What features are important to you on new devices?

[booknut]

...is the ability to search the HD or SD card for books without having to connect to PC...

[SaraD]

Originally Posted by SaraD

No, there is no way to ruggedize a piece of glass. But I keep hoping that somebody is going to come up with a plastic screen that is much more durable or a glass screen that is much less expensive and drops the costs. Or maybe I am finally going to have to give that up as being too far into the future.

I finally did enough reading to find where I read about a tougher screen. The MobileRead wiki about SiPix! I've copied the 2 most relevant statements from the list of advantages.

Flexible e-Paper: < 2 cm bending radius
Durable: No glass, endures > 1290 PSI (The current AUO manufactured touch screen devices have a glass backing)

So no, it is not yet possible to have a super durable screen since they all still have the glass backing, but I feel better that I figured out where I got the idea that they were almost here. Oh well. Hopefully SiPix will still be less expensive than what we currently have, but we'll find out when the new toys come out in a few more months. An article on www.e-reader-info.com that I found stated that Jinke will have a few models using the SiPix screens, but that news was from January so not "news" at all.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by booknut

...is the ability to search the HD or SD card for books without having to connect to PC...

Dear Booknut:

The Pocket PRO does allow you to view all the books on your SD card without needing to connect to a computer. There is also a search function on the Pocket PRO that came via firmware upgrade.

In any case, I am pleased to see you on the forum!

[hch568]

Originally Posted by jusmee

You'd think so, but I am a long time user of PDA's, phones, mp3/4 players, and now eBook readers, and I realise I have NEVER replaced an internal battery. I have always moved on to a newer device long before the battery needs replacing.

Exchangeable battery (with a separate charger) is very important to me!! For mp3 player it would be a must!! I'm also a long time user of pda, phone, dc, digital recorder, and many other 3c products, and I hate to wait for the recharging, it is really inconvenient and a bother! If the rechargeable battery is the common sort that can be easily bought in the store would be best.

In addition to exchangeable battery with separate wall-charger. I would prefer my next E-Reader to have:

1. B/W e-ink/e-paper reader (8-16 gray scale), at least 1-2GB internal storage/memory space with 16-32GB SD/miniSD/microSD support

2. format support: pdf, txt, epub, htm/html, lit, doc/docx/rtf, prc/pdb, as many as possible.

3. easy to use (I hate to "study" manual before I can read/turn page/search/organize/browsing...), so with some important buttons you should put recognizable symbols denoting the function/usage. #1-#8 is just too ambiguous to me.

4. the button shouldn't be spaced too tightly (mp3/mp4 usually has this kind of user-unfriendliness).

5. lightweight (for a 6" EReader, better be less than 200g)

6. easy to use in-text dictionary (English-English) support

7. protective cover included (a plus)

8. touch screen (not necessarily as long as I can search/check dictionary easily with the sticks/buttons) with a stylus

9. note taking/hi-lighter/note-hilight eraser function (a plus)

8. supporting Traditional Chinese character/coding

Most of all: battery and user-friendliness!