Need help finding an e-reader please

[Pica]

Originally Posted by abookreader

Well, from my experience the eInk screen will likely crap out long before your battery

Seriously?!
That's so hard to believe, I would have thought it was the other way around.
Is that with most readers or certain readers?
I know nothing (especially electronics) lasts forever but I was really hoping to not have to replace it for a good long while.
Thanks for letting me know.

[Latinandgreek]

eink screens are fragile, but there are quite a few people here who still use their Sony PRS-500 (the first e-ink reader available in America, I believe), so don't worry, if they are taken care of e-ink readers can last for a while. The battery should be good for several years.

[Pica]

Kiwimick .. Thanks for that! I really appreciate it.
With what Abookreader just said about the battery/screen life, I'm starting to think that this is probably going to be the best choice (unless someone comes up with a better suggestion in the next week lol).
Thank you so much for your help!

[Pica]

Latinandgreek .. Good to know! Thanks for that.

[ProfCrash]

Pica does he have someone who can help him? An aide or a friend? If he does then you might find 3G beneficial. You won't have to worry about mailing a memory card to him and he could get new books more regularly.

I would think a Nook Classic would fit the bill. It has the memory card and 3G access so he would have the best of both worlds.

I don't think that the life of the battery is going to be an issue. These batteries are meant to last 3-5 years. By that time you might want to replace the e-reader for a new one. Hopefully larger, lighter models will fall into your price range.

I would think that he would benefit from the DXG or 950. The larger screen would allow for more words on the page, especially in landscape mode. Then again, they might be too heavy and they are out of your price range.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I would think that he would benefit from the DXG or 950. The larger screen would allow for more words on the page, especially in landscape mode. Then again, they might be too heavy and they are out of your price range.

I think the 950 is on sale now, for $250. The DX might be a bit heavy, but I hear the new Sony products are all pretty light.

By the way, Pica, I think that this is a great thing that you are doing for your dad. He will love his gift, whatever you end up choosing. I hope he recovers from his stroke.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

I think the 950 is on sale now, for $250. The DX might be a bit heavy, but I hear the new Sony products are all pretty light.

By the way, Pica, I think that this is a great thing that you are doing for your dad. He will love his gift, whatever you end up choosing. I hope he recovers from his stroke.

Seconded.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Pica

Seriously?!
That's so hard to believe, I would have thought it was the other way around.
Is that with most readers or certain readers?
I know nothing (especially electronics) lasts forever but I was really hoping to not have to replace it for a good long while.
Thanks for letting me know.

eInk readers (especially the ones without any form of wireless) can run as much as three weeks on a charge because they usually only use power when paging. Since your typical rechargeable battery is good for 300-500 charge cycles that is a nice long time.

BTW, if ergonomics are your top priority, do consider the Pocketbook 360, currently on sale for US$129. It is a very light 5in reader exactly the size of a CD case that meets all your requirements (micro SDHC rather than straight SD) and has the best one-handed use balance of any product on sale today. You can operate the entire interface with your thumb. Check the reviews at the Pocketbook forum; its owners tend to be very pleased with it. (*I* am.)

[tennoel]

I got a Sony for my Mom who is a lefty, with somewhat limited mobility with her right hand, and I'm a righty. We both have the same model Sony. Because the button is in the middle it's easily accessible for both of us to turn the page.

You're a good son, and I'm sure your Dad will enjoy it!

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

eInk readers (especially the ones without any form of wireless) can run as much as three weeks on a charge because they usually only use power when paging. Since your typical rechargeable battery is good for 300-500 charge cycles that is a nice long time.

BTW, if ergonomics are your top priority, do consider the Pocketbook 360, currently on sale for US$129. It is a very light 5in reader exactly the size of a CD case that meets all your requirements (micro SDHC rather than straight SD) and has the best one-handed use balance of any product on sale today. You can operate the entire interface with your thumb. Check the reviews at the Pocketbook forum; its owners tend to be very pleased with it. (*I* am.)

Yes, I've heard that you can flip the page without actually pressing a button, because of the accelerometer. That could be useful to someone with arthritic fingers or limited mobility, I'm guessing.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Yes, I've heard that you can flip the page without actually pressing a button, because of the accelerometer. That could be useful to someone with arthritic fingers or limited mobility, I'm guessing.

Or program the paging function to any of the buttons; the way I use it is with the 4-way rocker ring so my thumb naturally rests on the ring and paging is just a matter of a slight increase in pressure. The shape of the reader makes it very comfortable to hold because of the wide ridge in the back.

[Pica]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

With Sony, if your books are DRM free, you can just drag them onto you Reader (or the SD card), using no software at all (as if it were a USB stick). You can also use this free program:

http://calibre-ebook.com/

Somehow I didn't see this post last night. Thanks for this info Latina. I really like the idea of drag and drop, so I'm glad that it can be done with Sony. I've used Calibre for a while now and really love it, it sure makes things a lot easier.
Dad reads English, Spanish and French so hopefully I'll find an even bigger selection of free e-books too.
Thank you for all your kind words and all of your help, it's much appreciated.

[Pica]

Thank you for all the great help and kind words!

I really like the idea of the automatic tilt/flip thing .. does anyone know exactly what that option is called and which 6" readers have it?

