Does an ebook reader matching all these criteria exist?

[Supine]

Originally Posted by hughes

Also, during your research, if you liked any constructively positive or negative reviews on the IQ 701, please pass them along. I'd be interested in adding them to the HowToDecide™ Quick Decide Guide™ on best ereaders.

Off topic, but this guide needs to be more comprehensive to be seriously considered. The comparisons are made on what the manufactures say and really not in depth. (eg. 'can read PDF').

Personally I think its haeily biased towards the Kindle. But I don't have one, may be it is the best invention since the internet (judging form 4,500 reviews on amazon)

[snipenekkid]

Geeze, this ended up sounding like I am lecturing...PLEASE dunna take it as such, I am being ironic and just teasing a tiny bit, but am really trying to help you feel more confident in teaching yourself. EVERYONE can do it.

sooooo, here is what I wrote and please, it's not a lecture or scolding, just me being kinda-sorta direct, it's how I have always learned best hope it comes across as I hoped. Just forgive be because I might have been toilet trained at gun point, k?
--------------------------

Why is everyone always looking for some magic info resource to decide everything for them? There is nothing out there which will give you definitive info on what to buy. The permutations and needs are simply too vast. What is total crap for me might be perfect for someone else. It is that simple and nothing replaces developing the patience to read and roll the dice now and then and sometimes picking a clunker which you might be able to return or sell off at minimal loss.

One sign can be looking at the resale market for a given device. If it is vibrant or there are few for sale then it can be a good sign the device is solid. But the best suggestion I used to tell clients is buy nothing more recent than the previous generation. Of course that's not as reasonable with the slate device market given it's in the embryonic state right now. By Oct-Dec there will be some more obvious choices.

Best you can do is either compile a list for yourself, which, btw you can add to the device matrix here on MR and contribute to the common good of site users. Or you can search for someone else to do the work for you. Either way works and one is passive with the other more proactive.

If it helps there was a saying back in the early days of Byte Magazine. It went something to the effect that you read EVERYTHING and let it digest then once you began understanding the ads in the magazines you had gotten to where you knew what questions to ask and had the ability to make better choices. Mind this was before the web was anything close to what it is today and there were two userbases, CompuServe users (more tech oriented people) and the AOL Cacophony of random noise not too different from what Apple is trying to do with the iOS devices. We tech folks LOVED the separation of that part of the herd. It was once AOL tore down the walls around their garden and unleashed those users on the web that it began to go downhill. And that was because so many of those unfortunate souls had never been educated like they should have been and were suddenly left outside nekkid on a rock to fend for themselves overnight.

So, ask your questions but also use the tools like Google, Yahoo and even Bing to search for info. Then once you begin to read past the rhetoric and blindly loyal users you'll know what to do.

[Farhad]

Originally Posted by hughes

Let us know how you like your PocketBook IQ 701 when you get it.

I got it. I like it, though I found Android rather disappointing, to be honest. However, for a variety of reasons I also ordered a Ectaco Jetbook mini which I should get by tomorrow. And, as I wrote in the original post, I also I purchased an Ematic 7-Inch TFT Color eBook Reader for my daughter. I want to wait for the Jetbook mini (which I should get before the end of the week) to make a comparison of the PB IQ 701, the JB mini, the Ematic eBook Reader and my good old Nokia N800 Internet tablet. Each in their own way are pretty good, I think.

But Android? That is a big disappointment to me. I was expecting GNU/Linux on "Google steroids" and instead what I got is an wannabe iOS. And now that Nokia is dumping Meego for, of all things, Windoze, I am rather discouraged. Maemo OS2008 was such a nice OS, and it looks like the corporate world simply never saw it this way

[hughes]

Originally Posted by hughes

Let us know how you like your PocketBook IQ 701 when you get it.

Also, during your research, if you liked any constructively positive or negative reviews on the IQ 701, please pass them along. I'd be interested in adding them to the HowToDecide™ Quick Decide Guide™ on best ereaders.

Originally Posted by Supine

Off topic, but this guide needs to be more comprehensive to be seriously considered. The comparisons are made on what the manufactures say and really not in depth. (eg. 'can read PDF').

Great point. I will remove the "can read PDF" manufacturer statements within "how good is the reading experience on the ereader" factor. I will instead create a separate factor for PDF support based on user statements about how good the PDF support really is. [Update: Done.]

I would love to hear more of your feedback but do not want to take up space here to avoid drifting off-topic (as you mention). Give me a day or so to incorporate your suggestion, then I'll open a new thread where I'll welcome more feedback. [Update: Here's the promised separate MobileRead thread for the Quick Decide Guide™ for E-Book Readers.]

Thanks, Supine.

[sarang]

"Read pdf" is not a blessing and is not of any practical use for serious reading of books. As most of the pdf documents are of A4 size, the contents are readable when displayed 'fit screen size' mode; selecting higher zoom, tuncates the page and scrolling in horizontal and vertical directions is a pain.

If amazon can provide automatic test flow as with other ebook formats, pdf readability will be an asset.

Originally Posted by Supine

Off topic, but this guide needs to be more comprehensive to be seriously considered. The comparisons are made on what the manufactures say and really not in depth. (eg. 'can read PDF').

Personally I think its haeily biased towards the Kindle. But I don't have one, may be it is the best invention since the internet (judging form 4,500 reviews on amazon)

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by Farhad

I got it. I like it, though I found Android rather disappointing, to be honest. However, for a variety of reasons I also ordered a Ectaco Jetbook mini which I should get by tomorrow. And, as I wrote in the original post, I also I purchased an Ematic 7-Inch TFT Color eBook Reader for my daughter. I want to wait for the Jetbook mini (which I should get before the end of the week) to make a comparison of the PB IQ 701, the JB mini, the Ematic eBook Reader and my good old Nokia N800 Internet tablet. Each in their own way are pretty good, I think.

But Android? That is a big disappointment to me. I was expecting GNU/Linux on "Google steroids" and instead what I got is an wannabe iOS. And now that Nokia is dumping Meego for, of all things, Windoze, I am rather discouraged. Maemo OS2008 was such a nice OS, and it looks like the corporate world simply never saw it this way

isn't that running Android 2.2 though? A far cry from 3.0 from what I've read. It seems 2.2 needs a pretty hefty wrapper around it to make it a reasonable tablet OS. And while PB is a nice company they seem to have been focused elsewhere with their resources since the merger/partnering/whateverthehellitwas last year. I love my 360 but am not tempted enough with their other devices yet though that 701 does look nice as a pocket device.

[Farhad]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

isn't that running Android 2.2 though? A far cry from 3.0 from what I've read..

if only, if only - it runs Android 2.0