Thread: Wireless Reading Devices

Does anyone own one of those wireless reading devices such as Amazon's Kindle reader? Whats a good one to get? What do you look for in one? I want one but wanna make sure I only purchase 1. I am leaning towards the Kindle though, I wish I could find a used one for a great price. I would swipe it up!

Billy

I use my iPod touch. I'm sure the experience is better on a Kindle, but my iPod does a ton more than just e-books; that's why I like it so much. It connects to a lot of free e-book sources, but also connects to the same pay sources the Kindle does.

FWIW, I've heard great things about Kindle. If I could afford a Kindle and the books, I'd buy one.

If they had Kindle in Japan, I'D get one in a heartbeat. I use an old Sharp Zaurus PDA as an ebook reader--it's neat, but the software support is iffy and it's kind of hard to read.

Other than that, various cellphones have ebook functionality, but the screens are so small it's a pain. (I'm still going to get one when it's time for a new phone. This one, in fact.

The Kindle is a great piece of kit, but it has some serious downsides.
- Made by Amazon (which means they do what they like to you when they like). Recently they accessed individual Kindle owners' machines and removed copies of a book (George Orwell's 1984) without informing them. It was a big shock because no-one appreciated till then that Amazon have a back door into your Kindle library and can remove titles at will!
- Kindle is a proprietary format. If you ever (1, 5, 10, 20, 50 years from now) decide to shift to a non-Kindle machine for reading ebooks, you'll simply lose your library. All your Kindle books will be useless on whatever new machine you buy.

It's part of my job to move the publishing company I work for into the digital market. We started selling ebooks in 2001. We have more ebooks than any other publisher and are the biggest supplier of titles to Kindle in the world. So it may sound strange when I say it's probably not the time to buy an ebook reader yet.

There's so much consolidation the industry needs to go through first, in terms of formats of ebook (imagine VHS vs. Betamax but with a dozen formats instead of just two), technology, DRM, pricing, etc.

If you have youur heart set on an eReader, the Sony reader has one big advantage over Kindle -- it accepts the new epub format which is an industry standard. All eReaders are now released as epub compatible. All except Kindle! This means you could buy epub format ebooks and port them across to new machines as you upgrade in future years without losing the library you build up. Amazon have so far not given any indication they will move away from their own format.

Of course, next year Google Books will be selling access to individuals. With 9 million titles compared to Kindle's paltry ~300,000, it might be worth waiting to see what hardware is released to optimise reading books wirelessly from Google Book Search. Amazon must be crapping themselves with the forthcoming Google Book Settlement!

Originally Posted by majurey

Of course, next year Google Books will be selling access to individuals. With 9 million titles compared to Kindle's paltry ~300,000, it might be worth waiting to see what hardware is released to optimise reading books wirelessly from Google Book Search. Amazon must be crapping themselves with the forthcoming Google Book Settlement!

This is REALLY cool. I didn't know this. I hope they will have a service with newspapers, etc like the Kindle. Thanks for the inside scoop!

First off, I know little about these, other than what my wife has told me. She wants to purchase the Bebook when the new version comes out:
Ebook Reader, Reader, E-Books Reader, Ereader, Handheld Ebook Reader, Mobipocket Ebook Readers, Kindle Reader, Sony Reader - mybebook.com - Home site but it only shows the Bebook one, not the Bebook 2 that's coming out. Couldn't find a site quickly for the Bebook two info.

@majurey, what do you think of this one? Or would you suggest the Sony still? Or wait for the Google book?

Hi Cove

I've heard of the BeBook and it seems pretty good. From tis site:

Read any pdf*, mobi, lit*, epub*, html, txt, prc, fb2, jpg file and over 300.000 of free rss newsfeeds from your BeBook. Including Mobipocket Digital Rights Management support. (*non-drm)

The important formats there are pdf and epub. So, like the Sony, it caters for the emerging 'industry standard' whilst also working with a DRM system called Mobipocket. Amazon bought Mobipocket a couple of years ago and the Kindle format is actually based upon the Mobipocket spec. However, I couldn't tell you whether that means the BeBook can read Kindle files in theory.

The other caveat here is the small print above saying epub and pdf support is non-drm. Many publishers are wrapping their epub files and Adobe eBook files (pdf) in DRM -- the big question is, will the BeBook also be able to handle those file formats when wrapped in DRM?

Suggest you contact BeBook and ask them those two questions. It would be a nice bonus if BeBook could read Kindle files, but not a deal killer if not. However, I'd advise that you really want a reader that can handle Adobe DRM-wrapped files too, because those DRM formats are market leaders.

With respect to hardware, all eReaders like this (Kindle, Sony, BeBook, iRex, and at least a dozen more) use the same eInk screen technology, and therefore the same battery life. So there's very little to tell between them other than actual screensize. In fact, the only reason in my mind for buying an eReader is for the eInk technology -- it really is like reading ink on paper. Nice and easy on the eyes. But if you don't mind reading on a screen that radiates light (LCD) rather than reflects (eInk), then people should consider one of those ultra-small netbooks. You can read ebooks on them which may link out to websites, video, audio, make annotations on the page, etc.

You should look at eReaders as no-frills book substitutes, reading content from cover to cover. But for studying, textbooks, research, rich media, interactivity, etc. there's only one way to get the most out of ebook technology -- read it on a computer! For example, our books are academic/college books. If you buy an ebook tor ead on your PC, you will have access to url links and all manner of extra functionality (highlighting, bookmarking, annotations, searching, reference linking, etc.). But if you opt to buy a format for an eReader, then the same title will not have those added functions -- you'll essentially have a paper-substitute and no more.

As someone working in this industry, it depresses me that we still make it so difficult and complicated for the customer!

This topic is wonderful. My mother-in-law (who is a GREAT lady) has been diagnosed with macular degeneration and is slowly losing her eyesight. She loves to read, do crosswords, etc. but that is becoming more and more difficult now. I saw the Kindle 2 and thought that perhaps the ability to increase the font size would prolong her options to read.

In any case, I am glad to see people discussing this as I have no idea what to look for. I need something that can increase the font for her and is easy to read but I don't want to have to buy new hardware (or have a book removed through a backdoor, etc.) every year. Technology changes so fast that it is sometimes hard to keep up.

If anyone has suggestions, or has dealt with the same concerns, I would love to hear what you have to offer.

Thanks,
Tom

So I'm looking at the BeBook site and...it looks scary. Tons of comments in the forum about constant crashing and locking, and hardly any support replies except "Sorry about that, it works for us..."

Tom -- any ebook format using XML (Kindle, Mobi, epub, OEB) will mean the font can be changed, re-flowed, re-paginated etc. The only type of ebook format which can't be re-flowed is PDF/Adobe eBook because this is an image-based format. However, Adobe Digital Editions (the free downloadable software for readng ebooks using a PC) has a zoom functionality (not as good as resizing text in my opinion).

Accessibility is a big thing in publishing right now. Another emerging standard is the DAISY format (also XML-based) for ebooks which means you can package the audiobook version with the ebook so that visually impaired folk can have the ebook read to them.

The Kindle has a function that reads words (in a Stephen Hawking type voice), but they were forced to remove the default 'ON' to 'OFF' because publishers were concerned it transgressed audiobook copyrights. Unfortunately, most publishers tend to disable the Read Aloud function of their Kindle books.

So pretty much all ebook readers will allow you to adjust font size and reflow the text as long as the book you buy is in XML format. I think the eReaders are ideal for this -- easy to use, picks up from where you left off, reflows the text when you adjust type size... the only alternative is large-print books and those are a dying breed.