4 ms·

For someone that has a Kindle/KindleDX/Nook: How good is the Kindle/Kindle DX for technical books? I want to buy one (since I am immigrating and will lose all m

by w00pla 17y ago

For someone that has a Kindle/KindleDX/Nook: How good is the Kindle/Kindle DX for technical books? I want to buy one (since I am immigrating and will lose all my textbooks). Is it good for technical books - since the page turn speed is apparently very slow? Will the iPad be better for this?

Simucal 17y ago
I own a Kindle 2 and I have also pulled up programming books on the Nook. They both suck for this application. Because their screen size is smaller than the page of the PDFs, you are left with zooming in and out (a feature which is new to the Kindle). This however leaves something to be desired as far as the reading experience goes. My coworker owns a Kindle DX and it does much, much better at rendering technical PDFs and or technical books. I also think the iPad will be very good at reading technical books as well. Their diagrams and code snippets will render beautifully and zooming is an altogether different experience (much more enjoyable). So, I would definitely go with either the DX or hold out for the iPad.
evgen 17y ago
I have been loving my DX since Xmas, and as a former Sony Reader refugee I cannot tell you how much I do not miss needing to run my technical documents and research papers through this sort of PDF munging in order to get something that is (barely) readable on the smaller e-ink screens. If you read a lot of technical books, papers, or other docs formatted for A4/8.5x11 then do not consider any of the smaller e-ink units. The page turn speed is not fast, but since I was used to it from my previous e-ink device I don't find it too much of a bother. The thing that you lose from a physical book is the ability to scan quickly to a particular section that you then drill down to the page you want. With e-ink you guess the approximate area and then guess a couple of more times until you get to the right page. The biggest "fix" that could be provided in this case would be for hyperlinks within the doc to work so that you could bounce from the table of contents or index to a specific page. At least with the DX I can actually go to the page I want though, with reformatted docs on a smaller display (like the use case for the OP software) there was no match between the original page numbers and the actual page number on the reader, so it was a real PITA. Short version: if you read technical docs or papers in PDF format do not consider anything smaller than a DX or iRex.
Herring 17y ago
>Will the iPad be better for this? I own a DX & I hate to say it, but yeah, probably. The page speed does hurt. You have to decide if it's more important than the e-ink screen. I personally wouldn't trade my DX, but I think many people will want to watch movies & check email instead of only reading pdfs for extended periods.

by w00pla 17y ago

Simucal 17y ago

I own a Kindle 2 and I have also pulled up programming books on the Nook. They both suck for this application. Because their screen size is smaller than the page of the PDFs, you are left with zooming in and out (a feature which is new to the Kindle). This however leaves something to be desired as far as the reading experience goes. My coworker owns a Kindle DX and it does much, much better at rendering technical PDFs and or technical books. I also think the iPad will be very good at reading technical books as well. Their diagrams and code snippets will render beautifully and zooming is an altogether different experience (much more enjoyable). So, I would definitely go with either the DX or hold out for the iPad.

evgen 17y ago

I have been loving my DX since Xmas, and as a former Sony Reader refugee I cannot tell you how much I do not miss needing to run my technical documents and research papers through this sort of PDF munging in order to get something that is (barely) readable on the smaller e-ink screens. If you read a lot of technical books, papers, or other docs formatted for A4/8.5x11 then do not consider any of the smaller e-ink units. The page turn speed is not fast, but since I was used to it from my previous e-ink device I don't find it too much of a bother. The thing that you lose from a physical book is the ability to scan quickly to a particular section that you then drill down to the page you want. With e-ink you guess the approximate area and then guess a couple of more times until you get to the right page. The biggest "fix" that could be provided in this case would be for hyperlinks within the doc to work so that you could bounce from the table of contents or index to a specific page. At least with the DX I can actually go to the page I want though, with reformatted docs on a smaller display (like the use case for the OP software) there was no match between the original page numbers and the actual page number on the reader, so it was a real PITA. Short version: if you read technical docs or papers in PDF format do not consider anything smaller than a DX or iRex.

Herring 17y ago

>Will the iPad be better for this? I own a DX & I hate to say it, but yeah, probably. The page speed does hurt. You have to decide if it's more important than the e-ink screen. I personally wouldn't trade my DX, but I think many people will want to watch movies & check email instead of only reading pdfs for extended periods.