Quote:
Originally Posted by babalou
Oy, I've got more than 3 priorities:
No.1 : Availability and price of books. Old and new ones.
No.2 : Quality of the respective book format. I've read a lot about full justification, metadata and so on.
No.3 : Portability of the books. What if I have another reader in 2 years? Can I easily take the books with me?
No.4 : Weight of the reader and battery consumption. Can I easily hold it in one hand while commuting? Will it stay on long enough for traveling 2 or 3 days?
No.5 : Robustness of the reader. Can I put it in my bag? Can I take it to the beach or pool?
No.6 : Readability. IN sunlight, in a dim room. On the train.....
I'm not sure how to weigh them, all seem important...
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Just my personal opinion and experiences:
No.1 : Availability and price of books. Old and new ones.
You can check on search engines like metaebooks.com, inkmesh.com or ebookprice.info, to get a feel yourself. I find Amazon a very good source. And their format is very "flexible". Many users recommend ePUB as the quasi-standard. Most decide about the format and then about the reader.
No.2 : Quality of the respective book format. I've read a lot about full justification, metadata and so on.
With the exception of PDF and PDB (relic from Palm Pilot ages, I think), I find them all okay. Both even are kind of okay for reading, but the problems start when you try to convert them...
No.3 : Portability of the books. What if I have another reader in 2 years? Can I easily take the books with me?
Most formats are protected (DRM = Digital Right Management). You only can re-use them, if the new reader accepts the very same format. ePUB seems to be relatively "safe" for the near future. But all (relevant) formats can be stripped (removing copy protection) from DRM and converted to other formats. There are very convenient tools available, no command line or anything like that necessary.
No.4 : Weight of the reader and battery consumption. Can I easily hold it in one hand while commuting? Will it stay on long enough for traveling 2 or 3 days?
That's a complicated one. Personally, I find the measurements more of a criteria than the weight (of course, most of the times size and weight are interlinked).
When in a crowded train, I go for 5". I wouldn't want to hold Kindle DX, iRex 1000 or Apple iPad when standing in the train.
Smaller size doesn't mean smaller battery and shorter battery duration. All recent ePaper readers are very similar, somewhere in the range of 15++ (most 20+) hours. iPad does less, in the range of 8 to 10 hours. But for pure reading, on iPad you can turn WiFi off, reduce brightness, ... and probably will make 12 hours as well.
No.5 : Robustness of the reader. Can I put it in my bag? Can I take it to the beach or pool?
All of them have one weak spot, the display. There are lots of reports about broken screens. A friend of mine broke his iPhone by just knocking it slightly to the edge of the table. When traveling, I
always use a cover. My main worry is my notebook knocking my reader in my bag.
Right now, I always take a combo with me. I put iPad and Kindle DX Graphite in their respective covers. Then I put them in an Apple "sock", back to back. They'll survive a heavy knock that way. So, with the right protection, transporting any reader in your bag shouldn't be a problem.
No.6 : Readability. IN sunlight, in a dim room. On the train.....
Yesterday I've tested a GPS application on iPad in sunlight (in rainy Germany, so you hardly can call it "sunshine"). It was barely readable. Personally, I don't mind. I read either in the house or on the train/plane, very rarely in open space.
Many consider iPads screen an advantage in a dark room. Again, I don't care. I rarely read in the dark. And for the rare occasion, I've got the Sony cover with integrated light. No problem and even longer battery life.
I wouldn't have any problems to read on iPad. Actually, browsing the web is reading as well. I slightly prefer ePaper, but to me it's no biggy.
But as I've written before: I don't want to add reading to my usage pattern of iPad, which further would reduce my battery duration.
I'd say, ambience isn't a criteria for neither of the technologies. You can use all of the readers under any circumstances.
But if you're mainly in the sun, you might be careful about iPad.
If you're mainly in dim rooms, iPad may be of advantage.