?? about Ebooks

[pengyou]

1. I spent an hour yesterday researching "what are the best ebook readers". I found the sites saying things like "this can read dozens of ebook formats" or "this can read many ebook formats" or "most formats". How many formats are there? I am a teacher and am in constant need of new information. I will also begin a masters program this fall...personally, I am a book worm also. I will most likely run across most, if not all, formats in my education.

2. A related question, is there one article somewhere that has a thorough description of all of the features available? A search produced a number of articles, each only a paragraph or two long talking about one or two features. Sometimes they say things like "this is only available on the real Kindle, not the Kindle app".

3. Is a dedicated ebook reader better than a tablet with a host of apps on it? I am not so young anymore...you can say that I am much closer to being 30 than I am 20! I hear mention that a dedicated ebook reader is easier on the eyes, i.e. Kindle's paper white but is this really so? but the paper white ebooks do not have color to display pictures.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[dontpanicbobby]

FBReader is the best I've used. It can read many formats. My current favorite is .mobi

 

[bcrichster]

I use Cool Reader, it's ad free (but you can still donate at will) and packed with features + page background colors/textures. A good tablet with a decent reader on it is much better (with more options) than a plain kindle anyways ..

 

[dontpanicbobby]

I think Kindle books are .DRM protected. There's a Kindle app in the Play Store though. Currently they're offering all the Black Panther backstory.

I've never tried, so i have to ask. Does the Kindle app let you read comics?

 

[bcrichster]

I think Kindle books are .DRM protected. There's a Kindle app in the Play Store though. Currently they're offering all the Black Panther backstory.

I've never tried, so i have to ask. Does the Kindle app let you read comics?

Linux (I use Mint) has an eBook converter to convert formats to your preferred desire. ..'Calibré'?

 

[Jhayzone]

FBReader is the best I've used. It can read many formats. My current favorite is .mobi

+1 to FBReader, been serving me for years now.

About the tablet vs eReader thing. If you want the comfort of not worrying if you charged your device when you're about to read something then eReader is for you as most readers just seems to last for eternity. If you want something more flexible not just on functionality but also choice then a tablet will serve you better.

Personally though, I prefer a tablet just because I like how sharp the texts are on a 8" 2048*1536 screen. And if I'm reading a comic I have a 10" tablet to serve me as well. I can also fire up a fitting bgm for what I'm reading. Also, a good and feature rich eReaders are jusy way to expensive.

 

[Hadron]

Formats, yes, there are a lot, and I don't have a full list to hand. Many apps will read many formats. I don't think any e-reader reads all formats (Kindles are about the most limited there), but as said above it is very easy to convert books between formats.

DRM is a bigger issue. Most commercial stores will put DRM in the files so they will only be readable with that store's reader or app. What this means legally depends on which country you live in - in some it's legal to remove it so you can read in the device of your choice, in others it is not. I'm not going to advise you to do anything illegal, but if you live in a territory where it is legal then it's very simple (of course re-distributing the book afterwards is illegal even in those cases).

Tablet Vs e-reader? How much time will you spend reading and what will you read? Tablets can be larger, higher resolution and display colour. Light-emitting screens are more tiring on the eyes than reflective displays, and harder to view in bright light, and e-reader are generally smaller and so easier to carry.

Personally I'm old-school and prefer actual books. I have a phone, tablet and e-reader, so you can judge my impressions from my actual usage: I use the tablet for technical documents (pdfs that I'd otherwise read on my laptop), the e-reader for plain text books, and don't use the reader apps on my phone at all.

I should add that my e-reader lives in airplane mode - I get books from various sources, including the vendor's store, via my laptop and sideload them, rather than using it to buy books. This means that the corporation that sold the e-reader does not know what books I've got (other than those I bought from them) nor how much of each I've read, which is the way I prefer it.

 

[pengyou]

Thank you so much! I will be doing hours of reading once I begin my studies. If a program is used to convert one format to another, is anything lost from the original format? i.e. resolution, photos, color, etc
How difficult is it to copy and paste from an ebook reader? Do ebook readers support NFC? Do all ebook readers have reflective displays? Finally, can I sync an ebook reader with a notebook, desktop or android device - not have to use "The Cloud"?

 

[Hadron]

Any ebook reader with an "e-ink" screen is reflective (which I'm using to mean relies on reflected light rather than emitted or transmitted - as a sheet of paper does). I don't know the specs of all of these on the market, but I've never heard of one supporting NFC: what would you actually use NFC for with one?

Re. sync, it depends on what you mean. I load content onto my e-reader over USB from my laptop, but that doesn't sync in the sense of allowing me to share what page I'm on with other devices. For that sort of thing it would be via the cloud, and the e-reader manufacturer's cloud at that, and probably only with an app from the same outfit. Personally I don't have a need for that, and don't care for some corporation to know about my reading, so I've never investigated those options.

Calibre handles format conversion of text-based books fine. I've never used it for anything else - I would expect it would be fine, but I've no experience (I don't use colour ebooks, and use laptop or tablet for PDFs). Hopefully someone else will be able to give a definite answer on that.

 

[Astr4y4L]

1. I spent an hour yesterday researching "what are the best ebook readers". I found the sites saying things like "this can read dozens of ebook formats" or "this can read many ebook formats" or "most formats". How many formats are there? I am a teacher and am in constant need of new information. I will also begin a masters program this fall...personally, I am a book worm also. I will most likely run across most, if not all, formats in my education.

2. A related question, is there one article somewhere that has a thorough description of all of the features available? A search produced a number of articles, each only a paragraph or two long talking about one or two features. Sometimes they say things like "this is only available on the real Kindle, not the Kindle app".

3. Is a dedicated ebook reader better than a tablet with a host of apps on it? I am not so young anymore...you can say that I am much closer to being 30 than I am 20! I hear mention that a dedicated ebook reader is easier on the eyes, i.e. Kindle's paper white but is this really so? but the paper white ebooks do not have color to display pictures.

Any help is appreciated!

personally, I recommend Kindle's paper white.

It's a good e-reader , supports the common formats and I was easily able to figure out how to download all my favorite books and transfer them to it over usb from my pc.
the screen doesn't hurt my eyes after extended reading like the pc screen does.
And it Just works.
also if your into tinkering there's a number of mod's for it too. everything from root , to supporting new formats.
It's really pretty neat for an e-reader.
also had the older version of the e reader, can't remember the name of it now, but was able to root, add a new boot-loader and boot cyanogen mod rom on it.
basically turning it into a android tablet.
It's kool.
As you can tell I do like to tinker LoL

hope this helps you in your decision to buy or not to buy...


Astr4y4L

 

[pengyou]

Thanks again! Now, suppose I find a paragraph in my ebook reader (Kindle, etc) and I want to use it in the paper that I am typing on my notebook. How can I get the paragraph from my ebook reader to my notebook?