[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

If the person wishes to do email and some socializing with the device a tablet type device such as the Kindle Fire would likely be best--it is also backlit. (I don't know if it is available in the UK, but would be worth considering/waiting until it is.) I helped my neighbor pick a device just recently and so much depends on expectations. I showed her my K3 (keyboard) and she didn't like the keyboard, but loved the page buttons. She also wanted color because she was so used to a computer screen. The backlight didn't bother her and in fact was something she wanted because again, her expectations were more of a computer than a "book."

Thanks for the reply Marie,
Well I hadn't been considering the Kindle Fire at all, because it's unavailable in the UK, but I like the sound of it. Unfortunately until speech recognition comes of age then I don't think email is going to be an option for her.
I was originally hoping to persuade the carer to ditch the E-Reader idea and go with a tablet so that she would have access to the WWW and multimedia, as well as books. It would really open her world up. I did a U turn on that though after realising the PC-like learning curve for a non technical, non PC person, plus battery life, weight, contrast, and inevitable weird PC problems vs the straight forward process of ordering books and reading them on an E-Reader. Now maybe the Kindle Fire doesn't even have those problems. I'm sure I read that the Fire isn't so easy on the eyes and has a shorter battery life. I really liked the look of a colour E-Reader that I saw on a youtube demo yesterday - can't remember which one that was now - Jetbook maybe? If the Fire looked like that, and did 3G(that worked in UK) then it would be an interesting prospect.

She has been very happy with the fire because it does email, has facebook, plays Sudoku and she says she is planning on downloading a movie. She loves that it is bright and backlit so she can "see" it in the evenings. She also loves the color. It helps her see and read things on the front page better--and the book covers are in color.

I would *dearly* love to give her access to all of this, but I may have to keep it simple and see how she gets on with a basic E-Reader. It would be horrible dangling a big fancy box of tricks in front of her that she can't even use. Mind you that's potentially exactly what we'll be doing with th eE-Reader. Like I said to the carer earlier today, if she is able to use the Kindle interface successfully, we could consider putting together for a tablet afterwards. I must admit that I'm feeling a little despondent about the whole thing this evening. I think the carer may have underestimated how much interaction is required to get books and read them on such a device, and I may have underestimated just how restricted her hand/arm movement is. So perhaps we're naively trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Still there's always Kacir's idea's about integrating a third party interface into the E-Reader if all else fails. I'll be severely p#ssed off if she doesn;t get one that works now.

Hope this helps. I do recommend if the person has access to ANY of the readers to show it to the person. Then you can base the purchase on the complaints or lackthereof and get an idea of what they expect.

Yeah it definitely helps. As somebody with no experience of E-Readers, I need as much info and doifferent angles as possible before choosing one... or not.
Thank you,
David.