Shopping advice needed: ebook readers
Nov. 11th, 2010 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gerisullivanEbooks haven't been on my shopping radar until 10 minutes ago. I'm going to be buying one for upcoming client work in the next week or so. AKICIF: please advise.
To begin, I'll using the reader primarily to proof the appearance of magazines converted to the .epub format, and then to better design documents that will work well in ebook format. Most of these won't be actual books -- they'll be magazine and newsletter-style articles with images.
We're going to avoid DRM-locked formats, at least to whatever degree any of them limit us from offering the magazine in a format that can be read on other readers.
I'm also aiming for affordable rather than top of the line. Most importantly, I need a reader that will come closest to duplicating the screen size and sorts of interfaces the majority of techie and scientific ebook users are likely to have.
As for what else I need to consider, please, you tell me. I am but an egg.
Thanks!
To begin, I'll using the reader primarily to proof the appearance of magazines converted to the .epub format, and then to better design documents that will work well in ebook format. Most of these won't be actual books -- they'll be magazine and newsletter-style articles with images.
We're going to avoid DRM-locked formats, at least to whatever degree any of them limit us from offering the magazine in a format that can be read on other readers.
I'm also aiming for affordable rather than top of the line. Most importantly, I need a reader that will come closest to duplicating the screen size and sorts of interfaces the majority of techie and scientific ebook users are likely to have.
As for what else I need to consider, please, you tell me. I am but an egg.
Thanks!
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Date: 2010-11-11 11:38 pm (UTC)Kindle doesn't do epub, Jeff Bezos says implementing epub would harm Amazon's ability to innovate.
Nook is an Android OS system. Open source geeks like it. The little color display at the bottom for control interface and such is kind of cool. Battery life (because the color display is tiny and the main display is ePaper) is great.
Charlie Stross likes the Sony Reader, and wrote a blog entry a few months ago about how the interface is really nice. Battery life is great, the display is ePaper.
The iPad is a great reader, and the touch screen is definitely different than the button interface on dedicated readers. There are some quirks in the iBook software, but you have the option to load other reader software (I've got Kindle and Nook, but I use neither of them). Battery life isn't nearly as fabu as ePaper devices, but the iPad is color. It's an iOS device, so you can run a bunch of different apps besides readers on it. On the down-side, it's iOS, so you're in Apple's walled garden.