E Book Reader

[GrahamH]

Read an article about Sony/Waterstones e-book reader. Seemed very nice though a bit pricey but SWMBO seemed quite keen so I'm thinking about a chrimbo present. For a lot of books it seems a good way to go, only buying the physical copy for books you really value.

But what really gets my goat is the price of the e-books. Picking through several of the titles available the e-book is nearly the same price as the real books' list price! The real book is then discounted and ends up nearly a fiver cheaper. I loved the way the article then dismissed piracy and DRM as if the average book buyer would never dream of using torrents or be worried that a file, sorry e-book, they bought today would not work on their next ebook reader or even a warranty replacement.

Unless they come up with more realistic price for the a file, that does not impose more restrictions, for more money than the original physical version. Then copyright infringement will be rife (it's not piracy as you need a boat for that).

Sorry for rant, but it looks like the book industry is about to shoot itself in the foot and then blame the technology for it.

Graham

 

[wizer]

Things like this annoy me. It's like when the iPod came out and everyone thought it was amazing technology.

I have been reading e-books for about 4yrs and they existed for a good while before that. I read them on my PDA. A PDA is roughly the same cost as this new 'e-book reader' and you can play movies, listen to music, install satnav, browse the internet, play games; as well as all the standard office applications.

Barmy!

 

[LeeElms]

I tend to agree with what has been said above, but I did have a brief look at the Sony reader in Waterstones on Saturday, and I wasn't very impressed.
One thing that wasn't at all impressive was that on turning the page, the whole screen went black for a significant fraction of a seconds -- very disconcerting. I assume this wasn't a fault on this particular unit ... perhaps someone can comment on this.

 

[ByronBlack]

the theory behind these e-readers is they give greater resolution than computer and PDA screens thus making reading a more natural experience. Reading for long hours on computer screens is uncomfortable.

However, the refresh rates of these technologies aren't great depsite their excellent resolution, so scrolling and changing pages can lead to delays.

IMO they have a ways to go before they replace books, but it can't be long before someone comes up with a decent product with good resolution and quick refresh rates.

In my early research it seems the Amazon Kindle represents a better and cheaper product to the Sony, but neither I would say are long-term book replacements, yet.

Oh, and for those of a non-legal morale stand-point, it's very easy to source non DRM e-books if you look in the right places, so piracy is evident with these as it is for all content, this may explain the initially high prices, also publishing is notorious for being decades behind everyone else, and they probably view an e-book as the same intrinsic value of a real book, thus creating a poorly managed pricing structure which alienates the very people they should be enticing in with sensible pricing.

 

[Mcluma]

I just bought and all you have said above is rubbish other rubbish

I was the most sceptical about these readers and they are supurb

absolutely superb

especially if you'r eyesight is not 100% anymore, you can make the letters bigger, easy to download new books, and its very comfortable reading

And you can read easily at night with low light, as the thing is like and lcd screen all lid up

Can i recommand them

YES

If you haven't got one or used one, shut up

its the same with the ipod people bitching, but the moment you got one, its the best thing on earth

 

[Shultzy]

Check out the Gadget Show review of E-books

http://gadgetshow.five.tv/jsp/5gsmain.j ... n=Consumer

 

[Raggy]

If you think the price of an ebook is high have a look at audiobooks, now that is high. I listen to these at work as my job is boring otherwise so it works out really expensive as I can get through at least 1 a week

 

[GrahamH]

Hi,

I think with the page going all black is design feature - it mentions this in one of the reviews. I like the idea of e-books especially as technical references (I've got loads of programming and design books for work) but these are either PDFs or in Windows help format - I've even used the PDFs on a PDA with success.

The good news with the Sony from Waterstones is that you get a 1000 books on CD-ROM with it. These are all old titles such as Pride and Prejudice - but still goods books,

What annoys me though is if you buy an e-book form one store it will only work with the reader from that store, so no buying from Amazon if its cheaper, because of different file formats and DRM.

It does say that files from project Guttenburg should work and that WHSmiths are selling e-books in several formats, but until you have the equivalent to the MP3 file format I don't see how things are really going to take off.

