my ideal ebook reader

[piranha]

firecat asked how the kobo falls short of my ideal, and a) it's a long list, and b) it's not that the kobo falls short in specific, but that all ereaders fall short at this point, so i thought i separate this from the reader review itself.

• full text search.
  
• full colour, high resolution, primarily to view images. though i could live with high-level grayscale instead and forget about reading graphic novels/comics on my ereader.
  
• comics view functions, if i get colour e-ink.
  
• foreground and background colour/contrast control.
  
• intuitive navigation.
  
• annotations: highlights, notes, drawings.
  
• clipboard.
  
• bookmarks.
  
• integrated dictionaries of my choice.
  
• wifi/3G/bluetooth (this is not a top requirement).
  
• if the above, then also integrated google/wikipedia lookup.
  
• integrated translation for several languages of my choice.
  
• several fonts of my choosing, as well as sizing.
  
• tagging of books.
  
• handle the major formats so i can stop converting.
  
• touch screen (pressure-sensitive stylus would work best for me, but multi-touch could make navigation very easy).
  
• handwriting recognition.
  
• split screen or easy switching back-and-forth so i can see different passages at once.
  
• open-source OS.
  
• external memory expandability.
  
• good library management.
  
• lightweight.
  
• decent battery life (a full day would be acceptable, a week would be fabulous), and quick charge.
  
• USB connectivity.
  
• rugged.
  
• well-priced (and naturally it should come with a pony).
  

i don't ask for much, do i. *snrk*.

i don't need easy integrated purchasing from anywhere i am, and i can totally live without wifi as well; that would just be nice for looking up information. i'm also fine without audio.

Comments

[piranha]

*nod*. the restricted content licensing pisses me off the most. in fact apple's attitude led to me not buying an iphone, because i don't need a nanny for my content, KTHXBYE.

i do not demand a lot of cost savings from ebooks because it really isn't _that_ much cheaper to produce them. some, though, yes.

i'm not sure what you mean by a "technology-dependent medium"? books are also technology- dependent, at least the mass market paperbacks i usually buy.

[seryn]

Technology-dependent medium: If you don't have power to charge it and a means to get books (until the Kindle you had to download to your computer and plug your reader in; the readers didn't have a means to buy directly) you have a paperweight. A book is a book pretty much no matter when you pick it up. If you're homeless and you have a book, you can still read it.

Supposedly in the late 80s, the price of books skyrocketed because of a massive increase in the cost of paper. Books went up about 30% between when I was first buying them for myself and when I had a grown-up job.

Most non-new paperbacks are available 4th book free on Amazon and in person at Borders (during a sale). So in the paper version I'm paying $5.50 or so for a $7.99 list book. I don't see any reason why I shouldn't expect that kind of pricing from e-books. After all, I can't give it to someone else who might enjoy it if I want to bin it after 2 chapters, so it shouldn't cost more than the paper one.

[piranha]

ah, that's what you meant. hm. that kind of technology dependence would be a concern to me if i were away from civilization for a while, but that's not generally the case for more than a couple of days. if i were homeless i'd probably sell my ereader for food, *wry grin*. but as it stands, so much of my life is dependent on technology that one more thing makes no difference.

and because i am never far away from a home with electricity (whether that be the shack or the boat or the truck), i prioritize differently. neither the boat nor the truck have a lot of space for books -- one tiny ereader is a total boon because i no longer have to agonize about losing my library once we permanently move onto the boat.

sure, paper (and warehousing and shipping to distributors) costs, and those costs aren't there for ebooks, but from the various analyses i've read, it's not as much as one might think. i wish i had bookmarked; just a couple of months ago i read a really good breakdown from an industry insider who's not in the pay of the industry. *ack*. can't even remember her name now. sale books are often loss leaders, i don't think one can fairly judge from that.

also, i would really like more money to go to the authors, most of whom don't get nearly enough pay to even make a living. $5.50 a book isn't sufficient at the current royalty rates.