[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

It seems to me that navigation is a big issue. I review a lot of technical manuals, and need to very quickly flip from TOC to a specific page, back a few pages, forward a few pages, then to the index and to specific pages listed in the index. After playing with the Sony device, it appears you can either start from the beginning, from where you left off, or from a bookmark. Is the Cybook any better? PDF support? The Sony seems to take a long time to turn pages in a PDF. Even their owner's manual on the device seems tortuously slow to page through.

All the current devices are primarily intended as fiction readers where you read from cover to cover. They do that extremely well. They are not well suited for reference material where one wants to go in at a random point.

Does either device have a search feature? I often want to pick up NEAR where I left off when reading a novel, perhaps rereading from a certain remembered passage onward.

No.

Next, features. When reviewing technical or training material, I'll need to annotate the text. Yes, I know these devices aren't laptops, and I don't want a keyboard on a Reader. But what about voice annotations? Does either device, does ANY device, support annotations?

The iRex iLiad allows you to annotate PDF files. The Kindle allows you to annotate files, I believe, but is of course only available to a small minority of people.

Next, price and the economy of the eBook market. I'm sorry, but $300.00 to $400.00 for a device seems outrageously expensive. That's my first reaction, but I'm willing to be persuaded. Perhaps the device will "pay for itself" because the content will be cheaper. Really? How much cheaper? Will I be able to get the titles I want? New releases, classic SciFi, biographies? Non-fiction new releases? Which publishers?

Reading is my main hobby. I spend far more time reading than I spend watching TV. Would you hesitate to spend $400 on a TV? I wouldn't hesitate to spend $400 on a good bookreader. For my, the main benefit is storage space. I live in a small house; I only have room to store a few hundred paper books. I have something like 15,000 eBooks on a small external USB hard disk, backed up onto a handful of DVDs. I have several lifetimes of eBook reading awaiting me.

Device support. I see vague references to Sony's invasive software. Can someone elaborate? I see shipment, warranty service request, and customer service problems with Bookeen. Is it too early to buy a Cybook? Are they simply too immature at this point? Is Sony any better in terms of support, warranty service, and customer service?

These devices are very reliable provided you treat them with a reasonably degree of respect. Bookeen ship 2000-3000 devices per month; a handful of people have had problems. They can be a bit slow to respond to customer support requests, yes. The overwhelming majority of customers will never need such support. Certainly not an "immature" product; I've had my Gen3 since early November and it's the best eBook reader I've owned, and I say that having been avidly reading eBooks for 20+ years.

Hope that's of some interest to you. Feel free to ask if you have any further questions.