: One should never forget that people who write for a living need people to read their works. I think _this_ trumps all possibility for bias and prejudice.

Heh, what about all those folks who make a living off of openly selling their biases?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by barneythett

I have never fully understood why we believe that scrolling text will ever work on a small electronic screen, irrespective of the amount of money large corps like Sony throw at it.

Who mentioned scrolling text? The Sony Reader doesn't scroll text - you couldn't, on an e-Ink screen with about a 1sec refresh time.

As a matter of interest, though, when I read books on my Pocket PC, I do use a bookreader (uBook) which scrolls text, and use it that way by choice. Works very well.

[jæd]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Who mentioned scrolling text?

Thats because he's a spammer..

[William Moates]

Hmm. Reminds me of bad Slashdot posters. The common retort to them is "RTFA".

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by jæd

Thats because he's a spammer..

... hate them.

[Teresita3]

Originally Posted by slayda

Just for curiosity, when reading a book, which is what the reader was designed for, why would you need a search ability. I admit it would be nice, especially if/when reading periodicals, but for books it isn't really necessary - unless you are using other media to read the same book when you reader is not available. I've done this with PC, Palm TX & Sony reader. Now I make sure I'm in different books on different media. Makes life simpler.

My book is a hymnal with 600 pages of songs. I need to search for song title x and go directly there.

[HarryT]

There are lots of "reference" type books for which the ability to quickly move backwards and forwards through the book is vital. Even the ability to go directly to a specific numbered page using the number keys would be a huge advance over what we have now - moving in "10ths" is just way too coarse a split for large books, and can leave you hundreds of pages away from where you want to be.

[scottcstoness]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There are lots of "reference" type books for which the ability to quickly move backwards and forwards through the book is vital. Even the ability to go directly to a specific numbered page using the number keys would be a huge advance over what we have now - moving in "10ths" is just way too coarse a split for large books, and can leave you hundreds of pages away from where you want to be.

You'd think that it wouldn't be hard to have a "GoTo page" option somewhere; after all, there are number keys!

[unkilbeeg]

I did some testing with hyperlinks in PDF files and they seemed to work. Bookmark the table of contents and then use the links in the table of contents to get to what you need.

I have a PDF I've generated from a Gutenberg book (Hans Christian Andersen, FWIW) that has a functioning table of contents. I'm playing with font settings to figure out the most legible options.

It's slow going since my testing involves taking my SD card to the nearest Borders to see how well my latest attempt works. One day I'll scrape together the funds to get one of my own (probably.)

[William Moates]

Go ahead and buy it now, unkilbeeg, you know you want it!
Balancing a budget is for squares!
C'mon, all the kids are doing it!