Close or Open ? Wait ?

[lalebarde]

Hi all,

For two months, I read forums to try to choose my first reader. Let's summarize my conclusions up to now :

1) There are two types of competitors : the ones that sell ebooks (amazone, B&N, etc), and the others. That explains the gap in prices since the former can squeeze their margin to zero, like with the printers market. On the other hand, this is at the price of being jailed in a "closed" world . The amazone online format converter is a show-stopper for me. There are alternatives and one can use free software to perform it, but it is still a show-stopper for me . I want to download an epub, a pdf or a chm in the device and read it. That's all , especially when dealing with the Gutenberg project, I want to download hundreds of books in the device and choose later what I want to read . Sony is the man in the middle, with their store and with open format (epub). But in their new model that includes wifi, you cannot download elsewhere than in their store or on googlebooks . It is delibaratly curbed. By principle, I cannot accept that. The other competitors shall innovate and provide more functionalities, formats, and quality to survive .
2) Except sometimes for competitors in the market for a long time, functionalities are not so mature, especially concerning the following ones which are seldom or never available :
- PDF reflow.
- Library management (with a directory tree, not just collections)
- Support of locales (azerty keyboards)
- Per book settings (eg : font size & type & thickness, zoom, view mode) remembering.
- Connectivity : sometimes, a bluetooth interface exist, but with minimal functionalities : no headsets, no keyboard.
- Browsers : sometimes not stable.
- Multi-document : I need to open several documents, at least 3, and be able to switch from one to the other without loosing anything. It is usefull for me for scholar publications with references.
- Full synchronisation with otheir device (PC especially) : ebooks, notes, highlights, bookmarks, settings, etc.
- Full library search in content, not only meta-data, with use of lucene search engine.

My conclusion today is to buy cheap now an used unit with a good pdf reflow and wait .

What's your opinion ?

[HarryT]

There is no device that will meet all your requirements; I'm afraid that they are unrealistic at present.

[lalebarde]

--suppressed--

[Logseman]

Though I adhere HarryT's opinion, you might like to check out Pocketbook models. AFAIK, these elements of your list are supported:

- PDF reflow.
- Library management (with a directory tree, not just collections)
- Support of locales (azerty keyboards) (a bit of DIY is needed)
- Bluetooth of the decent kind.
- A fairly stable browser

And it reads ePubs, Chms and PDFs quite nicely.

[polly]

Originally Posted by lalebarde

Sony is the man in the middle, with their store and with open format (epub). But in their new model that includes wifi, you cannot download elsewhere than in their store or on googlebooks . It is delibaratly curbed. By principle, I cannot accept that.

Just for the record, you can't use WiFi to download from other than their store. The reader will not surf the web for you. You can download ePubs from anywhere but Barnes & Noble onto your computer and load them on the reader.