Best Reader for A4 documents and textbooks

[brecklundin]

granted you lose the long battery life, but this ASUS Convertible Tablet is in your price range and will not carry any issues in terms of document compatibility issues because you can install pretty much any software:

http://asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=KIqtSJ1aVsmVpeqS

http://www.amazon.com/T91MT-8-9-Inch..._ob_pc_title_0

Of course more research is needed but given your time frame, budget and what not, I don't feel any of the dedicated ereading devices that exist today will give you problem free ability to do your research. In fact you will likely keep fighting against the flaws in most devices and waste a lot of time on working around those bugs/flaws/funky way of doing things.

I also sense there will be even more of this sort of device released at CES but remember the one thing about newly released hardware is there is a buy-in premium for new devices and all new devices are an unknown quantity reliability wise. So, I think I might not recommend waiting too long after CES and for looking outside the dedicated ereader device market. Or go with the DR1000C then sell it when you are done with your degree, you will not lose much and then you can buy the flavor of the month device.

No matter what decision you end up making, it has to be difficult because the ereaders are so very close, especially the DR1000 and it's ability to work with multiple open documents. A more PC like device gives all of that and more...for less though as everyone has mentioned, the major trade-off is batter runtime.

And YES, the large screen Pocketbook device might be the real front runner and they have the advantage of a solid firmware in use already...that's why I originally suggested the wait until after CES because comapnies are really being secretive about what they are going to offer...it's sorta fun to watch for sure!

[catharsis]

i think a tablet netbook would be out of the question for me as I already own a laptop and i need something which is more confortable to read, a display close to paper, which e-ink is supposed to be.

[dmaul1114]

Yeah that's been my aversion to tablet laptops/netbooks as well. They just won't be comfortable to hold and read/mark up documents vs just doing it on a laptop and annotating with the keyboard.

I really want something that's basically a digital legal pad. And I want to see what comes out on both the e-ink front (stuff like the Que, the newly announced Skiff reader etc.) as well as the color tablets like the rumored Apple tablet etc. and see what they can do, what prices are etc. before really giving purchasing something for my academic reading any real serious thought.

[BranMakMorn]

Hi all,

first of all, I am extremely glad to see that there exist people with my same concerns and my same needs for an 'academic' ereader. I agree with the 'let us wait for the Plastic Logic one and the tablets and see' approach. However, I have a very specific question which I haven't managed to answer in any way, I hope you can help me.

Ok, say I've got an ereader with touchscreen and note taking capabilities. I load some journal articles in PDF, and I highlight passages and take some notes. Then (and here is the issue) I want to move that PDF back to my laptop, *and be able to see the markings I've done on it with my reader*. Similarly, say that a new ereader comes out, that I buy it and then I want to move my library of PDFs on it. And I *want to see on the new ereader all the markings and highlightings I've done with the old one*.

Is this possible at all? Is it something only a tablet with more refined sofware and compatibility could do?

thanks a lot!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BranMakMorn

Ok, say I've got an ereader with touchscreen and note taking capabilities. I load some journal articles in PDF, and I highlight passages and take some notes. Then (and here is the issue) I want to move that PDF back to my laptop, *and be able to see the markings I've done on it with my reader*. Similarly, say that a new ereader comes out, that I buy it and then I want to move my library of PDFs on it. And I *want to see on the new ereader all the markings and highlightings I've done with the old one*.

Is this possible at all? Is it something only a tablet with more refined sofware and compatibility could do?

thanks a lot!

The iRex DR1000S comes with a PC application to merge your annotations with the PDF file you've annotated, creating a new PDF. This can then be read on any device (since it's just a PDF file).

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by BranMakMorn

Is this possible at all? Is it something only a tablet with more refined sofware and compatibility could do?

At the moment, I think that that's only going to be possible via some sort of tablet PC and a copy of some software that lets you edit PDFs, if you want cross-platform compatibility, as AFAIK, there's no agreed format for PDF annotations external to the PDF itself.

If you drop the cross-platform part, then I'd expect that all devices offering PDF annotating are going to find they need to support the copying of annotations to desktop PCs, etc, as so many users are going to demand it, but right now we're at the 'leisure ebook reader' stage rather than 'academic ebook reader'.

Don't, however, imagine that that's by any choice other than the fact that eInk screens have only been available in the smaller sizes until very recently - there are many of us watching the impending arrival of larger screen readers with great interest, but we're fairly pragmatic about it...

For instance, one of the problems with scaling up the existing eInk displays relates to the fact that they currently have a glass substrate which is fragile and larger screens mean issues such as case rigidity become even more significant. Some of the CES pre-announcements sound interesting in that regard, but some alternatives have been a while in appearing, so it's still not quite the era of the 'academic ebook reader' - you're not alone in awaiting it though!

[BranMakMorn]

Thanks guys. About the QUE, I guess that we'll find out in just a few hours. I'm going to follow the live blogging of its presentation at CES here [http://www.engadget.com/ces]. Fingers crossed, especially about the price...

[Canterbury Tail]

Originally Posted by BranMakMorn

Thanks guys. About the QUE, I guess that we'll find out in just a few hours. I'm going to follow the live blogging of its presentation at CES here [http://www.engadget.com/ces]. Fingers crossed, especially about the price...

$649.99 for 4 gig model, $799.99 for 8 gig model.

I was all for this, then the Skiff stole their thunder. However the Que is very much being sold as an Enterprise connected business tool rather than just a reader, with calendar functions, auto downloads and the like.