Prospects for Academic/Scientific PDF reading in the coming year

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by mdmorrissey

Why in the world would anyone insist on being able to take notes on a reading device? This is the wrong direction, and plays directly into the hands of the marketeers who are only interested in producing fancier and fancier devices that promise everything and deliver -- by definition almost -- insufficiently, so that the prices are maintained or increased with every new "improvement." NO! For crissakes all you need is paper and pencil to take notes! You don't need to take notes and underline, etc. on a reading device anymore than you need to underline or write in the margins of paper books (and shame on you if you do that -- or why not engage for paper books with amazingly expandable margins and so on...). Here is what I want and I think all of us would be perfectly satisfied with if we get off the "upgrade" carousel:

1. A CHEAP e-ink reader that will display all sorts of texts as well as paper. NOT in color! (How books for adults are in color?)
2. Paper and pencil.

Go ahead and scream. Then we will know where you are coming from!

While I would buy a cheap, large e-ink reader for reading PDFs, and colour really isn't all that important to me, I do a lot of translation work, and being able to write my notes/possible translations directly on the reader would be a HUGE bonus. While for some people note-taking isn't an issue, for others it is. I don't consider it a must-have feature for me on an e-ink reader (yet), mostly because e-ink doesn't seem to be quick enough yet for me to find extensive hand-written notes very comfortable to use, and the keyboard note-taking option doesn't cut it for me as I can't produce diacritics, foreign alphabets, etc. with it (as far as I know). Note-taking, however, is a dealbreaker for a lot of people, and that's very understandable. Underlining and multiple bookmarking is very important, both in academic and non-academic work for many people. Different strokes for different folks.

[julon2000]

Originally Posted by mdmorrissey

Why in the world would anyone insist on being able to take notes on a reading device? This is the wrong direction, and plays directly into the hands of the marketeers who are only interested in producing fancier and fancier devices that promise everything and deliver -- by definition almost -- insufficiently, so that the prices are maintained or increased with every new "improvement." NO! For crissakes all you need is paper and pencil to take notes! You don't need to take notes and underline, etc. on a reading device anymore than you need to underline or write in the margins of paper books (and shame on you if you do that -- or why not engage for paper books with amazingly expandable margins and so on...). Here is what I want and I think all of us would be perfectly satisfied with if we get off the "upgrade" carousel:

1. A CHEAP e-ink reader that will display all sorts of texts as well as paper. NOT in color! (How books for adults are in color?)
2. Paper and pencil.

Go ahead and scream. Then we will know where you are coming from!

Well, it is actually among the top things I am looking for... I read quite a lot of technical pdf's, unfortunately on a computer screen because my poor PRS 505 just isn't fit for that, and the possibility to annotate the pdf would come really handy: think of equations that aren't clear at first read and need some development, the ability to make some handwritten calculations and link them to the equation would be awesome for future re-readings.

Actually, what I don't get is how marketeers haven't figured out that there are quite a bunch of people - academics, we all come with about the same requests - willing to pay for a device able to:

• read A4 PDF's comfortably (no crop or cumbersome rotation)
• handle big PDF's (500+ pages) smoothly
• take notes and link them to items in the PDF
• no extra useless junk, for the sake of autonomy

I just can't find a device that fits those requirements.

So don't be so categoric in deciding what the wrong direction is just because you have no use of it - others certainly do.

Back on topic. I read about the Asus Eee Note that seems quite promising. But although it has been released in Taiwan, I can't find any reliable info about release dates in other parts of the world: it was supposed to be available this February in Europe

[clangkamp]

Hi, there are a few pages out with the descriptions, and I think already the screen size is a deal-breaker. 8 inch simply doesn't cut it for an academic paper. I have the 6'' kindle and I can hardly decipher things unless turning the text and seeing only half the page in the 200 % format. Apart from that the device looks great.
Christian

[julon2000]

Originally Posted by clangkamp

Hi, there are a few pages out with the descriptions, and I think already the screen size is a deal-breaker. 8 inch simply doesn't cut it for an academic paper. I have the 6'' kindle and I can hardly decipher things unless turning the text and seeing only half the page in the 200 % format. Apart from that the device looks great.
Christian

True, the size definitely isn't sufficient. However, it is LCD, which means it can scroll a lot faster than an e-ink based device such as the kindle or my sony. I don't know how comfortable it is though, I guess I'd need to test it hands on.

