Quote:
Originally Posted by mogui
Neko, in another thread, someone in Mexico was looking for a low-cost reader. I suggested the eBw-1150 because it looks very good to me and the price is $110. I don't have one, so here is my question. How do the eBw and the iLiad compare? Can you spend long periods reading either?
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Mogui, I saw your post in that thread and almost commented. I originally got an eBw 1150 but couldn't read PDFs on it, so when I had a chance to get an iLiad used, I jumped at it. Right after that, a utility became available to convert PDFs to a series of JPGs that can be read on the eBw 1150
The eBookwise 1150 is very readable, even in sunlight, the battery lasts something like 20 hours, you can write on the screen or select text to search, it's possible to convert most types of files to read on it, and in general it's a great device, especially for the price.
On the less-good side, it has limited memory capacity (it can only take cards up to 128Mb if I'm not mistaken), it only supports its own "imp" format, so nearly everything has to be converted (though conversion tools do exist, and there's a $15 program that handles a lot of it, along with book management), and once books are on, you can't get them off again in any reasonable way. (You can delete them, but not copy them out to another device.)
With the eBw 1150, what you buy is pretty much what you get (though new conversion programs do occasionally appear, e.g. the PDF program). With the iLiad, new utilities and ported programs are appearing at an increasing rate, and since it's linux, it's a lot more open to new development. The iLiad also offers handwriting recognition, though it's a bit limited at present. The screen refresh rate (page turn rate) of the eBw is of course much faster than that of the iLiad, because of the LCD screen.
For my own needs, the iLiad is a better choice, but I would have remained quite happy with my eBw 1150 if I hadn't had a chance to buy an iLiad.