I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-) Nice to have features: - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) - be able to take notes
On 2021-05-11 10:26 a.m., Trevor Woerner via talk wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-)
Nice to have features: - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) - be able to take notes
Get a decent tablet. I used to use a Kobo reader and find a tablet is much superior. In addition to reading books, a tablet does so much more, including browsing a web site. You can also get remote desktop apps for them. And so much more... The only advantages of an e-reader, such as the Kobo, are battery life and using in bright sunlight.
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 10:54 AM James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On 2021-05-11 10:26 a.m., Trevor Woerner via talk wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-)
Nice to have features: - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) - be able to take notes
Get a decent tablet. I used to use a Kobo reader and find a tablet is much superior. In addition to reading books, a tablet does so much more, including browsing a web site. You can also get remote desktop apps for them. And so much more...
The only advantages of an e-reader, such as the Kobo, are battery life and using in bright sunlight.
Interesting - - - you forgot to mention a huge negative on most tablets - - - no real keyboard with the system. That to me is enough to preclude me from even considering a tablet. Regards
On 2021-05-11 12:09 p.m., o1bigtenor via talk wrote:
The only advantages of an e-reader, such as the Kobo, are battery life and using in bright sunlight.
Interesting - - - you forgot to mention a huge negative on most tablets - - - no real keyboard with the system. That to me is enough to preclude me from even considering a tablet.
Have you ever seen an e-reader with a keyboard? Some tablets come with a detachable keyboard and any that doesn't can use a Bluetooth keyboard.
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 12:19:31PM -0400, James Knott via talk wrote:
Have you ever seen an e-reader with a keyboard? Some tablets come with a detachable keyboard and any that doesn't can use a Bluetooth keyboard.
At least some of the Sony ereaders had keyboards. They really weren't that useful. -- Len Sorensen
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 11:09:40AM -0500, o1bigtenor via talk wrote:
Interesting - - - you forgot to mention a huge negative on most tablets - - - no real keyboard with the system. That to me is enough to preclude me from even considering a tablet.
Much as I hate onscreen keyboards, I will take a tablet's onscreen keyboard over the one found on ereaders any day. They are not great and waste space that could have been screen while reading. -- Len Sorensen
| From: James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | | On 2021-05-11 10:26 a.m., Trevor Woerner via talk wrote: | > I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations | > would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> | > is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-) | > | > Nice to have features: | > - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) | > - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) | > - be able to take notes | | Get a decent tablet. I used to use a Kobo reader and find a tablet is much | superior. In addition to reading books, a tablet does so much more, including | browsing a web site. You can also get remote desktop apps for them. And so | much more... | | The only advantages of an e-reader, such as the Kobo, are battery life and | using in bright sunlight. As James says, your "nice to have" features definitely sound like what you need is a tablet. If I didn't know you better, I would think you didn't know that an ereader is built out of (e-paper). - "tablet" now means something with an IPS screen with capacitive touch. On some, there is also a high-resolution digitizer for accurate stylus use. - "ereader" now means a small and minimal device for reading static monochrome content (i.e. books) with slow screen updates. They've become specialized so that the best use-cases don't actually overlap. The tablet is more general purpose, so I'll enumerate why one could possibly want an ereader - ereader has simple interface specialized to one task. - ereader is less expensive ($100 gets you a reasonable one; more like $200+ for a reasonable tablet and $1000 for a really really good one) - ereader battery charge lasts months of normal use (less with light on) whereas tablet batteries last days - ereader is very thin and light. Lighter than a paperback book that it replaces. This matters when you spend hours reading in random places (bed, subway, treehouse). Some (eg. my Kobo Mini) conveniently fit in a shirt pocket. - ereaders are quite readable in bright light, unlike tablets. ereaders are only readable in the dark if they have built-in lighting (I think all current ereaders have that but some of ours do not) - with a very few exception ereaders come in modest sizes. Among other things, this means they are not good for reading PDF files. - only exotic and expensive ereaders support taking notes with a stylus https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2 - an ereader remains useful much longer than a tablet (software updates cycles) - It is generally believed that epaper disrupts sleep patterns less than IPS screens. I don't know if this is true. - As far as I know, all ereaders have Linux built in. On the Kobo, you can hack on it a bit. But that's not very useful. https://pgaskin.net/NickelMenu/ is an example of hacking. - when you choose an ereader, you are choosing a bookstore. They are tied. You can side-load non-DRMed books (that's what I do). - colour epaper exists now. I don't know what it's good for. Perhaps reading graphic novels. In our house, we have ereaders and tablets. The ereaders are very good at their limited repertoire of tasks. The tablets promise more and therefor disappoint more often.
