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Category: Gadgets
Posted on: November 28, 2009 2:52 PM, by PZ Myers
Woo hoo! Amazon has addressed one of my biggest complaints about the Kindle (other than the evil DRM on the thing): they have added built-in pdf support. Finally, I can just transfer papers directly to the Kindle and get reasonable rendering.
Got a Kindle yourself? Follow the instructions to update your machine.
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Comments
Posted by: Zmidponk | November 28, 2009 3:14 PM
I use one of the Sony eReaders myself, and I found a little program called Calibre a very useful tool in organising my ebook library, and it's also compatible with Kindles.
Check it out here:
http://calibre-ebook.com/
Posted by: idle.pip.verisignlabs.com
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November 28, 2009 3:15 PM
I have heard that the PDF rendering on the newer kindle is nothing to phone home over... I use a Sony PRS-700, which has PDF support, as well as (most importantly) PDF Reflow, which "re-flows" the content so that it is readable. It is even column-sensitive, which is fantastic.
Posted by: AdamK
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November 28, 2009 3:19 PM
I'm still thinking about buying a reader, but I don't know which one. Does anyone use the Barnes & Noble reader? Any good?
Posted by: Wayne Robinson | November 28, 2009 3:25 PM
If you have a Kindle, the best way of viewing a pdf file is to email the file to Amazon to have it converted (doesn't take long). Dragging it directly to the Kindle from your computer results in absolutely perfect, albeit absolutely minute print on the screen, impossible to read. I still love the Kindle for reading ebooks.
Posted by: Hans | November 28, 2009 3:48 PM
The biggest flaw is that you can't use it until10' after departure and before landing. What good is a book I'm not allowed to read?
Posted by: Peter Mc | November 28, 2009 3:53 PM
Hans: it probably breaks if you swat wasps with it, too.
Posted by: Moggie
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November 28, 2009 4:01 PM
AdamK, go to www.mobileread.com, where you'll find a community with a lot of familiarity with the various readers.
By the time I'd read about the 2.3 update, my K2 had updated itself, without consulting me. Even if Amazon could be trusted to be non-evil, I wouldn't be happy about this.
Posted by: Zeno | November 28, 2009 4:05 PM
About time!
I'm still hesitant to buy an electronic reader, but this is a step in the right direction.
Posted by: Damian | November 28, 2009 4:08 PM
I am waiting for the first reader that properly displays pdf's, including diagrams and equations, etc, before I am prepared to part with several hundred pounds. I have been frantically searching for an e-reader for months, but none of the current devices are what I am looking for. I already own dozens of pdf books, so I am not prepared to buy anything that won't display them properly (I haven't read many of them due to the difficulty reading a backlit screen for hours on end).
In case others are in the market, there are several new readers coming out next year, including the Plastic Logic Que, which has roughly a 10 inch screen (which has been the major problem with displaying pdf's, in that they are like A4 paper and need to be reflowed on smaller screens). It will be a touch screen, and it is aimed at business and academic professionals, although it may well cost more than many of the readers currently on the market.
Interestingly, there is a new technology called Pixel qi, which is a screen that allows you to switch off the back light on whichever device you are using (e-readers don't use a backlight, and instead use e-ink, but they don't have the functionality of a netbook or tablet, yet they cost almost as much), and essentially turn your PC, laptop, netbook, tablet, etc, in to an e-ink display.
One of the best things about it is that it could increase battery life in whichever technology it is used in by a factor of 3-4 (so a laptop may not need charging for more than 20 hours, or so). It is also supposed to allow you to read in direct sunlight far better than any screen technology currently on the market.
Ideally, I would like to find a tablet or slate PC with a pixel qi screen, so that I can surf the internet, and do all of the things that I already do on my PC, while being able to read ebooks comfortably, as well.
And the inventor the pixel qi claims that it will be possible to buy just the screen (it's just a plastic sheet) and retrofit it to any device that you already own.
One device that I might wait for is the long rumored Apple tablet, assuming that it really will become a reality early next year. The only negative is that it might be extremely expensive (anything up to a thousand dollars/ five or six hundred pounds). I'm so fed up of searching for a decent reader, only to have my hopes dashed by one thing or another, that I would almost be prepared to pay anything for one that did what I am looking for really well.
Posted by: hibob | November 28, 2009 4:15 PM
How do journal articles actually look on the kindle? I'd think it would be quite a pain to read the sub/superscripts in figure legends unless you could zoom in so you're only looking at 1/2 of a page rotated 90 degrees, or maybe 1/4 of the page in portrait mode.
