Advice for a finance student/geek in Europe

neln · 05-31-2010, 11:46 AM

Short to the point, I decided to by my first reader because reading on laptop really screws my eyes wearing contact lenses, thus not considering a tablet like iPad etc. at all if I have other choices. I am sure there are finance professionals in the forum, thus I would appreciate their feedback about their readers and giving me advice.

Basically what I want and will be doing with the device is:
- Will mainly read PDFs (mainly w/o DRM): finance books, newsletters (some as .doc or .rtf), RSS feeds etc. though I would be happy with additonal format support or access to online book stores.

- Obviously most finance material has graphs or charts so no idea what size of screen or simple grayscale screen would be enough but I do not mind a small screen device with a zoom capability so that I can check the graphs and get back to reading. Any comment on how you can read colored line charts and distinguish different indicators on a grayscale screen?

- Would be great if it would be available to have access to some mainstream finance/economics/business media such as WSJ, FT, efinancialnews, Economist, BusinessWeek etc.
Though I guess with Calibre it is possible to get some of this. I just remember about iRex having some agreement with certain digital media providers, but I guess it wont work outside US.

- Optionallly with WiFi + basic browsing (No 3G as I'm in Eastern Europe for the moment), so that I can get the newsletters and reports on daily basis via email or RSS etc. and if not easy Sync capability with PC.

- Ability to take notes or underline on PDFs etc. would be a great benefit..thus I guess that would require a touch screen with a stylus?

I am sure I would be OK with some of these and not all of them as well, but since I do not have any experience reading with a reader (except for playing with Sony reader in Sony shop) I do not know which one would fit my requirements.

A tablet is tempting too, but the effect of LCD screens my eyes is concerning. I would really appreciate some help and advice..

neilmarr · 05-31-2010, 01:31 PM

Good to have your company, Neln. I think you've hit a classic Catch 22 here, though. Some e-ink devices (say, Sony 600) will handle your PDFs perfectly, but only in the smallest size. Seems to me that -- like my own -- your eyes ain't up to that. The alternative might be an iPad -- but then, again, you have the eyestrain sproblem because it's backlit. Maybe, though, you could use an iPad or netbook and adjust the background and text colours to suit you. Good luck and best wishes. Neil

neln · 05-31-2010, 04:54 PM

yeh would like have some rest with e-ink devices if possible, thanks for the reply though!

darknessangel · 05-31-2010, 08:08 PM

Good luck, mate! I'm on the same dilema, however I do not have the eyestrain problem... perhaps you should wait and hope for the Que Reader (www.que.com) to finally come out and drop that prohibitive and (now that the iPad's out) absolutely ridiculous price tag. However it doesn't take notes, but I think with the modern handwriting recognition tech... you would do better with an old pad of paper and a pen.

GJMS

Logseman · 06-01-2010, 05:16 AM

neln, you're having tough luck right now. The matter is not really screen size: there are big readers already with 9,7 inch screens The matter is that looking up charts and sheets will be rough in the absence of color. It's good enough, for example, if you have to distinguish two colors, but 16 grey scales are not something you're going to distinguish too much. Of course, many charts have graphs with different drawing patterns for distinguishing them easily, as it is assumed they will be photocopied. However, I think your best chance right now is the Entourage EDGE, the dual Android tablet and EInk reader. It is bulky, true, but it's most fitting for students (it even has a mic for recording your classes if I remember correctly). Smaller reading devices are more fitting for recreational reading, but PDF's are harder to read due to lack of sheer space.

darknessangel · 06-04-2010, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Logseman

neln, you're having tough luck right now. The matter is not really screen size: there are big readers already with 9,7 inch screens The matter is that looking up charts and sheets will be rough in the absence of color. It's good enough, for example, if you have to distinguish two colors, but 16 grey scales are not something you're going to distinguish too much. ...

I disagree, I have a powerpoint presentation in my PRS-505 as pictures and all the graphs and so on look very good. Also I expect (outside of perhaps heavy biology papers with cell cultures and so on) scienctific papers to be generally legible in normal e-ink displays.

