Why I want a decent ebook reader....
I've been watching the rise of the ebook reader with interest, particularly as Apple are rumored to have one in the works. The reason it is of particular interest to me is because I do a lot of reading while commuting. If you use London Underground to get to work then you'll know that in cramped carriages during rush hour it can be difficult to flip through one of those huge Wrox or Apress books. iPhone to the rescue!. O'Reilly Safari used to provide an iPhone app that allowed subscribers to download a couple of chapters of a book on your O'Rielly bookshelf to your phone. Unfortunately they have replaced this with an application which requires internet access. Which is no good if you're underground!. That's when I found Instapaper. My favourite app of the moment. It's very simple, you have a button on your browser - you click read later and then hit an update button on your iphone it begins to download the pages to your phone (with or without images). Great for that arduous commute after work on the way home.
Which brings me on to ebook readers. What I would really love is an ebook reader which allows me to read through digital copies of books I already own. When I purchase books from Amazon (or somehwere else) I would love the option to buy an ebook version as well (or instead of). The up and coming ebook reader Nook from Barnes & Noble which runs the Android OS is rumored to allow you to do this. I'd absoloutely love a light ebook reader which I can hold in one hand, turn pages with one hand, has a decent screen, allows me to download books or load my own books. I would also like it to allow me to read word docs, pdfs etc. and bookmark or annotate them. The key thing here however is to be able to download and read anybook I purchase (as opposed to the limited libraries some of the ebook reader vendors make available). From this comparison it seems that we are almost there..
I'm also looking out for one