Ebook Readers for study

Discussion in 'The Lounge - Off Topic' started by dalsoth, Feb 17, 2009.

  1. dalsoth

    dalsoth Kilobyte Poster

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    Not sure if this has been asked before but i very nearly bought a Sony E Reader before Christmas as i read many novels and due to moving from house to house have let my books get tattered and torn. I did not buy it because there was a newer touch screen version our cousins in the States were able to buy but we were not.

    I think the access to buy it is still limited to a few overseas companies charging silly money to ship to the UK.

    I was wondering though, has anyone thought of purchasing one of these or similar products for use to self study? Are the certification books actually even available in e-book format to purchase? How would you think they compare to reading and studying vs a normal book. I can think of such benefits as being able to bring up a particular book with referenced pages in a matter of seconds rather than messing about with the huge volumes that Microsoft supply. It would also be easier to carry around to work and on the train for those that travel that way and may use laptops currently.

    Anyone have any ideas about using them for studies? Pro's or con's? Have one and hate it? I would love to know what you think as i still want one and have it on my shopping list for future purchases.

    Cheers:D
     
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  2. onoski

    onoski Terabyte Poster

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    You might get more for your buck by getting a mini type of laptop, just my opinion though.
     
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  3. dalsoth

    dalsoth Kilobyte Poster

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    Have one of the original HP mini 2133 thingys already but i want one of these readers because of the book reading ability and it's light weight meaning i can take it on holiday and not have to stack loads of books in the case cos the GF loves to sunbathe all day :eek:

    Just think they look fantastic because the screen is as near as paper as you can get and it's not designed to be like a lightbulb melting your face like a laptop.

    Love real books though, doubt I'm the only secret book sniffer on the forum :oops: Love the smell of new and old books. I think i would never give up fully on the real thing but would compliment my collections with EBooks.
     
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  4. Phoenix
    Honorary Member

    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    I'm going to be picking up an Amazon Kindle 2 at some point soon
    from what I have heard though, there are problems with some IT text books due to the conversion of diagrams/tables etc not really being that good

    They are primarily designed for pure text as you would expect from something designed to read novels

    I'm going to give one a shot, (and make good use of the Text->Audio feature to annoy the authors guild)

    I don't know much about the Sony one as I refuse to buy anything Sony due to the fact they are indeed, the Antichrist
     
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  5. dales

    dales Terabyte Poster

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    yes I've been toying with the idea myself, I had the chance to play with on in waterstones the other week. They had one on display, I must admit I was blown away by how easy the text was to read on it, it looks so much like a book its scary.

    The reason I have not bought one yet is:

    1: the price
    2: not being able to test a typical mspress type book

    I am really tempted cause alot of the real books come with cd's with a pdf of the books on as well.
    Also at the moment e-books are rather limited in availability and also are the same price if not more than real books (very few deals on ebooks like buy buy 2 get one free).

    still if I find myself with a couple of large notes free then I would be tempted....

    oh yes people have suggested to me before about netbooks but the main reason I want a reader is the readability of an ebook, got 2 laptops already dont need another one!
     
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  6. dalsoth

    dalsoth Kilobyte Poster

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    Dales, you might want to have a look at the difference between the 505 version that is sold through Waterstones and the newer American one only available over there though. From what i remember, it had touch screen and also a built in nightlight for those times when you are left to read in the dark. I remember thinking there was no way i was going to buy the year old version for nearly the same price as the much improved one in the US.

    Don't really understand why we have to wait. Perhaps they have tons of old stock and decided to launch it over here and shift em using Waterstones.

    I have read stuff on the Kindle but as much as i dislike Sony and i reaallly do (think rootkits for a start), i just feel the E Reader is a better product. I refused to get a Playstation because i hate them so much. Got an Xbox 360 Elite instead and a Nintendo DS rather than the PSP.
     
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  7. strutzy

    strutzy New Member

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    I bought the PRS-700 last year when i was in Vegas. I can't comapre it to the 500 but from what i gather the 500 has better contrast.

    From my point of view its been ideal for certification books, as we all know they are usually quite bulky, so you can carry around loads at once.

    The bad side is the e-library software that comes with it is, in my opinion, very poor. i prefer to keep my books organised on SD cards but i'm sure they'll update it eventually.

    On the whole though its a good solution.
     
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  8. delorean

    delorean Megabyte Poster

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    I'm keen to ditch the paper and go entirely electronic but right now 'eBook reader' devices are very much still in their infancy. For me personally I am of the 'wait and see' attitude.

    As a semi-related OT point, I was in Wal Mart the other day and discovered they were pushing music sold on 1gb SD cards. The in-store display touted this as the next big thing.

    I tout it as a failure and a waste of resources.
     
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  9. dales

    dales Terabyte Poster

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    whay are the diagrams like on the reader, do they look ok!?
     
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  10. strutzy

    strutzy New Member

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    I'm currently using it with the sybex 70-431 and havent found any problems with diagrams. there are 5 levels of text sizes and zoom so you can pretty much set it up to what ever works best for you.

    On a bit of a side note, i'm also studying spanish through the OU and i've found that the pdf books with that course don't render to well when when zoomed in to.

    All the IT e-books i've browsed thgrough have been fine.
     
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  11. Leehaa

    Leehaa Gigabyte Poster

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    It's surprising how much all the e-books seem to cost still!
     
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