[7tronics]

Long history of electronic book reading dating back to 1970s and VT52 and their ilk terminals attached to many mainframe and minicomputers. Short synopsis of truly portable eBook readers:

1980s: TRS-80 Model 100/200 with preview modules for Wordstar docs
1990s: Palm Pilot 1000/5000/IIIxe with same kind of modules for Wordstar docs, now with real eBook reader software
2004: Palm Treo 680 color + Palm OS so all my old Palm programs still work, new programs for document reading and markup. However, not contrast is not as good as older Palms!
2008: Bid for RocketBook readers on eBay, didn't win, couldn't see paying what these were still going for at the time!
2010: Abandon Palm OS, :-( , acquire Augen TB (returned), Pandigital Novel, & Sony PRS-600 all usable with Calibre for managing docs, even the Palm Treo 680 SD card can have content managed with Calibre!

Though I think the TRS-80 Model 100/200 series were the first truly portable devices that were of great value to me in the mid-1980s. They had really good high contrast screens and a few programs that allowed for reviewing documents, especially Wordstar docs, under development from the "luggable" PC computers of the day.

Like many who have posted here, my first really portable one-hand eBook reader was a Palm Pilot 1000 (~1998?-2004), and more recently the Palm Treo 680 (2004-now). Reviewed many a PDF on the Treo and worked on many planning documents and spreadsheets as well. Amazing how the great contrast with the early Palm B/W displays was lost until the eInk displays came about! Never quite the same "curling up" with a laptop that generates so much heat. I miss the early version Tandy Model 200 laptops which had LCD displays and were very low energy drain devices!

Finally the Treo has given way to a Pandigital Novel and a Sony PRS-600. I have high hopes for the PRS-600 when PRS+ is available, for now managing content on SD cards just like I did for the Treo! The Pandigital Novel is more for exchange of reading with the rest of the family. On business trips, the relatively heavy and power hungry Novel is great for reading eBooks in the car or train. But for me the Novel doesn't compete with the PRS-600 for PDF document review and markup on trips through airports which is my major use now for an eBook reader.

Color hasn't added much value to eBook reading, 8 level gray scale has been great for my use. However, the Novel is a decent basic "color tablet" (iPad clone) as well as good eBook reader with the recent firmware upgrades. All the devices I've used recently can have eBook content managed with Calibre. Augen's "The Book" is promising, better in brighter light than the iPad clones, but abysmal firmware and updates are non-existent, so returned. Not sure what the next few months hold, but my wife and my budget say we're done for at least another 9 mo before even looking at another eBook reader gadget!

Best, Mark