I've been waiting for my e-reader since I was 12 and first saw the movie 2001, but til someone sells one cheap with a screen that's about 8"x 5" (so I can look at half of a page of a journal article at full size) I think I'll still be waiting.
Posted by: _Arthur | November 28, 2009 4:25 PM
A similar gadget is the WikiReader, which contains the whole of Wikipedia, for $99.
http://thewikireader.com/images/slideshow/slide8.jpg
Not very versatile, but much cheaper than a dead tree encyclopedia.
Posted by: Rox | November 28, 2009 4:39 PM
The only eReaders that I have seen are the ones from Sony. One with touch screen, one without.
My main problem with both of them is that the screen starts blinking whenever the screen changes (for example, when turning a page). I just feel like that would get old. Does anyone know if the other eReaders have this problem?
I may have to wait for the Apple reader to come out. Assuming they are actually working on it.
Posted by: nixscripter | November 28, 2009 4:51 PM
TypePad authentication handling on this site threw a rather interesting error again. I can now gather that the site is written in Perl -- someone's good idea of a CGI langugage, but not mine.
Now having hinted I am both a complete geek and a complete nerd (referring to that lecture at UMN earlier this year), I used to be somewhat skeptical of the Kindle until someone did something interesting with it.
I can give it my recommendation based upon the second link, but I don't think that's why you'd want one.
Posted by: Evolving Squid | November 28, 2009 4:53 PM
As long as DRM exists, my preference will still be for cellulose-based mass storage media for literary works, news, and so forth.
Posted by: Nightshadequeen | November 28, 2009 5:30 PM
PDF viewing? I've been converting .PDF files with the mobipocket creator . As long as you specify no protections, it works with Kindle perfectly fine. Tested it with a scientific publication; the graphics are a little on the small side but overall, workable.
Now I just wish I could stick my textbooks on the stupid thing.
Posted by: andiyar | November 28, 2009 5:57 PM
@12 - Yep, they all do that, all eInk devices at least. It's just the way the technology works; the black flash happens everytime.
I've personally got a Sony PRS600 (The Touch) and after a while, you don't even notice the flash at all. And I second a vote for calibre - very useful app, very powerful and easy to use.
-Andiyar
Posted by: DaveX | November 28, 2009 5:58 PM
I just started using my iPod Touch as an ebook reader last week, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm testing out two different reading apps (both free) eReader Pro, and Stanza. So far, each is pretty good. I'm using a combination of the Stanza desktop and iPhone Explorer to convert random txt, pdf, etc files to the ePub format, which seems to work best for me right now. I'll be fine-tuning that over the next few weeks, I'm sure. At the very least, I'm reading a lot of good things, and that's what counts. I think the Sony reader might be nice, but I've already got the Touch... no sense dropping $300 when this will do, right?
Posted by: Carl | November 28, 2009 6:39 PM
Like Evolving Squid, I am uninterested in eBooks as long as they're crippled with DRM. It's a little disappointing that even people like Myers who claim to dislike DRM will purchase DRM-crippled books and devices, anyway. It'll never go away, that way.
Posted by: Moggie | November 28, 2009 6:46 PM
#11:
I wonder whether Andy Schlafly is working on a Conservapedia version?
Posted by: Rox | November 28, 2009 7:36 PM
@DaveX
I just downloaded Stanza to my iPod touch and it is great! Thanks for the recommendation.
Posted by: Prazzie | November 28, 2009 8:53 PM
The new update also enables a rotate function, which is the only way I can read a PDF natively, otherwise it's too small. I still prefer converting my PDFs, I use Mobipocket Creator or Calibre - quick, easy and then I can increase the font size on my Kindle.
I'm really chuffed about the 85% increased battery life with wireless on. I'm busy going through a DailyLit Wikipedia Tour on my K2, works great.
Posted by: Jason Febery | November 28, 2009 9:16 PM
I've been meaning to try a Kindle for the longest time, but I'm really not sure how much I'd like it. There's just something about turning a page and holding the book in your hands than an electronic device can't replace.
Hah, who knows. Maybe I'll join the 21st century and buy one for myself sometime soon.
--
http://www.jasonfebery.wordpress.com
Posted by: Prazzie | November 28, 2009 9:32 PM
"There's just something about turning a page and holding the book in your hands than an electronic device can't replace."