[Tomsk]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

It will (apparently) be able to read PDFs, and it has a really large (13 inches, if I remember correctly) screen.

The screen resolution is only 1080x760 - IMO not enough for pdfs.

From experiments with my monitor I would want at least 800px for pdfs, and that's on a display (LCD) with a high contrast. On a display with a lower contrast such as eink, I would want a higher resolution.
My DXG (1200x824) manages for most pdfs, but it struggles with some pdfs that have small text or fine line diagrams.

[paula-t]

Hi! I have read your thread and I would like to offer a piece of advice based on my own experience.

1) I am doing research, academic research, for my Ph. D. I have to process, annotate, highlight, classify lots of PDFs and files.

2) I have recently developed eye-strain due to reading on a plasma or LCD display many hours a day. When you have to spend most of the day reading on a display, health becomes an important issue, so I put my stakes on e-ink for sight preservation.

3) It is a whole lot better to use web capabilities to process academic texts, such as linking paragraphs, quotes or sentences with metadata from wikipedia, erudit, jstor or other places, and also linking sentences to other articles. A simple ereader would not let me do this.

4) I preferred a device with a longer battery autonomy.

5) And I didn't want to use a small device. In fact, I had a reader whose display was so small that I couldn't really feel comfortable while reading. So my choice was inclined toward a 10" gadget.

So I spent TEN months investigating ereaders and reading forums (fora) while I saved money to spend wisely on a gadget. I made long lists with for and againsts comparing 12 different devices.

Finally, after reading many users' feedback about Entourage Edge, I decided to buy one.
So far, it has lived up to my every expectations, and it was VERY WELL spent money.
Let me tell you how it worked for me:

1) The display is big enough and the reading experience in the e-ink side is very comfortable.

2) The PDF files handling is superior to that of other devices. Even so, I have found that using Calibre I convert PDF to Epub and the performance is even better.

3) The battery lasts around 16 hours, which is REALLY good.

4) The WACOM technology makes writing very smooth and only with a small delay, shorter than the delay in Sony devices, for instance. In this regard, it works splendidly, so I can comment, underline, take down long notes in the Journal and also add handwritten information in the PDF or Epub files.

5) Wifi works really well. The tablet on the opposite side of the reader is very complete. I am using Email client programs, synced Calendar with my Google Calendar, Documents-to-Go (so I use Office applications), a good Library manager, and the audio quality is very good for listening to audio files. You have a camera for chatting or recording videos and you can watch movies in the tablet with a very fine performance. So it a very complete tablet on the right side, with gravity orientation-change, bluetooth and wifi, plus you can use a 3G stick. You have 512 Mb ram and 4Gb storage capacity, which makes it a reasonably powerful device.

6) The concept is very intelligent. You can use it open as a book using both sides of the "pages", or fold it completely back so you can read the e-ink side as a book, or use it as a stand and tilt the tablet back a little... The design is excellent (mine is a beautiful red, very sofisticated, sturdy and small at the same time), very well thought. You don't get the physical feeling that it is a fragile gadget made with fragile materials. On the contrary, it really feels solid and well manufactured.

7) You have sim card slot, SD card slot (I will use it with a 32Gb card), two USB slots. You can download and transfer files in many different ways: from the internet through Dropbox (I do this too), with a USB cable, with USB pendrives, with SD card, by email, and by bluetooth connection.

8) But the most astonishing thing I am doing for research (and in this regard it beats any other device and this is why I finally bought it) is the following:

You have interconnectivity between both displays. This means that your e-reader communicates with the tablet. Let me show you what I do.
I am reading a journal article, for instance. The author quotes another scholar. I do not know anything about this other researcher, but I want to search and see what this person has done or in which theoretical school he is working. So I highlight the name in the PDF and press an icon in the bar above. This opens up (in the tablet) a search box with the name I highlighted in the reader. I can choose where to search from: a book, the library, Wikipedia, Google, etc. I select my choice and a window opens up in the tablet with the information about this scholar. Let's say, a Wikipedia article. I press another icon in the tablet, and INSTANTLY the webpage is linked to the highlighted text in the PDF, showing a small icon in the margin. I can do this search-and-link for an article title mentioned in my PDF, for instance, by highlighting, pressing icon and searching for the article in Scribd. If I find the quoted book or article in Scribd, this URL (or the downloaded article) is linked INTO my pdf. So your PDF becomes much more than a formatted text: it becomes a knowledge repository including all metareferences.
Plus your own underlining, handwritten notes (which you can export to PDF as an independent file) and the like.

