Are you glad you have an eBook reader? How many times?

TeleRead forums post an explanation here by Ficbot of how she was pleased, 10 times over of having an eBook reader.

I have long shared her belief that the eBook discussion shouldn't be a print OR eBook discussion.

The two have different strengths and can complement each other, and that sometimes you may even want both formats of the SAME book and even buy them together.

I'm not sure when I've been "most glad" to have an eBook reader. I think it would have to be either:-

• Travelling: when trying to travel light and not knowing which books to take. Forgetting to take any books at all. Finishing the book I was reading shortly after starting the trip!
• Away from Home: Being at the beach house for spells in summer or weekends and not having anything with me to read in paper form.

What about eBook reader owners amongst you out there?
When were/are you most glad to have an eBook reader with you?

Audio eBooks on Amazon Kindle

Over at TeleRead web you can see this post discussing audible books from Audible.com (recently bought by Amazon) on the Amazon Kindle.

I tried an audio book for the first time this summer, via my iPod in my car on my daily commute to work and back - with mixed results - and I'm still not sold on the idea but try to keep an open mind.

This person's experience with the Kindle using the Audible.com audio book seems to have been fine and they recommend you try it.

It makes me wonder what the experience would be like for a combined "visual" eBook and audio-book on an eBook reading device, where the page was presented on-screen AND read to you. Not sure what that would be useful for, beyond maybe learning a foreign language but it might be fun to try.

Gushing on Kindle

Original Post from June 16th 2008.

An article from a "The Street" reporter - once Kindle-sceptic, now convert, on why she loves her Kindle, it saves her money *and* is convenient...

Read article here

E Ink and SONY eBook reader struggles with the “3 B’s” test

Original Post from August 2007.

You may have heard of the "Three 'R's", which are considered the basic building blocks of a good education. They are "Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic"! :-)

Well, books (and so eBooks if they wish to emulate them) have their own test that must be passed, namely the "Three 'B's", where apparently most reading is done: "Bedroom, Beach and Bathroom".

How does the Sony/E-Ink combination stack up in use in these three demanding environments?

Bathroom
Most bathrooms are fairly well lit, either daylight through a frosted glass window -or artificially lit- and so the eInk display does pretty well.
The trend to put in a number of small halogen spotlights in the ceiling can produce some specular reflection but even then the eBook, with it's semi-matte screen coating, remains very readable.
PASS. "V.G."

Bedroom
The reflective E-Ink display used in the Sony & iRex readers and its great reflectivity in well lit conditions, even bright sunlight, becomes a limitation in this environment. With the E-Ink display you will need to put on that bedside light and risk the wrath of any co-occupant of the bed trying to sleep while you read!
Off course, this is also true of a book.
So, PASS with a "Could do better" comment.

Beach
Due to the reflective nature of the E-Ink screen I looked forward to long reads lounging on the beach near home here in Barcelona's Summer.
Relaxing reads in strong sunlight. outside on the grass and near the pool augured well.
But trouble emerged...
The last two times I've taken the Sony eBook to the beach I've been able to read the first pages just fine (sunglasses are needed with all that sun reflecting off the page!) but after a few pages the quality of the text on the page deteriorates rapidly, to the point where words disappear, or words from previous pages partly remain, and the text becomes unreadable.
I suspect this is a problem of the temperature of the eInk display module itself, and nothing to do with the eBook electronics.
I haven't bothered to investigate in detail but it seems that after a few minutes of exposure to STRONG sunlight, in a warm temperature (probably over 30 degrees Celsius on the sand) the temperature of the display rises and it starts to fail.
I'll check around for the specs, and maybe do some more testing (e.g. same place and temperature, but shading display, etc).
But meanwhile: FAIL "Improvement needed"

So, overall when compared to a book - the eBook comes up short, albeit in one difficult environment, but one where quite a lot of leisure reading (of Books, Newspapers and Magazines) gets done.

The Guardian - eBooks, a user’s view

I saw recently this article on eBooks from the UK newspaper "The Guardian".

I quote: "Curling up with a good ebook: It has long been predicted that traditional books are about to be replaced by little machines on which you can download any novel you fancy. But the technology has never really been up to the job - until now. Here Andrew Marr , who treasures his smelly, beautiful library of real books, spends a month with one of the new gadgets"

This “book maniac” was very reluctant at the start, but gradually found some ways in which an eBook can complement (not replace, heaven forbid!) his paper books in a number of ways. He highlights a number of advantages that have come-up elsewhere, such as:-

• Great for taking a lot of books in a small space & weight when traveling. Especially when you are an avid reader and either read many books at the same time, or can get through a heap of books during a holiday. This feedback also appeared in Focus Group feedback from HP Labs Bristol’s own user testing.
• It can help reduce the pile-up, and later junking, of a lot of paper for “time sensitive” reading that is never gotten too. This person being a journalist gets a constant stream of stuff to read (in paper format), a lot of which expires after a few days and never gets read. He appreciates how an eBook could allow him to handle the physical mess of papers, and also avoid the paper waste produced.
• Likes the note taking and annotating feature. He seems to be an avid scribbler, writing a lot on types books that many of us would never write on.
• He was able to “get beyond the device” and get emerged in the content and forget he was reading a gadget. This is a must aspect of the reading experience that needs to be pushed on.

