Britons Rejoice - eBooks are coming

[BrotherBenny]

Britons rejoice. Sony have finally deigned to release the PRS-505/SC in the UK and for a mere £199.99. It comes out on the 20th September 2008 and I'm seriously thinking about picking it up.

Cue JWolf for the lowdown.

 

[tenmei]

Meh, no more likely for me to get an eBook reader than I am now. I just like the way my books line up on the shelf.

 

[BrotherBenny]

As do I, but the only reason I didn't get one before was the price and size of the reader.

I will be buying this and getting the ST eBooks to go with it.

 

[JoeZhang]

I prefer my phone - slips straight into my pocket.

 

[DimesDan]

Thats half the bloody price of my lap top!

But even if it was a lot cheaper, I'm dead tree all the way when it comes to my pleasure reading, although when that smart plastic stuff like in Minority Report is developed, I might get that for my daily newspaper.

 

[JWolf]

I prefer my phone - slips straight into my pocket.

And while you read your eBooks on your phone, you sit there and drain the battery so when the time comes when you need to make a phone call, you sit there and curse the dead battery.

 

[JWolf]

Thats half the bloody price of my lap top!

But even if it was a lot cheaper, I'm dead tree all the way when it comes to my pleasure reading, although when that smart plastic stuff like in Minority Report is developed, I might get that for my daily newspaper.

Might be 1/2 the cost, but it's not even 1/2 the usefulness for reading eBooks on the go.

 

[JoeZhang]

I prefer my phone - slips straight into my pocket.

And while you read your eBooks on your phone, you sit there and drain the battery so when the time comes when you need to make a phone call, you sit there and curse the dead battery.

Never happened so far.

 

[DimesDan]

Thats half the bloody price of my lap top!

But even if it was a lot cheaper, I'm dead tree all the way when it comes to my pleasure reading, although when that smart plastic stuff like in Minority Report is developed, I might get that for my daily newspaper.

Might be 1/2 the cost, but it's not even 1/2 the usefulness for reading eBooks on the go.

I know from observing previous posts you've put, you are very passonate about ebooks, but I find having a hard copy book in my pocket or bag far better on the go than something I don't have a need of nor can I actually justify the cost, so, until thay make that fancy plastopaper, I'm sticking to my dead renewable sourced tree books!

 

[Idoliside]

I have a compaq ipaq, bought it for notes and organising my complicated life (heh), it also reads microsoft .lit files. Handy

 

[T'Leisha]

There's something about the feel and smell of the pages of a book that makes the experience what it is.
I don't think i could give up the pleasure i feel in actually reading, and turning the pages, for something flashy and convenient. I enjoy the simple tactile sensation involved far too much.
Someone once told me that digitalised... Everything, is the future. That's probably true, but i think it would be a real shame if actual books with pages become obsolete. I think certainly some people might push for that, in the name of being forest friendly or some such. I'd probably only read an ebook, if my chosen read was no longer available in print.

 

[Deano2099]

Ebooks will take off eventually, but they don't offer any major advantages over dead-tree books at the moment. And for each advantage there's also a disadvantage.

Now if they were half the price, that might not matter. Or if paperbacks were sold with a redemption code for the eBook thrown in for free they might be able to slowly slide into greater use.

But at the moment they're just not viable. £200 is a lot. I might consider though if it did what my iPod did - let me carry my entire book collection about with me. But it doesn't. In fact I'd have to re-buy every book I want to read on it. Would the iPod ever have taken off if it'd only play albums you bought off iTunes? And they were the same price as the CDs. And you'd have to rebuy all the old ones. No chance.

The convenience and ease of use of an eBook reader really appeals to me. But I have 100s of unread books. If I can't read those on it it's no use whatsoever.

 

[JoeZhang]

you are mixing up the cost of a particular reader with ebooks.

 

[JWolf]

Ebooks will take off eventually, but they don't offer any major advantages over dead-tree books at the moment. And for each advantage there's also a disadvantage.

Now if they were half the price, that might not matter. Or if paperbacks were sold with a redemption code for the eBook thrown in for free they might be able to slowly slide into greater use.

But at the moment they're just not viable. £200 is a lot. I might consider though if it did what my iPod did - let me carry my entire book collection about with me. But it doesn't. In fact I'd have to re-buy every book I want to read on it. Would the iPod ever have taken off if it'd only play albums you bought off iTunes? And they were the same price as the CDs. And you'd have to rebuy all the old ones. No chance.

The convenience and ease of use of an eBook reader really appeals to me. But I have 100s of unread books. If I can't read those on it it's no use whatsoever.

Imagine carrying the lastes SCE/CoE omnibus around with you. In fact, imaging carrying two of them. Can you do it? Do you want to do it? Now imagine carrying around a device that is about the same size as a regular paperback, slightly wider, not as thick, and slightly heavier. Now imagine the SCE/CoE eBook on it able to be read when you want without the hassle of having to carry such heavy omnibuses. It's well worth it.

 

[tenmei]

But, you say imagine carrying around two SCE ominbuses around with you. The point would be - would I want to and would I ever need to? I'm terrible for taking books on holiday - as I read fast and can usually get through about three or four average paperbacks during a two week holiday - and that's more than most people I know may want to carry on holiday. But in other circumstances, I'd not want to carry two SCE omnibuses around - maybe one at a time, because that's all I'm going to read on the bus.

 

[DimesDan]

Imagine carrying the lastes SCE/CoE omnibus around with you. In fact, imaging carrying two of them. Can you do it? Do you want to do it? Now imagine carrying around a device that is about the same size as a regular paperback, slightly wider, not as thick, and slightly heavier. Now imagine the SCE/CoE eBook on it able to be read when you want without the hassle of having to carry such heavy omnibuses. It's well worth it.