In this regard, your research goes to a different level. You can read for hours without eye-strain, but be connected to the web for sources, downloading other articles, writing docs in Word and getting email.

All this I found with the Edge. I had a couple of adjustment issues when I got the device and the Support people were great. In 15 minutes they solved a registration problem, and the people at the forum are even greater than the Support staff. It is like having a team of probono experts at your service, and they share their knowledge almost on the spot with a very efficient, enthusiastic and generous attitude. This also weighed in my choice, because support environment is sometimes extremely important to find fast solutions and eliminate worries.

I cannot have words enough to say how happy I am with my Edge. I have bought a lovely carrying bag at Roocase, a USB lamp for the e-ink reading at night, and a more professional stylus which improves handwriting even more, feeling much like using a roller-ball on thick paper.

So I have found exactly what I was envisoning for my research. It is a bit more expensive than a Kindle, yes (498 USD), but it is much more than just an e-reader. And you can also buy it used at E-bay, as I did, saving 200 USD...!

I hope my report as a researcher will be enlightening for you. I guess your needs are much similar to mine.

Good luck with your academic work!

[Iskander]

I'm also in the market for a device that will eliminate the need of printing articles or making photocopies (just scanning things instead). I'm totally unable to read articles on screens, if I need to seriously read an article, it's imperative for me to print it. This is what I want to stop with a e-reader.

I also need functional annotation tools for scientific articles, and a large enough display to show a page in one go and with good detail.

I think in terms of hardware we are already there, with gadgets like the pocketbook 903 and perhaps soon the onyx m90. I'll just wait for any of them to become equipped with decent annotation software (if they ever do).

As for the entourage edge, it sounds enticing, and I'm finally starting to understand how someone could use it productively, but I really want to go for a simple e-ink display with very low battery consumption, that lasts me for at least 5 years, because it does the task it was bought for good enough to not require upgrading until it stops working.

[julon2000]

@paula-t

Thanks for the feedback.

However, your comments do not quite fit with others I read in reviews here and there - they're just too positive! Furthermore, the fact that it is your first post on this forum makes it look quite suspect to me: if I were happy with my toy, I know I personally wouldn't register on a forum to spend quite some time writing a praising review about it...

Sorry if I'm wrong and being paranoid here.

[Filark]

Hi there, Julon!

I am subscribed to this thread because I posted in it earlier (also about the Entourage Edge). At the time I had not purchased my Pocket Edge, but I now have.

In doing my own research I have come across posts from paula-t in the www.entourageedge.com forum and can tell you that she appears from those posts to be a happy, helpful person who enjoys learning and sharing what she learns. I was excited to see what she has to say here on MobileRead, because the other forum is more about the nuts and bolts of using an eDGe and not so much reviewing the device for "outsiders".

I have just begun to explore what the Edge can do, and mine is much smaller than hers. But I will back up what Paula has to say to the extent I can -- it is amazing to be able to read on one screen and look up whatever you want to about what you're reading on the other. It is also very very nice to be able to immediately convert a web article to epub for easy reading on the e-ink side.

I have a Sony PRS-900 which I love and will continue to use, but anything I want to study is going to be on my Pocket Edge from now on!!

I want to thank Paula for posting, and was thinking of copying her post to the Entourage Edge forum here -- don't know whether that is allowed . . . .

The EE is not perfect. But someone who studies the options for months, and is pleased with her eventual decision, is entitled to show her pleasure!

Also, I may have been instrumental in introducing Paula to the MR forum, as I posted a link (on the EE forum) to let people know where else they can find helpful, interesting discussions of all things ereader.

All the best!
Filark

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by clangkamp

Hi Everyone

I am looking to buy a large screen *device* to read Scientific papers which I have in PDF format. The question has been posed several times, but always with a one-off answer. My brother has an Ipad, my mum a Kindle3 (6''). I have tried both, but both don't fully do it in the medium run. At the moment I am reading on a 24'' screen, which sort of works, but not for long. The problem will stick as I just started a doctorate, and hence will be reading scientific stuff for the next 2+y

The Ipad is the integrated device, useful etc., but it is closed up, and the backlit part makes it difficult to read and concentrate for hours.

I love the kindle ink surface, but apart from reading you cannot do anything with it. And reading PDF scientific only works with a 90 ° Rotation, and then you only see a third of the page on the 6''. In particular I am missing fast scrolling, proper annotation, searching. The user interface is a desaster. Nevertheless it is perfect for actual reading- not straining the eye at all.

