Adventures in Technology - The E-Reader
Jul. 31st, 2010 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olivia_suttonThursday I bought a dedicated E-reader. I'd been thinking about one for awhile (seeing those Kindle ads EVERY time I went to Amazon.com seemed to do something to my brain. But I did NOT want an actual Kindle!) At Mediawest I went to a couple of panels about E-readers. I learned some, but unfortunately I was late to both panels that I managed to get to. Some of my questions were answered -- and they were answered by fans, not marketing blitzes, but I also had questions that didn't quite get answered because I was late (or in one case I had to run off to my White Collar panel and I just wasn't able to talk to someone. Both of the panelists were good, one I'd seen before -- very smart, nice, tech-smart girl (sound familar? I swear -- it wasn't me, but anyway) but the other spoke very softly and even though I kept asking her to please speak up I still missed at least half of what she said. Anyway, the one panel was about getting fanfic on your reader, and I was like "fanfic?" <bounce bounce, picture ears perking up like a German Shepard>
The other thing I found out was that Kindle and Nook use proprietary systems for their e-books. If you buy a Kindle you can ONLY get e-books from Amazon. If you buy a Nook you can only get e-books from Barnes &Noble. In addition, neither the Kindle nor the Nook have any expandable memory and I think both are under 2 gigs as sold.
Now the Nook I looked at two weekends ago apparently uses e-pub for books, so B&N has wised up a bit -- but I made the non-expandable memory mistake with my Ipod and that really turned me off. Plus the woman at the panel at Mediawest, whom I respect, really dissed the Nook due to it' lack of organization. (Oh, almost forgot, she did say that you normally could go directly to an author's publisher's site to look for e-books there and download the correct format for your E-reader).
Now at the panel, a couple of people REALLY recommended the Sony.
A couple of weekends ago, I went to Best Buy and did some research. And I really liked the Sony but I had to wait a week (needed to pay some bills) before buying. That week turned into two, but I have it now so not a big deal.
I got the Sony Daily Edition -- basically I bought the bigger one (another lesson learned from Ipod, tho' at the time I bought that, I think 8gigs was their max).
So the one I bought -- advantages: 1.6 gigs on board (as opposed to the smaller model with 512k) plus two expansion slots -- one for Sony Memory Stick and one for standard SD cards. I bought an SD card when I bought the reader - 4 gigs (for $14.95), but as anyone familiar with flash memory knows -- memory keeps getting cheaper and cheaper, and if you REALLY need a lot you can always buy more than one and just use one at a time. According to the Sony manual the Reader will support up to 32 GB of SD expansion slot memory. And you get two slots.
Expandable memory was a must for me. The only way I would have even considered something non-expandable would be if there was other things about the brand I really liked.
Formats: Native is e-pub the generic e-book format, the Reader is set for purchasing from the Sony e-Reader store, but B&N is moving to e-pub (I downloaded some free books there, including Dracula which I've been meaning to read forever, and I've already loaded it on my e-reader without issues. I checked it in the reader, and yes you can read it.) .pdf -- Yes, anything in .pdf format goes on your e-reader perfectly! One fanfic archive I visit (for Shadow Chasers fic) puts stuff on their website in .pdf format. I transfered those to my E-reader, and frankly they are easier to read than on my computer at home (I was always printing the .pdfs for that reason).
The bad: The documentation clearly states Word docs are readable on your reader. I transferred some Word docs (fanfic copied from various websites) -- and promptly couldn't find them. But, noticing that the .pdfs I transferred worked just fine, I went back to my computer and re-saved the same fics as .pdfs, then moved them to my reader. That worked.
So it's a bit of a process -- go to Fanfic net or where ever, locate the story (or stories you want to read) copy & paste to Word, edit, save as Word doc, then save as a .pdf. It reminds me of what I used to do, way back when, when not only did I have dial-up Internet but my time was limited (instead of unlimited Internet -- that came later). I literally couldn't read on-line, everything got transferred to Word and either read off-line or printed and read.
Today, I did discover I could index my long fanfics once they were in Adobe Acrobat tho'. (Use the bookmark feature - and label your bookmarks). Then, for me to see the bookmarks in the fic, I had to go to options or settings or something (while in the story) and select Index. But from there I was able to skip ahead to the chapter I had last read on my Pre. (Yeah, I read fic on my phone more often than on my computer. It's a lot more portable than my PC).
Oh, more on the "negative" side -- my reader is black and white only. I don't consider this a big deal (some of the bookcovers for the samples they gave me looked weird, but other than that - not a big deal). The next generation of readers should have full-color screens, like my Pre.
