Comment by procrastitron | Hacker News Reader

Comment by procrastitron | Hacker News Reader

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I completely disagree with you regarding the Kindle's physical form; I think the Iliad (and every other e-book reader I've seen) is far ahead of it in terms of design.

When I'm reading an e-book, all I want in front of me is a large screen. However, the Kindle sacrifices screen size to make up for a built-in keyboard. 99% of the time that you are using the device you won't have any need for a keyboard, and the Iliad's 8 inch screen would serve you better at those times than the Kindle's 6 inch screen.

For me, the ideal form factor for an e-book reader would look like one of two things:

1) A larger iPod touch with something close to an 8 inch screen.

or

2) An EeePC with a swivel screen so you could use it in e-book mode, similar to the OLPC XO.

Right now I'm using an OLPC XO as an e-book reader, and although it doesn't have as nice a form factor as the Iliad or the Sony Reader, I do consider it significantly nicer than the Kindle. Of course, the low price doesn't hurt either.

The keyboard is incredibly useful. I annotate things that I read, and I'm grateful that they've got a keyboard. Meanwhile, the screen handles text well enough that on the small setting, one page is about equivalent to a page in a book.

You can't compare a laptop to a Kindle. You just can't. The electronic paper that it uses is in a league of its own. I can see comparisons to Sony's e-Reader or the iLiad, but if you can deal with a laptop for reading you're nowhere near the intensive reader that would benefit from something like a Kindle.

I haven't used an iLiad before. I've never heard of it. The picture Wikipedia showed makes it look ugly, as I said. However, the Kindle is significantly better than the e-Reader, which is the only other one I've heard to be a legitimately good product.

You're right that most laptop screen's aren't good enough for reading e-books, but the OLPC XO is an exception because of its special display. Granted, that display still isn't as nice as e-Ink, but it is good enough for serious e-book reading.

What display does it use? I didn't know it used a special display.

It's some sort of special display that was created just for the OLPC. It has an adjustable backlight. When the backlight is turned on all the way the display looks like a regular laptop display, but when it is turned off all the way, then the display looks like an e-Ink display.

Unfortunately, it does not compare with the e-Ink displays in terms of low power usage, but it is good enough for long reading sessions without straining your eyes.

huh! Very neat. I'll have to look for that and see how it works.

(and every other e-book reader I've seen)

How many ebook readers have you actually used?

Well, unfortunately I have not been able to play with many in person, just the OLPC XO and the Sony Reader. I was basing my opinion on researching them online.

The ones I've looked into whose design I preferred to the Kindle were the Iliad, the Sony Reader, the Hanlin Reader, and the OLPC XO (in e-book mode).

It's not the same category, but there are also dev kits available from e-Ink that are supposed to be suitable for building a prototype e-book reader.

Don't judge the kindle until you use it. Seriously. I don't know anyone (myself included) who has a kindle and doesn't like it. It might not be the best looking thing at first, but, goddamn does it grow on you.

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