Anyone own an eBook reader?

lfti

Hi,
I'm doing a project on ebook readers and if anyone out there who owns one could answer the following questions I would be v. v. happy!

What type of eBook reader do you have?

Where did you buy it?

How did you first hear about the eBook reader?

What are the advantages/disadvantages of your eBook reader?

What changes would you recommend the manufacturers make to their product?

General comments:

lfti

anyone?

sceptre

Moved from Literature. Lfti, this is where surveys/research requests get slotted.

DirectEbooks

EDIT - DO NOT USE BOARDS.IE TO ADVERTISE

KoolKid

What type of eBook reader do you have?

Where did you buy it?

How did you first hear about the eBook reader? Media advertising

What are the advantages/disadvantages of your eBook reader? hand to keep with you. Does not have the same feel as reading a book

What changes would you recommend the manufacturers make to their product? A lower price would make them more common place & in time reading them would become the norm.

Eoin

What type of eBook reader do you have?

Sony PRS-505

Where did you buy it?

It was a gift

How did you first hear about the eBook reader?

Can't remember; probably from first reading about the Amazon Kindle

What are the advantages/disadvantages of your eBook reader?

Advantages:
Very portable as I travel quite often with work
Less space needed in the house for books
Very readable - no more strain on the eyes than a real book.

Disadvantages:
Format can be a little funny when font-size is changed.

What changes would you recommend the manufacturers make to their product?

Quicker rendering of pages
Better categorisation in the library

General comments:

eBooks are too damn expensive - why should I pay close to, or even more than the price of a physical book that must have a far higher cost to the publisher to distribute?

Authors shouldn't delay the release of an eBook just because they don't like the format (see Stephen King).

Flamed Diving

What type of eBook reader do you have?

Sony PRS-505

Where did you buy it?

Sony Centre, Stephens Green

How did you first hear about the eBook reader?

Paul Krugman, on the internet.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of your eBook reader?

Advantages:
-Very useful for reading journal papers
-Cuts down on paper waste for above
-Portable library


Disadvantages:
- PDFs look naff on it
- Getting the right format (LRF) can be tough and requires 3rd party software
- Cannot bookmark audiobooks!!!

What changes would you recommend the manufacturers make to their product?

Solve the disadvantages listed

DirectEbooks

Disadvantages:
- PDFs look naff on it
- Getting the right format (LRF) can be tough and requires 3rd party software
- Cannot bookmark audiobooks!!!

[/QUOTE]

Just to let you know that LRF is a redundant format - Sony discontinued it last year. Your best bet is to buy or convert to ePub. It renders really well on all e-readers and will resolve many of the issues you have been having.

Cheers

Gareth

Flamed Diving

Thanks for the advice, but the reader works perfectly well with the software I found. I converts PDF to LRF really well. I was more writing for an entrant to the field who was thinking of buying one, because it took me a lot of research to find the right software.

PS: I also tried ePub and just about every other format imaginable, but my issue was with the margins. The software that worked in the end was "pdflrfwin", which takes images of the PDF and removes all margin whitespace to create a larger image on the screen, which is perfectly readable. If anyone has a query about this, let me know.

Eoin

I doubt there's any point in waiting for the OP to reply, but I'm interested about the ePub formatting. I download my books in that format, but more often than not, the font is way too small. When I increase the font size, then it screws up the formatting so I get lots of blank or partially empty pages.

Flamed Diving

Have you tried using Calibre Library software?

http://calibre-ebook.com/

It works with almost all e-readers, converts all formats and even fetches newspapers for you from websites e.g. Irish Times, Guardian, Time Magazine, etc. It's far superior to Sony's library software.

Might be worth a look. Failing that, try visiting:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=100

Eoin

Thanks, I'll give that a go. I do have it installed, but forgot about it!

Flamed Diving

Make sure you update it so, because they always improve features, such as conversion.