(sigh, seriously thinking about buying one of these readers—I grade using a tablet pc which is seriously heavy—but I absolutely love the ability to write comments on the papers)

On the down side relative to the iRex Iliad, there’s no way of making annotations. On the up side, the battery life is staggering—I’ve just read one and a half novels (call it 500 minutes at my sluggardly reading speed) and there’s no noticeable battery drain from full. It charges off mini-USB and presents itself as a USB mass storage device when plugged into a computer; the open source LibPRS-500 package makes it useful for Mac and Linux users as well as Windows users (who also get Sony’s not-terribly-attractive walled garden ebook store application, which has all the worst traits of iTunes without the good bits).

I wouldn’t recommend the PRS-505 for an academic, but for someone who likes to read novels? It’s great. I’ve used a metric shitload of PDAs and smartphones, and the Nokia web tablets (770 and N800), and I think the PRS-505 is winning over the whole lot of them (including the N800). The range of light levels it’s readable in is especially good—backlit LCDs are basically useless in daylight. If I wanted to annotate texts it would be less than useful, but for carrying around a couple of dozen novels? It’s great.

As a side note, talking to a Linux developer, iRex appear to have borked the hardware design of the Illiad at a fundamental level by opting to have the kernel poll the hardware buttons. This prevents it from sleeping, which is why the Illiad has the 14-hour battery life rather than running for several thousand page-turns, like the Sony devices.

My inkling is that the software on the Bookeen Cybook 3 may be somewhat superior (it can cope with Mobipocket files, and others), but it too lacks the annotation capabilities. So among the current crop of epaper devices, if you want annotation, you need the Kindle or Illiad, if you want to read novels the Cybook or Sony Reader will do the trick … and for maximum flexibility, nothing beats a tablet PC (yet). Although my experience of using a tablet PC as an ebook reader was not good, given that I get wrist ache holding a hardcover for any length of time …

If you’re creating your own content, or have sources for the documents you’re reading, there are instructions for setting up the PDF output for the Iliad. Just how well that will go with tables and figures…
The mobipocket demo excerpt of “Python phrasebook”
has one table that should have been tuned better.
If Kindle is using mobipocket format, maybe there will be more books available too.

One question: are articles in PDF image format viewable, readable, legible on the Iliad?

Some on-line databases, like ProQuest, still store articles that way (i.e., the text-select tool will not work; only the “snapshot tool” in Adobe Reader)

I have the Librie, the first version of the Sony Reader. The software/interface sucks, because Sony had—and still has—the silly idea of selling to normal readers who want to buy way-overpriced, locked e-books (who won’t want a 300$ device) rather than academics who already have a flood of internet content they merely want to read. But independent developers have made it reasonably usable for html and text-only pdfs. Still, based on what Henry has said, if you’re the sort of person who would pay $300 for a Sony Reader, you’d probably be better off paying $700 for the iLiad. There is simply no good way to view full-page pdf images (like JSTOR scans) on the Reader, though there are some awkward workarounds, and these sorts of scanned files are still quite common. The difference between a 6” 800×600 display and an 8.1” 1024×768 one is just enormous.

Another alternative for academics—especially those who are bothered by the “other device” problem—is to go with a lightweight convertible tablet PC, like the Fujitsu t2010 or Thinkpad X61T. If you get the X61T high-res screen, for example, you get 144dpi (12.1”, 1400×1050), almost as good as the Reader’s 166. You’re still looking at a transmissive screen, so there’s more eye-strain over long periods than with e-ink, but a lot of eyestrain is about small blurry fonts and distance, and high-res tablets help with that. Both of those tablets have good battery life (>6.5 hrs or >5.5, for low-power uses like reading), and are reasonably light (~3.5 / 4.4 lbs). The tablet-ness also lets you take notes, etc.

I just got a X61T and so far I’m pretty happy with it. If I’m reading a 100 page pure text article, I’d rather read it on my Librie than the tablet, but the tablet is fine, much much better than any other transmissive screen I’ve ever used. (As for cost, these aren’t cheap, but if it’s the only computer you use it’s easier to justify.)

Posted by Mike

I just saw the Matrix again (running on TNT?). Use those ‘waterfall’ displays of green characters running down the e-ink wallpapered walls of the office.

For my purposes, computer screens are fine at the desk and for portable reading and web-browsing, my Nokia tablet (think iPhone but with a larger and higher-res screen) works very well. I would love to have the free broadband wireless offered by the Kindle, but not the display.

And in terms of energy use, I’m certain that the back light in my tablet uses much less power than the reading light that would be needed to illuminate an eInk screen.

Perhaps when I’m no longer a grad student, and the price has come down slightly.

The reason for this is that E-ink has limitations that would make it unbearable if used for a laptop screen. Whenever there is a change made to an E-ink page (e.g., turning a page) the screen is powered up and the “ink” is configured a certain way, then the power turns off. The result is that you get a representation on the screen that is much closer to text than on a regular screen which is a bunch of pixels lit up (this is why reading on a screen produces eystrain; it is like reading with a flashlight pointed at your eye). The problem is, on your laptop the contents of the screen are changing all the time. To use an E-ink screen for a laptop would be like surfing graphic intensive sights using a 56k (or slower) modem. Only, it would apply to everything you were doing on your laptop (imagine creating a powerpoint presentation like that).

The different technologies have different advantages and unfortunately that means separate devices (until they invent a screen that can do both at once…but that will be a long time coming).