Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It's interesting to read other mailing lists. Eg, on the "Fictionwise" mailing list there appears to be a strong following for a device called the "eb1150", and any mention of eInk readers is met by a chorus of "it doesn't have a backlight so it's useless" type posts.
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I started out with a Rocket eBook back in 2000 (can it be only seven years ago?!) when they were, like the Sony Reader, about $300. The Rocket begat the RCA 1100 which begate the Gemstar GEB 1150 which reappeared as the eBookwise 1150, and I've owned them all. The screen resolution was best with the Rocket but readable with all of them, and the backlight a neccessity, otherwise you couldn't even read the screen. I happily read tons of books, backlit and organized in categories with an easy to scroll directory.
And yet, when the Sony Reader came out, I pounced.
Why? eInk is nice on the eyes, true. The size of the unit is great. The fact that I can charge it with my igo system icing on the cake (I built my own igo tip for the eb1150).
But for me the main reason for jumping on the Sony Reader is battery life, and the ability to take more than 128Megs of memory. I want to carry all my books with me when I travel, and I want to be able to read more than one book before I have to recharge it, something I couldn't do with my 1150 or, for that matter, with my iPaq (nasty thing to read a book on, that!).