As I expected, there's lots of really good feedback :-) I should have clarified that I have lots and lots of tablets and phones and all those sorts of devices, but I've never had an e-reader and I'm curious enough to at least want to try one (mostly for battery life, eye strain, and general impressions). Ideally I could just buy one and it would be great, rather than having to try a bunch of them before finding one I like :-)
| From: Trevor Woerner via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | I should have clarified that I have lots and lots of tablets and phones and | all those sorts of devices, but I've never had an e-reader and I'm curious | enough to at least want to try one (mostly for battery life, eye strain, | and general impressions). Ideally I could just buy one and it would be | great, rather than having to try a bunch of them before finding one I like | :-) My impression is that Sony is no longer an ebook vendor. The one thing they did that intrigues me: they could reflow PDFs. I don't think that anyone else does that. One tends to buy into an ecosystem, and then pick a model of reader: - Amazon is a giant. A greedy giant. They have their own ebook format "mobi". They have their own DRM. You cannot read an epub book on their readers AFAIK. I have no idea whether side-loading is supported. - Kobo is big in a few places. Mostly Canada. They are Japanese-owned but the software (used to be?) developed in Toronto. They use "epub" format, an international standard. The DRM comes from Adobe, I think. You can easily side-load epub files from various places (eg Project Gutenberg). You can read ebooks borrowed from the Toronto Public Library on a Kobo. That is surely true for some other Canadian libraries. With recent Kobos, you can actually initiate borrowing on the Kobo. - whenever anyone complains about DRM, other point to Calibre. The way people talk, it can remove DRM. Since that violates our copyright law, I've never explored that. It can also convert between mobi and epub. Here's a list of current Kobo ereaders. All our Kobos are older than these. I have no experience with these models. <https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ereaders> If you are going to read an ordinary book, i.e. one you read linearly rather than jumping between sections or looking at figures, a small and light one is a good choice. If you have good eyes, you might appreciate the HD versions. For instance the Clara HD display is 6" HD 300 PPI E Ink touchscreen 1072 x 1448 resolution (A refurb version is available. I'd probably pick that.) Nia seems to be the same size but only half the pixels. The Libra is larger and waterproof: 7" HD 300 PPI E Ink touchscreen 1680 x 1264 resolution The Forma is the top of the line and expensive 8.0” HD 300 PPI Mobius E Ink flush touchscreen 1440 × 1920 resolution Old Kobos accepted SD cards, but I never needed that. Their internal storage was also an SD card so you could probably clone it and experiment. You could also replace it with a larger one. I think that that has changed. Kijiji etc. have lots of Kobos. For example, a Kobo Mini for $20. That's the model I like for carrying in a shirt pocket.
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 01:40:03PM -0400, Trevor Woerner via talk wrote:
As I expected, there's lots of really good feedback :-)
I should have clarified that I have lots and lots of tablets and phones and all those sorts of devices, but I've never had an e-reader and I'm curious enough to at least want to try one (mostly for battery life, eye strain, and general impressions). Ideally I could just buy one and it would be great, rather than having to try a bunch of them before finding one I like :-)
Well if you want something with great battery life that is great for reading ebooks in daylight, an ereader is great. For the things you listed though, they are useless. So if you want to carry 200 books with you, they are fantastic. They remember what page you were on in each book. Very handy for book worms. They are very much not generic computing devices at all though. They do one thing well and that's it. I know sony tried doing mp3 support for audio books on early models and dropped it later since it drained the battery and was no match for an ipod shuffle for audio books. -- Len Sorensen
I have a reMarkable https://remarkable.com/ which is great for PDFs, writing notes, etc. and it will also read. It’s quite nice. I generally use it instead of paper for notes. You can even transfer web pages to it (from a Chrome plug-in) to read them in more comfort. ../Dave On May 11, 2021, 6:27 PM -0400, Lennart Sorensen via talk <talk@gtalug.org>, wrote:
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 01:40:03PM -0400, Trevor Woerner via talk wrote:
As I expected, there's lots of really good feedback :-)
I should have clarified that I have lots and lots of tablets and phones and all those sorts of devices, but I've never had an e-reader and I'm curious enough to at least want to try one (mostly for battery life, eye strain, and general impressions). Ideally I could just buy one and it would be great, rather than having to try a bunch of them before finding one I like :-)
Well if you want something with great battery life that is great for reading ebooks in daylight, an ereader is great. For the things you listed though, they are useless.