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, sorry, are you on a planet with a higher gravity than here on good ol' Earth or are you just a lazy so and so, either way, I just weighed how heavy Voyages of the Imagination is which by my reckoning the chunkiset Trek book I own and my scales told me that it is just over one kilogram in weight, so, they arn't exactly heavy now are they.

Now, I have this wonderful thing called a man bag (tis about the same size as a lap top bag and yes, it's the male equilivant of a hand bag) and I do this strange thing with it, and thats carry things, from my wallet and keys, too the latest book I am reading, now with that book, I can in less time it takes to say "beam me up Scotty" I can find my place with my book mark and start reading. Now of course this technology isn't very fancy, it involves a lot of manual labour by turning one page after another, and sure sometimes light levels may not be so powerful that I can not read at that time, but thats more to do with nature than the book itself. Were as with all technology, I'm sure this reader has it's failing - high battery consumption if you read from it all the time, the chances of partial tunnel (or what ever it's called) by constently pressing the down button all the time.

Please don't get me wrong, I have no problems with ebooks, I might one day get them for my lap top, but if you are going to use the fact that books are heavy as a reason to buy a piece of tech I see no reason to own, I think you should hang your head in shame or watch Wall-e as ok this is a huge leap of logic, we could all be like those far future humans on the Astral.

Ok, Rant over and time for a nice real ale at the pub!

 

[JWolf]

I can pull out my reader and in less time then it takes you to pull out your pBook and flip to the page you left off on, be at the page I left off. Not only is the reader lighter and smaller then the omnibuses, it's easier to hold (in most cases) and it's easier carry multiple books with you. Also, it's a lot easier to get out-of-print Star Trek books as eBooks then it is to find them as pBooks. Now how is it being lazy to want to make it easier to carry around heavy books? I can carry around the entire set of Star Trek Omnibus editions in on my reader then you can in your bag. I too carry around a bag similar to what you've described. No way I'd want to carry around that many large heavy books and with my reader, I don't have to. I just have to haul around the reader.

 

[Deano2099]

Well Jon's comments on carrying books around were directed at me and I happen to agree with him. Having an eBook reader is a fair bit more convenient than carrying books around. Especially as I get a bit annoying when my books get creased and frayed from bouncing around in a bag.
Had I vast amounts of money, I'd have imported a Kindle already. But for someone on a modest income, the initial cost of £200, plus re-buying any book I already owned I wanted to read on it, with practically no saving on new books... Hell forget all the rest, £200 alone is too much for a slight increase in convenience. It's the price of 40 books.

 

[DimesDan]

I can pull out my reader and in less time then it takes you to pull out your pBook and flip to the page you left off on, be at the page I left off. Not only is the reader lighter and smaller then the omnibuses, it's easier to hold (in most cases) and it's easier carry multiple books with you. Also, it's a lot easier to get out-of-print Star Trek books as eBooks then it is to find them as pBooks. Now how is it being lazy to want to make it easier to carry around heavy books? I can carry around the entire set of Star Trek Omnibus editions in on my reader then you can in your bag. I too carry around a bag similar to what you've described. No way I'd want to carry around that many large heavy books and with my reader, I don't have to. I just have to haul around the reader.

Everyone is to there own I guess and I've seen you go toe to toe with far more knowledgable individuals than I on the issue of ebooks and from those what I've seen you are fanatical about electronic books and like so many fanatics once you have stated your opinion, you don't back down.

So may I just ask a questions?

You claim you can start it up, find the place you were upto and then resume reading faster than if I had was reading a hard copy, does it not take a while to load up and then do you not need to navigate through to where you were?

What is the memory like on the devise, once you've ran out, do you need to delete the contents to make more room, or can you just add more memory space?

Battery life: On aveage, how long does the battery last, and what type does it take? Is it a onboard rechargable battery or do you need to keep feeding it AA/AAA batteries or the really small watch type?

What if I lose the infomation on the reader, do I need to rebuy the literature or can I just down load it again?

And I have no problems carrying a large amount of books with me, a few years ago while visiting home from uni, I decided I wanted my book collection up at uni which was nearly 200 miles away, now I don't drive, so I put them all in a massive sports bags and went back on the train with several changes, yes I admit, they were heavy, but I prefer my books in hard copy, I prefer to have the texture of them in my hand, knowing full well that they are more than a whole bunch of digital data, I prefer to look across my room and see all the books on my shelf or sitting cross legged on the floor with research texts surronding me. Now I know these PADDs have there place, but for me, I prefer having a physical paper book in my hands, it feels far more intimate.

 

[Trent Roman]

Dang, and I thought my run-on sentences were bad.

Size and weight are certainly an issue I consider when traveling with books, and one of the reasons I'm casting dark glances at the trend towards more trade paperbacks. I have a fairly sizeable commute and rarely stay still for more than two hours at a time even when I'm on campus, and I've often got quite a number of sizeable tomes with me in addition to whatever pleasure reading I might want to carry around. A year and a half ago I wound up with a sprained trapezoid just from improperly lifting that mutha of a bag, and I've been cautious about overloading myself since (and I'm not overweight). Plus, things like the S.C.E. omnibi are rather unwieldy, and I've taken to saving those for reading at home rather than trying to jostle myself in a position to read them in public transit that doesn't wind up with me falling to the floor everytime the bus/train/metro makes a sudden turn or comes to a sudden stop. I still love my handy, portable MMPBs, but heft and handling are certainly advantages electronic readers have over their bulkier cousins in the pulp'n'paper world.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman