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brecklundin · 11-07-2009, 07:57 PM

If you are considering textbooks on your device. Depending on your area of study, most of the current readers might be more problematic than they are worth at this microsecond in time.

I would offer that the suggestion to really read the site for a while, keep asking good questions like this...and since you have to wait anyway, keep an eye on what happens around the time of the January CES Convention in Las Vegas. Most device makers are holding onto info about readers until then. Also, this should be a year where we see a few larger format (bigger display panel) device, not all of which use eink type panels. There are pro's and con's to eink vs. other display panel technology. Do not let anyone sell you on a given display tech, decide for yourself what works best for you. Things like battery life and will, for the time being, go toward eink type displays. However eink can lose on contrast and readability in low light conditions. Likely sunlight readability will mostly go to eink...but, there are newer LCD type displays which will lend themselves to use in direct sunlight and provide color now, something eink cannot currently do. These devices are what I call "tweener" device, neither ebook only devices, but also not full slate/tablet PC's. My money is that this class of reader will be far better for students.

One last thing to consider is if you are hoping to use the device for textbooks, formats the reader supports, can you obtain the book in a format your reader supports and will that format display well enough for study purposes? Small <= 8" devices are not as large as you might imagine. Remember an 8"x11" piece of paper has a diagonal measument of ~14".

Look for info about the Kindle DX academic testing sites. Amazon tested their Kindle DX at a few universities/colleges and there seems to be a far amount of feeback in the area of trying to study using an ereading device vs. traditional textbooks. And from what I have gleened, there is a big difference in many areas of study.

It's good ya decided to look around NOW not when you need the device...and also it's a wonderful time to jump in feet first as many new devices will be coming out over the next few months. Ultimately once you aquaint yourself with the features of most typical eink based devices as well as those closer to a PDA-tablet hybrid it will come down to budget and what you can and cannot live without...

And yeah, most readers are still pretty fragile. If you go with a larger format reader look for the newer (as yet unreleased) flexible display panels. These will be due out in early 2010.

11-07-2009, 07:57 PM	#15
brecklundin Banned Posts: 1,906 Karma: 15348 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: mine	If you are considering textbooks on your device. Depending on your area of study, most of the current readers might be more problematic than they are worth at this microsecond in time. I would offer that the suggestion to really read the site for a while, keep asking good questions like this...and since you have to wait anyway, keep an eye on what happens around the time of the January CES Convention in Las Vegas. Most device makers are holding onto info about readers until then. Also, this should be a year where we see a few larger format (bigger display panel) device, not all of which use eink type panels. There are pro's and con's to eink vs. other display panel technology. Do not let anyone sell you on a given display tech, decide for yourself what works best for you. Things like battery life and will, for the time being, go toward eink type displays. However eink can lose on contrast and readability in low light conditions. Likely sunlight readability will mostly go to eink...but, there are newer LCD type displays which will lend themselves to use in direct sunlight and provide color now, something eink cannot currently do. These devices are what I call "tweener" device, neither ebook only devices, but also not full slate/tablet PC's. My money is that this class of reader will be far better for students. One last thing to consider is if you are hoping to use the device for textbooks, formats the reader supports, can you obtain the book in a format your reader supports and will that format display well enough for study purposes? Small <= 8" devices are not as large as you might imagine. Remember an 8"x11" piece of paper has a diagonal measument of ~14". Look for info about the Kindle DX academic testing sites. Amazon tested their Kindle DX at a few universities/colleges and there seems to be a far amount of feeback in the area of trying to study using an ereading device vs. traditional textbooks. And from what I have gleened, there is a big difference in many areas of study. It's good ya decided to look around NOW not when you need the device...and also it's a wonderful time to jump in feet first as many new devices will be coming out over the next few months. Ultimately once you aquaint yourself with the features of most typical eink based devices as well as those closer to a PDA-tablet hybrid it will come down to budget and what you can and cannot live without... And yeah, most readers are still pretty fragile. If you go with a larger format reader look for the newer (as yet unreleased) flexible display panels. These will be due out in early 2010.