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smallandodd · 12-27-2011, 11:16 PM

I can't find a student/academic post since February of this year, so I'm emerging from lurk-mode. Hi.

I'm looking for the best economic reader for my needs. I'm absolutely willing to go iPad but it might be overkill. If a stripped down tablet for half the price suffices, I'll go that route.

Here's my situation:

I've got 2 more semesters in my library and information science masters, and applying to business school to start this fall. So I've got some 21st century grad school experience and have a few more years to go.

The first few semesters, the iPhone and Netbook served my purposes. The iPhone's got my audiobooks/music, the netbook is good for carting around campus and taking notes/entertaining myself during class. My email and calendar are in google, which I can access through both. I don't do social networking.

I got it in my head to get an ereader for newspapers/magazines. I kept saying iPad and enough people told me to not spend money on a toy I might not want that I got a Nook simple touch this past summer.

The Nook simple touch can take instapaper's converted articles to epub but it was hard to keep track of what I had and what I read and what days there were. I can get the Economist and Businessweek through calibre but I'm seriously stressed out by the text-only magazine format. I don't have a sense of the article as a whole and the experience is more stressful than gratifying. The nook is perfect for library books or reading one of the thousands of ebooks I have so I don't regret buying it, but it's not doing what I want for school.

This is what I want:

View newspapers and magazine articles as laid out
Ability to read pdfs of articles--this is huge. I don't want to print out and lug around all of those pdfs I might not use. I want to be able to scan through quickly, decide what I want to keep, make some notes, and discard the rest--without killing a lot of trees.
Annotate or at least highlight those pdfs/articles. I liked the ability to do it in the nook. Note: my pdfs aren't complicated formulas but I expect a lot of data--and tables do not translate into the nook.
Easy access to filestructure and files.

What would be really nice to have, but not a dealbreaker if I can't get it:

Access to dropbox or evernote and/or other centralized file locations. I'm okay loading things on at home or at work and reading offline if that'll save me hundreds of dollars.
Microsoft Office capabilities--even if just opening, but working in would be kind of awesome too.

Things I don't really need:

Email/calendar access. I can do that easily enough on my iphone.
Audio/mp3 capability. Ditto.
3G. I don't have 3G on my nook simple touch and I haven't even missed it. I don't anticipate immediately needing an article or something so badly I can't wait until I get home or to a wifi spot to load it. It's not like I print up articles on the go, I painstakingly print and pack them all up and flip through on my commute.

Initial thought: iPad 2 Wifi at 32 gigs. I won't have the extra cost for the data plan, and I can access dropbox and evernote. I can search through the academic catalogs and download my pdfs and view them there. Seems like GoodReader is an app a lot of people like.

But, is there an option that might not do everything an iPad can, but might serve my purposes?

Please, ask me more questions too, there are probably things I've forgotten.

Thanks!

ETA: Maybe a little more information about me: I'm only a part-time student, I work full-time, and live in a city. I commute on public transportation and spend a lot of time working in coffee shops rather than my apartment. I'm really looking for a good portable way to do a lot of my research and reading, not so much the work itself. And I think full-time student needs are really different than part-time students.

12-27-2011, 11:16 PM	#1
smallandodd Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: Nook Simple Touch	grad student needs I can't find a student/academic post since February of this year, so I'm emerging from lurk-mode. Hi. I'm looking for the best economic reader for my needs. I'm absolutely willing to go iPad but it might be overkill. If a stripped down tablet for half the price suffices, I'll go that route. Here's my situation: I've got 2 more semesters in my library and information science masters, and applying to business school to start this fall. So I've got some 21st century grad school experience and have a few more years to go. The first few semesters, the iPhone and Netbook served my purposes. The iPhone's got my audiobooks/music, the netbook is good for carting around campus and taking notes/entertaining myself during class. My email and calendar are in google, which I can access through both. I don't do social networking. I got it in my head to get an ereader for newspapers/magazines. I kept saying iPad and enough people told me to not spend money on a toy I might not want that I got a Nook simple touch this past summer. The Nook simple touch can take instapaper's converted articles to epub but it was hard to keep track of what I had and what I read and what days there were. I can get the Economist and Businessweek through calibre but I'm seriously stressed out by the text-only magazine format. I don't have a sense of the article as a whole and the experience is more stressful than gratifying. The nook is perfect for library books or reading one of the thousands of ebooks I have so I don't regret buying it, but it's not doing what I want for school. This is what I want: View newspapers and magazine articles as laid out Ability to read pdfs of articles--this is huge. I don't want to print out and lug around all of those pdfs I might not use. I want to be able to scan through quickly, decide what I want to keep, make some notes, and discard the rest--without killing a lot of trees. Annotate or at least highlight those pdfs/articles. I liked the ability to do it in the nook. Note: my pdfs aren't complicated formulas but I expect a lot of data--and tables do not translate into the nook. Easy access to filestructure and files. What would be really nice to have, but not a dealbreaker if I can't get it: Access to dropbox or evernote and/or other centralized file locations. I'm okay loading things on at home or at work and reading offline if that'll save me hundreds of dollars. Microsoft Office capabilities--even if just opening, but working in would be kind of awesome too. Things I don't really need: Email/calendar access. I can do that easily enough on my iphone. Audio/mp3 capability. Ditto. 3G. I don't have 3G on my nook simple touch and I haven't even missed it. I don't anticipate immediately needing an article or something so badly I can't wait until I get home or to a wifi spot to load it. It's not like I print up articles on the go, I painstakingly print and pack them all up and flip through on my commute. Initial thought: iPad 2 Wifi at 32 gigs. I won't have the extra cost for the data plan, and I can access dropbox and evernote. I can search through the academic catalogs and download my pdfs and view them there. Seems like GoodReader is an app a lot of people like. But, is there an option that might not do everything an iPad can, but might serve my purposes? Please, ask me more questions too, there are probably things I've forgotten. Thanks! ETA: Maybe a little more information about me: I'm only a part-time student, I work full-time, and live in a city. I commute on public transportation and spend a lot of time working in coffee shops rather than my apartment. I'm really looking for a good portable way to do a lot of my research and reading, not so much the work itself. And I think full-time student needs are really different than part-time students. Last edited by smallandodd; 12-27-2011 at 11:30 PM.