Which device do you use?

ladno · 06-17-2008, 01:51 PM

Hi guys. Nice forum. This is my first post here.
I'm going to buy new device to read books wherever I want.
Currently I'm using Q-Reader on my Nokia N-gage to read the books, hovewer my eyes always tire, so I want to buy something better
Which device do you use to read e-books?
Please let me know. I want to know all your opinions which one would you recommend.
Thanks

DixieGal · 06-17-2008, 02:00 PM

Welcome!

First of all: How much $$$ do you want to spend?
Next: What features can you not live without?

The wiki link at the top of the page has tons of info about all of the devices, so it's a good place to start. Post your answers to these questions, and I'm sure there will be plenty of helpful advice in response.

My own answers were: Pay as little as possible, in case it didn't work out for me.
And: Easy to use; a backlight for reading in the dark.

Mine is just a simple reader for $139, nothing fancy, with big buttons and a comfy handgrip. However, I have read here many times that some people's eyes tire easily using the darker screen. I have bad eye problems, many surgeries and treatments, and it has not been a problem for me to read for long periods of time.

basschick · 06-17-2008, 09:45 PM

i went through this decision recently. i really wanted an e-ink device as i get eyestrain on my computer, and i seriously looked at the kindle, the sony 505 and only learned of the cybook on this board.

what decided me is that i looked at formats and what books were available - the cybook reads mobipocket plus several more formats, and you can easily convert all sorts of formats to mobi using mobipocket creator. and if my device needed repair or i lost it, i could still read mobipocket files on my computer in the free mobipocket reader (a great program, btw) or could read them on a handheld. and that's part of what decided me - that if my reader were unavailable, i could still read all the books i had downloaded and paid for. i believe that would not be the case with a kindle or sony 505, although i could well be wrong.

and i must say that i love my cybook

daffy4u · 06-17-2008, 09:53 PM

You can check out the EReader Matrix to give a basis to start with. Once you figure out which features are most important to you, it will be easier to make your decision.

Krytes · 07-17-2008, 11:26 PM

I got my new Hanlin V3 today. So far I'm very happy with it. I was looking for:
-Vizplex e-ink
-Long battery life (I didn't care about wifi)
-As non-DRM-oriented as possible
-Preferably with a released SDK (Software Development Kit)
-Decent native pdf support
-SD-card expandable memory (since my existing gadgets already use SD cards and I've got spares kicking around)
-Ability to create my own subfolders to organize a large book collection

What I like about it:
-It has all of the features that I was looking for above.
-Being able to create folders and subfolders is a lifesaver.
-I had no trouble at all reading the one pdf I tried. It resized (small portrait, medium portrait, large landscape) at the touch of a button. Pictures below, so you can judge the readability for yourself.
Graphical front cover
Medium-sized portrait
Large-sized landscape
-The interface is well-designed and powerful, although there were one or two cases where I felt that I had to press too many buttons to get a task done.
-It supports very many fonts, and you can easily add your own fonts/character sets to get support for pretty much any language, including Chinese/Japanese/Korean. I feel a sudden urge to upload something written in ancient runes, just because I can

-There are MANY options for configuring the appearance of your text files, from changing the size and orientation to inverting the text colors (white text on a black background).

What I don't like:
-Two of my text files, which I created myself and saved in Microsoft Notepad, were not recognised by the device. The Project Gutenberg files opened perfectly well, so maybe there's a quirk in the way Notepad saves text files.
-The page-turn speed still isn't great, although that can probably be said for any e-ink reader. It's less of an annoyance if I use the smallest or second-smallest font, so page turns are kept to a minimum.
-The contrast is good, but still not as good as good-quality paper. It looks as though I'm reading a high-quality newspaper. Again, a consequence of still-developing technology

-When the page changes, there's a (very) faint afterimage of the previous page still on the screen. I'm not sure whether that's Hanlin-specific or not. It's not enough to interfere with reading, though.
-The page-turn buttons (the ones on the side as well as the ones on the bottom) are very close to the edge of the reader. If I hold it in one hand and turn pages as I walk, my thumb is forced into a cramped and rather uncomfortable position.
-Availability. I'm in Canada, and the only reasonably-priced retailers I could find were in the Netherlands or China. I bought mine from the Netherlands, and it took nearly a month to arrive.

jerryleejr · 07-18-2008, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by basschick

i went through this decision recently. i really wanted an e-ink device as i get eyestrain on my computer, and i seriously looked at the kindle, the sony 505 and only learned of the cybook on this board.

what decided me is that i looked at formats and what books were available - the cybook reads mobipocket plus several more formats, and you can easily convert all sorts of formats to mobi using mobipocket creator. and if my device needed repair or i lost it, i could still read mobipocket files on my computer in the free mobipocket reader (a great program, btw) or could read them on a handheld. and that's part of what decided me - that if my reader were unavailable, i could still read all the books i had downloaded and paid for. i believe that would not be the case with a kindle or sony 505, although i could well be wrong.

and i must say that i love my cybook

If you are talking about reading the books on your computer Calibre, and the Sony Software will allow you to do that, As for Kindle I believe Stanza will allow this if they are downloaded on your computer.

