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Old 07-29-2007, 11:10 PM   #1
htaylor
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Hi. newbie here, buy now or wait?

I have been waiting for years for a good, reasonably priced ebook reader. I want one that will read or be able to convert my existing books (many formats) 25 GB I really do not want to have wasted the time it has taken me to collect and file these books.

So should what should I buy? Or should I wait a bit longer?
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Old 07-30-2007, 04:58 AM   #2
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There will always be something better around in 6 months time. May as well buy now and enjoy your eBooks. What on Earth is the point of spending "years" collecting eBooks if you don't read them?
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Old 07-30-2007, 08:57 AM   #3
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Moved the tread to get more coverage...

What format(s) are all your books in? Right now, the reader with the most format support with little to no coversion is the iLiad. But it's price (~$700) is a major deal breaker for most.

The cybook gen3 looks to be pretty open and they hope to support as many formats as possible. It should be out within 2 months. You may want to watch the forums and wait for more details.

The sony reader is your last option, but it has pretty limited format support, and most things require conversion to look good. With a large collection, it's probably not your best choice.
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Old 07-30-2007, 11:10 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by htaylor View Post
I have been waiting for years for a good, reasonably priced ebook reader. I want one that will read or be able to convert my existing books (many formats) 25 GB I really do not want to have wasted the time it has taken me to collect and file these books.

So should what should I buy? Or should I wait a bit longer?
Whatever computer you buy, there will always be a better one for a better price than you paid.
Whatever computer you ever buy it will be slightly obsolete even before you bring it home from the shop.

If you want wait for a better deal you will find indefinitely.
You might decide to wait for that cybook Gen3, however.

I am happy with my Sony Reader.
I am unhapy with Connect site, Connect software, and some other aspects, but with the reader it is the screen that counts. And screen is *marvelous*. You should have a look at a device with an e-paper screen.

Even if your collection is huge, you will read only one book at the time anyway.
What *I* personally do is: format by hand just a few books I am going to read in the near future. By the time you will have read 100 of your books, your reader will be obsolete or worn out and you will have to convert the entire collection again.

Unless, that is, those 25 gigabytes of books are manga scanned with 600dpi in uncompressed bitmaps ;-)
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Old 08-08-2007, 08:30 PM   #5
htaylor
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I have just purchased the Sony reader for $60. I hope with your help on the forum to make it last until a better thing comes around. Thanks to everyone here for their help. At least the price is right.
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Old 08-09-2007, 03:28 AM   #6
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Another Newbie

Hi, I've been following this forum for a few weeks now. I've been thinking of getting a Reader since I got to use the Sony at Best Buy. However, I have Macs at home and would like to be able to view any purchased (DRM'd) e-books on my Mac as well as my reader. Sony's Connect isn't Mac compatible, and neither is Mobipocket for Bookeen's CyBook. However I hear Sony will be supporting Adobe Digital Editions- which runs fine on my Mac.
Any idea if this Adobe support will be added to existing Sony readers or only to some future reader? Will Bookeen also be adding support for Adobe DE or any other format that is Mac compatible? I'm trying to decide whether to wait for Cybook (at least I can purchase Mobipocket books on the Mac- even if I cant read them) or buy a Sony now and hope it may become compatible soon.
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Old 08-09-2007, 05:55 PM   #7
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However I hear Sony will be supporting Adobe Digital Editions- which runs fine on my Mac.
Any idea if this Adobe support will be added to existing Sony readers or only to some future reader?
I don't know why MobiPocket is ignoring the Mac. I understand why they might not want to support generic Linux desktops (too many variants), but it would seem relatively easy to port and support their Java-based e-reader on the Mac.

Digital Editions gets bonus points for already supporting the Mac and promising Linux support this year. However, it can only be as good as the DRMed formats it supports. Going forward they have EPUB, but for existing content this means DRMed PDFs. I don't have any experience with existing Adobe e-books, but if they are not reflowable then they won't look good on the Sony. One way to test this would be to open Digital Editions in a 600x800 pixel window on your Mac and see how well it handles an old Adobe e-book.
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Old 08-09-2007, 10:44 PM   #8
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Digital Editions ebooks are reflowable. It's a proper ebook format. I don't know if it'll be able to handle PDF any better though.
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Old 08-10-2007, 02:51 AM   #9
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I'd really like to see how the new CyBooks screen compares to the Sony. I read 25 pages of 'Cell' on the Sony demo unit at Best Buy- The screen was impressive but not quite as white as I'd like. I'm thinking even a 20% increase in whiteness might make it perfect- but then again, if Chase Bank ever approves my Sony Card application, I might be able to overlook the 20% less contrast if it was 80% cheaper....

Also I'm hoping Bookeen might have a better way of storing and searching. A flat file format is great if you can sort by Author/ Title/ Genre like on the iPod, but I didn't see any such method on the Sony. I don't want to hunt through 10 pages of titles to find one I'm looking for.
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Old 08-10-2007, 04:14 AM   #10
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Quote:
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Also I'm hoping Bookeen might have a better way of storing and searching. A flat file format is great if you can sort by Author/ Title/ Genre like on the iPod, but I didn't see any such method on the Sony. I don't want to hunt through 10 pages of titles to find one I'm looking for.
On the main menu, the "Books" item gives you a list sorted by title; the "Authors" item gives you a list sorted by author. There's no way of sorting by genre.

You can, however, (in main memory) have "Collections", which can contain anything that you want, so you could create a collection for each genre and manually put each book into the appropriate collection. That's done using the "Connect" software.
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Old 08-10-2007, 12:09 PM   #11
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On the main menu, the "Books" item gives you a list sorted by title; the "Authors" item gives you a list sorted by author. There's no way of sorting by genre.

You can, however, (in main memory) have "Collections", which can contain anything that you want, so you could create a collection for each genre and manually put each book into the appropriate collection. That's done using the "Connect" software.
That's good to know. I guess I didn't play with it enough. Once I started reading Stephen King's Cell on it I kind of got sucked into the story and forgot about the device. Now if only they'd make Connect Mac compatible I'd be set. If I can get one for 49.00 I'll definitely get one regardless . If not I'll wait for the CyBook.
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