Which One?

[Counter]

I pre-purchased the Nook (very close to canceling) and have driven myself batty this weekend reading about no less then 4 other e-readers.

Each one seems to fit the bill then I read the issues with them and get out off a bit. I cannot understand why in today's world these e-readers are so BUGGY?

No excuse at all as they should be perfect to the average consumer and from what I see (Nook as an example) they are terrible at worst and slightly frustrating at best.

Thank goodness I am a techno weenie and as long as support is top notch and firmware updates are release FAST to fix issues and do not regress, I can deal with all this.


With that, I am looking at the Astak Ezreader 6", Eslick, Nook and even the Cooler Reader.

I do want epub support so that is why the Kindle 2 is out (for now) but I also want better then 4 shades of grey so the Ezreader is trailing with Eslick.

The Cooler Reader seems hot but lots of complaints about support and quality of it's build.

if shades of grey were not an issue, the E-Slick and Ezreader are neck and neck.


If anyone owns one of these devices, please point me towards your review and let me know what you think about them

Thanks

Mark

[Alpha_Cluster]

I had also pre-ordered the nook (I have subsequently canceled it and got a Kindle after delays). I have not used any of the ereaders you mention here but I feel I should just remind you that because these are dedicated electronics devices firmware updates generally get ignored often. I felt the same way about the Sony 505 and it took a lot longer then expected to see all the updates i wanted take place. Sure they came but it took time. I would not be surprised for B&N to also be slow based of the starting experience and their shipping mess (Why were we not told of the delay until "release" day? Why are some not shipping by the second promised date or as ground and not the promised overnight?).

[Counter]

I agree about the slow release of updates but with all the competition, it would do well for the company to release updates FAST. Nothing wrong with slow updates if the unit was real good at delivery time but if not, then there is a problem.

I hope to figure out which one to buy soon otherwise by wife may get a piece of coal for Christmas. LOL

[JSWolf]

Counter, have you taken a look at the Sony Reader PRS-900 with a 7.1 inch screen?

[Counter]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Counter, have you taken a look at the Sony Reader PRS-900 with a 7.1 inch screen?

Looks nice

PDF
Epub
wireless

but missing pdb which I would rather have then doc since alot of books are still in pdb format at B&N.

Do you know when it is supposed to ship?


Mark

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by Counter

but missing pdb which I would rather have then doc since alot of books are still in pdb format at B&N.

Do you know when it is supposed to ship?

Mark

According to Sony they will be available on the 18th. Not sure if that is still the expected ship date for current pre-orders though.

I'm pretty sure Calibre will let you convert from PDB so that may not be an issue.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Counter

if shades of grey were not an issue, the E-Slick and Ezreader are neck and neck.

I'm not sure that the Cool-er has 8 grey scales. The E-book Reader Matrix says 4 gray scales, but that isn't definitive (since I made this entry). The first Cool-er's were definitely standard Netronix EB600's, like the eSlick, with 4 gray scales. There is now an EB600 variant with 8 gray scales (the Astak Mentor Lite 2), but so far as I know the Cool-er is still 4 gray scales in hardware. All these devices have software dithering for more grey scales in images.

I recommend the EZ Reader Basic. Like the EB600, it is an older design but generally this means that the firmware is more robust. The problem with the Cool-er is that it is using Netronix firmware and Netronix only recently started distributing full-up Reader firmware. If I was buying a EB600-based device today it would probably be the PocketBook 301, with very good in-house firmware. The Jinke firmware for the EZ Reader Basic is pretty good, with frequent updates and some input from independent vendors of the device. I use OpenInkPot on my EZ Reader Basic, which is an alternative Open Source firmware that does not support DRM. It uses FBReader, like PocketBook, but PocketBook has both FBReader and Adobe Digital Editions on their devices.

[Counter]

This is from Cooler Reader's site.



Screen
Size 6"
DPI 170 pixels per inch
Levels of Greyscale 8
Type E-Ink® Vizplex
Touchscreen No
Manufacturer PVI

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Counter

This is from Cooler Reader's site.
Levels of Greyscale 8

Do they mean 8 greyscales for images after dithering? It appears that they do, because we have photos of actual test images which are clearly not 8 greyscales in hardware, see COOL-ER - Comics and some Tech Info.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

I'm not sure that the Cool-er has 8 grey scales. The E-book Reader Matrix says 4 gray scales, but that isn't definitive (since I made this entry). The first Cool-er's were definitely standard Netronix EB600's, like the eSlick, with 4 gray scales. There is now an EB600 variant with 8 gray scales (the Astak Mentor Lite 2), but so far as I know the Cool-er is still 4 gray scales in hardware. All these devices have software dithering for more grey scales in images.

The "CyBook Gold" is another EB600 device which (apparently) offers 8 grey-scales. They do appear to be becoming more widespread.

[Dulin's Books]

Take a little time and check out the Pocketbook section here. The 301 and the 360 are both excellent readers