Other e-readers and tablets

Since enTourage is at the point of recommending other e-readers and tablets, perhaps we should too.

One that caught my eye today is this review of the Asus EEE Note, which about a month ago, was said to be imminently arriving in the US at a $200 price point. It's got an 8" backlight-free grayscale LCD with capacitive touchscreen and stylus input. The review says you can indeed annotate PDFs with it and read ePub format also. However, it runs a proprietary OS based on Linux, rather than Android, so there aren't any apps beyond those Asus provides.

Unfortunately in the comments the good e-reader person claims it will be a few months from now before it comes to the US. (it is already sold in Taiwan and the EU)

Some of the specs on the EEE Note are worth drooling over compared to the eDGe - 64 shades of gray, 2.3 Ghz processor, etc. However, I think eDGe owners are going to have a tough time finding a single device that does everything the eDGe does, in colour and eInk.

Several dual screen devices may appear this year, including from companies like NEC, Acer and MSI, but there you don't have eInk, and one does grow fond of eInk over LCD after reading on eInk for a few months.

Originally Posted by Adiposius Maximus

Since enTourage is at the point of recommending other e-readers and tablets,

Where did you read it?

Be careful with those Asus ereaders, I had to return my Asus dr900 for its "suckyness"

I've posted a few threads with some alternative devices to consider.

Just watched a long (30min.) video review from Good Ereader on Youtube of the Eee Note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPDYCUSUf4E I'm seriously considering this as a notebook/journal app kind of replacement. (In other words, to replace what the e-ink screen does, not what the tablet side does.)

For those who want something more functional (and more expensive) but full-blown tablet PC like at supposed sub $1K prices, I'm keeping my eye on the Motion Computing CL900.

And for those of you who are gluttons for punishment, and had your hopes raised and crushed by the Microsoft Courrier, check out NoteSlate (www.noteslate.com)

These are my 3 "keep an eye on" devices right now. Note: I'm only interested in machines with journal/annotation capabilities, so these are all skewed to replicating the stylus/writer experience, not necessarily the best plain e-readers.

Originally Posted by sarah11918

And for those of you who are gluttons for punishment, and had your hopes raised and crushed by the Microsoft Courrier, check out NoteSlate (www.noteslate.com)

I guess you mean in the sense of vapourware? The NoteSlate is a monochrome, single screen, single app device, whereas the Courier was colour, dual-screen, and multi-app...

Originally Posted by borisb

I guess you mean in the sense of vapourware?

Yes, that's how I meant it.

For those of us who are likely to get excited by new technology, follow it for weeks/months only to have it never materialize. Because the NoteSlate (while not a Courier by any means), with its stated tech and price, should have just about everyone wanting one.

In retrospect, it's amazing how many of the super devices of early last year never materialized in a substantial manner, despite forum members swearing they were going to kill the eDGe: Notion Ink Adam being one of the biggest.

The Adam is still around, it's just that they're having a hard time producing enough of them to meet the demand. The Adam user community is one of the most active and loyal I've ever seen (including iFans), and have done as much or more to fix the device's problems than Notion Ink itself has. Though NI also isn't helped by the fact that their CEO has Steve Jobs-level ego/customer service skills without Apple-level market share.

Originally Posted by sarah11918

I've posted a few threads with some alternative devices to consider.

Just watched a long (30min.) video review from Good Ereader on Youtube of the Eee Note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPDYCUSUf4E I'm seriously considering this as a notebook/journal app kind of replacement. (In other words, to replace what the e-ink screen does, not what the tablet side does.)

For those who want something more functional (and more expensive) but full-blown tablet PC like at supposed sub $1K prices, I'm keeping my eye on the Motion Computing CL900.

And for those of you who are gluttons for punishment, and had your hopes raised and crushed by the Microsoft Courrier, check out NoteSlate (www.noteslate.com)

These are my 3 "keep an eye on" devices right now. Note: I'm only interested in machines with journal/annotation capabilities, so these are all skewed to replicating the stylus/writer experience, not necessarily the best plain e-readers.

I've been chomping at the bit over the Note, but I have to say that that goodereader video took a bit of the shine off. They made the thing seem like a $200 spiral notebook replacement, and I was definitely expecting more. Plus their video quality is poor and I wasn't able to really see the crispness of the display. The other promotional videos I've seen are more enticing (at least to me).

Originally Posted by sarah11918

I....For those who want something more functional (and more expensive) but full-blown tablet PC like at supposed sub $1K prices, I'm keeping my eye on the Motion Computing CL900....

I am also waiting for the Motion Computing CL900...they make very rugged machines, and at least they say it has a great battery life. Its a little bit heavy (I imagine from the ruggedization of the components), but looks good. Like you, I am a fan of OneNote and it looks like a nice machine for OneNote.

My only advice, having run Win 7 on a machine with 1GB, is to definitely get the optional upgrade to 2GB. Win 7 in 1GB of RAM is a total mess.

I have seen the evals for 902 and 903 (with Wacom digitizer) on youtube - looks great but the MobileRead forums are somewhat interesting (the EE always just works). The Sony PRS-950 is a good deal too if one can deal with the smaller non-digitizer screen.

Also, I still dream of building my own Pixel Qi based tablet by way of retrofit - a hand-made Notion Ink Adam if you will. The Pixel Qi display comes with some concerns apparently - lighting can be uneven in some cases.

The problem with the Notion Ink Adam's Pixel Qi screens apparently comes from the layer of stuff they put on top of it - I think the touch-screen layer. The PQ screens themselves are, by all reports, unobjectionable. I assume that the slightly inferoir quality of the EE e-reader screen compared to, say, a Kindle DX's, is also due to a layer of stuff on top, in this case for the all-important stylus input.

Life's full of tradeoffs.