A manufacturer wants your opinion on 9.7" device features

[charleski]

Originally Posted by meika

In addition it must be able to run a reference manager, i.e. it's library functions must integrate with a reference manager which integrates with noting taking, annotations.

The key issue here is software development, something which combines the database function (ie calibre, itunes organisation of book/files) the referencing function (endnote/ zotero bibliographic function of relating/attributing authors and their ideas to certain texts/files) as well as the ability to read any file format and write (or support writing which) referencing those authors ideas in those files.

An academic ereader would kick the competition out of the water. Huge market if done properly.

+++

This is why trials of the Kindle in an academic environment have failed so badly. It (and all current low-power ereaders aimed at the fiction market) sucks badly at managing annotations and references.

A properly-purposed academic reader in which you could create entries in a database which organised citations with your notes on them and links to take you directly to the relevant passage in your library would be unique and would readily find a market in both the academic and professional spheres. As long as it did all this across PDFs, epubs and .docs. Add wireless connectivity to online databases like PubMed and it would be a killer.

The only issues are:
1) This takes power and moves you away from the ultra-light fiction-reader model.
2) It's only a matter of time before someone manages to do this on the iPad (though right now all the options are a bit of a disappointment).

[meika]

Originally Posted by charleski

This is why trials of the Kindle in an academic environment have failed so badly. [...]
The only issues are:
1) This takes power and moves you away from the ultra-light fiction-reader model.

Actually now that I think about it some more I see that the software is key, it should support that academic professional focus right across the process. It should be able to cope with various hardware and systems, it makes me realise that making the 'ereader' as a piece of hardware misses the main game. The academic ereader would have to be able to work across a number and variety of screens in different situations.

But a big but light colour e-ink coffee table ereader does have it's attractions. But I'll take a ultra-light pocket reader too. And a projector. And I'll be looking across all of them at the same time. Depending.

An academic ereader is a techno-nugget that can link those screens.

That's what the iPod really did, it wasn't just an mp3 player, because it connected. iPod/itunes was a proprietary ecosystem that grafted itself onto the filesharing ecosystem.

The iPad is an attempt to do that with media generally, on the back of the ipod experience and the iphone ecosystem.

It's got the commercial inertia to play hard but it's not what I want in supporting the read and write academic professional world.

Pooh for kids looks great though but it mostly reminds me of hypercard and the multimedia revolution back just before the web really took off.

[sorinxdx]

The most important feature I'm looking for in a e reader is having the bloody ability to read an Adobe PDF document in native format without the need to convert it, zoom it or anything like that. And yeah, if it doesn't have the pricetag of the Irex DRS1000 it would help too.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by sorinxdx

The most important feature I'm looking for in a e reader is having the bloody ability to read an Adobe PDF document in native format without the need to convert it, zoom it or anything like that. And yeah, if it doesn't have the pricetag of the Irex DRS1000 it would help too.

Then a Cybook is what you want[*]

* Provided, of course, that the PDF is formatted for a 6-inch (or 5-inch) screen, but if it isn't it's the book publisher's fault, not the reader's.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Then a Cybook is what you want[*]

* Provided, of course, that the PDF is formatted for a 6-inch (or 5-inch) screen, but if it isn't it's the book publisher's fault, not the reader's.

Depends on the book... Most books that I want to use a big reader for, are not really fit to made up for a 5 or 6 inch screen...

[sorinxdx]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Then a Cybook is what you want[*]

* Provided, of course, that the PDF is formatted for a 6-inch (or 5-inch) screen, but if it isn't it's the book publisher's fault, not the reader's.

I work mostly online and the ebooks that I'm reading are to a large degree self published. So there's no chance of pre formatting.

I have actually failed to find a reader to do exactly what I said. And I've been searching for a long time. Of course there is/was the DRS1000 which I now see is not even in the Irexshop (probably because of the recent news ).

As for the cybook I don't think it's better than my current Iliad. The only thing better than this would be something with a 10 inch screen. I'll just have to wait and see if anything new pops up. If not I'll probably try to get a Kidle DX although I heard it's a pain in the ass with customs.

