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Originally Posted by Huyggy
I'm still a bit disappointed by the evolution of the technology of the eraders, during all this time (I'm registered to this site for a long time now...):
They (the engineers, the tech companies...) are still advertising about the superiority of the ereaders, how the display is bigger and bigger, how the pages are flipping faster and faster and so on...
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What do you expect? That ebook reader makers admit their shortcomings? "yeah, we know, the technology is still kinda crummy and it's pricey, but hey it's better than dirt!"
Of course they're going to flaunt the superiority of their readers...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Huyggy
But what about the principal quality of the book, i.e the ability to leaf through it?
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If you feel the need to do that, then you are correct. Ebooks aren't for you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Huyggy
Have you used your ereader as a dictionary? It's slow and not very practical to use.
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I use it all the time: as a standalone dictionary, it's a lot faster to search than a dead tree version. As an inline dictionary, I can read a book, double-tap a word and see the definition (or the translation if I pick a translating dictionary instead) appear instantly under the page. That beats any paper dictionary any day of the week.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Huyggy
So, sorry for that, but your bigger screen, your 32Go hard drive, your full color display won't never do the trick against a 600 year old technology as the paper booklet!
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Look, it's really a matter of compromise, and figuring out what's important to you. I'm with you on the screen and "feeling" issue: an ebook reader just isn't as nice to look at as a paper book, and certainly nowhere as nice to touch or smell. It's also more fragile, needs charging, and as you point out, it's not as easy to do certain things like flipping through the pages.
On the other hand, an ebook reader shines when it comes to information density, search capabilities, and the ability to buy a book online and start reading it instantly anywhere in the world. Also, it's often a lot easier to find out-of-print books, or books written in a foreign language, in electronic format. Finally, if you read a lot, they're supposedly good for the planet because they save trees - if you care about that sort of thing.
You need to decide what's important to you. If you're okay to sacrifice what ebooks have to offer for the privilege of handling real books, then that's cool. For me, with the advent of Pearl e-ink displays, ebook readers have now become tolerable enough to replace paper books. But that's just your choice and that's just my choice; you shouldn't make broad statements on the value of ebook readers, because not everybody has the same needs you have.