Article: 7 reasons why e-book readers make lousy gifts

[Superlucky]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Even if somone asks for a reader, be prepared to maybe have to support said person.

My mother has a reader and she enjoys using it. But if she didn't have me to help support her, she would not be enjoying it.

I totally agree with this. Armed with just the stock software and a user manual, I doubt that your average person (even your average avid reader) is really capable of having a great experience with a dedicated reading device, but this is hardly peculiar to reading devices. I have long lamented that I have been designated tech support for my friends and family. I've had to learn the intricacies of quite a few electronic devices that I don't even own.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by eGeezer

After pondering all entries in this thread, it occurred to me that buying an ereader as a gift is much like buying a telescope as a gift. If the recipient is not an avid (reader, stargazer) it will gather dust. If the recipient has a budding interest in (reading, stargazing), and you don't get the right one, it will gather dust and perhaps kill or delay the person's interest in ereaders. If the recipient is already an avid (reader, stargazer) you'd better be really, really sure you are getting the one they want or it will gather dust (or maybe be returned).
But most important to all of that, the person giving the gift needs to be an avid (reader, stargazer) in order to have any chance at all of making the right choice.
So while I find the article distasteful, he is right that average Joe non-ereader owner should not, at this time, consider purchasing an ereader as a gift for someone else.

Really well let me ask you this at what point did the stargazer become a stargazer. At some point he had to be exposed to a telescope. A gift is the best way to introduce somebody to a new technology. Granted you need to know the person tour giving the gift to for it to be of value.

Btw did I mention I received my PRS-505 as a gift. I only showed a little Interest in the Kindle but ended up with a SONY. And no I'm not complaining, I dig my eReader. Of course I'm an avid reader and tech savvy


Also a aort while after I received my book reader my sister in law bought one for my brother. I took him 6 months before he picked it up but now he really likes his device.

And last I bought an ereader for my daughter as well. It was the EBW1150 she loves the book reader and uses it a lot. The only problem with that book reader is the limited amount of childrens books and that she can not take the ereader to class.


Really the only pre-rec for buying an eReader as a gift is of the person likes to read and have an open mind.
=X=

[fugazied]

Most of the points are just silly. We have been on the brink of great changes in technology and always on the brink of seeing an Apple tablet.

The devices ARE superior to other reading methods. I find it much easier to use a kindle than it is to use my laptop or iPhone for reading.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by =X=

Really well let me ask you this at what point did the stargazer become a stargazer. At some point he had to be exposed to a telescope. A gift is the best way to introduce somebody to a new technology. Granted you need to know the person tour giving the gift to for it to be of value.

The key is to buy a decent one that fits their needs--be it a telescope or e-reader or whatever.

Buy someone a crappy telescope that doesn't work well, and they'll be frustrated/disappointed and less likely to ever become a stargazer.

By them a frustrating e-reader--i.e. something with no specific store attached, that requires hooking up to a PC to get books on it etc. and they may be frustrated and put off e-books for a long time if they're not a tech savvy person.

That's more the point here. If you're going to buy someone a gift, make sure they're an avid reader and you know what they want or know enough about e-readers (like all of us here do) to buy them a very good and easy to use one like a Kindle or Sony (if they can handle the PC component).

So again it is a silly article as it just boils down to "Don't buy someone a gift you know little about and you're not sure they want."

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by owlrigh

When I was first using computers one of them had no hard drive and ran off cassette tapes -- that was the old one. The other one was very basic and ran off 8 inch floppies ... yon 5 1/4 inch ones were new and hip! And I was agog at the 3 1/2 inch! They were so cool, so new, and they didn't break in your hands!

The sad part is I'm not even 30 yet; I was far behind in the times...

We are probably about the same age, I (vaguely) remember the computers that used to run off cassette tapes. And we didn't have mice, we had those roller balls.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by eGeezer

After pondering all entries in this thread, it occurred to me that buying an ereader as a gift is much like buying a telescope as a gift. If the recipient is not an avid (reader, stargazer) it will gather dust. If the recipient has a budding interest in (reading, stargazing), and you don't get the right one, it will gather dust and perhaps kill or delay the person's interest in ereaders. If the recipient is already an avid (reader, stargazer) you'd better be really, really sure you are getting the one they want or it will gather dust (or maybe be returned).

But most important to all of that, the person giving the gift needs to be an avid (reader, stargazer) in order to have any chance at all of making the right choice.