So if you want to carry 200 books with you, they are fantastic. They remember what page you were on in each book. Very handy for book worms.
They are very much not generic computing devices at all though. They do one thing well and that's it. I know sony tried doing mp3 support for audio books on early models and dropped it later since it drained the battery and was no match for an ipod shuffle for audio books.
-- Len Sorensen --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 9:00 PM David Mason via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I have a reMarkable https://remarkable.com/ which is great for PDFs, writing notes, etc. and it will also read.
It’s quite nice. I generally use it instead of paper for notes. You can even transfer web pages to it (from a Chrome plug-in) to read them in more comfort.
An interesting tool! For $750 inc taxes - - - - dunno. Find the idea that handwriting is wonderful just a little goofy - - - - my typing is easily 3x my handwriting speed - - - - accuracy is likely far better than any ocr program as well. The limitations of these devices are quite interesting. The whole genre seems like toys for those with lots of toys. It would help if technical books were not so expensive and so hard to get. (Reader use) Oh well - - - not designed for my kind of uses. Regards
Sorry, just noticed I wrote “it will also read” but I didn’t say what! It does epub well… doesn’t do mobi. ../Dave On May 12, 2021, 6:53 AM -0400, o1bigtenor via talk <talk@gtalug.org>, wrote:
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 9:00 PM David Mason via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
I have a reMarkable https://remarkable.com/ which is great for PDFs, writing notes, etc. and it will also read.
It’s quite nice. I generally use it instead of paper for notes. You can even transfer web pages to it (from a Chrome plug-in) to read them in more comfort.
An interesting tool! For $750 inc taxes - - - - dunno. Find the idea that handwriting is wonderful just a little goofy - - - - my typing is easily 3x my handwriting speed - - - - accuracy is likely far better than any ocr program as well.
The limitations of these devices are quite interesting. The whole genre seems like toys for those with lots of toys. It would help if technical books were not so expensive and so hard to get. (Reader use) Oh well - - - not designed for my kind of uses.
Regards --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
That looks nice, will definitely have a closer look. John.
---------- Original Message ---------- From: David Mason via talk <talk@gtalug.org> Date: May 11, 2021 at 10:00 PM
I have a reMarkable https://remarkable.com/ which is great for PDFs, writing notes, etc. and it will also read.
It’s quite nice. I generally use it instead of paper for notes. You can even transfer web pages to it (from a Chrome plug-in) to read them in more comfort.
../Dave On May 11, 2021, 6:27 PM -0400, Lennart Sorensen via talk <talk@gtalug.org>, wrote:
> > On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 01:40:03PM -0400, Trevor Woerner via talk > > wrote:
> > > As I expected, there's lots of really good feedback :-)
I should have clarified that I have lots and lots of tablets and phones and all those sorts of devices, but I've never had an e-reader and I'm curious enough to at least want to try one (mostly for battery life, eye strain, and general impressions). Ideally I could just buy one and it would be great, rather than having to try a bunch of them before finding one I like :-)
> > Well if you want something with great battery life > > that is great for
reading ebooks in daylight, an ereader is great. For the things you listed though, they are useless.
So if you want to carry 200 books with you, they are fantastic. They remember what page you were on in each book. Very handy for book worms.
They are very much not generic computing devices at all though. They do one thing well and that's it. I know sony tried doing mp3 support for audio books on early models and dropped it later since it drained the battery and was no match for an ipod shuffle for audio books.
