… to understand these things!
There are so many e-book readers out there that it makes my head spin! Which one is better? Which reader won’t make me eat mac-n-cheese for a month after I fork over the Benjamins to buy it?
DearAuthor.com has had some excellent articles on which ebook retailer has the best ebook prices, and which ebook readers she feels are best. I’d also like to know what the readers of Sybil’s blog think.
I have an eBookwise reader that I’ve been using for about five months now. Here’s a quick review:
    What I like about the eBookwise: it has an amazing 12-hours battery life (fantastic for long plane trips), the screen is back-lit, it’s pretty easy to d’load a book, the screen size is okay, and it can hold a pile of books (some crazy number like 300).Â
    What I’m neutral on: the grayscale screen.Â
    What I don’t like: it weighs a little over a pound and the sucker is lighter than some, but gets so heavy after holding it for any length of time you have to prop it on something or lay it on a table, and it doesn’t read pdf’s or html’s.Â
    Grade: C+
I’m relatively content with the eBookwise, but I wonder what else is out there. I’m not a fan of “single task” electronics – I want a device that will play an audio book, hold a bunch of ebooks, have an appointment calendar, etc., etc. I like the look of the eBookman, but I can’t tell what size the screen is, and, contrary to nearly everything else on Amazon.com, there’s no user comments.
I’d love to get a Sony eReader, but I keep hearing it’s coming to the US, then it’s not coming to the US. I don’t know what to think. I don’t want to get something that when it breaks, I’ll have to return it to Japan for repairs – that would suck. Plus, that sucker is over $300.
Then there’s the iLiad – beautiful machine. UGLY price - over $700. Plus the sucker weighs THREE POUNDS?! No – not for me. Sure is purty, though.
Too many choices! And none of them seem to have the combination of everything I’m looking for, at a price I’m willing to play.Â
What do you folks use? What do you like about your ereader? What do you wish were different about it? And, the crass question, how much did the reader cost?
I love my Palm. I didn’t get a new one. I got a used one just new enough to have color, USB and take an SD card. iSilo is the program I bought to read HTML books on it. It is another $25 (I think) but I didn’t want to be confined to Mobipocket books. Mobipocket is free, as is Adobe for Palm.
My Palm Zire 72 cost me $25 because a guy couldn’t get a pawn shop to take it. My son happened to see him come out of there with it, looking unhappy. You can get them for under $70, though, easily.
At first I thought it would be too small to read comfortably on but I got used to it very quickly. It isn’t heavy at all. I can snuggle under the covers and (in iSilo and Adobe) scroll with the finger of the same hand holding the “book”. It’s so comfy I often fall asleep reading, which is ok because it shuts itself off, too.
I have the Sony Portable Reader. I got it on sale plus they had a promotion to get $149 of e-books. So I jumped on that. I love it. I was going to get the eBookwise, but my husband insisted I get the Sony reader because it could do more “stuff”. Whatever that means. But I really love it. It’s thin and light. I haven’t had it very long, so I’m still learning the quirks.
Speaking from experience–avoid the ebookman 🙁 Unless you use a media card it doesn’t have enough storage to hold a couple of large books and do anything else. It’s small and mine isn’t backlit. Maybe other models have this feature, mine doesn’t.
I *just* (as in last week) bought a Palm TX, and I’m really loving it. It was a little smaller than I thought it would be (maybe 3×5 in.), but I haven’t found that much of a setback. It’s very lightweight and extremely portable. It has built-in wireless, so I can get online and check email if I’m home or in a hotspot, and there’s a calendar for tasks and such. Color screen and backlit, too. Best for me is that it also has a version of Word, so I can edit submissions without having to lug around pages. I just read Stephanie Meyers’ NEW MOON on it over the weekend on eReader. I also downloaded Mobipocket and have started a book on that. I think the one thing I’d like to do is figure out how to get more fonts on ebooks than just large/small, bold/unbold, but there’s proabably a way to do that I just haven’t grasped yet.
Good luck, Gwen!
I have an eBookwise and love it/hate it for the same reasons as you. Overall it’s great for my needs, though. Plus, I just got an iPod which can do all the other things the eBookwise can’t, so now I’m good. It sucks having two devices, but at least they’re both user friendly.
STAY AWAY from the eBookman. My experience with it was awful. The screen is tiny and not backlit, so it’s terribly hard to read. But the biggest downfall is…it’s battery operated (it requires 2 AA batteries), but you only have a 5 minute period in which to change your batteries once they start going dead…or you lose ALL your content. Yes, I said all of it.
With your eBookwise if the batter goes dead you just charge it again. With the eBookman, if you don’t replace the batteries right away you have to reload ALL of your content. Who has time for that?
I can’t comment on the others, except to say Casee has said she loves her. 🙂
Holy smokes – thanks for the tips, Holly!
Casee – I’m going to take a serious second look at the Sony. How big is the screen?
Oh, and one more thing…I thought you could load HTML unto the personal content server at ebookwise.com?
And I d/l’d a PDF converter to transfer my PDF files and it works pretty well. Still a PITA, but better than not having one at all.
Gwen, it’s 7″x5″. It weighs about 9 oz. I really think it’s worth the money. Then again, like I said, I didn’t really look at any others.
I have an ebookwise, and I like it. It does get heavy after a while though. I find that flipping it to hold in the other hand fixes that problem though.
I put HTML onto mine all the time. I use the content server at the ebookwise website to do it.
You sound like me – I want an ereader too, but haven’t yet committed! I think I’m going to get a Sony Reader, just because it err… looks good (yes, I’m shallow), but they don’t sell them here in the UK, so I’m going to have to buy one without seeing it in person. Ack.
