A manufacturer wants your opinion on 9.7" device features

[zelda_pinwheel]

I've been contacted by a manufacturer who would like to know what features are considered important in a 9.7" device. Your answers will be taken seriously, so please vote for the features you consider priorities. The poll covers both hardware and software features.

Multiple choices are possible.

Thanks !

[DannyElfman]

Answered !

As to me a reader is by nature a reader and not a tablet, I do not mind having a B&W display. Important features to me are dictionnary, search module, web browser + wifi (for wikipedia, forums like this one, articles, online newspapers, etc ...). A stylus would be useful for the web part.

One thing : battery ! No need to have a color touch screen with 3G if it lasts 10 minutes ...

[mr ploppy]

None of the above. The only features that are required for me is the ability to set your own font, size, line and paragraph settings that will over-ride anything that is set in the books (including DRM infested ones); and the ability to buy books from anywhere without having to worry about whether they will open or not.

[Logseman]

Since it's an eReader we're talking about, and a big one at that, I've opted to ask for the things that would make me buy an eReader. WiFi for a basic, free Internet connectivity, color display, a good touch screen to allow me to zoom and touch at my whim, an internet browser for the acquisition of contents, and document searches for when I've already gathered the content and want to sort it out. I'd be using it primarily for comic reading.

[elena]

are we talking about e-paper or lcd devices?

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by elena

are we talking about e-paper or lcd devices?

e-paper devices.

thanks everyone for your answers !

[WillAdams]

Didn't have as an option one of my most important ones --- the ability to natively annotate .pdfs so that the annotations would be visible in a standard .pdf viewer when transferred to someone else.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

Didn't have as an option one of my most important ones --- the ability to natively annotate .pdfs so that the annotations would be visible in a standard .pdf viewer when transferred to someone else.

i think you should feel free to mention in the comments any features that are important to you that don't appear in the poll options. maybe they just hadn't thought of them, and they're just waiting for your brilliant suggestions.

annotation and the ability to export notes is very important to me too.

[RobinRosengren]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

None of the above. The only features that are required for me is the ability to set your own font, size, line and paragraph settings that will over-ride anything that is set in the books (including DRM infested ones); and the ability to buy books from anywhere without having to worry about whether they will open or not.

+1 for "None of the above"

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

None of the above. The only features that are required for me is the ability to set your own font, size, line and paragraph settings that will over-ride anything that is set in the books (including DRM infested ones); and the ability to buy books from anywhere without having to worry about whether they will open or not.

if you are interested in buying books from anywhere, you might want to vote in favour of OPDS support. OPDS is the Open Publication Distribution Standard ; the idea is precisely to have a standard protocol for book distribution which would mean universal compatibility with bookstores no matter what device you're using (among other things).

[shellz786]

Text to speech capability!

[Dave Berk]

Sorry for being an idiot, but what's OPDS?

[Jellby]

Document search, Dictionary, OPDS.

Plus: multiple formats, annotations (in some format that allows to see them off-device), custom dictionaries, standard connections (USB storage), good reader programs (that allow zooming, changing fonts, layout...), detachable wired remote...

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Dave Berk

Sorry for being an idiot, but what's OPDS?

No need to apologise, OPDS is pretty unknown by a lot of people.

From the home page of the project on Google Code :
"The Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) Catalog is a syndication format for electronic publications based on Atom RFC4287 and HTTP RFC2616. Catalogs enable the aggregation, distribution, discovery, and acquisition of electronic publications. OPDS Catalogs use existing or emergent open standards and conventions, with a priority on simplicity."

there is a thread here which will give you some more information about it.

[John F]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

None of the above. The only features that are required for me is the ability to set your own font, size, line and paragraph settings that will over-ride anything that is set in the books (including DRM infested ones); ...

+1

The reading software is the most important.