Electric Books and Motorhomers (1 Viewer)

Jim

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Books are popular with motorhomers, and book swaps are common when we meet up. But is this new bit of kit from Amazon the answer for the avid motorhoming reader that needs to watch his payload. It looks great, can one of you rich guys buy one and then do a review for us?

<<Kindle>>
 

JayDee

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Looks wonderful, but for me I don't think it'll replace the book - it's the feel of the thing - as well as a book doesn't develop faults or flat batteries.

So, no, I don't think I'll be buying and trying - sorry. Can think of more fruitful ways of spending (what would it be, the cost of the machine plus £2.50 a book?) £700.
I get most of my books from the library - costs nought. ::bigsmile:

JayDee
 
G

GeorgeTelford

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Hi JD

Its £202.50 including first book :Smile:

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JayDee

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Hi George,
True but it holds 200 books at £2.50 a book - hence the £700. :Smile:
 
G

GeorgeTelford

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Hi JD

when I read this bit (what would it be, the cost of the machine plus £2.50 a book?)

I misread it and I saw (what would it be, the cost of the machine plus £2.50 for a book?) :Doh:

I am an avid reader of books (varied taste too, anything from Koontz to biographies technical stuff) but I would have to testdrive that, books have a "feel and pace" that would be hard to emulate....
 

JayDee

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Hi JD

when I read this bit (what would it be, the cost of the machine plus £2.50 a book?)

I misread it and I saw (what would it be, the cost of the machine plus £2.50 for a book?) :Doh:

I am an avid reader of books (varied taste too, anything from Koontz to biographies technical stuff) but I would have to testdrive that, books have a "feel and pace" that would be hard to emulate....

Yeah, George, me too - a lot of fantasy stuff in my case and the 'feel and pace' is a good way of describing what I was trying to say.
I subscribe to Techdirt and this morning's edition had this...

Kindle's Overpriced Content ((Mis)Uses of Technology)

by Tim Lee from the hello-walled-gardens dept on Monday, November 19th, 2007 @ 10:51AM

On Friday, I expressed skepticism that e-book technology has reached the point where it will overtake the paper book. Now Amazon's PR blitz has begun, and so we're getting more details about the Kindle's features and pricing. I'm not impressed. First, there's the obvious point that the device's DRM will make a lot of customers wary of getting locked into Amazon's proprietary platform. But the even bigger flaw is the pricing model. Apparently, Amazon will charge you $1.99 for public domain books like Bleak House. Kindle also provides you with access to blogs, but only 250 of them (including Techdirt), and you have to pay at least a dollar a month for the privilege of reading what you can see here for free. And you can subscribe to the New York Times, but you have to pay $13.99 per month for that. This really seems like a strange pricing strategy. A lot of consumers will balk at paying for blog content they've always gotten for free online. Likewise, giving away public domain books would be a good way to spur adoption of the device at very low cost to Amazon. And it's weird to charge so much for a digital newspaper at the same time newspapers are dropping their paywalls online. Even the price for new books, $9.99, seems too expensive. Publishers don't have to print, ship, and stock e-books, so their costs are obviously a lot lower. On top of that, the demand for a lot of books is likely to be quite elastic—cut the price in half and you could easily double the number of sales.

The one undeniably innovative thing about the Kindle is the free wireless EVDO access. The limits on access to Internet content may be an attempt to keep the bandwidth consumption down. But in a world where you can get an unlimited data plan for your iPhone for $20 per month, they should at least have an option for a flat rate "all you can eat" data plan, which would allow you to access Internet content and subscribe to an unlimited number of blogs, newspapers, and public domain books. Bezos obviously wants this to be the iPod of the printed word. But one of the crucial factors behind the iPod's success is that it gives you free access to content in open formats. You can rip your CDs and listen to them on an iPod. You can subscribe to an unlimited number of podcasts. With the Kindle, in contrast, Amazon apparently expects customers to buy an unfamiliar proprietary device, and then pay a premium to read content like blogs and public domain books that's available for free on the Internet. Somehow I don't think that very many people are going to go for that.


Of course it's all in USD and it seems that the price structure over there is different from the UK.
Bottom line? Not impressed.

John

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Jim

Jim

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Almost a year on and these are still not available in the UK. :Sad: Have any of our American Funsters bought one?

Read in the Telegraph today about the new Sony/Watertones set up, but reports on the Sony machine are not that good and according to today's article Waterstones are selling the Ebooks for the same price as the real thing!:Eeek:
 

Stephen & Jeannie

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books !

i checked it out in waterstones and they said that the price of a book download was 20% less than the book price ! i said thank you very much but i will frequent the charity shops and then swap with other motor homers on journey. :Eeek:
 

Spacerunner

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WH Smith are selling CyBook Gen3 for £149.99. Looks similar to the Sony/Waterstones offering. Anyone know about it?

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Jim

Jim

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Anyone bought one of these Sony readers yet? Any chance of a review?
 

russ

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Me and the boss get a lot off our books on audio Cd's so we can listen whilst we go to sleep.:Smile:
 

superk

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Member G2EWS been very positive about the Sony on MHFacts as well as others and pointed to a site where you could download around 10,000 books for free and there are many other sites.

As we go away for six months there's an awful lot of books and weight go with us so the Sony made good sense until my wife pointed out we would need two.

Had a look in Waterstones today - it's a nice piece of kit, about the size of a paperback, easy to read in any light due to the print being ink-like. It comes with 100 books preloaded so about £2 per book and the Reader is free!

Think what it could do for students and textbooks.

Sells for around £150 in the USA £199 here.

There's a new model with many more features going into the USA in November.

