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Firynze · 06-20-2010, 09:31 PM

Help! I'm completely overwhelmed by the research I've been doing into MIDs, e-readers, and mobile devices. I've ruled a few devices out, and keep finding more that might meet my needs partially, but not completely. I'm totally lost now, and could use some informed opinions on what to try out!

I'm an editor. I need to read manuscripts comfortably and easily, and I need to be able to annotate these manuscripts - I want to be able to take margin notes while I'm reading, for later use. If there's a way to do handwriting recognition or something with Track Changes as in OpenOffice or Word, that's even better.

I'm going to want to do some emailing and basic web browsing on whatever I get, as well, so WiFi and a competent browser are a must, although 3G isn't necessary.

I want the best battery life I can get, because this thing is going to be with me pretty constantly.

I'd like something with a USB Host, so that I can use an external USB thumbdrive or plug in an external keyboard if I need to do more involved work than a stylus can get me.

So...the Kindle and the Nook are out (although I quite like the Nook for basic reading). The Eken M001 has lousy battery life, so it's out. The Pandigital Novel looks interesting, if they get the bugs worked out, but I don't think it does annotations.

At the moment, I'm looking at the SmartQ 7 and SmartQ V7, the WITS A81, the Archos 7 Home Tablet, and the Entourage Edge most seriously (although the Edge is really heavy for what I want), although I'm really tempted to wait and see what Notion Ink does with the Adam, and what price it ends up being.

Does anyone have a suggestion of what tablet/OS/app combinations might work for what I need to do? The biggie is having EASY annotation capability - the ability to make notes on a manuscript on the fly, preferably with a stylus that's got a dedicated slot on the device for easy storage. If there's a way to convert said annotations to text and send it through to OpenOffice as Comments and Tracked Changes, even better, but I suspect that functionality is a mythical pink unicorn that I can only dream of...

Thanks!

06-20-2010, 09:31 PM	#1
Firynze Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: Kindle, HP TouchPad, Entourage Pocket eDGe	Need to read, annotate, browse a bit... Help! I'm completely overwhelmed by the research I've been doing into MIDs, e-readers, and mobile devices. I've ruled a few devices out, and keep finding more that might meet my needs partially, but not completely. I'm totally lost now, and could use some informed opinions on what to try out! I'm an editor. I need to read manuscripts comfortably and easily, and I need to be able to annotate these manuscripts - I want to be able to take margin notes while I'm reading, for later use. If there's a way to do handwriting recognition or something with Track Changes as in OpenOffice or Word, that's even better. I'm going to want to do some emailing and basic web browsing on whatever I get, as well, so WiFi and a competent browser are a must, although 3G isn't necessary. I want the best battery life I can get, because this thing is going to be with me pretty constantly. I'd like something with a USB Host, so that I can use an external USB thumbdrive or plug in an external keyboard if I need to do more involved work than a stylus can get me. So...the Kindle and the Nook are out (although I quite like the Nook for basic reading). The Eken M001 has lousy battery life, so it's out. The Pandigital Novel looks interesting, if they get the bugs worked out, but I don't think it does annotations. At the moment, I'm looking at the SmartQ 7 and SmartQ V7, the WITS A81, the Archos 7 Home Tablet, and the Entourage Edge most seriously (although the Edge is really heavy for what I want), although I'm really tempted to wait and see what Notion Ink does with the Adam, and what price it ends up being. Does anyone have a suggestion of what tablet/OS/app combinations might work for what I need to do? The biggie is having EASY annotation capability - the ability to make notes on a manuscript on the fly, preferably with a stylus that's got a dedicated slot on the device for easy storage. If there's a way to convert said annotations to text and send it through to OpenOffice as Comments and Tracked Changes, even better, but I suspect that functionality is a mythical pink unicorn that I can only dream of... Thanks!