I don't want to buy my way through all the various items and incremental improvements (e.g. upgrading from a Kindle6'' to a Kindle DX), but would like to see whether there is likely to be a 'definitive device' coming online in the next 6-9 months (i.e. a Kindle4DX with better file management or even touchscreen, an Ipad with an ink surface, a netbook with a not-so eyestraining screen). Also one that is likely to last for the next 3 or 4 years without constant regrets.

So - what is the entourage edge thing like ?
What are the others current 9.7+ inch screens available ?
What is the likelihood of a device that is tailored to the academic community coming online ? I think the question might be rephrased as to whether there is the likelihood of a device with the potential to become a standard for the scientific community.

The device you want simply does not exist, yet. I've been hunting such a device for years now. The closest upcoming device will be the Eee 121. However the trade off is it's LCD though it's an IPS panel and the announed battery life is a paltry 4.5hrs or so. It however runs Win 7 so you can install and run any app for your needs vs. the compromises on the true purpose of the device and that is getting your research done and organized. None of the current E-ink based devices come even close to having proper study or research management tools and can't handle multiple documents open at the same time.

While it might not be ideal, the candid truth is LCD is going to be your only real option for around two more years until some sort of color EPD panels come out AND the device software matured OR Windows or even OSX devices move to use those panels in order to improve battery life.

PDF handing reported is not quite adequate on good days and completely dismal on bad days. I can confirm from my own observations recently that the KDX is absolutely not going to be worth a darn as a study or research device.

I have pared down the current devices enough that the Adam fell out of the list because they seem to have buggered the whole thing and if they do recover it will take time. Then the iPad, well, it doesn't do a lot of what you will likely need, the Edge is a nice device but don't be mislead but the cheerleader post -- it's not even close yet. The promised updates and such are near to a year behind already and the current generation device will not likely ever run Android 3, at least when I checked last. I LIKED the idea of the Edge but the execution is, in the end, not where I would need it to be right now. It does still have promise.

So maybe right now the best option would be wait for the the final version of the Eee 121 AND add the Eee Note EA-800 as your mobile notepad. You can annotate and read your PDF's on the 121 then keep your notes on the 800, maybe, I dunno.

Of course we still have not seen the production version of the WebOS large format device from HP. But the issue I see there is simply the software might not be there yet to meet your needs in your field.

Basically there is a ton of bluster in the industry but not that much substance yet for the the devices and what they bring to the table.

I would, also keep an eye on what happens with the software which was supposed to be on the Kno before the platform was recently left by the side of the road for dead. They seemed to be on to the right track for the software side as well as the nice 14" diagonal in a nice screen ratio that is NOT a widescreen format and more geared toward study uses.

Good luck and hope your ideal device happens this year. I've been waiting since the '90s though.

[julon2000]

After seeing this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVj41...eature=related
made by an Asus Eee Note early-adopter, I don't find this device so interesting anymore: it seems like, as usual, not all PDF's display correctly - and I guess technical PDF's are most likely to be part of the bad ones.

It's amazing that among all the (mostly useless?) electronic devices that are released each month, none of them was made for the (apparently simple) purpose of reading PDF's... For instance, the Motorola Xoom would display the full width of a PDF with its 21.7 cm wide screen, but it wasn't designed for annotations.

I'm starting to think that the best solution would be a tablet PC. Lenovo's and Fujitus are out of price (2000+ US$). HP released something more affordable and interesting (HP TM2): a 12'' screen including a wacom matrix, at about 1000$. But this device is thick (about 4 cm at the thickest) and massive (more than 2 kg), not practical to have it on the go

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by paula-t

Hi! I have read your thread and I would like to offer a piece of advice based on my own experience.

1) I am doing research, academic research, for my Ph. D. I have to process, annotate, highlight, classify lots of PDFs and files.

2) I have recently developed eye-strain due to reading on a plasma or LCD display many hours a day. When you have to spend most of the day reading on a display, health becomes an important issue, so I put my stakes on e-ink for sight preservation.

3) It is a whole lot better to use web capabilities to process academic texts, such as linking paragraphs, quotes or sentences with metadata from wikipedia, erudit, jstor or other places, and also linking sentences to other articles. A simple ereader would not let me do this.

4) I preferred a device with a longer battery autonomy.

