What is most similar to an Astak EZReader ??

[eschwartz]

Well, as it happens I am a firm believer in vanilla ice cream. But I don't have a problem with other peoples' ice cream preferences.

As for my material ambitions regarding ereaders, I am quite aware that people have different needs, and I try hard to avoid projecting my needs on other people.
Nevertheless, I still feel expandable memory is something no one needs, ever (except in special circumstances like manga)... because a basic 4GB device can hold several thousands of books and supply me (a prolific and fast reader) with enough reading material for several years. Even taking into account the need to store old favorites just in case. Even taking into account a wide variety of eclectic tastes.
And you can surely find time to switch out your ondevice library say once a month.

A less eclectic, less prolific, slower reader who doesn't bother to save hundreds of old favorites -- or any combination thereof -- is even less likely than I am to run through that several-year supply of reading material in a measly month.

I have furthermore never once had anyone satisfactorily explain to me why they need more storage space for non-manga ebooks.
I did establish that manga readers apparently need more space than I first assumed was ever necessary, and on those grounds I have made sure to specify that distinction ever since.
Though there was the guy who insisted he needed an offline archive of Wikipedia. I wasn't impressed with his "need"....

The current builtin storage is already overkill, and you want even more?
As I said, it is an irrational attachment. I can't possibly discuss your needs effectively with an irrational attachment in the way.



And given your further irrational belief in the inherent need for chaos, I am not convinced I want to know what your needs are.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Well, as it happens I am a firm believer in vanilla ice cream. But I don't have a problem with other peoples' ice cream preferences.

As for my material ambitions regarding ereaders, I am quite aware that people have different needs, and I try hard to avoid projecting my needs on other people.
Nevertheless, I still feel expandable memory is something no one needs, ever (except in special circumstances like manga)... because a basic 4GB device can hold several thousands of books and supply me (a prolific and fast reader) with enough reading material for several years. Even taking into account the need to store old favorites just in case. Even taking into account a wide variety of eclectic tastes.
And you can surely find time to switch out your ondevice library say once a month.

A less eclectic, less prolific, slower reader who doesn't bother to save hundreds of old favorites -- or any combination thereof -- is even less likely than I am to run through that several-year supply of reading material in a measly month.

I have furthermore never once had anyone satisfactorily explain to me why they need more storage space for non-manga ebooks.
I did establish that manga readers apparently need more space than I first assumed was ever necessary, and on those grounds I have made sure to specify that distinction ever since.
Though there was the guy who insisted he needed an offline archive of Wikipedia. I wasn't impressed with his "need"....

The current builtin storage is already overkill, and you want even more?
As I said, it is an irrational attachment. I can't possibly discuss your needs effectively with an irrational attachment in the way.



And given your further irrational belief in the inherent need for chaos, I am not convinced I want to know what your needs are.

Can we top that vanilla ice cream with white chocolate and raspberries?
Be even better.
Now I do know someone that if she wanted to put her entire kindle purchases on an ereader, she would need extra storage. But even keeping up with 3% on her ereader is enough of a pain. Note that 3% is 300 or so books.

[DaleDe]

There are reasons for expandable memory.
1. Easy transfer of books from the computer to the reader.
2. The reader is used by multiple people and they all can have their own memory card.
3. Security and privacy of personal books.
4. Additional capacity, particular if you consider audio files capable for some readers or rather large use picture books or image PDFs.
5. Organization of books by card, swap a card and get a different set.
6. Backup.
While you can argue there are other ways to do some of these things, the uses are all customer preference items and legitimate. I think people should just agree to disagree.

Dale

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

There are reasons for expandable memory.
1. Easy transfer of books from the computer to the reader.
2. The reader is used by multiple people and they all can have their own memory card.
3. Security and privacy of personal books.
4. Additional capacity, particular if you consider audio files capable for some readers or rather large use picture books or image PDFs.
5. Organization of books by card, swap a card and get a different set.
6. Backup.
While you can argue there are other ways to do some of these things, the uses are all customer preference items and legitimate. I think people should just agree to disagree.

