[Tech] which e-book reader should I get?

[DocBot]

Hello!

I want an e-book reader. It's not a big thing in sweden, though, and it's a jungle out there. I don't need to surf on it. I don't need the whole drm kindle thingie. I want to read books, and I want it to be good at letting me read them. Quick page turning etc would be nice. Features are nice, too.

Can anyone tell me which one to get? Sony prthingamajig? Bokeen? Nuut? IriveR story HD?

heeelllllp meeee

 

[Haven]

Kindle is lovely to read on, not many features as it just does the one thing really well.

If you have an android device then I also recommend Aldiko reader combined with Calibre (ideally running as a little server somewhere).

 

[DocBot]

Isn't the kindle locked to amazon, though? I'm currently looking at the Sony wifi thingie and the iRiver story HD. Upside with the iriver is obviously the HD bit and quick page turns, whereas the downside is all those nasty buttons and no touch screen. Sony, on the other hand, has touch screen but fewer pixels.

 

[Haven]

Isn't the kindle locked to amazon, though? I'm currently looking at the Sony wifi thingie and the iRiver story HD. Upside with the iriver is obviously the HD bit and quick page turns, whereas the downside is all those nasty buttons and no touch screen. Sony, on the other hand, has touch screen but fewer pixels.

The kindle is attached to your amazon account but you can also side load books onto it (not sure you can on kindle 3 though) i.e. via the Calibre desktop client. This allows you to add your own collections independent of Amazon.

E-ink is a very different experience to an LCD screen. Takes a couple of days to get used to but after that reading on the Kindle is much more natural and book like for me.

But if you want back lighting or other non-book features then its not the device for you.

 

[comrade_phil]

Agree with Haven here, there's plenty of book management software for the Kindle to make it worthwhile (I also use/have used Calibre), whilst actually purchasing books on the Kindle is limited to Amazon, the general aesthetic of the Kindle is very pleasing and makes up for that.

 

[DocBot]

bad thing about the kindle though here in sweden is that there's no epub support. Whereas all the library ebooks are epub. Good thing about the iRiver is that it's already linked to the library so I can loan books with no hassle whatsoever.

 

[DocBot]

oh, also, I'll probably get the reader later today. The prices are around the same, with the sony and iRiver going for about £140, and the kindle touch wifi roughly £20 less. Oops, just saw they don't have that in stock. Okay, so the kindle wifi (no touch) is another £20 less.

edit: and the kindle touch 3g is £180

 

[Haven]

bad thing about the kindle though here in sweden is that there's no epub support. Whereas all the library ebooks are epub. Good thing about the iRiver is that it's already linked to the library so I can loan books with no hassle whatsoever.

Calibre converts between pretty much any format you can imagine (for non-DRM books). So epub -> mobi conversion is painless.

 

[DocBot]

good good, thanks ! Will post back here post buy.

 

[DocBot]

Right, I went and bought a kindle, wifi, no touch screenm for ~£90. Luckily I saw it was a "sponsored" version before I actually opened the box, so I could return it. They inly had the 3g version without sponsoring, and that cost twice as much, so I bought the sony prs-t1 instead. Currently charging it, looks good so far. Will test with calibre soon.

 

[comrade_phil]

I bought the same "sponsored" Kindle in the USA a while back, but then only cost ~£60, the adverts are in no way intrusive, but if you found a reader you like that is the main thing

 

[Angelic]

Oh, seems I'm too late here. You could've gotten the sponsored version, it's very easy to remove the advertisements from it.

Kindle supports epub, you can convert them using amazon convert service extremely easily (mail them with the subjecg "convert" to docbot@amazon.com or wherever).

Also you can use non-amazon sources of books (be it shops or your own .doc or .pdf or .mobi and .epub etc). You can use the cable to load them onto it, or the amazon kindle email address.

I have Kindle and I'm loving it, tbh.

 

[Silk]

Sod the kindle, get a Kobo touch, mine is awesome. Very easy to put your books onto there.