[bjrnfrdnnd]

An e-reader this large is first of all a means to read large-format books,
most probably with figures or other elements that make it necessary to
print in large format.
Technical papers, as published in journals, as well as spreadsheets also
come to mind.
All of these are work-related reading items.

I would like to be able to annotate all content in a way that let's me export these annotations lateron. That is, for pdf, these annotations should be compatible with adobe's standards. For txt, html, and epub, I do not know
whether there is any such standard. If there is not, we need one. A stylus would be helpful for annotations.
Second, I would need excellent paper-organising capabilities, fast document switching, lists of recently read items, bookmarks, and so on. These are more important on large reading devices, as work-related reading is not just a novel at a time.
Third, all content should be readable and annotatable. That means, DRM is a must.

Long battery life, flexible display, Dictionary and search functions, and touchscreen are prerequisites that I think do not need mentioning. No device without these features will be competitive. But as this holds also for small devices (except for the flexible screen), they are not special for large-screen devices.

All the rest are just nice bonuses: WiFi, browser, colour screen, online store(s), 3g, none of that is really important but certainly would add value. If I would have to choose the importance, it is
1) WiFi and browser
2) colour
and for the rest I do not really care.
Most of work-related literature will not come through online book stores anyway.


Make a sturdy, light, standard-based annotatable touchscreen device with long battery life, and I will buy it. No such thing is yet on the market. I do not know whether the que or the skiff will live up to this. Anyways, all I hear from them is "delay, delay, delay". I wonder whether there will be any devices from them at all in the end.

[dapriuk]

At 9.7 your'e entering A5 textbook, comic and magazine territory so I think colour is likely to become important (at a push) along with WiFi and OPDS, but I don't think the rest of the options listed in the poll are a priority for an eReader. I would even drop the requirement for colour if it increased the price too much.

I would add an SD-Card slot as a priority though to allow the library to be added to without charging and sharing between devices. I would likely have multiple readers (hence the need for data sharing), separate readers for work and personal use with a couple of 9" for technical work and one 6" for book reading.

On the software side I would prefer a simple file-directory tree structure to make sharing between devices easier - the Sony has a brilliant screen but the library management software is not very usable at all.

Support for standard file formats is a must, especially epub, text, html and pdf

If I want any of the other features, including notetaking, media playing etc, I would use a tablet-PC. In fact that is what I do use today alongside my Sony PRS-505. What I need is a larger straightforward ereader for technical documents.

Thanks for the opportunity to provide input.

[ishtiak]

no lcd please, something like mirasol looks very nice (even if I didn't see any device IRL), but if not I would very much prefer electronic ink.

Mail and web.

Annotation and search.

"Openness" : at least a sdk, but root access is also important and of course free software as an OS would be perfect.

No real need for DRM support : big screen are better suited for scientific/corporate documents. In fact if needed there could be 2 versions of the reader with the same hardware : one open, an other closed in case of agreement with a publishing house/phone operator ...

[ishtiak]

De toute manière, c'est sympa de voir bookeen s'intéresser au marché des grands lecteurs ;-)

[ishtiak]

I forgot 4 things :

the weight : it has to be very light

autonomy : at *least* a whole day under *heavy* use (10 hours)

reactivity : impossible to read a technical document if there is lags while browsing fast through the document.

robustness : not very useful to have an ereader if we're afraid to carry it.

These criterions were so "obvious" for me that I forgot them in my first post. But they are in my opinion the most important ones.

[JSWolf]

A modified version of ADE that takes into account the ePub spec 100% without any of the bugs/oddities and fully supported proper typography.

That's what I want.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by ishtiak

I forgot 4 things :

the weight : it has to be very light

autonomy : at *least* a whole day under *heavy* use (10 hours)

reactivity : impossible to read a technical document if there is lags while browsing fast through the document.

robustness : not very useful to have an ereader if we're afraid to carry it.

These criterions were so "obvious" for me that I forgot them in my first post. But they are in my opinion the most important ones.

These are very good criteria, I forgot to mention them myself.

[mikij]

I really don`t need an encyclopedia if I want to read a novel. So, 9.7" is out of question for me. Too big for nothing.

[Sonist]

9.7" is too small for PDFs.

11" screen would be my highest priority.

Otherwise, it brings nothing new and compelling to the marketplace.