Dale

Your #3 confuses me.
Privacy?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Your #3 confuses me.
Privacy?

Perhaps you have books you don't want your children to read. Removing the card removes the temptation.

Dale

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

There are reasons for expandable memory.
1. Easy transfer of books from the computer to the reader.

I have no idea what you are talking about. It takes just as long to transfer books to a memory card as it does to transfer them to the internal memory.

2. The reader is used by multiple people and they all can have their own memory card.

That is both a fringe use which is hardly likely to happen, and pointless since they have no need for separate libraries.
Failing that, every device has a builtin solution -- the "collection".

3. Security and privacy of personal books.

4. Additional capacity, particular if you consider audio files capable for some readers or rather large use picture books or image PDFs.

I already mentioned manga as an exception. Not particularly sure I agree with abusing an ereader as an MP3 player, especially when few ereaders can do audio anyway, but... sure, whatever.
If that's your specific need, go get a device with expandable storage and I will be happy for you.

5. Organization of books by card, swap a card and get a different set.

It sounds vastly inefficient.

Why would I want different, mutually incompatible (apparently) sets of books?
Why wouldn't I just want to see all of them, and maybe put them in collections?
It's the best of every world!

If I really want to swap out my entire library, I probably haven't planned it out beforehand, and I might as well refresh the device directly, from calibre. In fact, that even allows me to do all sorts of fine-tuned filtering!

6. Backup.

That is a really bad idea, you should have a proper backup already.
While it is true a good backup should be saved in multiple external locations, this doesn't quite count unless it is actually a full backup.

Does it include e.g. calibre metadata, especially for book formats that don't support the full range of possible metadata? What about ancillary files of special interest? If you have a large collection, can you actually fit the entire thing on the memory card? And of course, many disasters that might happen to your computer would happen to your ereader as well.
Cloud storage and offsite storage is vastly preferable -- some people leave a hard drive at their relatives' in another city.

While you can argue there are other ways to do some of these things, the uses are all customer preference items and legitimate. I think people should just agree to disagree.

Dale

I think the more far-fetched your counter-example is, the less legitimate it is.

On that score, your point #4 was a good one -- but I also already agreed it is a valid exception.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Perhaps you have books you don't want your children to read. Removing the card removes the temptation.

Dale

Well now I see where you are going with that one.
Yes, there are a few books on my ereader I wouldn't want my youngest to read. But that would be because I don't want to hear the ew and yucks. Note my youngest is 26.
Truth be told if I had youngsters, I would be less worried about my ereader and more worried about what they might find on the internet if safe search is not turned on.
Cinderella is not a good term for young girls to be searching with safe search off. Especially images.

Also, if one gets their adult material at Amazon, it is available for anyone on the account to see.
Note: my youngsters are not on my Amazon account. They are also watched carefully if they are on my computer.

[DaleDe]

Item #1. Some people don't keep their eBook Reader anywhere near their computer and a card is easier to use than finding a cable. Or perhaps there is not a easy USB port on their computer.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Item #1. Some people don't keep their eBook Reader anywhere near their computer and a card is easier to use than finding a cable. Or perhaps there is not a easy USB port on their computer.

I didn't realize that was what you meant by #1.

Which makes it easier. Because as I said above, all current devices on the market have enough storage to support several years worth of reading materials, so surely at some point you will find yourself near the computer.

You can use your ereader's usual charging cable to connect it to the computer as well, or perhaps your phone's cable. I don't know of any computers currently sold that don't come with a USB port.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I didn't realize that was what you meant by #1.

Which makes it easier. Because as I said above, all current devices on the market have enough storage to support several years worth of reading materials, so surely at some point you will find yourself near the computer.

You can use your ereader's usual charging cable to connect it to the computer as well, or perhaps your phone's cable. I don't know of any computers currently sold that don't come with a USB port.

