1. Unlike paper-based books, eBooks can be easily updated. A eBook can even have a link to a website which contains the latest downloadable version of the book.

2.If you need security, eBooks can be compiled so as to disable printing, can be password protected and can prevent individual files from being copied (although no-one has found a way of preventing anything from being re-typed!)

Cheers,
viewsonic v150p

Currently, I read them on my laptop because none of the readers I’ve looked at support PDF. I find the Kindle very appealing with it’s large screen and battery life – and if the next generation model supports PDF, I’ll buy one. Until then, I’ll continue to carry my e-books around on a jump drive.

Joe turned the light on. Suddenly, I envisioned all sorts of ways to use the Kindle beyond just buying e-books from Amazon.

Last week, I bought one. And I love it. I could never stand to read from a computer monitor (either my laptop’s or the excellent, large one on my desktop PC) for very long. I can read on the Kindle for hours with no eye strain. The only slight irritation is the flash during page changes, but I quickly stopped even noticing it.

But I actually buy very few books for the Kindle from Amazon. I do read PDF, TXT, DOC, and several other formats on it all the time. How?

You see, the Kindle will easily support TXT format. So, a lot of the material I used to copy-and-paste off Web sites to print out and read later I now just save as TXT and put on the Kindle using the USB port.

The Kindle will also easily read Mobi’s PRC format (without DRM), so I use the free Mobipocket Creator software to convert PDF files to PRC. Takes a minute or two. Then I put that on the Kindle, too.

At Slipdown Mountain Publications, we publish most of our print books as both Kindle editions (on Amazon’s site) and PDFs. We will soon also be offering the PRC format (for Kindle and Mobipocket users) and EPUB format (for Sony Reader users).

Until you’ve spent some time with the Kindle, you just can’t appreciate how much different it is from a backlit computer monitor. Of course, it’s not perfect…but it is a big advance over standard monitors.

Color would be nice. And a faster refresh. It doesn’t “feel” like a book, but it fits nicely in hand. I can switch between books/files easily without ever losing my place in any of them. And I’m saving a lot of paper and toner now.

Count me as a Kindle Konvert. (I’d probably like the Sony device, too, but haven’t tried one and there are more Kindlized books at this time.)

perfecting the hardware side will not solve the impediments to ebook reading for many individuals.

I’m sure that’s true for some readers, and I expected to be one of them. But in reality I’ve been surprised how important the hardware is to my use of ebooks. For me the iPhone screen is too small to read fiction, and I don’t want a backlit reading device. But I’m not sure I agree with this:

E Ink technology, but it’s very nature is crippled as a multi function device. It cannot be backlit because of the way in which the technology works.

You may be right, but using the Sony Reader started me dreaming of future multi-function gadgets with eInk (or its next generation, really). So maybe it’s possible for eInk to develop in that direction without backlighting.

I love reading books on my iPhone, and I find the e-reader app works really well. LOVE the ease of purchasing books and then later adding them to my bookshelf with one click. On the minus side, for non-fictionwise/ereader books, the app Bookshelf works less well (I keep having issues with it quitting in the middle of books) and converting books is a pain. Some books I wanted were only available in MS Lit format and it was almost too much bother to convert them. Also, I find the iPhone a tad too small for comfortable reading.

I like my ebookwise as well. However, it’s somewhat heavy, and loading files can be a pain if they aren’t in ebookwise format. I hate looking for things on ebookwise or fictionwise and not finding them in the ebookwise native format or an easily convertable one. Basically, getting material on the device is not fun.

So far my Kindle is the best for actually reading books. It’s the perfect size, lightweight, and I lovelovelove the “sample” feature so I can check out books before buying. I don’t really mind the lack of other features. I haven’t tried reading other formats on it so I’m not sure how that would go. (I just use my iPhone or ebookwise.)

I’d like to only have one device, but I can’t imagine it handling everything equally well.

I’m a born romantic who reads omni-voraciously, but I’m not sentimental about old fashioned, musty, dusty books. Has anyone else noticed that books are freaking heavy? I hate lugging around my whole library every time I move. Even tossing just my Jane Austen anthology in my already overstuffed suitcase increases my odds of hernia when I travel. The advent of paperbacks made physical books more or less disposable anyway, yet still curiously expensive.

Besides, can you imagine if people stuck doggedly to their chiseled stone tablets or handwritten scrolls after Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press? I’d love having my whole library, plus access to favorite blogs, newspapers, and magazines all on one, convenient, space-saving, lightweight device. But, sigh, before I give away my freaking heavy stacks of musty books and replace them all with e-versions, I’m holding out for that perfect e-reader to come out, complete with that chocolate feature, please.

And I particularly like not adding to my paper book collection. One move across country cured me…three in two years kept me in remission. And I have a green activist living in my house.