Yup, it's the discomfort you're thinking of. Having to constantly shift position to accommodate the book, having to lift an arm to turn the page, having to roll over to read the opposite page of a particularly heavy tome, having the text distorted ever so slightly as it slants into the gutter of the novel...
When I had to read a paper book for the first time after getting a Kindle, I was shocked by how uncomfortable it was. Annoyed, even.
Posted by: Cat Faber | November 28, 2009 9:56 PM
Huh.
I love my Kindle. But I thought PZ wasn't impressed with it and wasn't planning to get one. When did that change?
Anyway--ever so slightly too lazy to load the update myself but waiting with interest for the Whispernet upload. Wondering if it would work for journal articles.
Though it won't *really* work for journal articles until cross-document searching and annotation both work for pdfs.
But once they do--I might even buy a DX. Nice change from a file box full of printouts.
Posted by: rawnaeris
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November 28, 2009 10:44 PM
You can buy some textbooks for Kindle. I don't know the cost, but some of my students showed up to lab this year with just a Kindle in hand. They were surprisingly readable.
I'm still disinclined to buy one myself though. DRM locked bugs me. And I'm proud of my paper library.
Posted by: Darren Garrison | November 28, 2009 11:57 PM
"My main problem with both of them is that the screen starts blinking whenever the screen changes (for example, when turning a page)."
That just happens for a fraction of a second. It is no big deal. And it has to happen. "Electronic ink" consists of tiny capsules-- oh, hell, just read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper#Electrophoretic
The "blinking" is to clear the screen completely from one page change to the next. If you don't do that, stray bits of black start to accumulate from one page to the next, sort of the way blocks show up on badly compressed digital video.
I'll have to second www.mobileread.com as the best site for reading about/discussing ebooks (I have to second it because someone beat me to firsting it.)
"Does anyone use the Barnes & Noble reader?"
No, nobody does. It hasn't shipped yet.
Posted by: Darren Garrison | November 29, 2009 12:47 AM
BTW, here's a quick 'n' dirty review I did of my Sony Reader Pocket a couple of days after I bought it. Around 200 bucks (in the US) for this, and not tied into any store. Supports EPUB, which means there are more than a million public-domain books (from Google and Project Gutenberg) that can be read on it for free.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19625804/Sony-Reader-Pocket-PRS300-Review
Posted by: Troy | November 29, 2009 1:43 AM
Sony PRS-700 is a much better ebook reader than Kindle, it even has background lighting which is very important.
Posted by: Rorschach | November 29, 2009 3:33 AM
There is a german SciFi series that has been published in weekly installments, in 6 editions, since 1961, and is up to somewhere past 2500 issues.
They are available as .pdf, and a while ago I downloaded them to rekindle(sic !) childhood memories, but neither on the PC ,laptop, or the Kindle, do I find it to be a comfortable read.In fact, it gives me a headache after a while.
So when I go back to the homeland next year, I shall tackle the task of importing 2500+ print issues of that series to Australia with me.
Posted by: Wry Mouth | November 29, 2009 3:40 AM
Good news! I wonder how the "nook" people will respond. I will probably get my wife one of these soon, as she (3-book-a-day habit) is one of the few people I know who will get her money's worth out of them before the prices come down in the next year or so. ;o/
Posted by: Martin_z | November 29, 2009 4:21 AM
No-one has mentioned the real problem about the Kindle. It's so UGLY! I have a Sony Reader PRS 505, and it's just beautiful.
Someone mentioned that the backlight on the PRS-700 is important. Never understood that myself - books don't come with backlights.
Finally, the other, major, showstopping problem with the Kindle is the fact that they can delete books from your library without so much as a by-your-leave. They did so not so long ago, when they realized they'd sold 1984 without the correct copyright permissions - they just silently reached into people's Kindles and deleted the book. They refunded people, too - but even so...
And they weren't even breaching their Ts and Cs. They're allowed to do that.
I'm trying to imagine how I'd feel if someone from Waterstones or Barnes and Noble went into my house without my permission, removed a book from me they'd sold in error and left the money on the table.
Posted by: BenS | November 29, 2009 5:56 AM
I'm not so much interested in e-book readers for the books as for managing my expanding collection of journal pdfs. I hate reading them on backlit screens and do feel a bit guilty printing them out to read once and chuck in a drawer for ever more!
The upcoming reader from Plastic Logic is the one I have my eye on for full size A4...