5) And I didn't want to use a small device. In fact, I had a reader whose display was so small that I couldn't really feel comfortable while reading. So my choice was inclined toward a 10" gadget.

So I spent TEN months investigating ereaders and reading forums (fora) while I saved money to spend wisely on a gadget. I made long lists with for and againsts comparing 12 different devices.

Finally, after reading many users' feedback about Entourage Edge, I decided to buy one.
So far, it has lived up to my every expectations, and it was VERY WELL spent money.
Let me tell you how it worked for me:

1) The display is big enough and the reading experience in the e-ink side is very comfortable.

2) The PDF files handling is superior to that of other devices. Even so, I have found that using Calibre I convert PDF to Epub and the performance is even better.

3) The battery lasts around 16 hours, which is REALLY good.

4) The WACOM technology makes writing very smooth and only with a small delay, shorter than the delay in Sony devices, for instance. In this regard, it works splendidly, so I can comment, underline, take down long notes in the Journal and also add handwritten information in the PDF or Epub files.

5) Wifi works really well. The tablet on the opposite side of the reader is very complete. I am using Email client programs, synced Calendar with my Google Calendar, Documents-to-Go (so I use Office applications), a good Library manager, and the audio quality is very good for listening to audio files. You have a camera for chatting or recording videos and you can watch movies in the tablet with a very fine performance. So it a very complete tablet on the right side, with gravity orientation-change, bluetooth and wifi, plus you can use a 3G stick. You have 512 Mb ram and 4Gb storage capacity, which makes it a reasonably powerful device.

6) The concept is very intelligent. You can use it open as a book using both sides of the "pages", or fold it completely back so you can read the e-ink side as a book, or use it as a stand and tilt the tablet back a little... The design is excellent (mine is a beautiful red, very sofisticated, sturdy and small at the same time), very well thought. You don't get the physical feeling that it is a fragile gadget made with fragile materials. On the contrary, it really feels solid and well manufactured.

7) You have sim card slot, SD card slot (I will use it with a 32Gb card), two USB slots. You can download and transfer files in many different ways: from the internet through Dropbox (I do this too), with a USB cable, with USB pendrives, with SD card, by email, and by bluetooth connection.

8) But the most astonishing thing I am doing for research (and in this regard it beats any other device and this is why I finally bought it) is the following:

You have interconnectivity between both displays. This means that your e-reader communicates with the tablet. Let me show you what I do.
I am reading a journal article, for instance. The author quotes another scholar. I do not know anything about this other researcher, but I want to search and see what this person has done or in which theoretical school he is working. So I highlight the name in the PDF and press an icon in the bar above. This opens up (in the tablet) a search box with the name I highlighted in the reader. I can choose where to search from: a book, the library, Wikipedia, Google, etc. I select my choice and a window opens up in the tablet with the information about this scholar. Let's say, a Wikipedia article. I press another icon in the tablet, and INSTANTLY the webpage is linked to the highlighted text in the PDF, showing a small icon in the margin. I can do this search-and-link for an article title mentioned in my PDF, for instance, by highlighting, pressing icon and searching for the article in Scribd. If I find the quoted book or article in Scribd, this URL (or the downloaded article) is linked INTO my pdf. So your PDF becomes much more than a formatted text: it becomes a knowledge repository including all metareferences.
Plus your own underlining, handwritten notes (which you can export to PDF as an independent file) and the like.

In this regard, your research goes to a different level. You can read for hours without eye-strain, but be connected to the web for sources, downloading other articles, writing docs in Word and getting email.

All this I found with the Edge. I had a couple of adjustment issues when I got the device and the Support people were great. In 15 minutes they solved a registration problem, and the people at the forum are even greater than the Support staff. It is like having a team of probono experts at your service, and they share their knowledge almost on the spot with a very efficient, enthusiastic and generous attitude. This also weighed in my choice, because support environment is sometimes extremely important to find fast solutions and eliminate worries.

I cannot have words enough to say how happy I am with my Edge. I have bought a lovely carrying bag at Roocase, a USB lamp for the e-ink reading at night, and a more professional stylus which improves handwriting even more, feeling much like using a roller-ball on thick paper.

So I have found exactly what I was envisoning for my research. It is a bit more expensive than a Kindle, yes (498 USD), but it is much more than just an e-reader. And you can also buy it used at E-bay, as I did, saving 200 USD...!

I hope my report as a researcher will be enlightening for you. I guess your needs are much similar to mine.

