(no subject)

[maevele]

can someone explain to me what makes a dedicated ebook reader somehow preferable to reading books on your cheapass netbook?

Comments

[thymindmaymove]

No glare on the kindle. Reading books on the computer hurts my eyes after an hour or two.

[rhivolution]

iPod touch ebook reader here, so I don't even fucking know.

[maevele]

that makes sense. but I can get a glare reducing film thing for my netbook for like 20-30 bucks making the whole thing still way fucking cheaper than a kindle and it's not a unitasker

[thymindmaymove]

How much did you pay for your netbook? I couldn't find a good one for under $300, and the Kindle's $259. Although the Kindle does have internet access, but I only wanted it to read books, so I'm not worried about the extras. I think it's a YMMV thing; I like it, but I know most people want stuff like phones that carry music and have internet and play games and do twenty other things. I like all my stuff to do one thing at a time (minus the laptop).

[txvoodoo]

A glare reduction filter film is in no way comparable to an e-ink screen. I could go on about it, but honestly, if you try one, you'll see the difference.

Also,k there's the weight issue - one of the reasons I love my e-reader is because my hands no longer are able to hold big books (which really are the kind I love reading) for long periods of time. My ereader is about the weight of a paperback, and much thinner. No pain, no hand spasms.

Iknow you can adjust font size on a netbook, but it's so simple and clean on an ereader - also a huge plus to me with aging eyes.

Yes, it's (mostly) a unitasker - but it does the one thing I wanted it to do so very well that I feel I've gotten my money's worth out of it. And while I mostly agree with the Alton Brown philosophy, I'm not married to it - I appreciate good tech and engineering that serves a purpose.

[maevele]

my eee was about 260, the less loaded one I got for my kid was like 189. but we wanted the computers anyway, the ebook ability on them was just a bonus. I guess i don't know what I would have done if I had only needed an ebook reader. I would probably have just stuck with paper books, until I needed some other machine that included an ereader.

[maevele]

that makes sense. I just wasn't seeing if the benefits of a dedicated ereader justified the level of expense difference, but I can see how it would for some people.

I'm not married to the "only multitaskers" bit either, in that my mp3 player is only an mp3 player, and my phone is not, for example, a web machine or mp3 player. but they were really effing cheap, which may be my sticking point with ereaders

[eriktrips]

yeah I hear the screen is real easy on the eyes but I can't afford one of those things so my old powerbook is my "kindle." it's slightly smaller than this macbook pro and I had bought a new battery for it before decommissioning it as my main life holder-togetherer so I can run adobe acrobat on it for about five, six hours on one charge.

still makes my eyes water but until I start going blind I'm not worried. after that: audiobooks.

[txvoodoo]

Yupyup. I did a kind of ROI evaluation on it, taking into account how much we spent on books, bookshelves (NOT a trivial thing in our house!), convenience, etc. We've had our Kindles (Hubby & I each have one - they were our 2008 christmas/anniversary gifts to each other) for 2 years now, and I added up how many books we've bought, and we almost would need another room's worth of shelves to hold them! Yes, you might call us voracious readers. ;)

Another thing that really makes the Kindle awesome for me is that I've dealt with a lot of health issues over the past few years, including surgery, hospitalization and recuperation. You just can't beat being able to take your entire library to the hospital with you.

[jesse_the_k]

Went from an HP Mini 10" netbook as an e-reader to an iPod touch, so I can speak to both.

The bigger screen was nice, but the shiny sucked (HP's are known as particularly icky-shiny screens) and I was unaware of a non-glare film. Using FBReader, it was nice to map the space bar to the "next page," and delete to "back page," which is almost as good as the Kindle's UI.

I've tried browsing the net with the Kindle's browser, which must be deliberately programmed as awful, cause it's really awful, even on mobile-phone sites.

Was surprised at how quickly I fell in love with the iPod's screen as a reader. Resolution and fonts are lovely. My vision ain't great, but I can set the font as large as a kid's chapter book without massive frustration in the reading. Tap to read works OK: the iPod is so light that I can hold it & tap it in one hand.

Mobile Safari isn't Firefox or Opera, but it's a lot better than the Kindle! I really don't need to connect to the net, but it sure would be nice to take notes: Kindle I tried last summer couldn't do that. Entering text on the iPod is disappointing: it doesn't even provide T9 prediction like your average $20 phone.

The iPod's built-in calendar app is barely functional for me, who has a boring life, but many 3rd-party (or is something from the iTunes store 2nd-party) are available. (I wasn't really floored by the wonderfulness of the Linux calendering tools, either.)

/braindump

(there's plenty more babble available on this topic from me, just ask)

[wired]

I bought a dedicated ebook reader, um, 9 years ago, and it's still working, loaded up with Baen's DRM-free books.

I like the lack of a keyboard, the ability to change orientation, the much longer battery life, the book-size form factor. I sometimes put it in a plastic baggie and read in the bathtub.

[damned_colonial]

I've used both, and the main thing I found is that a netbook is really awkward for me to curl up with in bed, in my most comfortable reading position. And paging down through whatever I'm reading isn't as comfortable, and I have to kind of contort to do it, whereas with the ebook reader the "next page" button was kind of under where my thumb was anyway from holding the device. So, that's just a physical comfort thing.

Also the power on my netbook doesn't last very long (like, 3 hours or so, vs say 12) so I keep winding up having to plug in while I'm reading, which is awkward. And then, the netbook is just heavy enough that I don't carry it with me all the time in my messenger bag, unless I know I intend to use it for some "real" computery purpose, whereas my ebook reader was slim and light enough that it just always lived in my bag.

Oh, and... somehow I would feel weird breaking out a netbook at the bus stop or in a taqueria, in a way I wouldn't with an ebook. Opening up the laptop is a much more blatant display of "look I'm using electronics!" than reading from an ebook is, I think.

I broke my old Sony ebook reader (which I'd got for free anyway after someone lost it at my office, so I didn't beat myself up too much over it), so lately I have been using either my netbook or my iphone for reading, and after doing that for a while, I have decided I'm definitely going to get an iPad when they come out. I was thinking of replacing the Sony with another one, but I do kind of like the idea of an ebook/tablet with wifi and a real web browser, you know? That would be good in bed.

[naomikritzer]

I think the theory is they're smaller, lighter, and have a prettier interface. You can hold the ebook one-handed, like a paperback, so you can lie down on a couch to read or whatever. I don't know how practical that is with a netbook.

But I don't own either a netbook (I just typed "netbork," how's that for a typo?) or an ebook reader.

[chris462.livejournal.com]

The e-ink screen is far superior for reading to a backlit LCD.