AAR

[sssspro]

I am so tossed and turned on this whole issue.

First and foremost, while I LOVE back lit devises and used to swear by my Tungsten 2E, I have determined that I don't want one yet for my next e reader. Not enough battery life. The LONGEST one I've found was 8 hours before recharge, that's just not long enough. I'd have to recharge the thing every other day, if not every day once the battery drains, and it DOES drain within a year.

So that takes out a HUGE amount of readers, leaving the e-ink ones.

I didn't like the older Nook. Not very intuitive and clunky to work.

I am just not an Amazon fan. The older generation Kindle does not play well with PDFs and almost ALL my books are PDFs. So that means I have to get the new one. I am not a fan of any institution that "forces" you to buy only from them... I don't own any Apple products either....We're a Zune family. <sigh> so while the $139 new Kindle is high on my choice list... I just don't know.

I have the Sony 505 now, and while I LOVE almost everything about the Sony, it is falling apart on me, and I am not the only one. My best friend bought a Sony from my rec, and hers is doing the same thing. We've both returned our Sony's 1 or 2 times to get refirbed replacements, but we're still not happy with the device 100%. Besides that, I don't like the pocket....too cheaply made. That leaves me with the new one. Spending $250 on a dedicated reader, when I can buy the Kindle for $139 leaves a VERY sour taste in my mouth.

I've looked some of the others and was just not thrilled. The e ink Pandigital is too slow, etc. BJs sells one, and I have not seen a working model of that yet. So I don't know.

I don't need the wifi... I live on a computer at work, so hooking my reader to my PC is no big deal, and I prefer to shop on a PC than a small handheld that I can barely type on.

So there you have it. My on/off switch is broken on my Sony, I really need a reader...there are dozens of them out on the market, and I don't like any of them.

Go figure.

[PatW]

[Lea AAR]

We're trying to move a few threads to the appropriate forum based on the subject matter. Since this discussion centers on eReaders rather than romance in general, this thread is being moved from the Potpourri forum to General Chat.
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Lea AAR

Audiobooks Bookshelf at Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4403718

[willaful]

My nook arrived today and I have to say, I'm disappointed at its heaviness compared to the Kindle. I've also found it very frustrating to set up -- but my husband did all the Kindle stuff, so I can't compare the experience. I'm just bad at stuff like that, in general. I hope I'll get used to its differences and like it as much as the Kindle. If not, my husband promised to buy me my own. (Can you say "Dream Man"? )
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"I say, don't read the classics -- try to discover your own classics; every life has its own." -- Rudolf Flesch, _How to Make Sense_

[Linda in sw va]

[willaful]

I've decided I'm pretty good with it. The heaviness is somewhat offset by the touchsceen. All things being equal, I think I would prefer the Kindle, but all things are not equal and I would like to be able to access library books! If I can't make that work though... well, you'll know because you'll hear my scream of rage.
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"I say, don't read the classics -- try to discover your own classics; every life has its own." -- Rudolf Flesch, _How to Make Sense_

[bookmark]

I read a lot of documents that I convert to PDF for my reader....

The Sony ps505 is better than the Touch in that I can find documents/books by author, title, or date that can easily be chosen and it's faster to go to the home screen. With the Touch, it takes forrrrrrrever to go to the home screen from whichever book/document I finished reading at the moment; and even though I can find stuff by author/title/date, there isn't an option on the side to easily choose. I have to actually go page by page until I find what I want, kind of like the nook. The only reason I had two Sony reader was because I accidentally dropped a pen on the screen, then there was dark vertical lines that got darker, making reading impossible. I would say the only nice thing about the Touch is, well, I can touch the screen to select options or page forward or back. I didn't like the glare on either Sony models.

I feel the Nook is a little more limiting in going to or finding my documents quickly. I can't easily go to the exact page I was reading. I like to be able to enter a page number and have it go there directly. When I search my document for something, I can't go back to the page I was reading before the search results. As with the Sony Touch, I can't quickly go to the author/title but only by going page by page until I find what who/what I'm looking for. Not only that, say, I have 10 pages of documents and I'm on page 10, I can't go to page 1 with the back button, I have to start going from 10-1 page by page. I do like that I don't have a problem with the glare from the nook and the ink looks darker so it makes it easier for my eyes since I use big fonts.

I will never get the Kindle as long as I can't load my documents directly from my computer to it.

What I don't understand is why my Nook and Sony Touch runs out of battery so incredible fast. There's absolutely no way I'd be able to read for two solid days without having to to be down to less than 30%. So I don't know about these claims of two weeks or X number of pages. Nobody I ask have battery problems like I do. I do normal reading in a day, one book or less. It frustrates me the battery life of the e-readers.

I'm sure I had more to say but after all that, I'm tired, lol.

[willaful]

I have not been thrilled with my Nook battery either. My husband took it into to a B&N and they replaced it, hope that will help. I have read various forums with people with battery problems. One "solution" is to change your settings to use less power. Some crappy solution, I say!

I still really like the Kindle best and am hoping my husband will spoil me to death and give me one for Christmas. The look and feel are by far the nicest. My husband put it rather aptly -- the Kindle feels like reading a book, the Nook feels like watching a television. The weight, gleaming sides and glare on the screen all take away from getting lost in the book. I'm just glad I got it at such a bargain price.

I checked out the Sony pocket today and liked the size, but it didn't have the one feature I really most want in a touchscreen, to be able to just tap the side to turn the page. The Kindle app does that and I *love* it. I wasn't able to get a real feeling of how it felt to read from the demo, unfortunately. But I noted the shiny sides, ala Nook, as a turnoff. I thought the Sony readers in color were an awesome idea, til I actually started using an ereader.
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"I say, don't read the classics -- try to discover your own classics; every life has its own." -- Rudolf Flesch, _How to Make Sense_

[sssspro]

Bookmark, you could be me....same issues.