Good luck with your academic work!

Thanks for your detailed and well though-out post. I will be keeping the Entourage Edge in consideration. I've been investigating gadgets for my PHD research, too, and every time I feel like I've decided to get a certain device, something comes along that makes me change my decision

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by julon2000

After seeing this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVj41...eature=related
made by an Asus Eee Note early-adopter, I don't find this device so interesting anymore: it seems like, as usual, not all PDF's display correctly - and I guess technical PDF's are most likely to be part of the bad ones.

It's amazing that among all the (mostly useless?) electronic devices that are released each month, none of them was made for the (apparently simple) purpose of reading PDF's... For instance, the Motorola Xoom would display the full width of a PDF with its 21.7 cm wide screen, but it wasn't designed for annotations.

I'm starting to think that the best solution would be a tablet PC. Lenovo's and Fujitus are out of price (2000+ US$). HP released something more affordable and interesting (HP TM2): a 12'' screen including a wacom matrix, at about 1000$. But this device is thick (about 4 cm at the thickest) and massive (more than 2 kg), not practical to have it on the go

this device has been pointed out to you already perhaps you missed it?

http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=QhWKR7Fmv4jDLbBY

Yeah, it does not use any brand of EPD panel, E-ink or otherwise (you are aware E-ink is a brand not a technology, yes?). But it delivers everything you want save the battery life. So it's not ideal but as mentioned already real and usable color is not going to happen for a couple years yet. But if you combine this device with the Eee Note EA-800.

A person can whinge and whine about all of it or accept these are the tools from which you can select. Your call, this can be easy or hard. Is it disappointing there has not been better progress in the area of academic application of these devices, sure, but there is more cash in selling trash novels than serving students. And it has always been that way. Plus tools do exist already to let you do what you want. I am thrilled there are going to be at least a couple Windows larger format devices out this year. Now how well they will work as slate PC's remains to be seen but the thing is you won't have ANY of the compromises in terms of software on a PC compared to using a dedicated reader device. Dedicated readers are NOT research or study tools for all but a small subset of disciplines and none of those are in the hard sciences.

But on a true Slate PC you can run most everything from Wolfram, whoever owns Mathcad these days, your favorite DJVU reader, full Adobe PDF reader software, OneNote or whatever note management you prefer, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and any apps which are specific to your area of study. And with this new Eee 121 slate PC it's all in a device with a much larger screen than the iPad or Kindle DX or any other current in production "large" format dedicated reader. And yeah, the 121 is about $1,100 list right now, it's unproven. But if you combine it with one of the Onyx devices with Wacom and HWR or even the Eee Note EA-800 as sort of the portable note and sketch pad I don't think there is a better setup. I still think I would also want a standard laptop as well or a desktop whatever a person prefers. I would opt for a 17" refurb HP business build laptop for about another grand. So yeah, you'll be shelling out between $2000-$3000 no matter how you approach it but with the multiple devices you can go light, medium or heavy for the day. And the only trade off is power of the slate as today even a 17" laptop can manage 10-12hrs with the extended life battery. I am going to hold back on the Eee 121 specifically because of the reported battery life of just about 4.5hrs as I recall. But if that is the best there is, then that's life.

I know this is a pretty much a repost of my previous post but maybe it did not make any sense, and maybe this one doesn't either but I tried. so good luck accepting what is vs. what you want.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Thanks for your detailed and well though-out post. I will be keeping the Entourage Edge in consideration. I've been investigating gadgets for my PHD research, too, and every time I feel like I've decided to get a certain device, something comes along that makes me change my decision

i keep hoping for the 2nd generation EE. Personally I really like the dual screen device for academic or even professional needs. But like the normal readers the software is so lagging behind the needs of the users.

[clangkamp]

@ Paula - many thanks for your contribution.
I will now be having a look at the pocketbook 903 next week, there is a store selling them nearby. Given that the EE sells for ~ 600 EUR here, whereas the pocketbook 902 sells for 320, I am a little hesitant to shell out that much on the EE.
I am basically interested in the reading features, when I am working, I usually also have a laptop nearby to directly take notes (which I do in TeX) or indeed the good old paper pad. I just don't want to do the reading on LCD screen anymore and not carry around large amounts of paper.
Whilst I would like to buy now a device that will carry me through the next 5 years, I fear that this will be a long shot. I think I will just make up my mind this month, and then hope that I don't bite my bum in the summer when the killer device actually does come out.