-- Len Sorensen --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
>
--- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 10:00:10PM -0400, David Mason via talk wrote:
I have a reMarkable [1]https://remarkable.com/ which is great for PDFs, writing notes, etc. and it will also read. It’s quite nice. I generally use it instead of paper for notes. You can even transfer web pages to it (from a Chrome plug-in) to read them in more comfort.
The OP I think would be best served by a tablet (the iPad is great for the needs listed). I've been thinking of getting a reMarkable 2, which has the ability to be a reader for PDF and epub as a side-benefit, for use primarily as a note-taking device. I type much faster than I write, but there is psychological research that shows people learn and retain information better when taking it down by hand, and anyway I'm old enough to prefer taking notes, making lists, sketching on the page, etc. by hand. That's what the reMarkable excels at, and why it is such a success in its niche. If you don't fit that restrictive set of requirements, then it looks like a weirdly expensive limited toy. If you do fit it, it's exactly what you need. I *do* use my iPad for these things, to some extent. But the reMarkable does a, well, remarkable job at simulating paper and the exact experience. -- Peter King peter.king@utoronto.ca Department of Philosophy 170 St. George Street #521 The University of Toronto (416)-946-3170 ofc Toronto, ON M5R 2M8 CANADA http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/ ========================================================================= GPG keyID 0x7587EC42 (2B14 A355 46BC 2A16 D0BC 36F5 1FE6 D32A 7587 EC42) gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 7587EC42
On 2021-05-11 1:12 p.m., D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
- when you choose an ereader, you are choosing a bookstore. They are tied. You can side-load non-DRMed books (that's what I do).
With tablets, you can install apps for the various book stores, so you can have several "e-readers" in one.
Hi Trevor, I'm Alex, the president of GTALUG. I have your video ready, but I didn't know your email so I couldn't let you know. Please take a look if it's ok to publish it -- https://youtu.be/NDcjgCbDyJ8 You can reach me at alex@flamy.ca Alex. On 2021-05-11 10:26 a.m., Trevor Woerner via talk wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-)
Nice to have features: - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) - be able to take notes
--- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
...and I sent the email to a wrong address... Sorry everyone. On 2021-05-11 12:11 p.m., Alex Volkov via talk wrote:
Hi Trevor,
I'm Alex, the president of GTALUG. I have your video ready, but I didn't know your email so I couldn't let you know.
Please take a look if it's ok to publish it -- https://youtu.be/NDcjgCbDyJ8
You can reach me at alex@flamy.ca
Alex.
On 2021-05-11 10:26 a.m., Trevor Woerner via talk wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-)
Nice to have features: - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) - be able to take notes
--- Post to this mailing listtalk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing listhttps://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
--- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On 2021-05-11 10:26 a.m., Trevor Woerner via talk wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-)
Nice to have features: - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) - be able to take notes
--- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
I bought a Sony PRS-500 in 2003, and its still going strong. I have read thousands of books on it. Others on the list have pointed out that "the only advantages of an e-reader, such as the Kobo, are battery life and using in bright sunlight." Another big advantage is that they are small and light, while still retaining the paperback size format. As with all modern devices, they reflow documents to aid the aging eye Finally, witness the battery life. My mother-in-law uses a kindle and the daily recharge is part of routine. I get by with about 2 weeks of 1-3 hours a day use before charging, and that return to 3 weeks, after the next (per-decade) battery replacement. -- Michael Galea
I once had a Sony e-reader, it was great for purpose. As has been suggested, it's best for the ePub format, less good with PDFs. For whatever reasons, the landscape for eReaders has consolidated into two brands -- Kobo and Kindle. The situation may have changed since I last checked it out, but last I recall Kindles were optimised for Amazon content and didn't do unlocked ePubs very well. They also used to be cheaper, but as I look now the current price on an 8" Kobo is $50 more than I paid for my 9"Android tablet. That's if you buy locally. If you don't mind going offshore there are dozens of offers at less than $100 on aliexpress (here's one example <https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001613017326.html>). ----- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56 On Tue, 11 May 2021 at 13:41, Michael Galea via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On 2021-05-11 10:26 a.m., Trevor Woerner via talk wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-)
Nice to have features: - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) - be able to take notes
--- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
I bought a Sony PRS-500 in 2003, and its still going strong. I have read thousands of books on it.
Others on the list have pointed out that "the only advantages of an e-reader, such as the Kobo, are battery life and using in bright sunlight."