JJ

Justy · 07-18-2008, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by basschick

what decided me is that i looked at formats and what books were available - the cybook reads mobipocket plus several more formats, and you can easily convert all sorts of formats to mobi using mobipocket creator. and if my device needed repair or i lost it, i could still read mobipocket files on my computer in the free mobipocket reader (a great program, btw) or could read them on a handheld. and that's part of what decided me - that if my reader were unavailable, i could still read all the books i had downloaded and paid for.

and i must say that i love my cybook

I got my Cybook at Christmas last year and the Mobipocket support was a key decision point for me as well. I already had a fair sized library of Mobipocket ebooks which I was reading on my iPAQ. I wanted a larger screen, e-ink, and the ability to continue reading my DRM Mobipocket books as well as any multiformat ebooks I already had. The Cybook was an easy choice for me.

I love it so much that I bought a 2nd one and gave the first to Hubby. He has recently admitted that he won't be going back to his PDA for reading either.

HarryT · 07-18-2008, 03:53 AM

Cybook for me too. On my 2nd one now (I liked the 64MB version so much that I bought the 512MB version as soon as it appeared). Been using them since last November and am very pleased with them indeed. Mobi support was the main factor for me too.

JoeD · 07-18-2008, 08:57 AM

I recently bought a Hanlin v3. I'd narrowed my choices down to either the Cybook or the Hanlin and tbh I'm sure I'd have been happy with either. The thing that pushed me in favour of the Hanlin is that they're a little more GPL compliant than Bookeen and the Hanlin worked out a little cheaper.

DaleDe · 07-18-2008, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeD

I recently bought a Hanlin v3. I'd narrowed my choices down to either the Cybook or the Hanlin and tbh I'm sure I'd have been happy with either. The thing that pushed me in favour of the Hanlin is that they're a little more GPL compliant than Bookeen and the Hanlin worked out a little cheaper.

The latest Russian version of firmware for the Hanlin has now added Mobipocket support including DRM mobi. Check the Hanlin group for download.

Dale

JoeD · 07-18-2008, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleDe

The latest Russian version of firmware for the Hanlin has now added Mobipocket support including DRM mobi. Check the Hanlin group for download.

Dale

Yes, I already have this installed after reading about it in the firmware thread in the Hanlin forum. There's too much of a delay with page turns when using mobi files at the moment though.

Hopefully they'll speed it up in the next release

Alisa · 07-18-2008, 08:36 PM

I have a Kindle. I chose it because I really wanted search and dictionary lookup. None of the other readers at the time covered that to my satisfaction. I was very close to buying a Cybook but I was disappointed that it didn't let you search your books. When the Kindle came out and offered dictionary look up, book search and added Web & Wikipedia search on top of it, I was quite happy. At the time, I didn't see the wireless access as that big of a deal aside from what it added to the search functions but having used it for awhile now, I've gotten hooked on the instant gratification. The free sample chapters are great. Rather than pay for a book I may or may not end up enjoying, I get a sample and read it at my leisure on the Kindle. When I'm done, I can be reading the rest of the book within seconds. I just got another one for my husband. He commutes on the train and he loves that he can get another book right away even when he's in transit.

There are downsides, however. I don't like that Kindle books are so locked down. There are lots of other places to buy books and there is a hack that allows you to read DRM-ed Mobipocket books but I don't want to have to rely on it. There are also scripts that will strip the DRM off of the .azw books but who knows if Amazon will try to overcome that by changing the DRM a bit in later versions. I'm also not thrilled with the looks of the device but that's less important to me. Some people don't like the big buttons but I find it quite ergonomic. My husband disagrees but he's getting used to them. We'd also like folders for organizing our books. Sadly that's a feature few devices offer.

bwaldron · 07-19-2008, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alisa

I have a Kindle. I chose it because I really wanted search and dictionary lookup. None of the other readers at the time covered that to my satisfaction. I was very close to buying a Cybook but I was disappointed that it didn't let you search your books.

I chose the Cybook, as I had a large library of Mobi format books already. I do use the dictionary lookup, and while searching would be useful, I like the fact that I can use my choice of fonts on the Cybook. I wouldn't personally use the Whispernet features, but I could be quite happy with a Kindle.