If it helps, when I posted on the same topic, someone said she found the Sony Reader more or less the same as the iLiad despite the huge difference in price (am probably paraphrasing horribly now) – though the price tag pretty much rules out the iLiad for me.
AHA! A subject I actually can speak intelligently about! (I hope)
First of all, I don’t understand what use an ebook reader is if it isn’t backlit. Period. Seriously… why bother?
That includes the Sony, which, if I understand right, also uses it’s own special file types for it’s ebooks. DOES ANYONE REMEMBER BETAMAX?! Uh-uh. Nope, I’m not about to be stuck with a bunch of ebooks that I can’t read because Sony abandons yet another idea that didn’t catch on.
So that leaves us with a couple of other choices. Palm readers or Pocket PC/Windows Mobile readers. I admit that I don’t know a lot about Palm devices, but I DO know they tend to be much less expensive than Pocket PC devices and there appears to be many more apps available for them.
Now me? I had a Dell Axim X3 PDA, and I recently bought an HP iPAQ RX5915 (although they DO have less expensive models). There are several advantages to Pocket PC/Windows Mobile devices. First of all, it’s in a form we are used to seeing- Windows. Secondly, you get mobile versions of Word/Excel/Outlook/Powerpoint, even Adobe Reader. You won’t believe how many uses you will find for those! Third, although it’s far from perfect, I prefer MSReader’s ebook navigation over ANYTHING else I’ve ever used. And fourth, since the ebooks are in Microsoft .lit format, you can be reasonably sure that the format will be supported for a long time. Fifth, and this may be true for Palm also but I wouldn’t know, the iPAQ includes WiFi and Bluetooth (my model also includes GPS) so I can pop on line anywhere WiFi is available. And the bluetooth means I can use a bluetooth earpiece to listen to music or audio books. One major caveat (that I recently found out): They’ve yet to perfect the syncing between the iPAQ and Windows Vista! This might also explain why Dell no longer sells PDAs. However, it works like a dream with Windows XP.
One more device to consider- the UMPC or Ultra Mobile PC. This is a trade paperback size fully functional Windows laptop or tablet PC. The price is outrageous right now though, particularly for the Vista models.
Hope all that helps someone! Sorry to hijack the blog Sybil, but you DID ask!! 😀
Oops, sorry. That was GWEN that asked! *blushes*
I forgot to include my nifty Faye Valentine avatar on the post.
Bev – and everyone – thanks TONS for the feedback. You’re helping me narrow things down. And hijack away if you have such good info to share!
I think I’ll use this eBookwise for another 5 months and see what the technology does, and if the prices come down on the higher end models. I really really want Bluetooth and wifi in the machine. That would be way cool. But that means $$$.
I have an old iPaq that I got from my sister. Since it’s a Pocket PC/Windows Mobile, I have the Windows programs on it – Mobile Word, Excel and Outlook. I never thought I’d use those much, but boy, have they been useful! Btw, my iPaq is so old, it doesn’t have integrated Wifi, but I think all the newer models have it.
For reading ebooks on it, I installed ubook, ereader and Mobipocket on it. I tend to use ubook and Mobipocket the most.
I really like my iPaq, it’s quite useful – I use it to maintain my calendar, etc., and I like that it’s small, and lightweight. It’s not as big as some of the other readers, but I can hold this for a long time and read. Plus, it’s size and weight make it convenient to toss it into a purse when I’m off.
I’ve got a Sony Reader. And most of the books I have on it are NOT limited to just the Reader. I just converted my current books to it.
It’s expensive at around $300 a pop, but I really like mine. And the backlight question is moot because of the type of screen. And I love the screen. I just use a wedge light at night with mine and it works great. And much easier on the eyes long term than having a backlight. I’ve hardly used my iPaq since I bought the Sony.
If you’re somewhat knowledgeable, you aren’t stuck with a proprietary format. most of my books are in html and I just convert to whatever I want. Personally, I don’t find it to be that big a deal to convert things as it doens’t take long at all.
Nicole,
I do the same thing w/ HTML files. I just copy and paste into Notepad. I’ve found that the e-bookstore through Sony Connect that converts in PDF’s work just fine. But the first time I bought an e-book from Ellora’s Cave, the print was so small that I could barely see it. Copying and pasting isn’t that difficult and I love the screen and how you can change the font size so easily.
Very timely. My birthday’s on Thursday, and I think I need an Ebook reader. So with the Palm’s it’s either Mobipocket or you have to get a program that converts things to HTML?
Spill it all. I need to know what’s the best deal.
My Zire72 has Bluetooth.
If you want to use the free Mobipocket you can import HTML, PDF, “Office Documents” (Word, I think), text CHM and OCF. You just open the desktop Mobipocket, click import and choose. It creates another file and puts it directly in “My eBooks”. When you Hot Sync it sends the file it made to the Palm.
I use iSilo because it is a smoother operating program. I can scroll down with my fingertip on the screen. In Mobipocket you press the button to scroll to the next page and it makes a little click. If Dh is a little awake he’ll fuss about my clicking every few seconds. The text and pictures and everything just look nicer in iSilo. But it is just fine in Mobipocket.
I like having the Palm I have because it isn’t new and expensive. I can toss it in my purse and not stress it. I have it in a case but who knows when accidents might happen. My books are for me to enjoy. I want to be able to relax about it.
BTW, my (20 yo) son told me that you might not be able to get the price I got everywhere. The cost of used electronics varies a lot depending on the demographics of your location. I was in a small town where there wasn’t a lot of demand, so the price was pretty low.