EReaders for EBooks

Do you remember scenes in science fiction books and movies in which books printed with ink on paper no longer exist? The printed word was displayed on an electronic pad, and the reader also used a stylus to mark up or write on the page. Many book hounds thought that image was where it belonged - in a science fiction story. But, as you'll see, the fiction of yesterday is the science of today.

Four giants have closed to engage in a battle reminiscent of the great Beta/VHS video tape format war of the last century. The four most advertised eReaders available in the U.S. are the amazon.com Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook, the Apple Ipad, and the Sony Daily Edition. Because the Kindle can only be purchased online from amazon.com, I did not test drive it, and based on results of testing the other three eReaders it was a good decision.

Barnes & Noble Nook

The Nook, marketed by Barnes & Noble book stores is available online and in their retail book stores. It was test driven but not purchased at a local Barnes & Noble book store which made it convenient for having questions answered.

It is smaller than the newest entries into the slowly growing market. Although reading a page of text in a well lit retail environment is not taxing, reading in rooms such as those found in most homes that do not have a high level of lighting can be difficult due to the lack of back lighting and glare from single sources of light.

Battery life is rated at 10 days but according to the sales person I talked with, that estimate is based on about an hour of use each day. The battery is user changeable.

Apple iPad

Apple's iPad, advertised as part eReader, part game pad, and part computer is just that - bits and pieces of each which prevents it from performing any function well. Its size and shape makes it uncomfortable to hold for reading although the touch screen is one of the better aspects of this machine. The screen also automatically adjusts itself to the level of available light, and reflection of lights is more bothersome than plain glare.

Battery life is rated at about 10 hours and may be accurate if you use the iPad only as an eReader. Games and other applications will, of course, place heavier demands on the installed batter. One of the most frustrating aspects of the iPad's power is that the battery changes must be done by Apple which requires you to spend more for an already questionable and overpriced product.

I bought the Apple iPad but returned it within the two week "grace" period even though Apple charges a 10% restocking fee. The high end iPad costs over $800, so learn all you can before buying; if you are as disappointed as I was returning it can be quite costly, too.

Sony Daily Edition

In my opinion The Daily Edition was the best of the lot, but the bar is set way too low. It is Sony's high end eReader, but it, too, falls well short of what an eReader should be. On the plus side, the Daily Edition is a great size that fits nicely in hands or on a lap - like a book. The E Ink^® Vizplex^™ screen has major reflection problems and is extremely difficult to read in the subdued lighting found in most homes. Its touch screen is more like a thump screen because it requires considerable pressure to turn a page or navigate to an embedded link. Battery life is rated at 7500 page turns - a rating that doesn't mean a lot. My personal estimate would be around ten hours of constant use. The battery is user changeable.

Another feature Sony puts forward for their Daily Edition is the use of a stylus to create notes that can be saved to a pc. This is another great idea that falls flat on its face because, although you can draw notes in an image format such as jpg, the notes the Daily Edition advertising refers to is making notes within the pages of a book and saving them as a .pdf file. Sorry, but there still is no eReader available that can work like the old fashioned pen and paper for taking notes not associated with digital text.

I bought my Daily Edition at Best Buy and returned it the next day for a full refund. The 200 plus pages of the User's Manual were difficult to navigate, and I just couldn't read it in my living room.

Scoring eReaders

The greatest drawback to all of the eReaders tested is price. From about $250.00 to over $800.00, this is way too much buck for the bang. When you consider the price of best seller and other popular titles available as eBooks there is some question as to why anyone would spend that kind of money for the opportunity to spend more money. That, and the fact that none of the eReaders tested were very good at their primary task and even worse at any secondary applications such as notepads indicates that today's science is not the state-of-the-art we expected, and definitely not good buys.

For technical specs on many eReaders:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e-book_readers

Sony Daily Edition

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666064650

Amazon Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/

Barnes &Noble Nook

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/index.asp?cds2Pid=32280