DDHarriman · 07-20-2008, 05:50 PM

Hi

For me the question is simple: one reads when one has his books with him!

How I do this: for leisure I do use my Cybook for normal reading… all the time.
Then I have the same eBooks in my Pocketpc phone edition,,, so everywhere I am I can keep on reading… 2 minutes on a file, 5 minutes waiting to pay, 10 minutes in a movie interval…

And… with technical stuff I have two tabletpc’s and one umpc that let me read any PDF I want, anywhere, and also answer my email, go online, resolve any problem I have in my company or with any client.

So, anytime I have a second, I just have my books at hand and can enjoy a good reading (literature), or work and learn (tech stuff), because I have the content and way to access it with me all the time.

Best regards,

JSWolf · 07-30-2008, 11:09 PM

I use a Sony Reader PRS-505. I think it's quite a nice device and quite ergonomic. It has the same screen as the Kindle, Gen3, and V3. The tools to convert content to use with it work quite well and are fairly easy to use. I do spend a lot of time using it to read and it's quite nice.

06-17-2008, 01:51 PM	#1
ladno Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2008 Device: N-gage	Which device do you use? Hi guys. Nice forum. This is my first post here. I'm going to buy new device to read books wherever I want. Currently I'm using Q-Reader on my Nokia N-gage to read the books, hovewer my eyes always tire, so I want to buy something better Which device do you use to read e-books? Please let me know. I want to know all your opinions which one would you recommend. Thanks

07-17-2008, 11:26 PM	#5
Krytes Enthusiast Posts: 36 Karma: 24 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: Kobo Aura HD	I got my new Hanlin V3 today. So far I'm very happy with it. I was looking for: -Vizplex e-ink -Long battery life (I didn't care about wifi) -As non-DRM-oriented as possible -Preferably with a released SDK (Software Development Kit) -Decent native pdf support -SD-card expandable memory (since my existing gadgets already use SD cards and I've got spares kicking around) -Ability to create my own subfolders to organize a large book collection What I like about it: -It has all of the features that I was looking for above. -Being able to create folders and subfolders is a lifesaver. -I had no trouble at all reading the one pdf I tried. It resized (small portrait, medium portrait, large landscape) at the touch of a button. Pictures below, so you can judge the readability for yourself. Graphical front cover Medium-sized portrait Large-sized landscape -The interface is well-designed and powerful, although there were one or two cases where I felt that I had to press too many buttons to get a task done. -It supports very many fonts, and you can easily add your own fonts/character sets to get support for pretty much any language, including Chinese/Japanese/Korean. I feel a sudden urge to upload something written in ancient runes, just because I can -There are MANY options for configuring the appearance of your text files, from changing the size and orientation to inverting the text colors (white text on a black background). What I don't like: -Two of my text files, which I created myself and saved in Microsoft Notepad, were not recognised by the device. The Project Gutenberg files opened perfectly well, so maybe there's a quirk in the way Notepad saves text files. -The page-turn speed still isn't great, although that can probably be said for any e-ink reader. It's less of an annoyance if I use the smallest or second-smallest font, so page turns are kept to a minimum. -The contrast is good, but still not as good as good-quality paper. It looks as though I'm reading a high-quality newspaper. Again, a consequence of still-developing technology -When the page changes, there's a (very) faint afterimage of the previous page still on the screen. I'm not sure whether that's Hanlin-specific or not. It's not enough to interfere with reading, though. -The page-turn buttons (the ones on the side as well as the ones on the bottom) are very close to the edge of the reader. If I hold it in one hand and turn pages as I walk, my thumb is forced into a cramped and rather uncomfortable position. -Availability. I'm in Canada, and the only reasonably-priced retailers I could find were in the Netherlands or China. I bought mine from the Netherlands, and it took nearly a month to arrive. Last edited by Krytes; 07-17-2008 at 11:27 PM. Reason: accuracy

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06-17-2008, 02:00 PM	#2
DixieGal Hi There! Posts: 7,473 Karma: 2930523 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Ft Lauderdale Device: iPad	Welcome! First of all: How much $$$ do you want to spend? Next: What features can you not live without? The wiki link at the top of the page has tons of info about all of the devices, so it's a good place to start. Post your answers to these questions, and I'm sure there will be plenty of helpful advice in response. My own answers were: Pay as little as possible, in case it didn't work out for me. And: Easy to use; a backlight for reading in the dark. Mine is just a simple reader for $139, nothing fancy, with big buttons and a comfy handgrip. However, I have read here many times that some people's eyes tire easily using the darker screen. I have bad eye problems, many surgeries and treatments, and it has not been a problem for me to read for long periods of time.