So while I find the article distasteful, he is right that average Joe non-ereader owner should not, at this time, consider purchasing an ereader as a gift for someone else.

I like your analogy!

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by =X=

Really well let me ask you this at what point did the stargazer become a stargazer.
=X=

A stargazer is born, not created. Some people never "get" it. Although good equipment helps.

Now back to topic again...

[SensualPoet]

I'm not rushing out buying e-readers for all my friends ... I don't have that sort of income. I'll buy a book, yes ... but $300 e-reader? That needs to be fed?

For the right special person, sure. I'm a recent Kindle 2 owner and -- since I actually use it for reading books -- am pretty darned impressed. I love e-ink; I get enough eye strain reading backlit text from my computer and, um, posting to e-book forums ...

Assuming the right audience, I'd have no problem gifting a Kindle 2 and dragging them over to a site like ManyBooks.net where they can easily download two or three titles which pique their interest in .mobi format. After that "training wheels" session -- downloading, transferring to Kindle and reading -- I am sure they'll be hooked and the gift will be treasured.

Then they can move on at their choice to myriad paid content and the joys of 2 weeks, not 6 hours, between charges.

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

I get enough eye strain reading backlit text from my computer and, um, posting to e-book forums ...

This is a myth, that's not what causes eye strain on computer screens. What causes eye strain is a combination of poor eye sight or too great of distance from the screen for your font size and poor brightness settings. You will get sore eyes staring at any reflective surface if it's too brightly lit or not brightly lit enough. It has nothing to do with there being a back light.

In reality the only reason these readers are causing less eye strain for people is because you can easily position them for comfortable distance and lighting. It's hard to reposition computers, even laptops, due to size and shape issues.

Using a handheld device with backlit LCD where you set the brightness correctly, use appropriate font sizes, you will not get eye strain either.

E-Ink is cool and all but it's propagation of a myth to think it, on its own, is a solution to eye strain. Proper lighting and font size (relative to distance from your eyes) are the matters leading to eye strain. Get corrective eye wear if you have poor eye sight, even when using a standard computer screen and that can go a long way to dissolving eye strain. Fixing the screen brightness (usually lowering it but sometime raising it depending on ambient light) is secondary to that.

Some less important factors for eye strain include the distance you scan during regular use. For example, if you are reading on a computer screen and you have the page set up so that you're reading across the entire screen that's going to have your eyes sweeping your whole computer screen over and over. That's bad. Use smaller page widths, show a few on a screen at once if you like. Another way e-Ink based readers help without actually needing to be e-Ink based. They are small screens so not much text can fit width-wise.

Another is staring at anything at nearly the same distance for long periods of time is the eye's equivalent to holding up your arm in the same position for a long time. It causes muscle pain. That's what eye strain is, fyi, it's muscle pain. With a handheld reader you will move it around and not even realize that you're helping your eyes by doing so. If you're stuck at a computer screen the best solution to this problem is to take breaks for your eyes. The best way to relax the eyes is to stare off into the distance. If you have a window, look out of it at the horizon, as far as you can look without squinting for focus.

Squinting, staring, large sweeps, poor lighting (leading to squinting) and other similar stresses can occur just as much on an e-Ink screen, or even a paper book, as they can on a fixed or portable backlit LCD. It's a matter of adjusting the situation to benefit your eyes, something that most portable eBook readers lead you to do without even thinking about it, that solves eye strain. It's not a magic feature of E-Ink.

E-Ink is great for battery life, and easy to read in brighter lit areas such as outside. It has relatively poor contrast these days but nothing worse than your run of the mill cheapo mass market paperback. It's a cool technology but it's not, on its own accord, a solution to eye strain.

As someone whose career and hobbies have had him staring at all kinds of terribly small and irritatingly blocking text on bad monitors for 20 years, 10+ hours per day, I can assure you that there's no reason you have to suffer eye strain on a backlit screen. If you suffer eye strain, go to the eye doctor, explain it, and they will help give you tips on how to fix it, and possibly recommend reading glasses or the like to deal with it.

As one last tip, remember that all modern computers can adjust font sizes, both throughout the whole system and often within a random application. For example, in most browsers you can increase and decrease font sizes arbitrarily in the menu or with keyboard shortcuts like alt-+ or alt-- or command-+/command-- for mac users.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by zacheryjensen

This is a myth, that's not what causes eye strain on computer screens. What causes eye strain is a combination of poor eye sight or too great of distance from the screen for your font size and poor brightness settings. You will get sore eyes staring at any reflective surface if it's too brightly lit or not brightly lit enough. It has nothing to do with there being a back light.

