Gen3 price in Europe

[Jack B Nimble]

Originally Posted by anotherchance

I think our biggest fight is always going to be against the negative, ignorant comments about the latest ebook reader based on "black and white screen", "no note taking capability", "can't display PDF", "no back light" etc. I believe most of these comments come from people who DON'T READ BOOKS anyway and can be comfortably discounted.

Hmmm... I, for one, do read books. In fact, I am already a huge fan of ebooks, and read them on a regular basis. I have been doing so since the days of the Handera 330 and PeanutPress (eReader before Palm grabbed it). Having done so, it beguiles me that buying hardware especially designed for ebook reading would offer fewer features than my very outdated Handera.

Why would I buy special hardware that forces me to give up some of the great advantages of ebooks? Some of the very reasons I prefer ebooks to pbooks?

I don't care about PDFs, except that I hate explaining to people why it says PDF support, but unless you are making your own, formatted especially for the device, you don't really want to use that feature. As for what they expect, they expect to smoothly pan around the page and read, just as they do on any other computer screen.

Jack

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Kilarney

The major difference is that PDAs allow one to do things that they couldn't do unless they had the PDA. (e.g.: check email while on the road) The Reader is a is a cool gadget, but let's face it - you get just as much enjoyment reading a hard-copy book. In other words, most people view a PDA as a productivity tool, whereas an e-book reader is viewed as a novelty.

I'll admit that an e-reader is more than a novelty to people who need to lug around numerous books or to those who don't have access to hard-copy books, but those people don't exemplify the average reader.

The iLiad can ckeck mail on the road. Given some of the software ported over to it, it has limited PDA like functionality now.

[zdevil]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The iLiad can ckeck mail on the road. Given some of the software ported over to it, it has limited PDA like functionality now.

The thing is, at the price of an iLiad, one has a wide range of choices of inexpensive laptops, an UMPC (such as the Kohjinsha, and the upcoming Asus Eee PC), and a high-end PDA plus a bunch of accessories. And also iLiad does not have a keyboard/thumbboard, which is a standard feature of current PDAs/smartphones. I don't just feel like checking emails on the road, but also feel the need to write something on the spot. Tapping on a virtual keyboard or using handwriting recognition is no big fun at all. (And that's why iPhone doesn't appeal to me that much, despite the Apple fad.)

[Ravenflight]

Originally Posted by zdevil

The thing is, at the price of an iLiad, one has a wide range of choices of inexpensive laptops, an UMPC (such as the Kohjinsha, and the upcoming Asus Eee PC), and a high-end PDA plus a bunch of accessories. And also iLiad does not have a keyboard/thumbboard, which is a standard feature of current PDAs/smartphones. I don't just feel like checking emails on the road, but also feel the need to write something on the spot. Tapping on a virtual keyboard or using handwriting recognition is no big fun at all. (And that's why iPhone doesn't appeal to me that much, despite the Apple fad.)

I agree with you on pda functionality. I think for a e-ink device to suceed it will have to have a lot more functionality or come way down in price. E-books should have real advantages over print to make them a more attractive alternative. Ability to look up word definitions just by tapping on the word, ability to search are two I'd like to see. And why shouldn't it have PDA functionality? Its already running linux. Is a calculator and notepad app too much to ask? Throw in Sudoku and theyd be flying off shelves.

As for the iPhone I'm using it now to type this reply. It's not as fast as a regular keyboard but I'm already much faster than I ever was on any of my three Palms. I love the way it guesses the correct word after only a couple letters- A real timesaver once you get used to it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by zdevil

The thing is, at the price of an iLiad, one has a wide range of choices of inexpensive laptops, an UMPC (such as the Kohjinsha, and the upcoming Asus Eee PC), and a high-end PDA plus a bunch of accessories.

Very true. Most of the cost of the iLiad is its screen.

And also iLiad does not have a keyboard/thumbboard, which is a standard feature of current PDAs/smartphones. I don't just feel like checking emails on the road, but also feel the need to write something on the spot. Tapping on a virtual keyboard or using handwriting recognition is no big fun at all. (And that's why iPhone doesn't appeal to me that much, despite the Apple fad.)

The iLiad does, however, have the ability to act as a USB host - you can connect an external keyboard to it.