Quote:
Originally Posted by Pismire
On average sized devices, reading PDFs requires a lot of panning and re-sizing, and Images or formulas pose their own problems. What features would you expect from an A4-sized e-book reader for scientific publications? And what interactions of device and software would you find useful?
I am surprised there seems to be no market for A4 sized readers. Kindle DX (which seems to available on the amazon webpage again) is too small to make smaller text easily readable which in my mind disqualifies it for the purpose.
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The KDX failed if you want to call it that, well it failed as an academic or research tool not because of size alone. Maybe the biggest reason was the total absence of supporting software suitable to the task.
For me it needs to:
[ignore the numbers these are pretty much all must haves]
1. Color - pretty much excludes current EPD panels;
2. Penable hand mark-up with some sort of OCR (maybe?) to convert for keywords. So an active digitizer is what I would want...
3. Bright enough panel to outdoors. Of course no panel will win a contest with the sun for brightness but there is such a thing as good enough for brief use. Advantage here for EPD panels since they use the sun to beat it at it's own game;
4. Major factor would be the underlying support software. Beyond the OS and simple reading software. It needs to pretty much replace how one does pen, highlighter and paper research. It needs to offer the memory reinforcement that jotting down notes gives. I guess this means the OS or software needs to support having multiple books/papers open at the same time.
5. I've tried many current note taking apps for research and there are some good choices for almost every style. However, there is no seamless integration or interaction with whatever reading app the book/paper needs.
6. High end document management (i.e. bookshelf/file cabinet...maybe a device based version of Wiki software???);
8. Needs to either have a keyboard dock or Bluetooth with a well implemented BT stack to allow a keyboard and BT headset (with mic) to work. FYI, there is a known issue on current Android tablets where a headset mic never activates only the on-device mic works. Oddly it seems limited to tablets not phones...but it does seem to be a Google thing not a device maker thing...maybe...
8. Along with the keyboard thing the OS really must support what has become universal editing keystroke combinations. Too many of us know these things by heart and one thing we learned as the DOS word processor wars raged in the 80s & early 90s was editors had to support the same keyboard shortcuts for editing. Read up on the whole Wordstar, Wordperfect, Word, Write...heck even PC Write and others...it is really interesting to read how the issue evolved then MS pretty much became the standard because it was hardwired into the OS. Wordperfect really balked because their users had spent years learning their arcane and cryptic combos that I still say drove many WP users completely batcrap bozo.
7...many other things which do not immediately come to mind.
I have tried Evernote and just never warmed to it after it's 2nd or 3rd version. It just seemed to veer away from what I found handy or maybe I just quite on it. OneNote is a fav of mine but I have not been able to really push it since moving to Android devices.
A lot of these things are maturing and coming to various apps but there just isn't sufficient openness in mobile OS's like iOS or Android. I feel this is an area where Win8 (full not RT) might already have the high ground as almost all of the abilities already exist and are quite mature running on an OS that is quite excellent at allowing disparate apps to be used in concert. It's not perfect but developers in that world don't need to reinvent that wheel.
Android could be a contender but it would need to be a highly modded and optimized custom version. There is just no way Google will release an open version to allow end users to lock out the biggest resource drain which is ad and metrics tracking apps running all the time. And iOS, well I'll just say not now, not ever.
One device announced several years back really had my tongue sweating that was the Kno. They promised a LOT of what I feel I would need or want for a device for research and technical work. Maybe it's bones will rise soon in a different product? There was another device of the same size but I don't recall the name.
I also had higher hopes Pocketbook would deliver in this area. But they just seem mired in the politics of the way(s) things get done in Ukraine many of which simply do not xlate to the rest of the world. I liked their early larger devices and company focus on the education niche. Maybe they have had time to let things gestate enough to reemerge as a contender here? Sadly doubtful though.
Of currently in production devices I was an eyelash away from a Galaxy Note 10.1 when I was replacing my Asus tf300t. The reason I went with the tf700t was due to the marginal display on the Note 10.1 in comparison with the 1920x1080 600nit panel on the tf700t. That was the tipping point even over the digitizer. But maybe the next generation Note tablet will be a clear winner with the Tegra 4 or perhaps a different brand with Win8 Pro and 837TB of ram?
Sorry that was long but this is a device I've been hunting for over 30yrs...maybe I'll be able to buy one before I don't need a full year warranty anymore. So it better arrive sooner rather than later.