I've been using the stylus to choose stuff on my reader and the page turn buttons to flip pages. I'm supposed to be able to use the touch screen and finger gestures. I figured finger gestures/touch screen would be like the Pre. This is disappointing. OTOH, I'm used to using a stylus from my Handspring days (ages ago, it seems). And with the stylus I can use it in either hand. Finger gestures left-handed are awkward (at least for me). Since normally I'm holding the reader in my right hand, I can use the stylus with my left -- so that works.
One technical issue: This thing is supposed to play music. Normally, I wouldn't WANT to listen to music when I'm reading. However, I have a couple of Doctor Who audio books I got for free and some Big Finish Doctor Who audios that I haven't listened to. I thought it would be nice to put them on my reader, maybe listen during my lunch hour at work or something. I uploaded both CDs to iTunes on my computer. One CD didn't label itself correctly so I hand-corrected it, and put both in a playlist my themselves. (Big Finish CDs are normally two CDs -- eps. 1 & 2 on CD 1 and eps 3 & 4 on Cd 2).
I went to transfer the files and I couldn't figure out how. I went through my computer files and only found CD 2. I can't find CD 1 in my iTunes folder, even though it's there in iTunes and I tested a track and it played. As an experiment, I transferred the CD (#2) to the reader anyway, and the tracks are in random order, not in the correct order (and the track names make no sense -- they are credits for the play, like who the producer was, etc. not track names or numbers). This won't work for what's, essentially, an audiobook. Any ideas on how to fix?
BUT given all that -- I'm very happy with my E-reader!
OH -- and why the e-reader, esp. once I found out I could put fanfic on it? Well, in the year I've had my Pre I've found I really, really enjoy reading fanfic where ever I happen to be on my Pre. I can read on the living room couch, in bed, at work, etc, just like a printed book or magazine -- and with the Pre virtually the entire Internet is literally at my fingertips (the only websites that aren't are those that use Flash. Palm STILL hasn't made their OS Flash-compatible). So, I loved that. But it did run down my battery and on very rare occasions it caused the phone to overheat and throw errors. Plus, even with using Landscape mode and expanding the screen/print size with zoom -- it's still a cell phone. Very small. My eyes would get tired after a while.
My Sony E-reader has a much bigger screen. The print zoom works nicely (I have to use medium for the most part). I do think the background vs. print is a little dark. Remember etch-a-sketch? The background reminds me of that. I'm used to reading Fanfic Net on my Pre which is blue or black on white. I think I'll get used to the grey/black tho' and maybe I can change it somehow.
Apparently, the Sony has 3G Wi-Fi. I've actually turned it completely off, I probably won't turn it on until I want to actually buy e-books. All the free stuff I'm getting I'm downloading on my home pc so that I can have a back-up copy.
--Olivia
The other thing I found out was that Kindle and Nook use proprietary systems for their e-books. If you buy a Kindle you can ONLY get e-books from Amazon. If you buy a Nook you can only get e-books from Barnes &Noble. In addition, neither the Kindle nor the Nook have any expandable memory and I think both are under 2 gigs as sold.
Now the Nook I looked at two weekends ago apparently uses e-pub for books, so B&N has wised up a bit -- but I made the non-expandable memory mistake with my Ipod and that really turned me off. Plus the woman at the panel at Mediawest, whom I respect, really dissed the Nook due to it' lack of organization. (Oh, almost forgot, she did say that you normally could go directly to an author's publisher's site to look for e-books there and download the correct format for your E-reader).
Now at the panel, a couple of people REALLY recommended the Sony.
A couple of weekends ago, I went to Best Buy and did some research. And I really liked the Sony but I had to wait a week (needed to pay some bills) before buying. That week turned into two, but I have it now so not a big deal.
I got the Sony Daily Edition -- basically I bought the bigger one (another lesson learned from Ipod, tho' at the time I bought that, I think 8gigs was their max).
So the one I bought -- advantages: 1.6 gigs on board (as opposed to the smaller model with 512k) plus two expansion slots -- one for Sony Memory Stick and one for standard SD cards. I bought an SD card when I bought the reader - 4 gigs (for $14.95), but as anyone familiar with flash memory knows -- memory keeps getting cheaper and cheaper, and if you REALLY need a lot you can always buy more than one and just use one at a time. According to the Sony manual the Reader will support up to 32 GB of SD expansion slot memory. And you get two slots.
Expandable memory was a must for me. The only way I would have even considered something non-expandable would be if there was other things about the brand I really liked.
