The one that Waterstones sells looks ok and is not ugly at all. It is about £150 is it not?

The Sony Reader is £179 at Waterstones,

http://www.waterstones.com/waterston...do?sku=6337796

but can be had for £150 from Play.

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Elec...r/Product.html

I am going to hang fire; there are rumoured to be several new devices out over the next few months, some with wifi and mobile phone network access for downloads.

any news on this?

No, nothing official yet

I have no problems with reading ebooks on my iphone. I find the txt size just about right, and I was supprised at how easily I took to reading an ebook rather than a physical copy. I might be interested in the kindle or Sony eReader but at the moment im happy with reading them on the iphone.

I also have found it very easy to read books on my iTouch. The free Stanza app gives legal access to tons of legally free books, plus you can install the free desktop Stanza app on your computer and convert books "obtained elsewhere" and transfer them to your iTouch or iPhone. Every book you could ever want can be read on it for free.

The main thing to making an LCD display as comfortable to use for reading for long periods as an eInk display is to adjust the brightness of it to a level where it looks just like a conventional book. Stanza makes this easy by allowing you to slide your finger up and down the middle of the screen to adjust the brightness anytime while reading. A correctly adjusted LCD display is at least as comfortable to read as eInk in all conditions, and better than it in dark conditions as you can up the brightness to a level where it looks like you are shining a little light on it. The only downside to an LCD display is it is using battery power continuously so doesn't have the very long battery life of devices using eInk.

When it comes to the UK, will they start off with the first Kindle and hold back or just launch the Kindle 2 here?


PJ

Publishers seem to be going with Adobe Digital Editions for their eBooks. Can all the standalone readers handle these files?

Ok - I am an avid reader of books. I love them. I love the smell, the feel - everything about books. But - I am a very fast reader and when I go on holiday or even take a shorted trip i get fed up with the weight and size of all the books I need.
I am also quite poor so the thought of forking out for an e-reader was quite a major decision.

Anyway - after months of research I decided to take the plunge. As a joint Christmas and Birthday present I got the Amazon Kindle.

It arrived yesterday and here is my report.

Design - it is beautiful. love it - it is almost Mac-esque in it's beautifulness.

Ease of use - I had already downloaded Kindle for PC (free from Amazon website) and lots of free books (there are about 18000 'classics' freely available. I got these onto my Kindle without any instructions - it is just like an extrnal hardrive. The first slight negative is just how easy it is to buy a new book from the Kindle Store. If you use your device to go to the Kindle store and then browse and find a book it is just 1 click to buy it. They use the same details as when you purchased your Kindle and there is no password or a 'are you sure you want to buy this' box popping up. This is not only a problem if you accidentally click the 'buy' button. It also means if someone pinches your kindle they can merrily buy away with no problems.

Eyeball strain - none at all - it is exactly like reading a book.

Comfort - rather surprisingly it is much more comfortable curling up with a Kindle than it is with a book. I have tried reading in several positions - sitting in chair, lounging on sofa, propped up in bed, lying down in bed on either side. Everything I can think of and it is much much more comfortable than holding a book and turning pages. I thought I would miss it but not at all - much easier with the Kindle.

cost ummm - well it is expensive and although the classics are free, the general cost of newish books isn't that much less than a normal book so I will be asking everyone that knows me to get me Amazon vouchers for the foreseeable!

Overall I have been more excited by this than any other present I have EVER had and it has lived up to expectations. If you are an avid reader then you will not de disappointed. If you are thinking more in terms of text/reference books etc then probebly it aint there yet.

just realised this is a bit long and probably no-one will bother to read it - ah well

Well I read it. Good factual review. Well done. Are you UK based though? and what's the battery life and recharge times like?

I bought the Sony Pocket e-Reader for an early christmas present and I love it. For a long time now I've found reading difficult for any length of time, I either get eyestrain from small type or pain from holding the book open. I've found reading the screen easier on my eyes for longer periods - plus I can increase the font size too if necessary - and it is lighter and easier to hold than many books. Battery life is excellent, it was almost 4 weeks before I needed to recharge.

I've even started carrying it with me to read on the tube.

Availability of titles isn't a problem, most major publishers now regularly produce an ebook edition of their new books, especially in my prefered genre of SF/Fantasy.