You learn something new every day
http://www.apple.com/macbook/

Shari

[AnemicOak]

While I personally agree that I don't need expandable storage (I read 300-400 books a year and almost all devices hold thousands) I'm glad my current device has it anyway. I don't personally care how other people handle their content just as I don't expect them to care how I handle mine. I re-read a lot and don't plan/know ahead of time what I might want to read in upcoming weeks/months. I have devices without expandable storage and they work fine, but I've become used to being able to have all of my books on my device and not having to fire up my laptop to add books because I get hit with a desire to re-read some series I last read five years ago. Sometimes I'll want to look at something in a history book when a topic comes up and can't plan for that either. Having all of my books on removable storage means a factory reset of my device (which I haven't had to do on this one, but have on my Kindle) means I don't have to reload anything to be up and running which is convenient. So I don't need expandable storage, but at this point I want it.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by shalym

You learn something new every day
http://www.apple.com/macbook/

Shari

!!!
That is just so utterly utterly messed up.

...

I guess I shouldn't be terribly surprised that Apple has obsoleted @world -- but it is still quite disappointing.
USB is an extremely common standard communicator, and USB-C is nowhere near common enough to fully replace it.
So now anyone who buys a Mac has to buy additional adapters for getting basic things done.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by smallhagrid

Thanks for replying Davidfor.
Your POV in this matter seems to avoid the possibilities that my friend and I know one another very well, get along splendidly, and have quite bluntly discussed these things openly and with equal distaste for the same aspects.

Which in fact - we have.

In that case, great, you know what he wants. But, it is a pity you didn't say that in the first post. That reads as if it was a casual "I like that, what else is like it?" rather than a deeply considered "That is EXACTLY what I need".

In the rest of your posts, when you describe what is wanted, it reads as what YOU want, not what your friend wants. Maybe that is just bad phrasing on your part, or misinterpretation on mine, but that is at least part of what I was responding to. Your comment about the lack of an external SD card slot is what I was responding to. That definitely reads as "I know better and will not tell my friend about the alternatives". The same goes with the comment about higher resolution screens. And you actually prefixed these comments with "My opinion - which is my own (Ahem)". Those are the comments I was responding to.

As to the comment about calibre and that you prefer something called "TE Book Converter". I had a look. Simple interface but absolutely no options. And what it has is weird; If I choose "Kobo" I can only convert for the "Wireless eReader" and then only epub or PDB. So, only the second oldest device, and Why on earth PDB? And the Sony options miss all the newer devices. Hasn't been updated for a year, so using an older version of calibre. But, of course the bigger problem is that it didn't work. I added several books, pressed the convert, it sat there for a while and told me there was an error for each one. I did have a look around, and I found the temp directory that it's instance of calibre was using and saw files being added and removed. But no converted book produced and nothing to tell me why.

I suppose I really should have been asking how calibre "makes more messes than it helps with"? Pretty much any time I see someone with a mess related to calibre, it is because they are not actually willing to let calibre do it's job.

I had other issues with your posts that I didn't comment on. An example was the statement that Kobo's stink for formats that you found important. Of course, you didn't bother to tell us what those formats were. Or how the Kobo's stunk with them. So, how were we to know what your needs really were? Sorry, your friends needs were.

I will conclude my participation in this thread, thusly:
Perhaps the reader simply adores vanilla icecream, just as it is - and perhaps I totally adore extra dark double chocolate walnut crunch icecream with sprinkles on it.

Do I have any 'right' or place - telling you, dear reader - that you are somehow WRONG for your preferences ??
Is it your place or 'right' telling me that I am somehow 'wrong' for mine ??

I think not (Nor will it matter either way).

I had no intention of telling you that your preferences were wrong. I might have been suggesting your preferences were short-sighted in reference to your friends needs. But, as you are now telling us that your friends preferences/needs are exactly the same as yours, then my comments were obviously pointless.

[PeterT]

It is interesting to look at the other threads smallhagrid has participated in and the suggestions given to him then.

[smallhagrid]

No cake for you, sorry !!
(Reduced to 580 x 435)
[IMG][/IMG]

[Image size now corrected by the OP - MODERATOR - thanks!]