Large screen reader for academics/research

[pmthokku]

I am starting graduate study in august and a large screen ereader with good pdf capabilities (landscape continuous, zoom maybe?) and good contrast would be a great help. The large screen devices currently available seem to be too expensive as they have wifi,3G etc which I do not require. I would just like to read academic journal articles, assignments and the occasional scanned textbook.
Would you advise me to wait for the large screen devices set to hit the market soon (Pocketbook 901 looks delicious , asus dr950 or the astak electra might do too) or get the iRex dr800s now? I had originally ruled out the smaller screened devices, but are there any that I should consider? Thanks in advance.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by pmthokku

I am starting graduate study in august and a large screen ereader with good pdf capabilities (landscape continuous, zoom maybe?) and good contrast would be a great help. The large screen devices currently available seem to be too expensive as they have wifi,3G etc which I do not require. I would just like to read academic journal articles, assignments and the occasional scanned textbook.
Would you advise me to wait for the large screen devices set to hit the market soon (Pocketbook 901 looks delicious , asus dr950 or the astak electra might do too) or get the iRex dr800s now? I had originally ruled out the smaller screened devices, but are there any that I should consider? Thanks in advance.

Yes, waiting is a good idea. Currently available stuff is pretty awful for scholarship, with the possible exception of the iPad, but that's more dependent on software.

[PhishStyx]

As far as I know, you can't get an iRex anything now. Sadly, it looks like the screamers and shouters have managed to kill iRex with negative talk.

[soilwork]

enTourage eDGe is a good option for academics.
http://www.entourageedge.com/devices...rage-edge.html
It is not light-weight and PDF annotation is not as transparent as I would like but it almost replaced my stacks of papers. Even though the product is very good as it is, the company is working very hard to improve the product, so I believe the product will get better over time.

There is a similar thread that may be of help.
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80881

[pmthokku]

soilwork, thanks for pointing out the eDGe thread. It says the eDGe is not shipped to europe though. I think I will try to get hold of DR800S, and if unsuccessful, wait for the new releases.

[vxf]

I use the SONY PRS900. I am a PhD student in Finance, just finishing my dissertation. I read about 1-2 PDFs from JSTOR or SSRN a day and annotate them. The PRS is not perfect, but it works, and it has allowed me not to print as much and to store and view my notes on my PC.

I wish the screen was bigger, but in landscape mode, I can read all PDFs fine without any need for resizing. Occasionally, I use the zoom feature for two-column PDFs, as those tend to have smaller font.

[feelfine]

I live in Germany and I asked in one of stories that offer pre-ordering Edge in Europe. They assured me it will be by me as soon as 10 July and they offer some discount for pre-ordering. It is not that much time. If you like the idea of edge it can be worth waiting those few weeks.

[troymc]

I went through this same decision process last year for the same reason. Back then the closest thing was the Irex DR1000 - but I still found it lacking.

I ended up paying $$$ for a tablet PC - Motion LE1700. Expensive, but I love it.

I'd be very interested to hear which product you decide upon.


Troy

[pmthokku]

I got the DR800. Havent done much reading on it yet, but looks really nice . I updated to RC3 and am trying to get Xournal on it. I should be pretty much set if I can get it working properly. I played around with the notes app a bit and found that I have to keep writing without paying attention to when it actually appears on the screen. This might actually be usable in class! So here is the remainder of The Plan:

Take DR800 to class. Between classes, use DR for reading research papers/books/notes as well as do assignments on it. Use iTouch gen2 if information has to be acquired from the internet. Once back home, sync DR with Fujitsu T5010 tablet and load up for the next day's reading if necessary.

I find that my tablet is 1.too bulky 2.doesnt have the juice to last all day 3.puts too much strain for continuous reading. In case my tablet is likely to come into play only in emergencies if I break my DR (have to get a modular bay battery for extra juice I guess) or if I have to give presentations. Otherwise, it is going to be used mostly for programming. Cant imagine anything which would require extensive use of the internet-cum-computational power-cum-digital writing.

Will keep you posted on my experience.

[nurse_horrible]

Originally Posted by pmthokku

I got the DR800. Havent done much reading on it yet, but looks really nice . I updated to RC3 and am trying to get Xournal on it. I should be pretty much set if I can get it working properly. I played around with the notes app a bit and found that I have to keep writing without paying attention to when it actually appears on the screen. This might actually be usable in class! So here is the remainder of The Plan:

Take DR800 to class. Between classes, use DR for reading research papers/books/notes as well as do assignments on it. .

Congrats on finding one. I'm in a PhD program and use mine for everything reading-related. Take a look at the Irex thread here on MobileRead. There's a new GUI (called "800+", I think) that adds better access to controls, tabbed reading, full-screen mode, and continuous page scrolling. I haven't used it yet, as I'm using one created by another MobileRead poster (CoolDragon) that can be found here (and I did use Google Translate to figure it out just fine): http://www.hi-pda.com/forum/viewthre...extra=page%3D1

Good luck!

[pmthokku]

So which one (dr800+ or the coolDragon one) is better? Are you using xournal along with the coolDragon one? Thanks for tip.

Edit: Installed the CoolDragon one. Definite improvement in user experience . By the way, has anyone used xournal for extensive note taking (in class)? How large of a xournal file (number of pages) do you get to before the DR slows down considerably?