Have You Changed Your Opinion On eBook Readers?

An anonymous reader writes "The Kindle made waves when it came out, but they've now had the chance to calm. How many of you have been using your eBook readers since you've received them? How many of you forgot you had one, and how many of you swear by your reader? I like my single-purpose (well, dual — music player) Sony Reader because I actually use it to read, rather than multitasking myself to death. Is this technology as convenient and useful as you expected?" If not, what refinements or improvements would reKindle your interest?

Monospace Font for Technical Books

The Kindle, as I understand it, lacks a monospace font. Monospace fonts are rather useful for code listings and whatnot.

Re:Monospace Font for Technical Books

The Kindle, as I understand it, lacks a monospace font. Monospace fonts are rather useful for code listings and whatnot.

According to O'Reilly, the lack of the monospace is one of the roadblocks for getting more publisher support for the Kindle. I think that getting Safari Online for the Kindle would certainly be enough to get me to give the Kindle a shot.

Re:Monospace Font for Technical Books

Check out the iLiad. I've been using it for the past month and a half now, and wouldn't dream of using something else. Oh, and I can use my download tokens from Safari to get the books, and put the PDFs onto the iLiad. Very very nice device and combination.

Simple answer: No I have not

I Have not changed my mind. I may use one, but I will always prefer to read a "dead tree" book. I love building my library of books. Some I even read again once in a while.

There is a sense of achievement when sitting in the living room surrounded by bookshelves full of varied book. Besides, they are always a conversation starter when I get visitors.

A file on a computer does not compare.

Re:Simple answer: No I have not

Just like CDs, I guess. After all, I'm sure no slashdotter has an MP3 collection that is much larger than their CD collection...

Hi, I'm your polar oposite.

I'm sick of books and would gladly pay for non drm'd replacement pdfs. I have hundreds of textbooks, novels and paperback books and can think of several serious restrictions. I have to remember who I loan them to. They are a pain to move and an even bigger pain to put back on shelves. Eventually, almost all of them will rot. I'd much rather have them all stored on a hard drive that I can run away with when the next Katrina comes. I've been taking pictures of the books I use more frequently, but a pdf would be better.

Publishers don't really stand to lose much this way. If the price was right, most people will just buy their pdfs. Universities and other schools can put the cost of texts into tuition. Employers will keep buying reference material. Libraries could pay a special fee based on average circulation. The other stuff might be swapped but it's not something people would have bought anyway. Publishers that don't get it soon enough are going to be made irrelevant by things like Google text and free science journals.

Re:Hi, I'm your polar oposite.

Eventually, almost all of them will rot. I'd much rather have them all stored on a hard drive that I can run away with when the next Katrina comes.

It's a safe bet that those paper books will last far longer than any hard drive that you store files on

That's not a safe bet at all.

Well maintained, redundant archives should last forever - the ability to copy reliably is equivalent to imortality. I have not lost a single file in the last eight years and I have all of my mail going back 20. Devices may and have failed me but my work, letters, photographs and music has survived and grown. They can be passed on to my kids but books will be too bulky for the same. Every library is overflowing with the result of estate overflow. Some put them on the shelf as a "free library" the majority goes to the paper mill to make TP. Such is the sad fate of your paper media and this is why public libraries are important repositories of culture. In the end, not even libraries last forever. All civilizations have their down time and public libraries are often torched. The entire library of the ancient western world, for example, now fits on a single six by twelve foot shelf because the vast majority of it was lost. The US Library of Congres itself is rotting as we speak. Digital libraries will be much hardier than this.

Re:Hi, I'm your polar oposite.

I happen to agree with the moving and all the rest of it. But I personally disagree with running everything to PDF. I read PDF's on the laptop - maybe on the way to work or occasionally on my lunch break - but the majority has to be in books. There is nothing quite like having 5 or 6 books open to various pages while I code, flicking my eyes to various books or turning pages to keep track. My screens just do not have that kind of real-estate space.

For me, there is no question in this debate, PDF's might be a lot better to move and transport, but nothing is better than a i-killed-a-tree text book IMHO.

Just my $0.02 AU

Almost agree with you 100%

I have e-book, newton, and zarurus as readers. The e-book is a piece of junk (bitch to get anything on there that they do not want you to have; it was not worth the 99). The newton is awesome, but only supports ascii text. The Zarus is way too small. I would love to have the e-book, but with the ability of the kindle; Give me CF for mem, and a better battery or possibly e-ink. Finally, make it open arch. so that new formats can be put on it.

