So for now, I’ll keep reading my eBooks on my Treo with eReader and Mobipocket.

For those who don’t like reading on a PDA - try it with the brown screen and cream text. Very easy on the eyes, and much easier to read in bed without disturbing your partern with the bright backlight.

You say it should be a multi-function device? I don’t need no stinkin’ multi-function device. I don’t listen to music when I read. My phone has all the wi-fi I need. And why in creation would I want the ability to one-click purchase books wirelesly through my Reader? That way lies trouble of the “kid-in-a-candy-shop” variety. If I had any will-power, wi-fi might be nice, but I don’t, so, Thanks for watching my back, Sony!

What I need is a lightweight reader with a long battery life to take the place of the several pounds of print-outs and books I lug to and from my classes. It’s an ergonomics issue. Yes, the price is still high, but with my reading load it will save money in the long term, and it will save me some back pain. I can not wait until this device comes out.

Really, I can’t wait. My back is killing me…

***I think the real winner of the ebook “chase” is going to be the company who makes their device available around the world. With mass market prices at anywhere from $20-$30 or more in countries like New Zealand and Australia, if a company can make an ereader accessible to people there, it would actually be cheaper for the avid book reader (TM Keishon :P) to buy a dedicated ebook device so they can download a $5-$10 dollar ebook, rather than paying the outrageous prices in their local bookstore.***

I would love it if there were more device options available in New Zealand - I guess the market is too small! The ridiculous price of mass market books here is what eventually led me to eBooks (and the fact that I don’t have the ability to ’share’ books and therefore have books returned to me in a less than satisfactory condition). Having the ability to buy eBooks has opened me to a huge number of authors that I would never have discovered otherwise. I love being able to carry my library around with me. I definitely spend more money now than when I bought paperbacks, especially when the exchange rate is more favourable for me.

‘Cause I’m doing what I can:

1. Keeping abreast of the news, talking about it, opening the door of digital to the other corners of the internet I inhabit,

2. Buying ebooks about as fast as I can get Roboform to drop my cc numbers into the forms,

3. Making my voice heard to the right people with regard to things that can be bettered.

I’d sure like the evolution to go faster, though. Just today I wanted to get Sara Reinke’s books Dark Thirst (#1 in series) and Dark Hunger (#2 in series), but guess what? Dark Thirst isn’t available in E and Dark Hunger is #2 in a series and I so am not going to leap-frog a series. (And unfortunately, something has gone awry with #3.) Since this was today’s ebook misadventure, I haven’t gotten around to contacting Kensington about it, but I was not a happy camper, so you can bet I will.

In any case, I think the push is going about as well as can be expected, particularly with publishing being the lumbering behemoth that it is. I don’t know what more can be done at this point by us regular joes, except to preach the Gospel of Digital.

Let me know what I can do and I’ll do it! ;)

I agree that we are moving forward in the ebook industry and clearly publishers seem motivated to promote digital initiatives. I am just wondering if we are doing enough.

I’d certainly agree that the iPhone isn’t “niche” — I see other folks with those all the time, even in small-town Tennessee, but for all I know, I could be the only schmuck in Jackson that has a Reader. (shrug)

I very much want to see e-reading catch on just as you do, and for mostly the same reasons. It ain’t there yet by a long shot, but there’s a lot more movement now than there was even three years ago, and most of it has to do with e-ink. The publishers are a dinosaur industry, and it takes a while for genuine consideration of new concepts to penetrate those tiny little hind-brains of theirs. :(

They are starting to come around, though, Sony had five fairly big ones (Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Harlequin, and Penguin) represented at their event last week. There’s some reason to hold onto hope. :)

(reference on the publishers: http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/sony-reader-prs-700-part-one/)

It seems that until ebooks are less a niche item (and I would argue that iPhones aren’t niche) and more mainstream, my needs as an ebook reader won’t be met.

I’m an early adopter and will be buying another ebook reader probably within the next twelve months but I do think that there needs to be some kind of low priced entry level device for readers who are interested but don’t want to yet take the plunge with a high priced device. (another note, the PRS500 was never an entry level device in my opinion. It was the first generation of the Sony Reader and was replaced with the PRS 505. The PRS 505 is still sold by Sony Reader along with the new Sony PRS 700. Given that the SONY PRS 700 is the more expensive and feature rich of the two, I figure that the PRS 505 is considered “entry level” by Sony).

Seriously though, you’re not far off on the LCD display idea for bottom, bottom end devices. There are several reflective LCD displays that aren’t much harder on the eyes than e-ink, but the trade-off there is of course, battery life. Same goes for laptops, but you get to add in weight. At 10 oz. and ~3 weeks of use per charge, the PRS line makes a pretty solid case to those who are focused on those points.

There’s some good news on the e-ink front. One of the things that came out of the news Event on October 2nd is that there are now multiple companies licensed to make e-ink, instead of only one: PVI. There’s about to be some competition in the area, which should serve to drive the cost of the displays down … as much as they can be driven, of course. (shrug)

As for those who’ve expressed the view that what they already have works fine for them: excellent! The important bit is that each person find something that works for them. And if it’s something already mainstream (as most of these other methods seem to be) then surely those methods are in no wise threatened by the advent of these e-ink readers, are they? :)