Seems like only choice is Kindle

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by cct1

The Voyage has it's place--I didn't return it--it fits in my front jean pocket, or coat pocket, which makes it my travel ereader of choice.

Please don't put your Voyage into one of your pockets. Lots of Readers get broken that way. It gets bashed or twisted and ends up with a broken screen. It's not worth the risk.

[cct1]

It's in a slim case, works better in a coat jacket, but at the airport it was fine in the front pocket. Don't think it'll get bent there. Back pocket, yes.


If I can't put in a pocket, it's not worth bringing. Just me.

[Tarana]

For low cost, it's really a toss-up as far what specific features are most important to you. I love my Nook - both my old one and my new Nook Glo. I also have multiple Kindles and bought my Mom a Paperwhite.

Nook - I don't like how the library is set up. My only complaint. Extremely light and they put more storage in it.
Kindle - Always a good value, but more likely to break on dropping than a Nook.
Kobo - The primary complaint I have heard about kobo is their customer service, not their units.

I don't worry about the walled gardens as I strip the DRM and can use it on any of my units. The biggest overall complaint I have heard is lack of an SD card, but for most of us, that isn't even a concern. If you NEED or want to carry your whole library or simply have content that takes a LOT of space (i.e. comics, reference, illustrations), then you'd have to go with kobo since current Nooks no longer have an SD slot and Kindle never did.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Tarana

SD slot and Kindle never did.

Never? What about 1st gen Kindle? It had an sd-card slot.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Again, exactly the same.

Thanks Harry

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Again, exactly the same.

Not exactly the same. It depends on what features are used in the ePub.

One thing that is a huge fail for Mobi are blockquotes. Not being able to to have a right margin is a huge fail and it looks awful too. A lot of ePub do use blockquotes (or simulated ones that look similar enough).

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Not exactly the same. It depends on what features are used in the ePub.

One thing that is a huge fail for Mobi are blockquotes. Not being able to to have a right margin is a huge fail and it looks awful too. A lot of ePub do use blockquotes (or simulated ones that look similar enough).

Of course, all current Kindles (& back to the Kindle 3) can read/display KF8/azw3 format ebooks that don't have this restriction. I'm sure there are some features that don't transfer (in both directions) but in practice ePub<->azw3 is lossless.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Of course, all current Kindles (& back to the Kindle 3) can read/display KF8/azw3 format ebooks that don't have this restriction. I'm sure there are some features that don't transfer (in both directions) but in practice ePub<->azw3 is lossless.

Mobi was what was asked about. But in terms of KF8, there is one thing that will not properly transfer and that is line height. I'm not sure what the value is, but KF8 ignores a line height below a certain value. other than that, it should be lossless. Most KF8 originally started life as ePub.

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Was at my library today and the librarian showed me a Kindle and Nook Simple touch. The Kindle wasn't charged but the librarian said the text was very similar to the Nook, which I was very impressed by. Then I read about how terrible Nooks were getting, and so I took a look at a Kobo Glo and on Amazon it got more one star than five star reviews. http://www.amazon.com/Kobo-Glo-Eread...DateDescending

I'm not a big fan of Amazon but it seems like it's the winner by default. (Would much prefer something epub indigenous.)

If you are able to use Calibre (and add Apprentice Alf's plugins to it if you want to remove the DRM), then a device that handles a specific format becomes immaterial because you can convert your ebooks to whatever format you need for your device.

An SD card slot on an e-ink ereader is nice, but its necessity depends on what you plan to read. If it's just non-graphic intensive ebooks, then you can fit hundreds and hundreds of ebooks on the internal storage. I've got SD cards in some of my ereaders that I've never even used; I usually keep about 300 books on any device, ones that I haven't read yet. A rough rule of thumb is about 1000 ebooks per GB of storage (based upon the number of ebooks I have in my Calibre Library and the size of the Calibre Library file).

What I've found to be the most important thing in e-ink readers is the degree to which it lets you customize your viewing. Which one has the most fonts available? Is it a good mix of serif and non-serif? Does it allow you to add additional fonts? How many text sizes are available? The more there are, the easier it is to find one that suits your vision.

Check the difference in text size, especially from middle-to-small and middle-to-large. In most of the e-ink readers, the two highest text heights ridiculously large and the two smallest are ridiculously small; so check to see if those mid-range heights have a comfortable one for you. You may want to, if your eyes start to get tired when reading, be able to switch over to a text height that is slightly larger, but on some of the devices the jump in height from third largest to second largest, for example, is too great.

Reading .pdf files on an e-ink reader is basically an exercise in futility. There's always some sort of rendering problem - especially if it includes pictures or charts.

Check the physical size and weight of the device. Is it going to be comfortable in your hands?

Go on YouTube and type in the two devices' names plus "comparison" and there's probably a video for it up there. There are unboxing videos for all readers there along with videos of their use.

All the devices make it easy to buy ebooks from their respective stores, with Amazon probably being the easiest one to suck the money from your wallet due to the sheer number of book deals they offer every day.

If you want to borrow books from your local library, make sure your device is one of the ones your library's ebook service works with.

