delving into ebook readers

[Peter King]

On Fri, Jun 08, 2012 at 03:21:15PM -0400, Aaron Doucette wrote:

>    I have a sony e-reader. It was one of the highly regarded models back
>    in the day. It WILL read PDF (and many other formats), but it does a
>    terrible job. While the speed has likely improved, the reality of
>    reading manuals (or anything else) on a 6" screen (the norm) are the
>    real limiting factor. Monochrome aside, a few inches does make a
>    difference.
> 
>    Aside from the screen emulating paper, and battery life, there is
>    nothing these do that a tablet won't do better, and faster.

Well, yes there is. I think the e-ink screen is an excellent solution for
reading books for long periods of time: the contrast is perfect for minimizing
eyestrain, even in direct sunlight, and the technology means that an e-reader 
carries a charge for weeks at a time. They are wonderful devices for reading
fiction, and certain kinds of expository prose.

That said, there are limitations to e-readers. They work extremely well for
one-time-through sequential-access volumes, such as novels. They are terrible
for reference manuals (hard to get to a specific page number) and usually don't
have the horsepower to render PDFs well and quickly. I do those things with my
tablet. But I can toss my Kobo in a flight bag and have enough books for any
trip (currently over 600 on it), in a lightweight and sturdy and portable form
factor, with a charge that lasts and lasts. E-readers do mostly just one thing,
but they do it better than a phone, a tablet, or a computer can.

-- 
Peter King			 	peter.king-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org
Department of Philosophy
170 St. George Street #521
The University of Toronto		    (416)-978-4951 ofc
Toronto, ON  M5R 2M8
       CANADA

http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/

=========================================================================
GPG keyID 0x7587EC42 (2B14 A355 46BC 2A16 D0BC  36F5 1FE6 D32A 7587 EC42)
gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 7587EC42
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://gtalug.org/pipermail/legacy/attachments/20120609/545690ec/attachment.sig>