Another big advantage is that they are small and light, while still retaining the paperback size format. As with all modern devices, they reflow documents to aid the aging eye
Finally, witness the battery life. My mother-in-law uses a kindle and the daily recharge is part of routine. I get by with about 2 weeks of 1-3 hours a day use before charging, and that return to 3 weeks, after the next (per-decade) battery replacement.
-- Michael Galea --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
As Evan stated about ePubs I'm not sure if that's changed. As from my experience I was thinking about it a few years ago, however I decided not to due to my reading habits. The only pro was it's lighter than books and the eink is pretty close or identical to a book. However three things that were of concern at least to me are: 1. A lot of books aren't in ebook format either due to being out of print or otherwise. Outside of more academic texts, the numbers in my experience were between 10 and 30 percent of what I was looking for in more consumer areas like fantasy or other fiction. 2. Depending on what your reading the ebook can be more expensive and even then it's not much of a savings unless the book is already in the public domain like Dickens e.t.c. versus paper. It depends on what but normally it is cheaper actually to just find a used book store versus the average 25% discount actually. 3. This may not matter depending on what your reading but note taking in terms of my more complex reading has been much better in paper and I read faster/get more out of the texts which believe me is huge when there that complex. I would state the difference at least from a non eink screen is something like 35% or so if I had to qualify it in terms of metrics. So it's pretty big with higher level academic and programming texts. So that's my warning if your using it for these sorts of texts. As for ereaders if your looking for one Kobos are fine, and the biggest advantage in terms of the ones I've used is to Evans point is that Kobos are more open. They were the only ones at the middle to higher end versions that are waterproof from memory, not sure if that matters to you. Hopefully this helps you Trevor, Nick On 5/11/21 2:18 PM, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
I once had a Sony e-reader, it was great for purpose. As has been suggested, it's best for the ePub format, less good with PDFs.
For whatever reasons, the landscape for eReaders has consolidated into two brands -- Kobo and Kindle.
The situation may have changed since I last checked it out, but last I recall Kindles were optimised for Amazon content and didn't do unlocked ePubs very well.
They also used to be cheaper, but as I look now the current price on an 8" Kobo is $50 more than I paid for my 9"Android tablet. That's if you buy locally. If you don't mind going offshore there are dozens of offers at less than $100 on aliexpress (here's one example <https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001613017326.html>).
-----
Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56
On Tue, 11 May 2021 at 13:41, Michael Galea via talk <talk@gtalug.org <mailto:talk@gtalug.org>> wrote:
On 2021-05-11 10:26 a.m., Trevor Woerner via talk wrote: > I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these > recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following > e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-) > > Nice to have features: > - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) > - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) > - be able to take notes > > --- > Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org <mailto:talk@gtalug.org> > Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk <https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk> > I bought a Sony PRS-500 in 2003, and its still going strong. I have read thousands of books on it.
Others on the list have pointed out that "the only advantages of an e-reader, such as the Kobo, are battery life and using in bright sunlight."
Another big advantage is that they are small and light, while still retaining the paperback size format. As with all modern devices, they reflow documents to aid the aging eye
Finally, witness the battery life. My mother-in-law uses a kindle and the daily recharge is part of routine. I get by with about 2 weeks of 1-3 hours a day use before charging, and that return to 3 weeks, after the next (per-decade) battery replacement.
-- Michael Galea --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org <mailto:talk@gtalug.org> Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk <https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk>
--- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On 2021-05-11 3:36 p.m., Nicholas Krause via talk wrote:
2. Depending on what your reading the ebook can be more expensive and even then it's not much of a savings unless the book is already in the public domain like Dickens e.t.c. versus paper. It depends on what but normally it is cheaper actually to just find a used book store versus the average 25% discount actually.
