Interested in ereaders

[Evan Leibovitch]

On 27 September 2013 12:31, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:


> I have tablets and ereaders.  I find that the Kobo Mini is useful:
> its battery life is an order of magnitude greater than any tablet, and that
> matters.  It is also a lot slimmer than any tablet.  That
> matters.
>

Guess it's all relative. Compared to the dead-tree versions, both a tablet
and ereader are far lighter and thinner. By comparison, the diff between
tablet and ereader is miniscule.

This is even more important since the availability of a tablet now allows
me to travel without a laptop. In fact, I was recently able to be
productive at a week-long conference without a laptop, but with my tablet
and a bluetooth keyboard.

The big difference to me is the mix of media. If all you're trying to do is
replace a paperback, the e-reader will do the trick. But newer generations
of ebooks are being built with embedded multimedia capabilties (there's
good reason the ePub standard was updated to be based on HTML5). And
current ereaders can't deal with that. Heck, most can't render the OLD ePub
standard fully.

Plus, the ability to carry out a video call on my tablet is just, IMO, too
cool (Skype or Rogers1)


> It is very convenient that I can share content between tablets
> and ereaders.  Since the stuff is digital, that should be assumed, but
> DRM could get in the way.  Kobo lets multiple devices use the same
> account and share the content (there is some limit, but I haven't hit
> it). Unfortunately, the Kobo software doesn't make it as easy
> for sideloaded content.
>

Vendor lock-in (or at least their attempts to do so) is a deal breaker for
me. Most of what i read is side-loaded.


> - batteries run out when you use a device.  Flattening a phone battery for
> (unimportant) MP3 listening is a bad thing.
>


I thought battery would be a Big Deal in going from ereader to tablet but
in fact it's not. My Nexus 7 goes for a week without needing a recharge.
That an ereader can go a month between charges rather than a week is IMO a
fairly dubious benefit.

Audio playing, especially with the screen off, uses next to no juice. And
even for a sighted person there is at least an occasional appeal from
talking books.

- Evan
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