I've been hearing a lot about 'pdf reflow' .. is that what the tilting thing is or is it something totally different?

I gave some thought to getting a larger reader but then I thought that they might be a little heavy so I'd like to start out with the smaller 6" and see how that goes first.

Fjtorress, would you please explain a bit more about programing the paging function? It sounds like something that would make life a lot easier. Is that an option that can be done with any reader and how hard is it to do?

Does anyone know about charing via wall unit, specifically voltage differences? Are all readers universal when it comes to voltage or is a converter needed? I was browsing E-bay earlier and a few readers that I saw say "Suitable Charger will be selected for your country. US, UK, EU, AU". I assumed (yeah, I know, I shouldn't do that. lol) that it would make a difference.

I think I'm starting to narrow down my choices although I'm still looking 'just in case'. Thanks again for all the help! I really do appreciate it.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Pica

I really like the idea of the automatic tilt/flip thing .. does anyone know exactly what that option is called and which 6" readers have it?

I've been hearing a lot about 'pdf reflow' .. is that what the tilting thing is or is it something totally different?

Fjtorress, would you please explain a bit more about programing the paging function? It sounds like something that would make life a lot easier. Is that an option that can be done with any reader and how hard is it to do?

Does anyone know about charing via wall unit, specifically voltage differences? Are all readers universal when it comes to voltage or is a converter needed? I was browsing E-bay earlier and a few readers that I saw say "Suitable Charger will be selected for your country. US, UK, EU, AU". I assumed (yeah, I know, I shouldn't do that. lol) that it would make a difference.

I think I'm starting to narrow down my choices although I'm still looking 'just in case'. Thanks again for all the help! I really do appreciate it.

1- The flip/tilt function is exclusive to Pocketbook readers with motion sensors. I *know* it works on my Pocketbook 360 (5in) and the 302 (6in). It is supposed to work on the 602 (6in) and 902 (9in) but I'm not sure; those are very new and the firmware is getting the rough edges polished. The way the function came about is that Pocketbook readers are all open to outside application development and a gifted enthusiast took the source code for the PB inhouse version of FBreader and tweaked it to page when you tilt the reader beyond a certain angle and bring it back. You get to chose the range of angle. The tweaked FBReader has evolved into an alternate reader application called FBReader180 that can be downloaded for free and installed as either a replacement or a companion to the baseline reader app and you get to control which ebooks open with each application via an editable plain-text configuration file. Pretty straightforward to set up in a couple minutes.

2- PDF reflow is a display mode for PDF documents that breaks the normally cast-in-concrete formatting of the document and tries to reformat the content on-the-fly as if it were a proper ebook (PDF is more of a digital microfiche than a real ebook format and normally the user has very little if any control over content display). Sometimes it works well (for documents with proper tags added at creation time), sometimes it is useless, most off the time it is of some minor value in making pdfs readable on smaller screens. Be warned that no 6in reader offers a really great PDF-viewing experience. The screen just isn't big enough to map documents intended for printing. The best PDF experiences come on printed paper as that is what PDF was invented for; electronic archiving of print documents.

3- Programming paging buttons is also another feature generally found mostly on Pocketbook readers. The way it works is tha in the setting control panel, you get a list of functions and you get to assign them to whichever button you want to as either a simple press or a long-press. (also known as press-and-hold). The Pocketbook line's calling card is their end-user programability. Other readers have more features (touch screens, wireless storefronts, PDA features) or better screens (the recently-released "Pearl" eink screens on the Kindle 3 and Sonys are supposed to have somewhat better contrast than the vizplex screens available to other manufacturers so far) but no reader line is as open as the Pocketbooks. They let you control font face (any TTF or OTF font works), font size (on a point-by-point basis), margins and line spacing, and (if you really want to) with the FBReader180 app you can specify exactly how most tags in a document (headers, footers, section headings, etc) are to be displayed, overriding the ebook's internal formatting. This works for all supported DRM-free file types except PDFs. There is also a "hacked" version of the DRM-capable reading app that lets you override the epub's internal formatting but that one requires a bit of specialized formatting knowledge for anything beyond simple margins-and-fonts tweaks. Since you're not interested in DRM content the FBReader apps should serve your needs just fine. But you do have some control over DRM'ed files if it comes to that. Again, stop by the Pocketbook forum for details and links to the apps as well as themes (you can control the appearance and behavior of the bookshelf app with them), dictionaries/thesaurii, etc, and other tips and tricks.

4- Charging? By now all the major eink readers rely on USB port charging. Which means that you can charge off any PC, DVD player, or gaming console with a DVD port. Or using a standard USB-charging power brick; they generally run US$6.00-20.00 depending on brand and advertised compatibility. They're all pretty much the same but the ones marketted to iPxxx users generally cost twice as much. The adapters vary depending on the power outlet in the country they'll be used in, of course. But the output side is common to all, so an adapter that works with a Kindle (or iPod) will work with a Pocketbook or Hanlin or whatever.

A good methodology to follow would be to take a stroll to the forums around here and look for threads of recent buyers of the model readers you're interested in and see what issues they run into and how they are settled. It'll give you an idea of what to expect.

Good luck!