I think the problem is finally to find something a) available (there's nothing right now), b) cheap and c) lightweight... all absent at the moment, cause right now I'm having my doubts about the iPad's capability for reading scientific pdfs =(

GJMS

05-31-2010, 11:46 AM	#1
neln Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2010 Device: none	Advice for a finance student/geek in Europe Short to the point, I decided to by my first reader because reading on laptop really screws my eyes wearing contact lenses, thus not considering a tablet like iPad etc. at all if I have other choices. I am sure there are finance professionals in the forum, thus I would appreciate their feedback about their readers and giving me advice. Basically what I want and will be doing with the device is: - Will mainly read PDFs (mainly w/o DRM): finance books, newsletters (some as .doc or .rtf), RSS feeds etc. though I would be happy with additonal format support or access to online book stores. - Obviously most finance material has graphs or charts so no idea what size of screen or simple grayscale screen would be enough but I do not mind a small screen device with a zoom capability so that I can check the graphs and get back to reading. Any comment on how you can read colored line charts and distinguish different indicators on a grayscale screen? - Would be great if it would be available to have access to some mainstream finance/economics/business media such as WSJ, FT, efinancialnews, Economist, BusinessWeek etc. Though I guess with Calibre it is possible to get some of this. I just remember about iRex having some agreement with certain digital media providers, but I guess it wont work outside US. - Optionallly with WiFi + basic browsing (No 3G as I'm in Eastern Europe for the moment), so that I can get the newsletters and reports on daily basis via email or RSS etc. and if not easy Sync capability with PC. - Ability to take notes or underline on PDFs etc. would be a great benefit..thus I guess that would require a touch screen with a stylus? I am sure I would be OK with some of these and not all of them as well, but since I do not have any experience reading with a reader (except for playing with Sony reader in Sony shop) I do not know which one would fit my requirements. A tablet is tempting too, but the effect of LCD screens my eyes is concerning. I would really appreciate some help and advice..

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05-31-2010, 01:31 PM	#2
neilmarr neilmarr Posts: 7,215 Karma: 6000059 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Monaco-Menton, France Device: sony	Good to have your company, Neln. I think you've hit a classic Catch 22 here, though. Some e-ink devices (say, Sony 600) will handle your PDFs perfectly, but only in the smallest size. Seems to me that -- like my own -- your eyes ain't up to that. The alternative might be an iPad -- but then, again, you have the eyestrain sproblem because it's backlit. Maybe, though, you could use an iPad or netbook and adjust the background and text colours to suit you. Good luck and best wishes. Neil

05-31-2010, 04:54 PM	#3
neln Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2010 Device: none	yeh would like have some rest with e-ink devices if possible, thanks for the reply though!

05-31-2010, 08:08 PM	#4
darknessangel Addict Posts: 297 Karma: 1018140 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: PRS-505, iPad	Good luck, mate! I'm on the same dilema, however I do not have the eyestrain problem... perhaps you should wait and hope for the Que Reader (www.que.com) to finally come out and drop that prohibitive and (now that the iPad's out) absolutely ridiculous price tag. However it doesn't take notes, but I think with the modern handwriting recognition tech... you would do better with an old pad of paper and a pen. GJMS

06-01-2010, 05:16 AM	#5
Logseman Orisa Posts: 2,001 Karma: 1035571 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Ireland Device: Onyx Poke 5	neln, you're having tough luck right now. The matter is not really screen size: there are big readers already with 9,7 inch screens The matter is that looking up charts and sheets will be rough in the absence of color. It's good enough, for example, if you have to distinguish two colors, but 16 grey scales are not something you're going to distinguish too much. Of course, many charts have graphs with different drawing patterns for distinguishing them easily, as it is assumed they will be photocopied. However, I think your best chance right now is the Entourage EDGE, the dual Android tablet and EInk reader. It is bulky, true, but it's most fitting for students (it even has a mic for recording your classes if I remember correctly). Smaller reading devices are more fitting for recreational reading, but PDF's are harder to read due to lack of sheer space.

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