Quote:
Originally Posted by ajmoir
I have the Sony and have been delighted with it since Day 1.
I'm a software developer with strong leanings towards open source/content. I do not have any DRM'd books nor do I use the Sony store or software.
My thoughts are as follows:-
Form Factor. Two sizes paperback and letter. Would allow for text books to be reasonably displayed with graphics etc. Keep it slim like the PRS but remove most of the buttons say leaving page turner. No MP3 player.
Screen. eInk, front lit, upgrade the res to 300dpi.
Connectivity. USB only. recharge through USB, make device emulate external disk. Access to complete file system.
Document format. Pick one open format and stick to it. Be it PS, PDF, Tex etc. Everything can then be converted to the open format. NO DRM.
Battery life. Make it last 5 days.
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The open format needs to be epub to keep with what is happening. It is opensource and deals with ebook issues. None of the ones above meet the needs well. However there are those folks who need to view documents without conversion and conversion is not adequate on some PDFs.
DRM is likely a fact of life. As readers we don't need it but we will never get publishers convinced. They are even more paranoid than the music industry if you can believe that.
The eb1150 that started this thread has a good feel to it, but you do need a scroll wheel of some sort if you don't have a touch screen. People are unlikely to buy two readers so the paperback one needs to handle the full size documents from time to time (using landscape and 2 page modes).
With good font choices 200 bpi is probably plenty good but 300 is better but likely very expensive. There has to be a limit to the cost of this thing somewhere. 4 gray scale doesn't really cut it for images unless there is good dithering to emulate 16 (high res helps here). Again the model for this thread is a 16 gray scale device.
No need for mp3. I certainly don't want to manage two complete sets of playlists, music loads, etc. and I am not going to take a reader jogging.
Front, side, back, light: whatever works.
As you can see I really agree mostly with what you say, just a little refinement.
Dale