In reality the only reason these readers are causing less eye strain for people is because you can easily position them for comfortable distance and lighting. It's hard to reposition computers, even laptops, due to size and shape issues.

Using a handheld device with backlit LCD where you set the brightness correctly, use appropriate font sizes, you will not get eye strain either.

E-Ink is cool and all but it's propagation of a myth to think it, on its own, is a solution to eye strain. Proper lighting and font size (relative to distance from your eyes) are the matters leading to eye strain. Get corrective eye wear if you have poor eye sight, even when using a standard computer screen and that can go a long way to dissolving eye strain. Fixing the screen brightness (usually lowering it but sometime raising it depending on ambient light) is secondary to that.

Some less important factors for eye strain include the distance you scan during regular use. For example, if you are reading on a computer screen and you have the page set up so that you're reading across the entire screen that's going to have your eyes sweeping your whole computer screen over and over. That's bad. Use smaller page widths, show a few on a screen at once if you like. Another way e-Ink based readers help without actually needing to be e-Ink based. They are small screens so not much text can fit width-wise.

Another is staring at anything at nearly the same distance for long periods of time is the eye's equivalent to holding up your arm in the same position for a long time. It causes muscle pain. That's what eye strain is, fyi, it's muscle pain. With a handheld reader you will move it around and not even realize that you're helping your eyes by doing so. If you're stuck at a computer screen the best solution to this problem is to take breaks for your eyes. The best way to relax the eyes is to stare off into the distance. If you have a window, look out of it at the horizon, as far as you can look without squinting for focus.

Squinting, staring, large sweeps, poor lighting (leading to squinting) and other similar stresses can occur just as much on an e-Ink screen, or even a paper book, as they can on a fixed or portable backlit LCD. It's a matter of adjusting the situation to benefit your eyes, something that most portable eBook readers lead you to do without even thinking about it, that solves eye strain. It's not a magic feature of E-Ink.

E-Ink is great for battery life, and easy to read in brighter lit areas such as outside. It has relatively poor contrast these days but nothing worse than your run of the mill cheapo mass market paperback. It's a cool technology but it's not, on its own accord, a solution to eye strain.

As someone whose career and hobbies have had him staring at all kinds of terribly small and irritatingly blocking text on bad monitors for 20 years, 10+ hours per day, I can assure you that there's no reason you have to suffer eye strain on a backlit screen. If you suffer eye strain, go to the eye doctor, explain it, and they will help give you tips on how to fix it, and possibly recommend reading glasses or the like to deal with it.

As one last tip, remember that all modern computers can adjust font sizes, both throughout the whole system and often within a random application. For example, in most browsers you can increase and decrease font sizes arbitrarily in the menu or with keyboard shortcuts like alt-+ or alt-- or command-+/command-- for mac users.

Glad to see more people posting this kind of information. No doubt there will still be people who are adamant eyestrain is caused by the backlight or the refresh rate or whatever random fact they can dig up that conveniently attaches to their poor reading habits.

[dmaul1114]

Agreed. LCDs don't bother me at all. I'm at a computer probably 10-12 hours weekdays (between work and goofing online) and a little less than that on the weekends.

I don't read outdoors, so really the only think I love about e-ink currently is the battery life. Otherwise I'd prefer LCD since I'd rather have a multifunction device than a dedicated reader personally--if battery life etc. was more equivalent (which is a long way off).

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by zacheryjensen

This is a myth, that's not what causes eye strain on computer screens.

Thanks for the lecture. My eyes don't feel it's a myth (and I do know where the ctrl-+ keys are located). In my experience, backlit text sources -- such as computer screens -- are tiring; the e-ink device I am using is not. It's empirical, I suppose, but it's also my reality, and will guide future choices of devices.

I really like the single-purpose e-ink reader. I can also see the benefits of a Google Android device down the road -- I use the OS on an HTC Dream which is very impressive -- touch screens, live Internet, interacting with others whilst reading, using live Google Maps and GPS to find my way to the nearest bookstore (!). But, you know, what I like about b&w e-ink is how crisp it is and, well, how book-like the reading experience is. That's all I am really applauding.

[WDecraene]

So, I take it he's not a fan then

[kindlekitten]

we kind of got that impression

[bminata]

Must be one of those fanboys

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Issue #1 is silly. Don't by a reader because Apple might release a tablet. Yeah right.