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Originally Posted by Ken Stuart
People keep talking about the evils of a "backlight", but that is not what is needed, it is simply a "built-in" light.
For $350, people do not expect to have buy extra things, and aside from the financial aspect of it, they especially do not want to have a temporary, improvised light hanging off the thing that may not transport in the same case. I also do not want to have to change the batteries of a book light, or to have to carry a spare set of batteries for it (which would be 4 batteries for the light referred to in the post above).  |
Okay, now that's a point I
don't dispute. I don't find it as compelling as you or others may, but I agree that it is an issue that has to be decided by potential buyers.
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Originally Posted by Ken Stuart
I can guarantee that the reason there is not a built-in light is hysteria over "battery life". This is really foolish as people expect to put their cell phone and/or PDA in a charger every night, not to mention plugging in their laptop. As long as the battery lasts a full day or two of use, that's enough.
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I've done a lot of reading on my Pilot, it's
really annoying to have to wait for it to recharge so I can read more, or to strangle on the charging cord. I submit that a Reader isn't like a cell or PDA that gets used in relatively short spurts, and can be done without for a couple of hours while it charges with no loss of usefullness. It's more like, well, a book. If you get to the climax of a book, you don't want to stop and charge the rascal for a couple of hours before you find out what happens next! I expect to have to figure out when the best times to charge my Reader are (like when I'm going somewhere for a couple-three hours that I'm not going to be reading), and remember to plug it in. But that's a far cry from having to charge it on a daily basis, and it's a lot more of an issue to me than not having a built in light. Another thing folks will have to sort out for themselves.
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Originally Posted by Ken Stuart
PS I have not seen an e-ink display yet, but a review of the Sony Reader claims that it is gray rather than white, and that lack of contrast, combined with the ghosting (however toned down) makes the e-ink display still not ready for "prime time".
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Ghosting on e-ink is roughly equivalent to ghosting on a paper page, so I'd say it's as ready for prime time in that regard as paper is.
Seriously, though, I recall that the ghosting is worse after an image has been displayed for a while, but reduces to almost gone after a few page turns. Kind of an enertia effect, I guess.
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Originally Posted by Ken Stuart
But how many people will ever see the Sony Reader screen ?
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As many people as I can show it to, speaking for myself.