06-17-2008, 09:45 PM	#3
basschick Wizard Posts: 1,096 Karma: 4695691 Join Date: May 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite	i went through this decision recently. i really wanted an e-ink device as i get eyestrain on my computer, and i seriously looked at the kindle, the sony 505 and only learned of the cybook on this board. what decided me is that i looked at formats and what books were available - the cybook reads mobipocket plus several more formats, and you can easily convert all sorts of formats to mobi using mobipocket creator. and if my device needed repair or i lost it, i could still read mobipocket files on my computer in the free mobipocket reader (a great program, btw) or could read them on a handheld. and that's part of what decided me - that if my reader were unavailable, i could still read all the books i had downloaded and paid for. i believe that would not be the case with a kindle or sony 505, although i could well be wrong. and i must say that i love my cybook

06-17-2008, 09:53 PM	#4
daffy4u I'm Super Kindle-icious Posts: 6,734 Karma: 2434103 Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Long Drive, Calinadia Candafornia Device: KDXG, KT, Oasis	You can check out the EReader Matrix to give a basis to start with. Once you figure out which features are most important to you, it will be easier to make your decision.

07-18-2008, 03:53 AM	#8
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Cybook for me too. On my 2nd one now (I liked the 64MB version so much that I bought the 512MB version as soon as it appeared). Been using them since last November and am very pleased with them indeed. Mobi support was the main factor for me too.

07-18-2008, 08:57 AM	#9
JoeD Guru Posts: 895 Karma: 4383958 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: na	I recently bought a Hanlin v3. I'd narrowed my choices down to either the Cybook or the Hanlin and tbh I'm sure I'd have been happy with either. The thing that pushed me in favour of the Hanlin is that they're a little more GPL compliant than Bookeen and the Hanlin worked out a little cheaper.

07-18-2008, 08:36 PM	#12
Alisa Gadget Geek Posts: 2,324 Karma: 22221 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Paperwhite, Kindle 3 (retired), Skindle 1.2 (retired)	I have a Kindle. I chose it because I really wanted search and dictionary lookup. None of the other readers at the time covered that to my satisfaction. I was very close to buying a Cybook but I was disappointed that it didn't let you search your books. When the Kindle came out and offered dictionary look up, book search and added Web & Wikipedia search on top of it, I was quite happy. At the time, I didn't see the wireless access as that big of a deal aside from what it added to the search functions but having used it for awhile now, I've gotten hooked on the instant gratification. The free sample chapters are great. Rather than pay for a book I may or may not end up enjoying, I get a sample and read it at my leisure on the Kindle. When I'm done, I can be reading the rest of the book within seconds. I just got another one for my husband. He commutes on the train and he loves that he can get another book right away even when he's in transit. There are downsides, however. I don't like that Kindle books are so locked down. There are lots of other places to buy books and there is a hack that allows you to read DRM-ed Mobipocket books but I don't want to have to rely on it. There are also scripts that will strip the DRM off of the .azw books but who knows if Amazon will try to overcome that by changing the DRM a bit in later versions. I'm also not thrilled with the looks of the device but that's less important to me. Some people don't like the big buttons but I find it quite ergonomic. My husband disagrees but he's getting used to them. We'd also like folders for organizing our books. Sadly that's a feature few devices offer.

07-20-2008, 05:50 PM	#14
DDHarriman Guru Posts: 860 Karma: 4380 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Almada, Portugal Device: Cybook Gen3, Sony PRS 505, Kindle DXG and Samsung Galaxy Note	Hi For me the question is simple: one reads when one has his books with him! How I do this: for leisure I do use my Cybook for normal reading… all the time. Then I have the same eBooks in my Pocketpc phone edition,,, so everywhere I am I can keep on reading… 2 minutes on a file, 5 minutes waiting to pay, 10 minutes in a movie interval… And… with technical stuff I have two tabletpc’s and one umpc that let me read any PDF I want, anywhere, and also answer my email, go online, resolve any problem I have in my company or with any client. So, anytime I have a second, I just have my books at hand and can enjoy a good reading (literature), or work and learn (tech stuff), because I have the content and way to access it with me all the time. Best regards,

07-30-2008, 11:09 PM	#15
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 74,317 Karma: 129333690 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I use a Sony Reader PRS-505. I think it's quite a nice device and quite ergonomic. It has the same screen as the Kindle, Gen3, and V3. The tools to convert content to use with it work quite well and are fairly easy to use. I do spend a lot of time using it to read and it's quite nice.

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