ebooks any good

ok here is another one, looking at getting an ebook for my xmas, does anyone have one, are they any good

ta again

Inger has had an eBook reader for just over a year Rob, and she really likes it.

Pros:

- Small enough to fit in her handbag, so she takes it everywhere;
- Holds about 500 books in its memory, and 2000 more with a memory card inserted, no need to take a stack of books on holiday;
- One battery charge lasts for many hundreds of page turns, so it's very economical on power;
- Screen is just like newsprint to read i.e. great in bright sunlight, inside light, or under a reading lamp.

Cons:

- Ebooks are not as cheap as you would expect @ US$5 to US$9;
- A little cheaper than paperbacks, but still not dirt cheap as you would expect.

If I was buying an eBook reader right now, I would go for a Kobo as sold by Whitcoulls @ $295.
Here is a good review of the Kobo:

www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/3755694/Review-Kobo-e-reader

I love mine It's a Sony Reader, it's very light to carry around so I leave it in my handbag. It's touch screen, has adjustable font size, can hold hundreds of books. When you register you get the option to downloads heaps of free books - all Shakespeare, all Wilde, all Austen, all Dickens etc and a shelf full of classics

Mine isn't wireless so to download books I attach it via usb to my laptop. It has the facility to store and play music and I can write (or type) memos to myself on it.

Altogether I've really enjoyed having it. I read a lot and if I'm stuck somewhere for ten minutes or so then I switch it on and lose myself in a book []

What else can I tell you?

You don't necessarily need a proprietory reader - I've been using a Dell Pocket PC with "Mobipocket Reader" as the ebook reader software (and over 300 books on it) for about 5 years and now rarely read novels etc any other way - it's not good in the spa pool though! Mobipocket runs on my laptop too.

Keep in mind that there are many book formats, some open, some proprietry and others are restricted by security. If you are buying books keep in mind future access if (ie when!) you change readers.

EPUB is the latest "open source" ebook format and others like MOBI can easily be converted.

Mobipocket is an open format reader and so you can read most formats including DOC, PDF and HTML.

There are 1000s of free out of copyright e-books available - see Gutenburg ( www.gutenberg.org ) / Manybooks (manybooks.net) / The Internet Archive ( www.archive.org ) etc.

Murray

Good point Murray, and welcome to lsb

Murray100;328889 wrote: You don't necessarily need a proprietory reader - I've been using a Dell Pocket PC with "Mobipocket Reader" as the ebook reader software (and over 300 books on it) for about 5 years and now rarely read novels etc any other way - it's not good in the spa pool though! Mobipocket runs on my laptop too.

Keep in mind that there are many book formats, some open, some proprietry and others are restricted by security. If you are buying books keep in mind future access if (ie when!) you change readers.

EPUB is the latest "open source" ebook format and others like MOBI can easily be converted.

Mobipocket is an open format reader and so you can read most formats including DOC, PDF and HTML.

There are 1000s of free out of copyright e-books available - see Gutenburg ( www.gutenberg.org ) / Manybooks (manybooks.net) / The Internet Archive ( www.archive.org ) etc.

Murray

Hiya Murray100 and welcome. I absolutely agree with you. I even use the same PocketPC as you do! [] I wonder if the other eBook readers are compatible to the free format. Probably not because they might make their money by selling the eBooks for their reader.

Cheers

Peter

Agreed, you don't need a 'special' ebook reader, as most phones with large screens function perfectly well as ebook readers.
I use a palm Tungsten T3, t'other half uses a Palm Treo phone.

There are thousands of ebooks out there on the internet, in many formats. Find the format that your reader uses, then use free Calibre from www.calibre.com to convert to your format.

I think most products promoted as readers, use proprietory formats. While their screens are probably better than the Pocket PC (Dell, HP and many others) / Palm / many phones, the PPC and others have a perfectly adequate display, are a better size to carry and let you do a lot more besides as they are general purpose (albeit a bit more limited than a laptop) PCs.

Hi Peter - it was a pity that Dell dropped the Axim wasn't it, however I believe they have just released a new equivalent.

Many thanks for the warm welcomes!

We are just starting on our first (ever) lambs (Dorper Ram, Dorper-Romney Ewes and have 3 cute b&w lambs so far - with one sitting in the living room), and so you'll probably be getting many dumb questions from us!

Murray

thank you once again, i like the idea of an ebook, gives my wife more room to put her STUFF on my bookcase and no more hunting around bookshops for what you want.

again many thanks to all who replied,

i must have one

Kate,

where did you buy your reader from

I got Inger's eBook reader from Expansys in Hong Kong:

www.expansys.co.nz/laptops+netbooks/eboo...nstock=0&update=true

I have bought several items from them, and they have been good to deal with each time. I noticed that they have several Sony models available.

cheers grant