No, you aren't alone with the battery issue. My Sony is almost 2 years old, and while it USED to last for over two weeks on a charge, I'm lucky to get 2 books out if it now (3 or 4 days maybe). That is one of the reasons I am absolutely positively against the new nook and any of the other "color" or "backlit" screens. They last, what 2 days NEW???? Forget it, I can't be having to charge my reader multiple times a day. That's what finally happened to my Tungsten 2E, I couldn't make it from NY to CA in a plane without a battery backup charger.

I also convert everything I own to PDF, so will not go for a reader I can't load through my computer either. I don't like the Sony touch, and while I do like the new sony I refuse to spend $250 on a reader when all other readers are below $150. Sigh....I am hoping my Sony 505 lasts long enough for the new Sony to go on sale.

My current Sony's on/off switch is VERY tempermental and about to break. The whole switch and silver piece holding it in is hanging in the wind, and it only works about 30% of the time. I am holding my breath here.

[Linda in sw va]

I've noticed that my Nook's battery improved with time, it's been explained to me why they do this but I'm not gonna lie, I don't understand it.

I have no issues at all with glare on my Nook, and no problem getting lost in a book. However, I did see the Nook color for the first time in person today and give me e-ink over that screen anyday! I mean it's nice for magazines but I can't imagine reading for a long period of time on it, just the time in the store was irritating to my eyes. Others seem to love it so, I suppose that ereaders are just a very individual thing.

Linda
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"The Bookshop has a thousand books, all colors, hues and tinges, and every cover is a door that turns on magic hinges." ~ Nancy Byrd Turner

[Mark]

This is in response to a post about navigating on the Sony Reader. I don't know if this applies to all touch models, but on the 600 I use page navigation is easy. Touch the page number at the bottom of the screen (or press the Option button and press Go To Page on the popup) to bring up a small navigation pane. Touch in the slider bar for an analog jump to an approximate location in the book or touch Enter Page # to enter an exact page number on a virtual keypad.
The Option button also brings up the Search feature, with a virtual keyboard to enter text you want to find.
As for finding books in the contents pages, the Option button brings up a popup pane with options to sort by Title, Author or Date, or a Search to limit titles shown to matches to text you enter. Typing "christm" in the contents search just now as a test reduced the contents from 253 pages to 4.

[library addict]

With the new Sony Pocket (350) / Touch (650) / and Daily (950), you can either use the front and back buttons at the bottom of the screen or swipe your finger to turn the page. You can even change the settings (swipe left to right or right to left) depending on which you prefer. The buttons on the newer models are not very tall, but they are wide, so easy to use.

And my new Touch has the same "Go To Page" and "Search" features Mark describes, so I would imagine the Pocket edition does as well.

You can sort "All Books" by Date, Title, Author, File Name, and Last Read. You also have the option to sort the various collections by Added Order, Date, Title, Author, and File Name. Though I use Calibre and the "Added Order" is always the series order (if a series tag) regardless of the order I actually placed the book onto the reader.

The newer Sonys also use the same Pearl eInk screen as the Kindle 3, so the glare issues from last year's model of the Touch (600) are no longer a problem.

I will say that though this new Touch edition supposedly reads PDFs better than the last model, I reformatted all of my PDFs to ePub. The PDF is fine if you read in landscape mode, but too tiny for me to read in portrait mode. And though reflow does work when you up the text size, I didn't like the way the page often ended mid-sentence.

Sssspro, have you seen the $75 trade-in offer Sony is running through the end of the year? You then have until the end of January to purchase a new reader. I understand if you don't want to get another Sony, but the trade in offer could bring the price down. And several members of the Mobile Read forum have had luck getting 10-35% off the cost of the reader by calling customer service to order and asking what kind of deal they can get. Might be worth a try.

[Claire]

I was thinking I'd like to get the color Nook so I could get kids books on it. Here's one thing that bothers me: I looked at my libraries site and put in some romance authors names for e books and there was a scary lack of books! There were no Lisa Kleypas books- not even ones from 1999. I put in Linda Howard and about 5 books came up. I know they have physical LK books. I'd like to know what is up with that. The same thing happened with Dav Pilkey, a popular author for boys. One of the reasons I was deciding on the Nook was library access. What are you all finding at your library in terms of ebooks and romance novels? Are there other places I can borrow titles?

I think I read in reviews that the Nook gives you internet access. I was wondering if I read that correct and what you all think of it. Is it easy to navigate and how do you get around without a mouse?

[chiricahuagal]

[Linda in sw va]

Good idea to check your library access for the authors you are interested in before purchasing, especially if that's a major play into your decision.

The Nook Color would be fantastic for children's books and mags! I saw both of these demo'd in store and they looked terrific. Yes, you can access the internet on the Nook color and Nook classic, but it looks better on the color of course.

Where the Nook Color falls short is when you're sitting down to read an entire paperback book, imho. People rave about the screen clarity but to me it's not nearly as easy on the eyes as eink, so I will stick with that. What I love about the Nook is having both the eink and the benefit of the colors in color, hey I like my reading in more than black and white!

Also, between my daughter and I (she has a Nook as well) we've gotten 5 free smoothies and the promo runs until Jan 3rd. So if you have a B&N close by the in store perks are fantastic. You can also read any book for an hour free in store, and then come back the next day and read for another hour picking up where you left off. Great for trying before you buy because the samples are so small.

If you don't have a B&N close by I think you'd be missing out on one of the Nook's major draws.

Linda
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"The Bookshop has a thousand books, all colors, hues and tinges, and every cover is a door that turns on magic hinges." ~ Nancy Byrd Turner