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From: me on 1 Dec 2009 11:34
Been thinking abt buying and eBook reader

Cant find a newsgroup abt them so posting here

Anyone have one and can share some experience?
From: Rod Speed on 1 Dec 2009 12:28
me(a)privacy.net wrote:

> Been thinking abt buying and eBook reader

> Cant find a newsgroup abt them so posting here

> Anyone have one and can share some experience?

I just use the PC/laptop etc depending on what is more convenient at the time.


From: Michael Black on 1 Dec 2009 13:23
On Tue, 1 Dec 2009, me(a)privacy.net wrote:

> Been thinking abt buying and eBook reader
>
> Cant find a newsgroup abt them so posting here
>
> Anyone have one and can share some experience?
>
And surely
misc.consumers
is at least far more appropriate than a newsgroup
about being frugal.

And whether or not an ebook reader is frugal or not
depends on your reading habits. If you rush out and
buy the latest hardcover, I assume they would be so
long as the ebook carries a lower price, though one
has to balance that against the cost of the ebook reader.
Plus, one needs to look at whether enough books are
being published as ebooks.

If you just wait for paperbacks, then maybe the price
saving is less, one would have to track prices for a bit.

Of course buying books new isn't all that frugal, especially
if they are books everyone else is buying new. Be patient
and you can buy that hardcover in paperback, and be more
patient, and you can buy that paperback used at a significant
savings.

There is also the issue of what types of books you read. It's
more likely new books are being released as ebooks, while
older books won't, or at least not obscure titles. I doubt
that book by William Shirer that I bought last month about when
he returned to Germany as the war was winding down (sort of
a sequel to his "Berlin Diary" about when he was there before
the war began) is far less likely to be an ebook. I didn't even
know the book existed until last month.

Then there is the question of whether an ebook is really frugal.
So far, they are only single-purpose, ie they are there for
reading books on. Yet the cost is as much or more than a netbook,
which gives you a full blown albeit small computer. Some of the
alternatives may be more frugal because of that, though one has
to look into the limits of ebooks being published nowadays, they
may not be readable except on specific devices (I don't know). So
PDAs and laptops and even cellphones might be suitable, or things
like MP3 players, though of course some of those have tiny screens,
and laptops aren't something easy to snuggle up with.

At the very least, ebooks are still relatively new, and waiting some
time may result in not only better prices, but a more universal unit
that you can read books on but also internet and whatever.

Of course, if you're into classic books, then you can get out of
copyright books at places like Project Gutenberg, and they are
not in any proprietary format, so anything that will display text
will be the ebook reader.

Since ebooks are a new thing, there isn't much out there, and hence
there isn't much competition, so there goes varying prices.

Michael


From: me on 1 Dec 2009 13:31
Balvenieman <balvenieman(a)invalid.net> wrote:

>
>me(a)privacy.net wrote:
>
>>Been thinking abt buying and eBook reader
> Do you mean hardware such as "Kindle", et al?

Yes...... but I am looking at some of NewEgg by name of
AsTak
From: BigDog1 on 1 Dec 2009 14:30
On Dec 1, 9:34 am, m...(a)privacy.net wrote:
> Been thinking abt buying and eBook reader
>
> Cant find a newsgroup abt them so posting here
>
> Anyone have one and can share some experience?

Usenet is not your friend when researching this kind of thing. Google
(or any other search engine) is. Just search on the term "e-reader"
and you'll find all kinds of reviews, articles and web site forums
that deal with the technology. Add the words Sony and Kindle, which
are the major players right now, and you'll get some pretty specific
results.

I've had hands on looks at both. They're both nice. My personal
preference is the Sony. In terms of size, design, and battery life
they're certainly better than laptops or netbooks. I'm a voracious
reader and the concept appeals to me, but it's not likely I'll ever
own one.

They're too expensive. For such a uni-tasker I'm not willing to pay
more than half of some of the cheapest prices I've been able to find
for either.

The content also costs too much. Less than hard copies of the same
book(s), but only slightly. For a DRM encoded digital copy I'm not
willing to pay more than half what I'd give for a hard copy, with
which I can do whatever I want while I'm reading it, and when I'm done
with it. There is some freeware stuff out there, but not much that
I'm personally interested in.

I don't like the limitations and restrictions of the DRM encoding.
There are ways to get around that, but I'd rather not jump through
those hoops. There was recently some sort of copyright misadventure
involving an e-book; don't remember if it was Amazon (Kindle) or
Barnes & Noble (Sony). They reached out to the machines they were
registered to and deleted them with no advance notice to the owners.
Refunds or credits were issued, but that's not really the point.

They only recognize books in there own proprietary formats. Other
common formats, of which I already own a large library, like PDF, LIT,
CHM, TXT, etc. aren't natively supported. More hoops associated with
converting and loading those documents I'm not jumping through.

For now, I'll continue to read on my laptop.
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