While I have bought several books, most of my reading is with library ebooks. Also, there are some books available for free with Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 10:26:43AM -0400, Trevor Woerner via talk wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-)
Nice to have features: - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) - be able to take notes
My experience with ereaders has been with a couple of Sony eink ereaders. They are great for reading ebooks on. They are not grear at PDFs in general, and they certainly would be absolutely terrible for browsing the web (the screen update speed is terrible) and the idea of mirroring a desktop to it is totally hopeless. eink displays are useless for that. The other option is a tablet, which is pretty much what any ereader that isn't using an eink display is. Result of course is that reading in bright sunlight doesn't really work well, and the battery life is way way less. It's a tradeoff. Certainly the 3 things you list to me says you want a tablet, not an ereader. -- Len Sorensen
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 06:09:46PM -0400, wrote:
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 10:26:43AM -0400, Trevor Woerner via talk wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-)
Nice to have features: - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) - be able to take notes
My experience with ereaders has been with a couple of Sony eink ereaders. They are great for reading ebooks on. They are not grear at PDFs in general, and they certainly would be absolutely terrible for browsing the web (the screen update speed is terrible) and the idea of mirroring a desktop to it is totally hopeless. eink displays are useless for that.
The other option is a tablet, which is pretty much what any ereader that isn't using an eink display is. Result of course is that reading in bright sunlight doesn't really work well, and the battery life is way way less.
It's a tradeoff.
Certainly the 3 things you list to me says you want a tablet, not an ereader.
Hmm, I just saw an add for the new kobo elipsa and was surprised that it actually covers more of what you seemed to want that I would have expected. 10.3" e-ink screen stylus to write your own notes and scribbles web browser support for pdf, mobi, epub files I guess the only thing missing is the screen mirroring. At least I don't see that mentioned as an option. I think they list the price at $499 canadian. -- Len Sorensen
| From: Lennart Sorensen via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | Hmm, I just saw an add for the new kobo elipsa and was surprised that | it actually covers more of what you seemed to want that I would have | expected. | | 10.3" e-ink screen | stylus to write your own notes and scribbles | web browser | support for pdf, mobi, epub files "mobi" is almost hidden. That's not likely useful unless it supports Amazon's DRM, and I doubt Amazon would allow that. | I guess the only thing missing is the screen mirroring. At least I | don't see that mentioned as an option. | | I think they list the price at $499 canadian. Very interesting. The reMakrable 2's even higher price has softened me up for this price. It seems very high, but if it really streamlines things for you, it would be worth it. As usual, how would one know without actually using one? Perhaps Dave Mason could tell us about his experience. "Available June 24th". Pre-order here: <https://ca.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-elipsa> I cannot tell how much this overlaps with the reMarkable 2 this https://remarkable.com/ It seems less expensive. Specifications are near the bottom of each web page. Do press "See more technical specs" on the Elipsa page. - screen resolutions and sizes are the same. - Elipsa appears to have a bit more storage and processor power but that may not pan out. The reMarkable 2's software has had some time to mature and develop. It might be significantly more useful.
I haven't used a reMarkable, but there does seem to be a fairly active community dedicated to hacking reMarkables. This might be a selling feature if you're planning on doing something that's not officially supported by the vendor. There's a listing of many reMarkable-related projects her: https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable
On 05/20/2021 10:33 AM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
| From: Lennart Sorensen via talk <talk@gtalug.org>
| Hmm, I just saw an add for the new kobo elipsa and was surprised that | it actually covers more of what you seemed to want that I would have | expected. | | 10.3" e-ink screen | stylus to write your own notes and scribbles | web browser | support for pdf, mobi, epub files
"mobi" is almost hidden. That's not likely useful unless it supports Amazon's DRM, and I doubt Amazon would allow that.
| I guess the only thing missing is the screen mirroring. At least I | don't see that mentioned as an option. | | I think they list the price at $499 canadian.
Very interesting. The reMakrable 2's even higher price has softened me up for this price. It seems very high, but if it really streamlines things for you, it would be worth it. As usual, how would one know without actually using one? Perhaps Dave Mason could tell us about his experience.
"Available June 24th". Pre-order here: <https://ca.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-elipsa>
I cannot tell how much this overlaps with the reMarkable 2 this https://remarkable.com/ It seems less expensive.
Specifications are near the bottom of each web page. Do press "See more technical specs" on the Elipsa page.
- screen resolutions and sizes are the same.
- Elipsa appears to have a bit more storage and processor power but that may not pan out.
The reMarkable 2's software has had some time to mature and develop. It might be significantly more useful. --- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On 2021-05-20 8:28 a.m., Lennart Sorensen via talk wrote:
Hmm, I just saw an add for the new kobo elipsa and was surprised that it actually covers more of what you seemed to want that I would have expected.
