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Posts: 75 | Thanked: 82 times | Joined on Feb 2008 @ Silicon Valley
#37
Originally Posted by javispedro View Post


I am sorry, did you even try one of those? I mean, not the Kindle (a.k.a. a child's toy).

I use my N810 as an ebook reader during my daily 15 minute tube ride (actually, four times a day) -- perfect for that, smaller than a dedicated ebook reader.
But as soon as I get out of the tube, the N810 becomes _unusable_. Virtually unreadable under the sun. Black over white, white over black, red over black, you name it: it sucks.

Amazon's trying to compete within the "real books" market; they're not wanting to displace phones or PDAs. Just dare to market the N810 as a "real book replacement".
Yes, I wouldn't say something sucks without first trying it.
I will state however our use cases do differ. I never read ebooks in full noon directly overhead sun where I can not shade the screen. I can always turn my body or find a tree to stand under to read. In full sun directly on the screen, I'll willingly concede that the e-ink displays are vastly superior. For my use case, I'm frequently reading in the office, car, man's study , bed, and where ever the wife says "I'll be ready in 5 minutes" so I can get a good 30 minutes of reading time. Most of these situations have lighting that's not so great. E-Ink does not have any backlighting, save the crappy side lighting on a Sony model. So for my use case, N810 wins with much better readability and no extra book-light required. Everything I need to read at any time is always in my pocket.

Flights from right <-> left USA coasts reading the whole way and had plenty of battery left. 13 hour flight from left coast to Asia is also no problem. I never have any battery issues with my N810 and it lasts much longer than my prior Palm devices.

Regarding the comic; as funny as it was, my shelves are already overflowing with paper books. I don't want more shelves.

My ebooks are purchased, DRM stripped, and converted into HTML in 30 minutes or less (depending on how much MS Word crap is left after HTML tidy). HTML files mean I can archive the book and it's readable on any device past, present, and future from my N810 to my wife's iPhooey running stanza. I'd love to see improvements/alternative HTML format book readers; only wish I could code myself out of a wet paper bag and help...
 

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