Posted by: Moggie
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November 29, 2009 6:08 AM
#31:
This is, of course, a concern. But they can't do that if you leave the wireless turned off. They also can't stop you taking backup copies of all the books you buy. I think that's against the EULA, but to hell with that: I still have books I bought nearly forty years ago, you think I'd pay for a book with no guarantee that I'll still be able to read it ten years from now? I have no intention of ripping anyone off, so I take backups with a clear conscience.
Most of the Amazon ebooks are Mobipocket with DRM, but the DRM has been broken, and it's easy to strip it out so that you have a copy which will continue to be readable on your computer whatever Amazon do. They have another format called Topaz, and I believe its DRM hasn't been broken yet, but I haven't yet seen any of those books.
Posted by: PlaydoPlato | November 29, 2009 7:02 AM
DRM is a deal-killer for me. E-book readers are a fine innovation on the traditional book, but it's clear that some in the publishing industry want to do for books what the recording industry has done for music -- namely, remove ownership from the people and move us closer to a rental-society.
OTOH, I love audio books, although admittedly, they're kinda lame for displaying diagrams.
Posted by: anonymous bloger | November 29, 2009 9:02 AM
About time they added PDF support.
The DRM is what killed the deal for me too.
http://carnifexinsania.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Larry W. Jewell | November 29, 2009 9:03 AM
Popular Science recently printed a simple method for turning a tablet notebook into a Kindle-reader. Last monthly or the month before.
http://rationalia.com/gawdzilla/diy-kindle.jpg
Posted by: DanN
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November 29, 2009 9:59 AM
Kindle PC Software + netbook > Kindle > Sony reader
Posted by: Darren Garrison | November 29, 2009 10:54 AM
"Kindle PC Software + netbook > Kindle > Sony reader"
Yeah, MUCH better-- except for the massive weight to be holding in your hand, the eye-strain inducing transmissive display, the huge keyboard in the way, and the microscopically small battery life. But except for those fundamental shortcomings, a netbook is better in every way!
Posted by: The Swede | November 29, 2009 11:28 AM
DanN, you're seriously proposing that the better tool for carrying around in ones pocket for reading on is a *netbook*?? What kind of pockets do you have? What kind of battery life do you squeeze out of your netbook? I have trouble getting more than a few days of serious reading out of my Sony, but it will easily last two full days of lounging on the beach, reading several books a day.
Posted by: Darren Garrison | November 29, 2009 11:46 AM
"I have trouble getting more than a few days of serious reading out of my Sony"
I use my 300 hours per day, every day. The few minutes a day it tends to be hooked up to my PC to shuffle around files is enough to keep the battery topped off. I've never once, in the 3 months I've had it, had to "recharge" it in the sense that I've had to plug it into something and leave it alone for hours.
Posted by: John Phillips, FCD | November 29, 2009 2:08 PM
Thanks Zmidponk, I have been looking for something better than Sony's own software for my Touch for a while. For while Calibre is not perfect, it is orders of magnitude better than Sony's own. Then again, almost anything would be better than Sony's ebook software. Why is it that a company that generally builds pretty good hardware usually sucks at software.
Posted by: Bjorn Watland
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November 29, 2009 2:19 PM
I also use a Sony Reader. The PDF rendering is what did it for me. I have a handful of books, but more manuals for various things I fix. One downside, no searchability in the reader I have.
Posted by: karen wester newton | November 29, 2009 3:24 PM
Kindle 2 owner here. I find the native PDF support interesting but not terribly useful because of the small font size, as described above. Turning the screen to landscape helps, but only so long as the book is in single column format, and even then, you lose the layout/readability advantage. I think the QUE will probably turn out to be the most useful eReader for those whose primary need is to read PDFs easily. Still no price for it yet, but I am guessing about $500 because they are aiming at business users.
Has the Nook shipped yet? Barnes & Noble says they have sold out but I have not seen any online comments from folks who actually have one.
Posted by: Kevin B
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November 29, 2009 4:12 PM
I love my Kindle for reading novels, and for reading Dawkins and Shermer books.
I think I would hate it for reference or for studying. The interface is too slow, and the keyboard is terrible for looking things up. Electronic textbooks are coming, though, and the interface will improve.
I like the idea of a two-screen netbook. One screen can be e-ink, and the other, perhaps OLED. The e-ink screen could display a touchscreen keyboard when needed, and the other screen could accept gestures for marking and arranging things. Illustrations in e-textbooks could be more than just static monocrome images. On the OLED screen they could be in full color, animated, zoomable, rotatable, and linked to related information both in the book itself and out in the etherweb.