Things he finds lacking:-

• The collection aspect. He has a large collection of books going back to childhood, and these physical artifacts evoke memories every time they are seen, touched, smelled etc. Many of them with extensive notes on them.
• Smell and touch of a real book that is part of the book-owning, book-managing and reading experience. This also came up in HP Labs Focus Group feedback. I quite like his suggestion of a cloth-bound cover that will acquire (or come preloaded with?) a dank, musty, old-book look and feel and smell. (WYSIWYG = What you smell is what you get?)
• Page turning is still too slow. Yep, eInk and others have got this message a long time ago and the whole industry is working on this aspect of eInk and similar displays.

Mile high book club

Original Post from June 20th 2007

Recent flights to and from Boston (via Heathrow) gave me the time to do some reading. I was able to finish my second eBook on the Sony PRS-500 eReader (the first was "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman, and the second was "Blink!" by Malcolm Gladwell).

Battery level continues to be excellent with the Sony reader, only now (almost a week after my return and into my third eBook) has it required it's first charging since I started using it, maybe a month ago. My confidence in this is high now and I would take it for a multiple week trip without a charger.

I played quickly with its music playing capabilities, but it only had two pre-loaded songs on it. It seemed to work fine and I could read and listen to music from the same device. Battery drain would be a concern, but with only two songs I didn't get that far.

I was able to read reasonably comfortably (whiter screen and more contrast would always help) in daylight, airport lighting, full cabin lighting, strong sunlight through the window and night-time with overhead "spotlight".

The Sony eBook is relatively discrete and from a distance I think people suspect you are reading a normal book (slip-in book covers would complete the illusion), and the lack of an emmisive screen helps. I didn't get any "what's that geek doing?" looks, and just one inquiree by a British Airways ground staff person who was interested in eBooks, had seen the Sony in a magazine and asked me if he could buy it in the UK already.

This low-profile makes you more comfortable with whipping it out for a read, whether you are consciously or sub-consciously aware of your possible geek-ness.

Waiting for take-off I looked around at my fellow passengers, many of whom were also reading. It struck me that I had the smallest, lightest and most portable "book" around. In comparison, some real books are massive. This time it would fit in the "thigh" pocket on the outside of my combat trousers (although the flap wouldn't close).

While reading the bi-stable screen, with the device consuming no power, the airplane speaker announced "please switch off all your electronic devices". I was tempted to get into a really good discussion with the hostess, that in fact my device WAS off, even if I was still reading the screen - but I behaved and was a good passenger.

To what extent can such a device cover the need for a laptop?

• Text Input. This is a limitation at the moment. One solution could be to be able to plug-in a portable folding keyboard (I'd avoid the bluetooth ones, which give you yet another device to keep charged). I have never really played with them, so that's a future investigation.
• Limited screen real estate. In previous posts I commented how little of the overal device frontal area is dedicated to the screen (~50%) and to real content (~32%). Increasing this would improve the device greatly. Ideally I want a folding, color, ePaper display that when the device is opened gives you 200% of the device area for screen use. This would enable use by multiple applications (eBook, eNews, eMail, eDocReader, etc).
• Communications. The biggest issue with the Sony eReader (even for book content) is it being "tethered" to a PC and it's internet connection to get content. Improvements in this area will give you a device with a life of it's own and increased utility.
• Recharging. A personal gripe. One AC adapter for all of my devices, or at last a global DC power standard I can just "hook into". Could be USB.
  

Submit comments on what would your ideal configuration be for a device that increases it's overlap with what a laptop does for you, without necessarily replacing your laptop.

A Read in the Park

Original post from June 5th 2007

As I just mentioned in my review of the Sony eReader it "fits in the back pocket of my jeans" which is something not many mobile devices beyond a phone can do. I wouldn't sit on it but it is fine while walking and I would even say it goes unnoticed.

The other day I was leaving home to collect my daughter from school. She often likes to go to the play-park near home with other school friends and play for a while before coming home. Sometimes that 15min-30min wait in the park while they play together is the only "quiet reading time" I ever get and so often I take a newspaper, a work document I've printed to read, or my current book, with me.

This time, as my "current book" was an eBook and it resided inside the Sony eReader (after having started to read it with the iRex iLiad eReader) I decided to take it with me. To my surprise it slipped into the back pocket of my jeans, and was covered by my shirt. Something in fact that I couldn't do with either a newspaper, printed A/A4 document, or the paper books I usually ready - leaving my hands free!

With other electronic devices, for screen reading you become "photo-phobic", seeking the dimly let areas where you can read your screen at ease. One change of mindset I am still trying to get used to with the reflective (eInk) eBook screen is the opposite. Seek the light! The brighter the better!
Sometimes reading at home in a dimly lit room with it can in fact be a strain, but the park in bright sunshine would be perfect reading conditions!

Everything went as planned and I got my 20minutes of reading done, and she enjoyed the swings.

It's definitely something I would not attempt to do with my PDA or my Laptop, due to many reasons - one of them being the display readability in bright light.

This helps build confidence in me that there maybe space between the mobile phone and the laptop in the "mobile device continuum", in terms of form factor and readability for devices targeted at the task of reading.

As the technology of the screens and other components progress, and designs improve I think things will only get better.