3 ms·

"Yeah, I'd say if you want to read an e-book and you have a tablet - you would use your tablet for that." No. You would buy a hard copy or a real e-reader so t

by tjoff 13y ago

"Yeah, I'd say if you want to read an e-book and you have a tablet - you would use your tablet for that." No. You would buy a hard copy or a real e-reader so that you could actually read it. Tablets are just terrible for book-reading and apple killed the e-book market with the release of the tablet. Hopefully someday it will recover, but after spending so much money on a toy few are eager to buy a real e-reader.

shmerl 13y ago
>Tablets are just terrible for book-reading No idea, since I never had a dedicated e-reader. I prefer a general purpose tablet which can be used as e-reader in addition and also can run free software without any DRM to begin with. What benefits does dedicated e-reader have?
- tjoff 13y ago
  A screen that is suitable for reading books. Battery life that is measured in months instead of hours. Those are the only benefits I can think of. But they both make and break the e-book experience. Reading an e-book on a tablet? Wouldn't cross my mind, ever. I'd much rather buy the book. Read an e-book on a e-reader? Yes, please - I'll gladly pay more than the book costs if I have to (which I do a lot of the times).
  - shmerl 13y ago
    > I'd much rather buy the book. I have several problems with this. You can't carry many books with you, and you need too much room to store them. If I really really need something that I read quite regularly, then sure, I'd buy a paper book. But in most cases I'd prefer a digital book, and I have no problems with reading it on a tablet. May be there are DRM-free hackable e-readers out there, but I didn't research this.
    - tjoff 13y ago
      While I agree with you completely I just don't consider reading on a tablet an option. Yes, DRM is an issue. Personally, when paying about the same or more for a DRM-e-book than for the real thing I consider it fair game and morally acceptable for me to strip the DRM (no one can claim that I'm getting a cheaper version because of DRM when the DRM crap costs more than a physical book). Currently this is childs play so I'm gambling somewhat on that this won't change or my e-reader won't be able to new books from certain places. Of course, this makes me a criminal.
      - shmerl 13y ago
        Besides, I have lot's of e-books in various formats (like DjVu, PDF, ePUB, fb2 and etc.), and I doubt e-readers support them all. Having a dedicated e-rader for each format is not an option. General purpose tablet handles such cases much better. About "criminality" of breaking DRM, this nonsense is really annoying. More people should support campaigns like this one: http://fixthedmca.org http://fixthedmca.org
esperluette 13y ago
I don't agree that tablets are terrible for e-reading. I love reading on my iPad, and hate my e-ink reader. The page refresh times are terrible in e-ink, they really slow me down and are disruptive.

by tjoff 13y ago

shmerl 13y ago

>Tablets are just terrible for book-reading No idea, since I never had a dedicated e-reader. I prefer a general purpose tablet which can be used as e-reader in addition and also can run free software without any DRM to begin with. What benefits does dedicated e-reader have?

tjoff 13y ago
A screen that is suitable for reading books. Battery life that is measured in months instead of hours. Those are the only benefits I can think of. But they both make and break the e-book experience. Reading an e-book on a tablet? Wouldn't cross my mind, ever. I'd much rather buy the book. Read an e-book on a e-reader? Yes, please - I'll gladly pay more than the book costs if I have to (which I do a lot of the times).
- shmerl 13y ago
  > I'd much rather buy the book. I have several problems with this. You can't carry many books with you, and you need too much room to store them. If I really really need something that I read quite regularly, then sure, I'd buy a paper book. But in most cases I'd prefer a digital book, and I have no problems with reading it on a tablet. May be there are DRM-free hackable e-readers out there, but I didn't research this.
  - tjoff 13y ago
    While I agree with you completely I just don't consider reading on a tablet an option. Yes, DRM is an issue. Personally, when paying about the same or more for a DRM-e-book than for the real thing I consider it fair game and morally acceptable for me to strip the DRM (no one can claim that I'm getting a cheaper version because of DRM when the DRM crap costs more than a physical book). Currently this is childs play so I'm gambling somewhat on that this won't change or my e-reader won't be able to new books from certain places. Of course, this makes me a criminal.
    - shmerl 13y ago
      Besides, I have lot's of e-books in various formats (like DjVu, PDF, ePUB, fb2 and etc.), and I doubt e-readers support them all. Having a dedicated e-rader for each format is not an option. General purpose tablet handles such cases much better. About "criminality" of breaking DRM, this nonsense is really annoying. More people should support campaigns like this one: http://fixthedmca.org http://fixthedmca.org

esperluette 13y ago

I don't agree that tablets are terrible for e-reading. I love reading on my iPad, and hate my e-ink reader. The page refresh times are terrible in e-ink, they really slow me down and are disruptive.