For regular reading, or when you're away from any inductive charging surfaces, you could turn the OLED display off and fold it back out of the way.
Posted by: BoxNDox
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November 29, 2009 4:25 PM
Regarding reading journals on the Kindle, the first problem is lack of selection. Only a handful of magazines and journals are available.
One of those journals is the New England Journal of Medicine. I read the NEJM regularly simply out of personal interest - I'm an engineer, not a doctor - and I find the Kindle to be a great way to do that.
That wouldn't be the case if my interest was professional. The main problem is the graphics: Much too small and hard to make out. This is not a problem for a casual reader like me, but if I had to make decisions where someone's life hangs in the balance, this would not be acceptable.
On a more amusing note, this Kindle discussion has reminded me that I need to write and complain to Amazon about my purchase of the Kindle version of "Why Evolution is True". That's what I ordered, and what shows up in the index, but the actual book is something called "Lone Star Woman", whose subject matter appears to intersect evolution only in that it discusses procreation rather extensively...
Posted by: Moggie | November 29, 2009 4:53 PM
#45:
I wonder how much of a problem Amazon have with this. They had a particular history book which I considered buying, so I downloaded the sample... which turned out to be from a completely unrelated book.
Posted by: Darren Garrison | November 29, 2009 5:52 PM
"I like the idea of a two-screen netbook. One screen can be e-ink, and the other, perhaps OLED."
Then you want this:
http://www.entourageedge.com/entourage-edge.html
"I think the QUE will probably turn out to be the most useful eReader for those whose primary need is to read PDFs easily."
If you want big screens (at big prices) you already have choices:
http://www.irextechnologies.com/products
Posted by: Darren Garrison | November 29, 2009 7:06 PM
BTW, a thread I started on science ebooks:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62517
Posted by: Jon H | November 29, 2009 7:18 PM
"Someone mentioned that the backlight on the PRS-700 is important. Never understood that myself - books don't come with backlights."
The 700 isn't backlit, it's frontlit. You can't backlight e-ink, because it contains the pigment particles.
Posted by: Jon H | November 29, 2009 7:39 PM
My concern about the Nook is that I strongly suspect it'll only be a matter of time before they start running ads on the color portion of the screen. Possibly even animated ads.
I have a K2 and a DX. I bought the K2 first, and loved it, but found it a bit small for books that display source code. When the DX was announced, the larger size and the PDF support were enough to get me to order it.
They're both great. The only major flaw with the DX is that you can't directly enter digits on the keyboard. You have to press a modifier key as well, so you need two hands, which is a little awkward due to the size and weight of the device.
I find the K2 to be handier for reading on crowded subways. I might read fiction on the K2 on my morning commute, then a technical PDF on my DX on the way home in the evening.
My reading has gone *way* up since I bought them.
Posted by: chris koenigsberg | November 29, 2009 7:51 PM
darn. my Kindle 1 has version 1.2 of the Kindle OS. no update for native PDF there.
I read a lot of free stuff on it, and I do subscribe to a bunch of paid stuff too (including Pharyngula!!!). It is quite convenient. I can carry it around and read with one hand, in spare moments, walking up and down the stairs at lunchtime, watching the kids, etc.
I got it as a present though, I didn't buy it myself...
Posted by: Cat Faber | November 29, 2009 8:29 PM
Regarding the public domain books you can read on the Sony--they are all available, free, for the Kindle as well. Check them out at manybooks.net. Just choose the Mobipocket versions instead of the e-pub versions.
Posted by: Kristine | November 29, 2009 11:15 PM
I can't wait to try this out - I was trying to do research on archival practices in developing countries and ended up with a lot of PDFs in French - which would not be a problem if they weren't actually converted jpgs of pages!
I love my Kindle. I load my own writing on it and have an instant electronic portfolio. The only thing I agree with Nicholson Baker about it (Nic of course did not like it) is that it needs a kickstand.
Posted by: Katrina | November 30, 2009 11:39 AM
I use a netbook for my ereader. Kindle, Sony, and B&N's new nook are all too proprietary for me.
I already have hundreds of ebooks in my library, that I used to read on my PDA, before they went extinct. What that means, though is that I have at least four different file formats and none of these readers can handle all four.
A netbook, though, will read any format for roughly the same price.
Posted by: katbend
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November 30, 2009 4:32 PM
go kindle!