Quote:
Originally Posted by mukoan
Yeah... I hear what you're saying. My first ebook experience was reading ereader db's on a palm tungsten t3, (or was it t2??? so long ago now  ). It was very readable... no strain on the eyes at all... so long as I only read in dimly lit places (where the back-lighting of the screen actually benefited the experience). Anyway, since I got the 505 I've marveled at the fact that I could now read a digital book using my bedside lamp, or in the park... just like a real book. I think it would be a shame if that sort of "real book" flavor was compromised for the sake of giving these devices more functionality. I mean we don't crave extra "functionality" for real books. Why not keep these things simple too, and save or the cool tech tricks for devices like pda's and phones? I guess all the bells and whistles help companies push more devices off shelves... and I'm all for lifting the whole ebook industry more into the mainstream...
... I'm ranting aren't I  
anyway... even though there's something nice about a zen like piece of gadgetry that does one thing, and does it well... it's sounds like the whole glare thing is a moot point with these newer touch-screen devices, which is good to hear. |
Firs thing, don't discount the glare. While, as I said, you can easily work around it and it doesn't eliminate the e-Ink benefit entirely like the PRS-700 did it's still there and it's still worse than other readers. It's just something to consider.
Personally I think having a touch screen makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is drawn annotations but also ditching the huge chunk of wasted space where a keyboard would inevitably sit for the sake of searches and annotations with text.
I'd rather deal with a special stylus and have a MagRes/Wacom style pen input though, just to get rid of that glare. So I'd actually consider looking at that IRex that is supposed to be out. Though I wouldn't consider it until they release completed software... and that could be forever.
All said, everyone has different needs and wishes and choice is awesome. I like having an e-Ink based reader around for times when I want that experience. I have a Kindle 2 now but will be replacing it soon as a suitable large screen reader is available on the market. That will make even more sense for me.
In the meantime though I am so used to reading news and email on my iPhone all day, reading a book is just fine, no eye strain or anything. In fact, in most of my regular reading areas, I get eye strain from the Kindle because of low light! Ironic?
As for single purpose devices... where is there one of those? None of the currently manufactured Sony or Amazon devices for reading eBooks are single use devices, they all have other features. At the very least they have audio playback so you can listen to music while you read. The kindles can browse wikipedia and more... They aren't PDAs but they aren't dedicated readers either. Maybe some more obscure reader I have never bothered to look into is dedicated... I guess that one wikipedia device is fairly dedicated. But dedicated devices are already extremely uncommon, I don't think anything is going to change there.