But at this time, I do not like any of these except for special cases.

In the end, I KNOW that e-books will come within 5 years. So at this time, I buy few paper backs and/or computer books. OTH, I am buying leather-bound books. Esp the classics. The easton press are OH so nice. They should last all the way to my great grandchildren or beyond. But for simple items, far better to go with e-books.

Re:Simple answer: No I have not

I just went to the used bookstore, enjoying the smells, the sight, and the interaction with a person who was able to tell me based on a loose idea of what I told him I liked several books I should read.

Last used bookstore I went to the guy behind the counter hit on my girlfriend. Amazon has never done that.

Freedom, duh.

I want it to use KPDF, USB and just work. Sell me the book/paper and let me read it with software that works the way I like it to work. If you make it free, people will figure out how to make it usefull.

Palm Tungsten

I have a Palm Tungsten. Very nice PDA, used primarily as an ebook reader. The screen is easy on the eyes, the armored case means I can stick it in my pocket and forget it's there, the small size makes fitting in the pocket possible in the first place. My only complaint is that it has a short battery life.

Any of the modern phones SHOULD be able to do ebooks but the vendors keep the damn things so locked down it's impossible to do much with them. You want some app on a Palm nobody's written yet? You can write it yourself. Want something someone else wrote? You can install it. The Palm is more like a PC, very open, and the damn smart phones these days, even the blackberries, are more like Xbox 360's, technically capable of being open but deliberately locked down due to the parent company's infamous douchebaggery.

I will also say this: none of the books I've read have been paid for and the prices charged for electronic distribution are obscene. Electronic distribution removes most of the costs associated with publication and you're still going to charge me the full price of the hardcover? Fuck you.

You're Missing the Point...

Sure, you can multipurpose your gadgets into reading books. But the draw of the ebook reader is eInk.

If you havn't experienced eInk yourself, you're missing out. Not only is it as readable as newspaper, but the power consumption at rest is ZERO. You don't worry about that nasty backlighting or the headaches you get from reading off a screen - it is completely different and without trying it, you really can't say 'your' non-eInk device is better.

I was an early adopter, and I've still got dead tree books... but I love my sony reader because I can keep all my paper books in one small unit.

Re:You're Missing the Point...

I was going to bump you up to a +5 then I noticed your username. Never going to mod up anyone who has fanboy in his username. Them's the rulse. If'n it'were up to me. You'd be banned. Or rather it would be impossible to register with such a username. The attempt would install awesomeware on your computer that would forever prevent you from putting those letters together in that combination. It might also have required you to re write the linux kernel in x86 assembler as further punishment.

as to the fact that your comment was actually intelligent and showed a higher degree of analysis than the parent, Well as they say, even broken clocks are right twice a day.

Only two sticking points for me

I'd love to buy one, but two things hurt them right now:

1. Refresh time on turning pages. I know that it doesn't bother some people, but I do notice it. I'm told that it's getting better, though, and that gives me some hope.

2. Price of digital books. The price is still too close to the cost of physical books. The discount from the physical edition is only a couple of dollars, despite not having to come up with materials and shipping. I don't mind paying a little for convenience, but not that much.

Going along with the price is the issue of title selection (not many science or computer books seem to have made the jump yet), but that will improve. Early in the CD days, many things in which I would have been interested were unavailable in that format.

Re:Only two sticking points for me

But you realize that the costs of printing and distribution in the paper industry are already very very low? Like under a buck a book for mass market paperbacks? So as long as the traditional publishing houses are involved, the price will stay high as they need to put food on the table for their employees.

Prices can only drop as we cut out middlemen.

If an itunes-like publisher were to open up, and offer low priced books direct from the author (like on the itunes app store model maybe) this would revolutionize (read KILL) the dead tree publishing industry. It would also open the door to lots of CRAP. But a ratings system would emerge I am sure.

If wishes were fishes...

Re:Only two sticking points for me

2. Price of digital books. The price is still too close to the cost of physical books. The discount from the physical edition is only a couple of dollars, despite not having to come up with materials and shipping. I don't mind paying a little for convenience, but not that much.

The worst part is, because of DRM, you also can't sell, lend or give away an ebook after you finish reading it. That reduces the value even more.

I'm OK with DRM on ebooks from a lending library which expires them at the end of the check-out period. But if I'm going to purchase a DRM encumbered ebook it had better come at a substantial discount over the dead-tree version.

