[LMB] The worth of Ebook readers

[Martin Bonham]

In a post I read in Digest, Vol 35, Issue 66
Francis Turner <francis.turner at gmail.com> wrote
> I took my cybook with me to Switzerland this week ....
> Also the e-ink screen gets almost as many lines of text on it as a
> mmpb at the font size I like (3rd smallest) 

I am another who just loves my Cybook Gen3, (purchased at a considerable saving 
via the Baen fan buyers club -  http://store.naebllc.com/ )

I would say that it is the best out of the box experience I have ever had with 
a new piece of hardware.
The quality of the eInk display is just superb - if you haven't seem one, the 
best comparison I can make is that it is low res monochrome laser printer 
quality.
The software - well it works well at what it does, and doesn't crash.
But it would be so much better with a couple of small improvements to the ways 
of navigating within books, and displaying book lists in the library.
(The library needs another option with 20+ titles per page without thumbnails 
and navigation needs (1) a numeric % display not just the bar graph, (2) a 
current page number in the go to page dialogue, and (3) An option to use the 
volume + and - keys to jump forwards and backwards either by chapters or by 20 
or 50 or 100 pages).


Personally, I seem to be choosing the font size depending on the amount of 
ambient light.  But, like Francis,  the 3rd smallest size of the default 
Verdana font, is probably also also optimal for me most of the time.
I do note that the smaller fonts are MUCH more readable if you choose the all 
Bold option (layout > emboldened text).



> On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 1:37 AM, Stewart Dean <sdean7855 at earthlink.net> wrote:
> > A cartoonist roasts the Kindle...
> >  http://www.sheldoncomics.com/strips/sd080414.gif

I have never seen a Kindle, but I think that I much prefer the look of my 
Cybook.
Of course if I won lotto I would like to get a Reader with wireless 
connectivity, but in that case it would be the iRex.

The Cartoonist misses the point IMHO - the reason for getting one is battery 
life - between one and two orders of magnitude better than a notebook.


Martin.

-- 
Martin Bonham, Auckland, (Aotearoa) New Zealand.
Home of Middle Earth, Whale Rider, and now also King Kong and Narnia.