The link to some owners reviews (nearly all very positive:Waterstones.com: eBooks: Reader from Sony by Sony United Kingdom (2008)

The blurb:

The Reader from Sony provides a new way to experience reading. It boasts an impressive 6-inch display using breakthrough technology that's almost paper-like, making it easy to read even in bright sunshine. In addition, the screen allows for high contrast and high resolution, with a near 180° viewing angle. The text can also be changed between three different font sizes. Ultra Portable: A perfect travel companion, the Reader from Sony offers a unique, on-the-go reading experience. With a compact and lightweight design, you can take it almost anywhere and read whenever you want. More compact than many paperbacks, it weighs just nine ounces (without cover), is only half an inch thin and holds up to 160 eBooks. You can easily hold it in one hand, and with its rechargeable battery you can turn up to 7,500 continuous pages on a single charge.

Tempted.

:Smile:
Keith

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spudandpatricia

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i checked it out in waterstones and they said that the price of a book download was 20% less than the book price ! i said thank you very much but i will frequent the charity shops and then swap with other motor homers on journey. :Eeek:

Yeah, I'm a charity shop customer.

Got piles of books not even got around to reading yet, max paid £1.

Most of them 10p and 20p, although I've noticed that these shops seem to be bumping up the prices.

:Smile:
 

twooks

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a friend has one and it looks absolutely brilliant, keeps your place and everything - neat and v easy to use. Unfortunately from my point of view it sort of 'flashes' the new page up, and that sort of thing triggers migraine attacks - pity I'd have one otherwise - cost of downloads seems to be pretty good.
Other option for simple storage is audio books - but unfortunately they just put me to sleep in seconds

:Cool:
 

Kon tiki

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I wonder why all of a sudden that this is the must have gadget, I have been using my Dell Axim x50v PDA for years with Microsoft Reader (free from Microsoft) to read books & many other types of documents. There are plenty of programs for converting various types of documents into MS Reader LIT files.

It seems the days of the PDA are nearing an end but I don't know why, I use mine for navigation with TomTom, I have hundreds of ebooks for reading, Brain training programs, games, MP3 player, watch movies, browse the web, email etc....... I can do almost anything I can do on a PC & it fits easily in my pocket, in fact if I get the right adapter I can stick a sim card in it & use it as a phone (I couldn't understand the fuss about the iPhone)
I did manage to get a brand new Dell Axim x51v (this is to save the fighting over whose turn it is to use it now we have one each)

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Oct 27, 2007
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Hi All

I purchased a Sony Reader after seeing G2EWS one at Shepton Mallett. Well pleased with it. it came with 100 free books on a CD and there are other books that can be obtained freely on the internet. It will allow lots of people who cant get their book published an audience. The best bits you can increase the size of the text, its light (I have 66 books on it at the moment) and fits into my handbag. You can read more than one book at a time and it bookmarks your place. I have felt myself trying to turn the page:Doh: I Love it - I will have it with me at Billing if anyone wants to have a play with it. :thumb:

Sonja
 

TinaGlenn

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I have also got a Sony E Reader, and have loaded over 200 books on it so far, utilising a 4 gig SD card for extra storage.

It came with a CD with 100 classic books of all kinds, and I have downloaded some free e books from the net. Also a couple of friends with large e book collections have offered me the use of their very extensive collections :Cool:

Most of the books I enjoy seem to have many hundreds if not thousands of pages and their weight means I can't hold the book comfortably for very long ( arthritic wrists :cry:), with the E Reader I don't have that problem, it is very light and easy to hold, although I have made a fabric cover for mine as I didn't like the feel of the fake/faux leather case supplied with it.

The buttons for turning the pages are in the most logical place and can be used whilst holding in the right or left hand, the bookmark facility is excellent, especially when jumping between books or just for bookmarking something of interest while reading.

I can still use my little clip on reading light when I don't want to disturb Glenn, and the lack of back lighting means I don't end up with tired eyes and headache which was why I gave up using my PDA ( Palm Lifedrive ) to read e books.

I read quite fast so always take several books away with me in the van, Glenn is happier about opening some of the lockers, knowing that there won't be an avalance of books landing on him :RollEyes:

I can store my E book collection on a hard drive and/or laptop which means I can take it anywhere with me, so I am never without my favourites or something new to read.

The E Ink technology is very battery friendly and the battery will last through thousands of page turns, it also charges when connected to the computer while you load or unload books, which means so far I haven't even seen the battery drop out of the full level and I have read the complete Lord of the Rings saga and Jane Eyre and a couple of "small" books too :thumb:

You can change the print size changes at the touch of a button so if you want a slightly larger print in the evening or when your eyes struggling it is done in an instant. You can also change the orientation of the page from Portrait to Landscape very simply which can be better when using the the largest print size.

You can store pictures on it although you can only view them in black and white, I haven't bothered with that or the MP3 player which can only be used with headphones as no built in speakers, as I bought it purely for use as a book.

I have quite an extensive library of books at home and my E Reader compliments that very well, I don't see it ever replacing books made from paper but for convienience, weight and ease of use it is perfect for me.
 

Road Runner

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if this is reading from a screen I tend to get a headache after reading to much on the puter.

Browsing is fine but intense reading set me off.

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TinaGlenn

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So do I RR, hence not being able to read e books on my pda or pooter :cry:

Because the E Reader doesn't have a back light there is no flicker, which is what causes the majority of headaches and eye strain when reading from a screen.

I was very sceptical when G2EWS told me about these things, and read a few pages on his e reader and the one on display at our local Waterstones before I was convinced.

Tina
 

Kon tiki

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I can't say I've ever noticed any screen flicker on my PDA (maybe I'm not the sensitive type :RollEyes: so the wife tells me) I used to find it a bit too bright on the lowest light setting if I was reading in the dark but I found that by tweaking the registry it enabled a contrast setting, with this I can adjust it to a suitable level.
 

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