Which eBook Reader is the Best?

Mistress.Erin writes "I cannot decide between Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader. I've read some reviews, but their motives can be somewhat suspect. So, I come to the most tech savvy group around to ask: which eBook reader is the best? If not Kindle or Reader, then what?" We've discussed this question before, but things have changed a bit since 2005.

I own some readers

[Henry V .009]

I own the original Sony Reader. If you mostly download your own books, then the new (PRS-505) Sony Reader is better than the Kindle. The Amazon ebook store is the biggest around, but it's still nothing compared to what is available in print. In fact, it's nothing compared to what's available on IRC.

The best ebook reader around, however, is the Ebookwise 1150. The LCD screen doesn't have great resolution, but it has instant page-flip. The price can't be beat. The back-lighting is wonderful for night reading.

If I were Amazon, I would have released a cheap reader to go along with my expensive reader. Something like the 1150, with just one or two modern improvements (USB file transfer).

ebook readers

[mrneutron2003]

For the cost of the Kindle....you can get a cheap laptop, and be able to do more than just read a book. I read ebooks on an ancient Handspring Visor 8mb. Got it ages ago for about $30 on ebay.

Sony PRS-505

[csimpkin]

I have the Sony PRS-505 and I love it. It feels wonderful. The screen is amazing (I believe it is the same screen as is used in the Kindle). I use linux, so I don't use the Sony Connect software. I use libprs500, which is a nice little program available for windows, linux and mac. I get my books from places like ebooks.com in Microsoft Reader (win2k in a virtual machine) format because the DRM can be broken and the files are easy to convert to a properly formatted PDF with OpenOffice. I only use the reader for reading books, so I can't speak to the quality of the music player. I can easily read 3000 pages on a charge. It is rated at 7500 page turns, but it still uses a tiny bit of power when it is just sitting there (unless you do an actual shutdown which is not obvious how to do and the startup time from completley off is significant). It took me about 25 pages of reading on the reader before I managed to stop admiring the device and get drawn into my book. Now, I can start reading a book and I almost forget I am using the reader.

Re:The one that isn't Sony

[orclevegam]

It seems to me that "not Amazon" is about an equal push so we are back to which one.

Unless of course someone can nominate a third option with features comparable to the ones on offer from the other two corporate behemoths. My dream eBook reader would have support for txt, pdf, html, rtf, doc, and maybe a couple of the actual eBook formats, have an e-ink display with a optional light (for reading in the dark), have some form of wireless (either wifi or cell), and be small enough to fit in your pocket without needing a crowbar. They're getting pretty close at this point, but I don't think any of the ones on offer quite hit all the bullet points.

Re:Ah, teh good old days

[OECD]

I've been using my iPhone to read books. Mannybooks.net has a bunch of free/CC novels up (try "Geek Mafia") in a variety of formats, including a couple for the iPhone. I've been surprised that the iPhone works so well for this, although I haven't tried to read for more than an hour at a time or so.

Kindle's free wireless is interesting

[Trepidity]

I don't own one so I could be misreading, but if I understand correctly, Kindle has free wireless internet access via the Sprint network, which is itself pretty valuable. I hear its browser sucks, but it's still better than nothing. It also apparently has some alternate (non-sucky-browser) interface to Wikipedia, and just being able to look up Wikipedia articles for free over a wireless cell network seems like a fairly useful feature, at least for those of us who aren't willing to shell out monthly or per-KB fees for wireless internet on our cell phones.

Re:The XO from OLPC?

[FlyingFork]

I know of a guy in my office who bought an XO for just that purpose. He brought it in to show it off. To be honest, from what I have seen it's perfect for reading ebooks. Course, that was one of the things it was made for. But at $400.00 its a little pricey.

Re:Doctrine of first sale, drm, and used book stor

[spectecjr]

None of the above. Electronic books currently are nothing but publishers trying to kill used book resale, and I don't see why anybody should stand for it.

Theoretically though, in time, the e-books should be much cheaper than the equivalent books. And the other reason to use e-books is one of convenience, which if you've got any kind of library you need to slough around with you every time you move house, you'd understand.

Last time I did it, I just wanted to die. And then I decided "No, if I can get all my books on flash memory, I'd be very very happy".

Re:The XO from OLPC?

[Chalex]

I bought one, and I am very impressed with the screen (not so much with the keyboard). It costs the same as the Kindle (for us), and does so much more, and has more pixels.

Posting this from my XO.

HanLin

[J. T. MacLeod]

You won't find it at BestBuy, but take a look at the HanLin eReader [jinke.com.cn].

The current model is about the same as the Kindle, minus the wireless, nice button interface, and DRM, and plus some real format support (PDF, various images, even doc files to some extent).

The new model due out in the early part of the new year will make ebooks are really worth looking at. 825x1200 resolution on a ten inch screen with PDF support makes me very interested.

Re:iPod Touch....not

[Anonymous Coward]

I have the 16GB touch and a nokia N800. The latter craps all over the ipod for video and general 'putering. The screen is much clearer due to the better resolution and larger size. Viewing angles a very poor on the touch. Web is pathetic on the touch after getting used to the N800. The ipod is blurry and you are constantly trying to move the page around. The N800 just about handles most web pages without too much concern about losing an edge of the page. Which is nice.

The touch is smaller, almost sleek but reminds me of the old sony and aiwa walkmans of the 80s, and let's be hones, it's also a bit girlie really.