Re:Only two sticking points for me

Take a look at Baen's E-book publishing ( http://www.webscriptions.net/ [webscriptions.net] ).

They've been publishing their entire catalogue since 2001, the prices for the books are pretty reasonable, and the ebooks are available in several unencrypted forms.

They even have a whole bunch of their older titles available for free ( the first dose is always free :) ) http://www.webscriptions.net/c-1-free-library.aspx [webscriptions.net].

Its all about book availability

Regardless of how nice the reader is, its worthless to me as long as I can only get something from "their online store of X number of books". Until I can find any random book (yes, including all the zillion tech books we all collect) in eBook form, the device serves no purpose to me.

Pages

With a real book, there's something magical about turning pages.
As you get closer to the end, you keep a mental track of where you are in the book by the thickness of either ends. Having a digit tell you what page out of the total pages you're at just isn't the same.
Especially as you get closer to the end- Having the second half of the book shrink as you go, getting excited about the end (Without knowing -exactly- how close you are). Sometimes it even surprises you; you get close to the end but you know you aren't there yet, and then it -does- end, with a thick index in the back.
But not just the turning and thickness of the book. Also the texture. That rough texture of paper vs. slick plastic. That's just something that an eBook reader isn't going to replace.
However, I do think eventually next generations will get used to this. I don't dislike ebooks because of functionality or looks, I just don't like them because I'm not used to them. Sort of comparable to Windows and Linux, where Linux is actually more functional and capable of more things, but at first it doesn't matter because you're just not used to it.
At any rate, I think there is definitely a market for them, and that it'll grow. It'll just take some time of people getting used to the new feelings.

Indispensable

I have a Sony PRS-505. It's really great having 300-400 books available at my fingertips, wherever I travel.

The device has PDF support, but it is glacial and nearly inadequate for reading (say) ACM papers. There are conversion possibilities here, or the device may get better support in the future (it wouldn't be hard, frankly).

But for plain text it's wonderful. I'm on vacation now with my unit, and have ploughed through 3-4 books in the last few days.

My balk at getting a Kindle: Having to route your content through Amazon. The privacy aspects of this are terrifying.

Wishlist.

1. Dead-simple operation. Reads e-books, and does very little else.

2. Minimalist Interface. Possibly the Kindle's greatest shortcoming. Should have no more buttons than an iPod (or, say, the original Game Boy).

3. Books easy to download/retrieve. Should be wireless, though the actual purchase doesn't necessarily need to originate from the device itself (see #1 and #2). Perhaps a hybrid system by which content may be purchased online via web browser, and then "pushed" to the unit wirelessly?

4. Open access. Any seller must be able to supply content via a common format. DRM is somewhat acceptable, as long as it isn't obnoxiously intrusive (eg. Apple's FairPlay). Free content must also not cost money (tsk, tsk, Amazon)

5. Books must be considerably cheaper than their dead-tree equivalents.

6. Large, crisp, legible, glare-free display. Should be able to withstand some degree of abuse. I want to feel like I'm looking at a piece of paper, not a screen.

7. Sleek design. Doesn't need to be revolutionary, but also not ugly. This should naturally follow from #1, #2, and #6.

7. Page-turn lag must be kept to a minimum.

8. Cheap enough for normal folks to afford. Under $300?

Under these conditions, you *might* be able to successfully market one of these.

I still don't see the point

So far a lot of the features in e-book readers are focused on making them closer to...real books. The big deal with the kindle is apparently that the screen looks like...paper. Or that you can mark pages and write notes on your e-books, just like a real book, only with a computer interface getting in the way. There is so much convenience in having a real physical paper book where the pages can be written on and flipped through and folded that it is hard for to come up with an electronic design that is as easy to use and still looks like a book.

From what I've seen of e-book readers so far, I can predict that in The Future, the "perfect" e-book reader will be almost identical to a paperback book, only slightly smaller than a real book, with electronic pages, and dozens of seldom-used features like dictionaries and trivia games and thesauruses. And I guess the pages might as well light up too. Maybe it will be useful if there is a paper shortage

On the other hand, the newspaper functionality has potential. Unlike novels, reading the newspaper can be very clumsy and annoying unless you have an entire table to read it on. And the online distribution method is so much more convenient than real newspapers. Of course you can already get news on your cell phone or computer for free, but all the same I think e-book newspapers have some serious advantages over the real thing, which I can't say about the e-novels.

Re:No.

I had been considering buying one to play with until I saw the price. For crying out loud, I can buy quite a few books for $400!