 

[ByronBlack]

I just bought and all you have said above is rubbish other rubbish

I was the most sceptical about these readers and they are supurb

absolutely superb

especially if you'r eyesight is not 100% anymore, you can make the letters bigger, easy to download new books, and its very comfortable reading

And you can read easily at night with low light, as the thing is like and lcd screen all lid up

Can i recommand them

YES

If you haven't got one or used one, shut up

its the same with the ipod people bitching, but the moment you got one, its the best thing on earth

Some staggering generalisations there.

It's all well and good claiming what we have said is rubbish, and yet you do not refute any of the points made.

"If you haven't got one or used, shut up"

Well, thats just lovely, maybe you should stop and think for a bit before you go ahead and assume what people do or don't know. For your information, through a reading group a year or so ago, I was involved in testing the Kindle, so I think I know a little about these machines, and everything I say is indeed fact.

If you re-read my post, I do point out their virtues (Increased resolution which makes it easier to read on than computer screens etc..), what part of my or other people's post is exactly rubbish?

 

[wizer]

If you haven't got one or used one, shut up

its the same with the ipod people bitching, but the moment you got one, its the best thing on earth

Fair enough I haven't got one or used one, but my comments were based on the fact that it's nothing new, the technology has existed for years (with adjustable text sizes, screen resolutions, back lighting, etc, etc).

Oh and I have had an iPod for years and my comments are based on fact. It's probably the worst MP3 player I have ever used. I use it because so many companies have jumped on the bandwagon, making everything iPod-ready, that all other (better) devises have been forcedly defunct.

Finally. I am a technology buyer for the biggest media producer in the world, so I am qualified to comment.

 

[mr]

Oh and I have had an iPod for years and my comments are based on fact. It's probably the worst MP3 player I have ever used.

I have two ipods, (gifts) and as far as I'm concerned they are the worst piece of user interface design I have ever seen. Having said that I use them heavily despite my issues with them because of the convenience they offer. I like the idea of the Sony reader and the Kindle, I'm more attracted to the Sony one because it isn't tied to a seller - ie Amazon - or at least it has more chance of becoming entirely independent. I've read books on PDAs in the past and the main issue for me has been the small screen. I need to enlarge text to read it and the small screen of a pda leaves me with a tiny amount of text on screen which is annoying. If these readers can address that sort of issue then I would be quite happy to use the things. Im hoping our local Waterstones might get them in so I can have a play but I wont hold my breath cos it's a tiny branch.

EDIT
Some one suggested that the Sony reader couldnt handle and "mp3 for books" , according to the specs it appears to read EPub, txt, pdf rtf - I think most if not all of the electronic books I have currently are in one of those formats. Having said that the thing doesn't appear to be Mac compatible which is a deal breaker really.


Cheers Mike

 

[Vormulac]

Another here who used to read ebooks on a PDA, my ipaq 4700 had the biggest screen of any pda at the time and I didn't encounter any problems with reading it. The only reason I stopped using it for reading was that several times I drew the attention of groups of young men on the train who clearly liked the look of the shiny and expensive device I was holding and focusing on rather than what was going on around me.

As it happens I'm a 6'2" ex rugby player, so it's not difficult to look intimidating and managed to get away without ever having to fight the scumbags, but until ebook readers of whatever type become so cheap they are simply not worth nicking I don't think they will take off significantly.

 

[wizer]

It's funny when I first started using my PDA (XDA actually) to watch movies on the train, I got looks of amazement from the person sitting next to me. Now I see 3 or 4 people a day doing it with a PSP or dedicated media player or even an ipod with those tiny screens. Often I'll see someone doing it with a big smirk on their face as if their at the forefront of technology :roll: :lol:

Security has never bothered me (I'm 6ft 3in but skinnier than a rake), but then I travel during the day on busy public transport.

The e-book reader doesn't look very portable to me, bit too bulky. Not seen one in the flesh yet, I hear we are getting them in to test soon.

 

[George_N]

I don't know anything about E-Book readers but if you want lots of free ebooks to download, have a look at Project Gutenberg. All the content is out of copyright or made freely available by the authors/publishers, so not the latest thrillers etc, but there is some great stuff in there.