10.3" e-ink screen stylus to write your own notes and scribbles web browser support for pdf, mobi, epub files
I have an old Sony PRS-T1 that has a 7" screen. It has the stylus for writing notes and scribbling. It is supposed to be able to play music but I've never tried using it for that. It has a web browser which doesn't work on a lot of sites as its certificates are out-of-date. As to file formats I mostly use it to read PDF versions of technical books. I have it trim the pages of some of the white space around the edges of the page to maximize the available screen real estate. Support for file formats with eReaders is not a problem. I use Calibre to load books in to my eReader. Calibre is a good program for managing your library of books. It can handle many (if not all) common file formats used with eReaders and can convert between them if you have a file in a format not supported by your eReader. -- Cheers! Kevin. http://www.ve3syb.ca/ | "Nerds make the shiny things that https://www.patreon.com/KevinCozens | distract the mouth-breathers, and | that's why we're powerful" Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172 | #include <disclaimer/favourite> | --Chris Hardwick
I did a few years work for (Rackey-Coon) Kobo and was impressed by their devices. My wife and I have one each, both dedicated to books. --dave On 2021-05-20 8:28 a.m., Lennart Sorensen via talk wrote:
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 06:09:46PM -0400, wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-)
Nice to have features: - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) - be able to take notes My experience with ereaders has been with a couple of Sony eink ereaders. They are great for reading ebooks on. They are not grear at PDFs in general, and they certainly would be absolutely terrible for browsing
On Tue, May 11, 2021 at 10:26:43AM -0400, Trevor Woerner via talk wrote: the web (the screen update speed is terrible) and the idea of mirroring a desktop to it is totally hopeless. eink displays are useless for that.
The other option is a tablet, which is pretty much what any ereader that isn't using an eink display is. Result of course is that reading in bright sunlight doesn't really work well, and the battery life is way way less.
It's a tradeoff.
Certainly the 3 things you list to me says you want a tablet, not an ereader. Hmm, I just saw an add for the new kobo elipsa and was surprised that it actually covers more of what you seemed to want that I would have expected.
10.3" e-ink screen stylus to write your own notes and scribbles web browser support for pdf, mobi, epub files
I guess the only thing missing is the screen mirroring. At least I don't see that mentioned as an option.
I think they list the price at $499 canadian.
-- David Collier-Brown, | Always do right. This will gratify System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest davecb@spamcop.net | -- Mark Twain
Turns out I had done some research before posting, so it was rather awkward reading so many replies saying I was crazy to think these devices could, in any way, ever possibly do, anything, remotely like what I had, … On Thu, May 20, 2021 at 8:28 AM Lennart Sorensen < lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
Hmm, I just saw an add for the new kobo elipsa and was surprised that it actually covers more of what you seemed to want that I would have expected.
;-)
On 2021-05-11 10:26 a.m., Trevor Woerner via talk wrote:
I'm looking for recommendations for e-readers. Ideally these recommendations would come in the form of "I have used <the following e-readers> and <this> is the one I like best for <these reasons>" ;-)
Nice to have features: - be able to read websites (i.e. surf the web) - be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor) - be able to take notes
--- Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org Unsubscribe from this mailing list https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On 2021-05-11 10:26 a.m., Trevor Woerner via talk wrote: ....
- be able to mirror a screen from my desktop (or act as another monitor)
This was done in hacks years ago with e-ink displays and the result was poor enough that nobody continued. https://www.pcworld.com/article/259582/how_to_use_a_kindle_dx_as_a_pc_displa... I would personally love a secondary e-ink monitor, even if it were too slow to keep up with a mouse pointer, but I think I'm in a very small minority. Mike (apologies for the earlier empty reply.... slip of the finger)
participants (17)
-
Alex Volkov -
Alex Volkov -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
David Collier-Brown -
David Mason -
Evan Leibovitch -
James Knott -
John Moniz -
Kevin Cozens -
lsorense＠csclub.uwaterloo.ca -
Michael Galea -
Mike Kallies -
Nicholas Krause -
o1bigtenor -
Peter King -
Stefan Kloppenborg -
Trevor Woerner