It's really too soon to say on battery life. I have only had it a day! recharge is very quick though - it did the whole thing in 3 hours when i first got it.

I am UK based and am guessing not many have been bought over here yet. I didn't realise this when I bought it.

I have run into a problem already though. I have bought and been given books in ereader format (pdb) rather than mobi format. There used to be script available to convert to mobi so i can put them on my kindle but it looks like Amazon have forced it's removal - can anyone who has a copy please pm me!

With the PC version of Kindle I cannot seem to find any free classics on AMazon. All the ones on the US site want 2.50 (dollars) and then tell me I cannot buy it because I am in the UK

My mum was trying to persuade me to buy one, but I really can't see myself liking reading books on a screen. I suppose an advantage of it would not having loads of books taking up space in my bag if I go away somewhere, but other than that I can see no advantages.

You could try using Calibre, which is a freeware eBook library programme. It also has the ability to convert between a large number of ebook formats.

I use it as the main library for my Sony, because their supplied ebook library software sucketh greatly!

As mentioned by willowfan, try calibre for managing file conversions for kindle compatibility - just bear in mind it won't convert DRM protected files.

Battery life for the kindle 2 I have is fine - it easily does up to a week with 'wireless' turned on.

The only thing I've been disappointed with is the limited web access in the UK, compared to US customers - wikipedia is available, but not google or gmail.

I'm waiting for the Apple Touch Tablet that apparently Apple is developing before i consider any of those. Apple always blows everyone else.

Try here - I downloaded loads and then copied them across to my Kindle no problem at all. http://www.freekindlebooks.org/

Thanks so much 0 the Calibre program is exactly what I needed!

The Apple Tablet won't have an eInk display, the sort of display which allows these electronic books to have the battery life which they have. eInk has no backlight, relying instead on ambient light reflecting off the screen (exactly light a paper page relies on ambient light reflecting off it), and only requires power to change what is being displayed on it (so it is essentialy using next to no power unless you turn a page). That is why the battery life of eBook readers is so much longer than other portable devices. It is also the reason that eInk displays are unsuitable for general purpose use on mobile devices (they are designed to display a static image).

The Apple tablet (expected to be a much bigger iPod touch in terms of what it does) is unlikely to make a good eBook reader as the battery life will be too short. As soon as you start dealing with active displays which need constant power, the battery life tumbles to a few hours at best (unless the device is made particularly thick and heavy, and you can be sure the Apple table will not be).

I have noticed a plethora of new e-readers hitting the UK market in the last few days - including the Kindle DX.

I have checked out as much as I can about them and although many have a little improved functionality over my Kindle2 (colour, touch screen) they all fall down in one key area - size!

I'm not sure why but all are much bigger than the Kindle2.

Now I appreciate it is nice to get more on a page but the most important element of an e reader for me is that I can take it wherever I go. Even with it's cover on the Kindle2 is only slightly larger (and thinner) than an average paperback. It fits into my average sized handbag and even into my overcoat pocket so I can take it anywhere. I certainly don't want something double in size - who wants to carry that around. I can only think the larger ones are aimed at students who will download textbooks or people using them primarily to read newspapers.

Me - I just want to read books and for that I love my little Kindle2.

I think I will wait a year or so until there is a colour, touch screen Kindle of the same physical size but larger screen (they won't need the keyboard space when touch screen could bring up a keyboard) and then upgrade!

^^^Yeah the Kindle DX looks flippin huge - not an attractive option for me personally!

Anyway I can't buy it even if I wanted to, there isn't a Kindle application for Macs, although it's 'coming soon' apparently.

I prefer the look of the Nook though - so stylish!

I don't profess to know much about this at all really but engadget heavily hint that Apple will incorporate Pixel Qi into it's screens which will be a hybrid of eInk and an LCD screen. The technology would apparently negate any issue around battery life.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/07/p...-multitouch-4/
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/08/p...turer-in-2010/

The internet has not killed of the newspaper industry. I like to read a book in the bog - i'm not taking a couple of hundred quids worth of kit in there.

must be price sensitive

i have a couple of ebooks on a tocco sized phone - ok, if its cheap enough