MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Why did you buy your iLiad? What do you do with it?

nekokami · 08-03-2007, 01:04 PM

I have to say I really bought it to read non-fiction, as I'd just been given an eBookwise 1150 that was meeting my needs perfectly well for fiction. I wanted to be able to read PDF journal articles, some of which were scanned rather than text-based (and not easy to convert to other formats therefore), and many of which included formulae and unusual characters that would be difficult to convert to other formats. I've ended up using my iLiad for nearly all my reading (except when I can't find a digital version of the next book I want to read).

I also wanted to be able to mark up pages of these journal articles. I haven't taken a class involving journal readings since I got my iLiad, but oddly enough, I've found myself willing to make notes in fiction now, when I was never able to bring myself to write in a book (of any kind) before. That was an unexpected change. I wish the iLiad offered more support for this kind of thing, beyond scribbling just on PDF files. Something like dotReader would be ideal for me.

I've also used it to take notes, but then I had to copy off all my notes to upgrade the firmware a while ago and didn't get around to copying everything back. And the notes feature doesn't work by itself, you need at least one template in there. So I haven't been able to use it for that lately. And in any case, without some kind of handwriting recognition, the notes feature is still of somewhat limited utility. Thumbnail display would help a lot-- I could at least find a page of notes quickly.

08-03-2007, 01:04 PM	#2
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	I have to say I really bought it to read non-fiction, as I'd just been given an eBookwise 1150 that was meeting my needs perfectly well for fiction. I wanted to be able to read PDF journal articles, some of which were scanned rather than text-based (and not easy to convert to other formats therefore), and many of which included formulae and unusual characters that would be difficult to convert to other formats. I've ended up using my iLiad for nearly all my reading (except when I can't find a digital version of the next book I want to read). I also wanted to be able to mark up pages of these journal articles. I haven't taken a class involving journal readings since I got my iLiad, but oddly enough, I've found myself willing to make notes in fiction now, when I was never able to bring myself to write in a book (of any kind) before. That was an unexpected change. I wish the iLiad offered more support for this kind of thing, beyond scribbling just on PDF files. Something like dotReader would be ideal for me. I've also used it to take notes, but then I had to copy off all my notes to upgrade the firmware a while ago and didn't get around to copying everything back. And the notes feature doesn't work by itself, you need at least one template in there. So I haven't been able to use it for that lately. And in any case, without some kind of handwriting recognition, the notes feature is still of somewhat limited utility. Thumbnail display would help a lot-- I could at least find a page of notes quickly.