Formats: Native is e-pub the generic e-book format, the Reader is set for purchasing from the Sony e-Reader store, but B&N is moving to e-pub (I downloaded some free books there, including Dracula which I've been meaning to read forever, and I've already loaded it on my e-reader without issues. I checked it in the reader, and yes you can read it.) .pdf -- Yes, anything in .pdf format goes on your e-reader perfectly! One fanfic archive I visit (for Shadow Chasers fic) puts stuff on their website in .pdf format. I transfered those to my E-reader, and frankly they are easier to read than on my computer at home (I was always printing the .pdfs for that reason).
The bad: The documentation clearly states Word docs are readable on your reader. I transferred some Word docs (fanfic copied from various websites) -- and promptly couldn't find them. But, noticing that the .pdfs I transferred worked just fine, I went back to my computer and re-saved the same fics as .pdfs, then moved them to my reader. That worked.
So it's a bit of a process -- go to Fanfic net or where ever, locate the story (or stories you want to read) copy & paste to Word, edit, save as Word doc, then save as a .pdf. It reminds me of what I used to do, way back when, when not only did I have dial-up Internet but my time was limited (instead of unlimited Internet -- that came later). I literally couldn't read on-line, everything got transferred to Word and either read off-line or printed and read.
Today, I did discover I could index my long fanfics once they were in Adobe Acrobat tho'. (Use the bookmark feature - and label your bookmarks). Then, for me to see the bookmarks in the fic, I had to go to options or settings or something (while in the story) and select Index. But from there I was able to skip ahead to the chapter I had last read on my Pre. (Yeah, I read fic on my phone more often than on my computer. It's a lot more portable than my PC).
Oh, more on the "negative" side -- my reader is black and white only. I don't consider this a big deal (some of the bookcovers for the samples they gave me looked weird, but other than that - not a big deal). The next generation of readers should have full-color screens, like my Pre.
I've been using the stylus to choose stuff on my reader and the page turn buttons to flip pages. I'm supposed to be able to use the touch screen and finger gestures. I figured finger gestures/touch screen would be like the Pre. This is disappointing. OTOH, I'm used to using a stylus from my Handspring days (ages ago, it seems). And with the stylus I can use it in either hand. Finger gestures left-handed are awkward (at least for me). Since normally I'm holding the reader in my right hand, I can use the stylus with my left -- so that works.
One technical issue: This thing is supposed to play music. Normally, I wouldn't WANT to listen to music when I'm reading. However, I have a couple of Doctor Who audio books I got for free and some Big Finish Doctor Who audios that I haven't listened to. I thought it would be nice to put them on my reader, maybe listen during my lunch hour at work or something. I uploaded both CDs to iTunes on my computer. One CD didn't label itself correctly so I hand-corrected it, and put both in a playlist my themselves. (Big Finish CDs are normally two CDs -- eps. 1 & 2 on CD 1 and eps 3 & 4 on Cd 2).
I went to transfer the files and I couldn't figure out how. I went through my computer files and only found CD 2. I can't find CD 1 in my iTunes folder, even though it's there in iTunes and I tested a track and it played. As an experiment, I transferred the CD (#2) to the reader anyway, and the tracks are in random order, not in the correct order (and the track names make no sense -- they are credits for the play, like who the producer was, etc. not track names or numbers). This won't work for what's, essentially, an audiobook. Any ideas on how to fix?
BUT given all that -- I'm very happy with my E-reader!
OH -- and why the e-reader, esp. once I found out I could put fanfic on it? Well, in the year I've had my Pre I've found I really, really enjoy reading fanfic where ever I happen to be on my Pre. I can read on the living room couch, in bed, at work, etc, just like a printed book or magazine -- and with the Pre virtually the entire Internet is literally at my fingertips (the only websites that aren't are those that use Flash. Palm STILL hasn't made their OS Flash-compatible). So, I loved that. But it did run down my battery and on very rare occasions it caused the phone to overheat and throw errors. Plus, even with using Landscape mode and expanding the screen/print size with zoom -- it's still a cell phone. Very small. My eyes would get tired after a while.
My Sony E-reader has a much bigger screen. The print zoom works nicely (I have to use medium for the most part). I do think the background vs. print is a little dark. Remember etch-a-sketch? The background reminds me of that. I'm used to reading Fanfic Net on my Pre which is blue or black on white. I think I'll get used to the grey/black tho' and maybe I can change it somehow.
Apparently, the Sony has 3G Wi-Fi. I've actually turned it completely off, I probably won't turn it on until I want to actually buy e-books. All the free stuff I'm getting I'm downloading on my home pc so that I can have a back-up copy.
--Olivia
