Firstly thank you everyone for being so helpful in answering my questins on various subjects as I have looked to narrow down my decision on which ereader to buy. So I thought I would jot down a few thoughts that might be of interest or help to others.
So, after much deliberation (nearing on the obsessive), I ordered yesterday a Pocketbook 360 from Pocketbookreader.com. I had a question about delivery so I left a phone message with customer services and I got a personal phone call back from the boss (Yaroslav). The unit was shipped that day. How about that for customer service ? I didn't get a call from Stevie J when I bought my iPod Touch.
The 360 has a 5 inch screen. So, I printed out pages from a document and cut out boxes that were equivalent to a screen size of 3.5 inches (iTouch), 5 inches (PB 360) and 6 inches (Kindle). It was a great way of getting an idea of screen size. I was really surprised as to how small the iTouch screen was. Looks much bigger in situ. Now the iTouch has a black surround, so I went for the black PB360.
Also went for the black as I liked the engravings better on the lid - squares rather than swirls.
I was somewhat concerned that the 5 inch screen might be too small for me. But it only means that you might need to turn pages more frequently, not that the words will be smaller of course. But I wanted portability. For me I have to grab moments and minutes to read. I wanted something easier to carry. The small size of the 360 I am hoping will make it more accessible to me. I previously had a Kindle 2. Great machine but I never used the keyboard (awful keyboard by the way in my opinion), but it added 2 inches to the size of the unit.
I also wanted an ereader that could clip out text from the pages I was reading so that I could put them into a Word document and a database on a PC. The 360 apparently does this according to the manual.
Okay, I was also attracted to the fact that it had a chess program on it as well.
eReaders fit lifestyles. We all want one for different reasons. I don't read books on them - much prefer hardcopies. But, I read an awful lot of articles. These might be 10 to 15 pages of Letter size. Printing these of, carrying them around, losing the last page when the staple comes out, getting them dog eared, and then having to copy quotes out - not good. So, I use an eReader. Don't need 3G connection to a book store. Don't even need to annotate, though the 360 does have an electronic keyboard if needed.
So, when it arrives, I'll test it out and let you know - just in case someone is interested. One thing I will be interested in is whether you can group books together in collections or folders. I know there is a favourite folder. Perhaps you can make separate folders in the Book folder. Perhaps the Notes Folders can be used for this perhaps. I suppose I'll find out.
So, sorry Kindle 2 - too big. Sorry Nook - secondary screen to eink display delays not for me. Sorry Sony eReader 600 - almost, really almost, but the glare. Sorry Cybook Opus - no clipping facility. Hello PB360.
Hal.