E-Readers - Discussion and News

[recaptcha]

I thought I'd like to start a discussion on e-readers, including everything and anything related to them.

What e-reader are you currently using? What do you use it mostly for? Does your e-reader play a major role in connection with book scanning? Or do you mostly read on your computer?

Do you find any limitations with current e-reader technology? What design features would you like to see in future e-readers?

I personally don't own an e-reader at present, however I am planning to get some kind of e-reader this year. Since I do prefer color, and would like a device that does more than display text, I am leaning towards the iPad. There are some interesting developments with regards to display technology though: E-Ink, for example, recently announced it had acheived the color e-ink breakthrough they were hoping for.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/techn ... .html?_r=2

http://www.hitechreview.com/gadgets/e-i ... ton/28687/

Also, Qualcomm has announced its own Mirasol color e-reader display.

http://www.mirasoldisplays.com/

http://technabob.com/blog/2010/07/06/mi ... r-display/

http://gizmodo.com/5654378/promising-qu ... ed-to-2011

So, it looks like there will be some choice in color e-readers in the near future.

Speaking of near future, there are some e-readers being debuted at CES 2011:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/PocketBo ... 8363.shtml

Here's a disturbing piece of news about future e-readers possibly being made of paper and designed to be disposable:

http://www.livescience.com/technology/f ... -1697.html

Your thoughts on anything to do with e-readers welcome.

[seltzered]

nice to see someone else researching heavily in this area!

i'm pretty hellbent on waiting for a tablet with either a pixel qi or mirasol display, along with either a decent company supporting the os-software. This is namely for a personal desire to use a e-reader outside (a la kindle), but fluidly handle the scrolling/zooming for certain books I want to read with that eink won't handle gracefully.

My biggest problem with most of the coming "android" 10.1 inch tablets is the 16:9 1024x600 display. I've seen it and person and it feels awkard holding it in portrait mode compared to an ipad. You can further justify this when seeing how 1024x600 tablets are usually advertised with an image of it in landscape mode. The reason they do this is namely cost - many vendors have optimized selling screens for the sake of hd video these days.

Summary: I'm really really excited, but waiting for a mirasol/pixel qi e-reader with a 4:3 display. If I had to buy one right now, I'd consider jumping the gun anyways and get a notion ink adam though.

[Moonboy242]

Here's a nice source for ebook readers and tech:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/index.php?s=be5d3054f78f47a7c7ec41a61aac0972

The forums cover a huge array of the commecially available ereaders out there and soon to come. The forums are populated by actual users and potential buyers and the huge amount of practical end user feedback provides a nice sense of what a device can do for you.

Interestingly, if you look long enough you will find that each individual device forum has its own personality.

[recaptcha]

Thanks Moonboy. I'm familiar with the mobileread website, and was thinking of posting the link, but didn't know if that would simply divert people over there from here and thus nulify the point of this thread. But, yeah, it's a great site for everything to do with e-readers. While the mobielread site focuses on the back end (i.e. reading scanned books on a device), I like to think of DIY Book Scanner as focusing on the front end (i.e. scanning the books in the first place).

So, perhaps this thread could be a sort of bridge between the two.

[daniel_reetz]

There's a 1600x1200 COLOR e-ink reader coming... this could replace the Adam for me:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/09/hanv ... to-ces-we/

[ceeann1]

Hanvon WISEreader E920 High-Resolution e-Book Reader
http://www.slipperybrick.com/2011/01/ha ... ok-reader/

The device is due to be out in June 2011 and will feature a 9.7-inch display with a 200 dpi resolution.

Other features include a microSD card slot (up to 32GB), a text-to-speech function, Chinese to English translation and a long-lasting battery good for up to 15 days in standby mode or over 10,000 pages of reading

Could be your native PDA reader at that size and visual resolution.

Ceeann

<edit>
seems to be the same device noted by Daniel though I was unaware it was color.... I just stumbled on it from a note on google news a few minutes ago...Video on the pc magazine site
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375466,00.asp

<edit>
Confirmed from the above video this will be able to use PDA files. It is supposed to support ePub books and JPEGS too. Supposed to support wi-fi G. Will be released in May in China. No word when it will come into the USA per PC Mag. Darn thing has a digitizer screen aka touch screen of some type... Cool stuff

[spamsickle]

The-book-reader-of-the-future-April-1935-issue-of-Everyday-Science-and-Mechanics-520x414.jpg (63.63 KiB) Viewed 1857 times

Found here.

[jck57]

The-book-reader-of-the-future-April-1935-issue-of-Everyday-Science-and-Mechanics

Outstanding. Reminds me of a prediction my father made back in the pre internet, pre PC, pre cable TV early seventies. He was a newspaper journalist who typed in his stories on a computer terminal connected to a mainframe. He said, boy some day you'll read the newspaper on your TV.