The N800 runs a version of debian, nokia even aid the developers working on the device. I can do IM and skype, and the imminent OS2008 update will give us BT headset support at last. Yay, BT skype on a small wifi device. It also has a pop-out camera for video conferencing (which is crap). It does use fbreader though, an app available for most platforms.

It'll be interesting this time next year to see whether apple let devs get on and make the touch/phone better, or keep it locked out with their usual level of freaking control.

Re:Suspicious motives?

[Mistress.Erin]

Ciao, Infonaut! The suspect motives are things like the following:

- the use of affiliate links to a product they claim not to like

- the possibility of paid reviews

- keyword pollution to get traffic to their site/blog/etc, when they may have not even used the device

The list goes on, but I thought a community like Slashdot would give me the best unfiltered opinions on the subject or maybe point me towards something better.

Does that satisfy your curiosity?

- Mistress.Erin

one word: OLPC

[Bananatree3]

As I type on my new XO (just got it through the G1G1 program) in Black and white mode, I can attest to the screen's clarity. It is like reading a newspaper, and the refresh rate is far superior to both the sony/amazon readers. Sure, its "not a reader", it's bigger than the other readers and its only available for order for another two weeks. However, with the upcoming sw update it will have close to a day's worth of battery in reading mode. It is also about the same price as the readers, and it is a laptop w/ built in wifi. Show me a current ebook reader that you can go to a website and download your book/pdf/news story.

If you want a fast refresh, laptop capability and wifi enabled, go with the OLPC. And, did I mention you could accidentally drop it and spill you coffee on it and it will still work?

E-BOOK READER

[netmate]

I'm looking for a reader that supports cyrillic fonts. Is there such a thing? Does anyone know anything about it?

Re:Where the fuck...

[DavidTC]

$140 is not cheap compared to the near identical 'electronic picture frames' that are selling for 1/3rd that price.

Electronic picture frame [tigerdirect.com]: Reads SD cards. Can parse image files and display them. Has a 5.6 inch color LCD. Has a few controls. Does not have a battery. Has speakers for some reason. $50

Ebook reader [ebookwise.com]: Reads SD cards. Can parse text files and display them. Has a 5.5 inch B&W LCD. Has a few controls. Has a battery. $140

You seeing my problem now?

Now, that's being unfair to the ebookwise people. They also have a modem built in, but, more to the point, the reason it's so damn expensive is that they are incredibly old. I have nothing against them. If it wasn't for them the damn market would be completely empty.

The problem is that no one actually appears willing to actually manufacture a new device, which with modern engineering should cost about 60 dollars. (The added expense being the battery system. OTOH, B&W LCDs might cancel that out.)

Re:And free content....well, sort of.

[lawd5]

Electronic books don't necessarily have to be foolish. The five issues pointed out as problems above are really issues with the content rather than the technology. There are plenty of sources of free text content. Whether or not they are suitable on current readers is another story.

As others have pointed out, searching and portability seem to be the big benefits. Conceivably acquisition and sharing of content (including mark-ups) could be made easy by the technology.

I have not used specialized electronic readers, but I do a lot of reading from my Tablet PC. For e-book readers, I think inherent issues would be durability, and the need for special input methods for marking-up. I miss the feel of the paper itself and flipping pages when I read books on my computer.

Re:And free content....well, sort of.

[jdh3.1415]

"Are they also going around campaigning for the return of the slide rule?"

Advantages of slide rules over computers and calculators

Slide rules:

- do not blue screen

- do not require electrical power

- are immune from nuclear EMP

- quickly converts between polar and rectangular coordinates

- visually teaches logorithmic identities

- do not provide results to 15 sig. figures

- there's nothing more sexy then bamboo sliding against bamboo

cell phone as a 'pretty good prose reader'

[bukuman]

I have been reading on my cell phone, http://www.booksinmyphone.com/ [booksinmyphone.com] has a nice reader and a good selection of packaged up public domain and CC books. I think phones have a lot of potential. Their screens can get a little bigger while still being pocket-able (essential?). I don't really understand why the manufacturers don't include eReader software on the phones.

Re:The one that isn't Sony

[Lord of Hyphens]

For my WM5 PDA, I've always used uBook Reader [gowerpoint.com]. Fairly fast with a decent set of parsers and scrolling options, fonts, colorations, etc. Inexpensive, too.

Re:Doctrine of first sale, drm, and used book stor

[bhima]

AHH... This makes sense. I'm sorry, I should have said right from the get go: I have no intentions of ever reading or abiding by any license for an eBook put forth by Amazon or Sony. Rather I will continue to buy used books and I will happily download any digital content I find. I can't say that I have the vindictive anger at book publishers that I have for music and film publishers... it's not like I have quit buying their products entirely as I have with the music & film publishers. I like books and I, given a fair price, would buy them regardless of a digital version existing or coming with it. However I don't feel compelled to comply with such things that I find repugnant (like the Kindle agreement I just read) and I suppose given enough of that I may quit doing so much business with them.

Currently I do spend a lot of money with Amazon especially buying new reference books in my field, often at between $150 & 200 per book or books in English (which, from Amazon.de, come at a premium). Given those prices, they should come with a digital version. Unfortunately I'm sure the reference or specialty books will be the last sorts of book coming to the eBook format. Actually come to think of it, I think for most books if I've bought a paper copy I should have rights to read a digital copy. I have no doubt, if I pirated a book and it was very good I'd eventually windup with a paper copy on my bookshelf.

Re:The one that isn't Sony

[rbanffy]

Wouldn't that product be a great one?