Bottom line, you'll probably be happy if you get a Kindle, a Nook, or a Kobo. The technology has advanced enough that each one will have most of the things you want in an e-ink reader, and once you become familiar with the device, the differences won't matter.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

Bottom line, you'll probably be happy if you get a Kindle, a Nook, or a Kobo. The technology has advanced enough that each one will have most of the things you want in an e-ink reader, and once you become familiar with the device, the differences won't matter.

But he got an outdated, slow, obsolete Sony Reader PRS-300 and I doubt he'll be happy with it. A nook, I don't think is a good idea.

A good idea is to get a Kobo and an Kindle for testing of eBooks. The 300 just doesn't cut it because the version of ADE used is too old.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

Check the difference in text size, especially from middle-to-small and middle-to-large. In most of the e-ink readers, the two highest text heights ridiculously large and the two smallest are ridiculously small; so check to see if those mid-range heights have a comfortable one for you. You may want to, if your eyes start to get tired when reading, be able to switch over to a text height that is slightly larger, but on some of the devices the jump in height from third largest to second largest, for example, is too great.

(bold mine)

I disagree on the getting tired and needing/wanting to increase the text size. If you are getting tired from reading because the text was too small, then you should have read with the bigger choice to begin with. Reading itself is stressful enough on the eyes, so why would you want to freewilly make it harder by choosing the smallest size possible? The smallest size that your eyes will allow you to barely read is a poor choice to comfortably read. Just pick a slightly bigger size. Less stess on eyes means it will take longer until your eyes get tired. You will also read faster when it is not a chore to decipher a teeny tiny font size - try it yourself.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

(bold mine)

I disagree on the getting tired and needing/wanting to increase the text size. If you are getting tired from reading because the text was too small, then you should have read with the bigger choice to begin with. Reading itself is stressful enough on the eyes, so why would you want to freewilly make it harder by choosing the smallest size possible? The smallest size that your eyes will allow you to barely read is a poor choice to comfortably read. Just pick a slightly bigger size. Less stess on eyes means it will take longer until your eyes get tired. You will also read faster when it is not a chore to decipher a teeny tiny font size - try it yourself.

I do read with a smallish type font and most of the time, I do fine with it. But at night when I am reading in bed, I find that sometimes my eyes get tired enough that the font does need to be increased. The problem with the 650 and T1 is that the size increments tended to be too big between what I was using and the next step up. That's one reason why I went with an H2O because I can have custom font sizes. So if I find my normal text is not working, it's easy to go up a step and not be too big. The Kindle is the same in terms of too much size between selections.

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

(bold mine)

I disagree on the getting tired and needing/wanting to increase the text size. If you are getting tired from reading because the text was too small, then you should have read with the bigger choice to begin with. Reading itself is stressful enough on the eyes, so why would you want to freewilly make it harder by choosing the smallest size possible? The smallest size that your eyes will allow you to barely read is a poor choice to comfortably read. Just pick a slightly bigger size. Less stess on eyes means it will take longer until your eyes get tired. You will also read faster when it is not a chore to decipher a teeny tiny font size - try it yourself.

Please note that what I said was, "you may want to".

Eyes get tired for many reasons, not just because small text size.

I normally read using the third or fourth largest font. My eyes tend to get tired because I have scar tissue from a severe retinal detachment in one eye so it doesn't focus as well and my other eye has to pick up the slack. I also have artificial lenses in both eyes from early-onset cataracts. So when someone like me begins to notice the strain from focussing for an extended period of time, switching over to the next larger font can ease it because the weaker eye now needs that change. It's not a matter of starting out with the wrong text size.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Mobi was what was asked about.

Sigh. It was a question from Greg who is (forgive me Greg) not the most technically savvy MobileRead member, in the context of Kindles. (See thread title!) In my opinion was clearly a question about Kindle formats in particular, not specifically about the original Mobipocket format that used HTML 3.2.

(Which, incidentally, had some features not available even in ePub 3!)

There are times to make fine distinctions and times when it is a distraction from the actual question. This was one of those latter times.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I do read with a smallish type font and most of the time, I do fine with it. But at night when I am reading in bed, I find that sometimes my eyes get tired enough that the font does need to be increased.

You probably would do just as fine all the time by using your nighttime font size during the day. I am happy for you that your H2O does everything you want including the seamless font sizes.

Originally Posted by Xanthe

Please note that what I said was, "you may want to".

Eyes get tired for many reasons, not just because small text size.

Yes, I did note the "you may want to". I was just trying to say that fine distinction between text sizes, in my opinion, should not be a top priority for a buying decision unnless you need extreme large font (even bigger than a large print paper book). Many reasons for eyes getting tired, so why chance a very small size to add to all the other factors?

Maybe it is just me being too lazy to change settings all the time - I rather find one setting that will work for every use case for me. Set it and leave it. I end up setting it where I can still read comfortably with tired eyes. Nobody is going to look over my shoulder and laugh at me for reading at a little bigger size than necessary with fresh eyes. Quite frankly, if you can imagine yourself setting it and leaving it, then it doesn't matter one bit how much smaller or bigger the next size is.

There is still no perfect ereader out there for everybody - compromises will have to be made at some point.