That thing. With the e-books and stuff. Thoughts?

[thanate]

Two weeks into the Master Naturalist pre-readings and I'm already highly irritated by reading the PDFs on my computer. Ideally, there would be someplace I could lease an e-reader of some sort from, because actually buying one seems like more of a commitment than I'm prepared for, but I'm guessing this isn't really an option. So... who has data points or recommendations?

Features I want now:

*ability to read irritating PDFs in a handheld, non-glare format, with good color to B&W translation (ie, ability to read the over-fancy powerpoint slides at the top of the page as well as the notes at the bottom.) I suspect everyone does that.

*ETA- ability to handle pages designed for 8-1/2x11 sizing in a manner that I can still read.

*good battery life, not NiCad batteries (which I apparently drain by being near-- don't think this is a problem these days)

*something that won't irritate my eyes, which are far too sensitive about these things. (probably not an i-pad?)

Features I can imagine wanting eventually:
*easy transfer of documents to & from my laptop (mac, presently running system 10.6.something)
*some form of editability or commenting as I read
*wide array of readable formats
*no DRM come in & delete my books crap
*5-10 year device life (or more!)
*large HD/storage capacity (possibly not an issue either?)

Also of note, grauwulf has an anti-sony preference, and I'm not sure I want to buy into Amazon.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Places I should have looked before asking people?

(real content will return, I hope later this week)

Comments

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I can't make a recommendation. I love my Kindle because the e-ink doesn't hurt or fatigue my eyes like a computer or tablet do. The basic Kindle doesn't do color, though; I don't know if the Kindle Fire does.

The Barnes & Noble Nook does color, but I don't know if it's more tablet-like or also uses e-ink.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

I don't want an actual color display-- just something with good enough grayscale that I can still read something designed in color. I did some looking into things a few months back and got the general impression that most of what's currently available in color devices is less useful in terms of display type, and at best halves the battery life.

[garden-goth.livejournal.com]

I like my Nook and mine at least has the e-ink (it's a first generation, so things may have changed a bit with the newer ones). It's got 1.3 GB internal memory and a slot for a microSD card to boost the memory. It's pretty easy to move files between it and computer, at least by cable, I'm not sure about doing it via wireless. I can't comment on the color to b/w display, as the only thing that shows up with that is the book cover. It breaks down pages into sections, but I don't think there's a way to get it to display the whole thing at once without changing the font size fairly small.

That's all I can give.

[belfebe.livejournal.com]

Marcellus has a regular Kindle. For reading, it's really nice as it doesn't hurt your eyes at all. Almost looks like real paper, if that could be possible. I have heard good things from Kindle Fire and Nook. Worth giving them a try. As for me, I didn't get into e-reading until I got my iPad, which I didn't get for the purpose of reading. However, I like it and got around the whole "hurting my eyes" by changing the settings from black letters on white background to white letters on black background.