Need advice choosing a low cost reader

[jgatkinsn]

Hello,

This is my first time posting, and I need some help deciding on a fairly low cost ebook reader. I got a good deal on used Kindle DX for my business about a month ago, because I do a lot of technical reading and have a small home office. I'm loving it, because now I can carry around my references with me where ever I work. I like the fact that an ebook reader helps on cutting down clutter.

I'm trying to convince my wife that she could use one (she hates clutter) as well as my daughter who we are homeschooling. I think I've almost got her convinced, because of all the pdf ebooks she buys for homeschooling and herbal studies and she hates to read on computer. Not to mention all the free classical books out there. She just thinks they're too expensive.

Anyway...long story short. I'm looking at ebook readers right at or below $200. I don't want any wireless, because I don't want my children browsing the internet without my knowledge. I like good format support, but I have no problem converting formats since I'm a geek. I think I lean towards storage expandability just in case it becomes necessary.

Here are my candidates:
Sony PRS-600SC - $199 (on sale from sonystyle)
Cybook Opus - $175 (buy.com)
Sony PRS-300 - $150 (512MB really enough?)
Astak 6" Mentor - $199 (newegg, etc.)
Kobo Reader $149 (just added this, at Borders.com)

(I didn't include the Astak 5" Ez-Reader, since I might as well buy the 6" at same price)


Questions:
Is the level of grayscale that big of a deal? 4-levels vs 8-levels
Is a 5" vs 6" screen that big of a difference in terms of reading?
Which one of these candidates is better to purchase and why?
Has anyone tried these with Linux?

Also, I didn't include LCD versions, because of their battery eating ways.

[CarolineNH]

Can't speak to the Linux question (although I'd love to find out what works with Linux - I'll be watching replies for that!) but I have a Sony PRS-600 (red). I find it very readable, although there's some debate about glare resulting from the touch-screen. It bothers some people more than others. It does, however, have an SD card slot. Mine has over 200 books on it, and still has plenty of space available, too (and the SD card if all else fails - I can't see needing it for my uses, to be honest).

[Logseman]

The greyscales are only interesting in case you want to display images in the device (essentially, if you want to read comics). In any other case you're completely happy with 2 greyscales, black and white

A 5 or 6 inch screen makes no sensible difference if you read files which are adapted at the screen size. However, many, many PDF's arent. In case that they aren't adapted, you'll have to go for the bigger thing, that is, 6 inches. Still, if the file is a research paper or something which really needs a DINA4 paper sheet, 11 inches, you'll sweat quite a bit to read it in a 6'' device.

Astak Mentor supports all the big formats so that you don't have to go around converting things, aside of a slot for an SD card if you need more storage space. However, it is much less agreable to handle than Cybook Opus. Nevertheless, if your wife is going to read mainly PDF's, you can be discarding the Opus.

BTW, you can go to the Flea Market and scout around. There are people who really have profitted from it, in the sense of acquiring lots of incredibly good things at a great price.

[neilmarr]

Good to have your company, JG. For home schooling, you might need something that can handle PDFs well -- for graphs, tables, illustrations, maps, photographs, index, etc -- but the iPad is over your price limit, so you might be tied to a PC, laptop or netbook for a while as far as those go. For simpler (basically text-only) presentation, all those devices mentioned above are strong candidates and some will handle some graphics pretty well. Like many things personal, it's a matter of horses for courses. Good luck and best wishes. Neil

[GA Russell]

Welcome jg!

I don't think that you will find much support here for an inexpensive device if you want to read pdf's. The screens that are big enough cost much more.

If you eliminate pdf's from your consideration, I suggest that you not make a decision without considering the jetBook Lite and the Aluratek Libre. I am very content with my JBL. I use rechargeable batteries, and change them out once every two weeks.

I like the JBL's TFT screen because the text is blacker than that of my eInk Astak EZ Reader. And the page turning is close to instantaneous, which is something I have come to appreciate.

Both the JBL and the Libre have wide format support. The JBL does eReader DRM, and the Libre does Adobe DRM.

[mike_bike_kite]

Not sure if I should ask this but hey-ho it's a public forum

Why would you teach your children yourself? Is it because you are a teacher? Is it a religious thing? Are are there no schools in your area or are they all quite poor performing? Do you plan to limit all media (internet, books, radio, TV, newspapers, films, email) that your child is exposed to? Will you be limiting her social circle as well? Actually will she have a social circle? And at what age do you plan to expose the real world to her?

I'm genuinely curious as the concept is quite alien to me. Is home teaching common in the US?

[pboss]

That's a lot of questions for a busy dad to answer but I'm curious too.

[wandalynn]

Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite

Not sure if I should ask this but hey-ho it's a public forum

Why would you teach your children yourself? Is it because you are a teacher? Is it a religious thing? Are are there no schools in your area or are they all quite poor performing? Do you plan to limit all media (internet, books, radio, TV, newspapers, films, email) that your child is exposed to? Will you be limiting her social circle as well? Actually will she have a social circle? And at what age do you plan to expose the real world to her?

I'm genuinely curious as the concept is quite alien to me. Is home teaching common in the US?

You didn't ask me but I'm butting in - I'm in Arizona and home schooling is becoming more common here. School funding has been cut beyond reason, classrooms are overcrowded, teachers and staff are stressed and underpaid. For families that can do it, it's a better learning experience for the children. My friend's daughter has been successfully homeschooling her 2 children for several years, they are doing extremely well academically. She meets with other home schooling families for recesses, etc. so the kids don't suffer socially. I've worked as an aide in autism classrooms since I retired 5 years ago and I am seeing a rapidly declining educational system. Its a sad situation.

ETA: Last time I looked, Crutchfield had the Sony 600 with a free cover and light for $199.

[mike_bike_kite]

So the teaching is done by groups of families, presumably all with kids of around the same age, and where each parent teaches what ever they specialise in? I guess I could teach my kids maths, history and geography but lord help them if I had to teach them English or languages!

I just picture some poor kid being given an education by their well meaning parent(s) and ending up handicapped because of it - I guess it all depends on the parents doing the teaching and whether they want to broaden the horizons of their kids or just hide them from the world.

Schooling in the UK also has it's problems and many families (mine included) take time to add to their kids knowledge as well as sending their kids to Saturday schools or getting private tuition. I'm simply curious about home schooling though I don't see it as an end solution in itself.

[jgatkinsn]

Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite

So the teaching is done by groups of families, presumably all with kids of around the same age, and where each parent teaches what ever they specialise in? I guess I could teach my kids maths, history and geography but lord help them if I had to teach them English or languages!

I just picture some poor kid being given an education by their well meaning parent(s) and ending up handicapped because of it - I guess it all depends on the parents doing the teaching and whether they want to broaden the horizons of their kids or just hide them from the world.

Schooling in the UK also has it's problems and many families (mine included) take time to add to their kids knowledge as well as sending their kids to Saturday schools or getting private tuition. I'm simply curious about home schooling though I don't see it as an end solution in itself.

To answer your first question to your first post. Homeschooling is quite big in certain parts of the US. Where I live, there is a large homeschooling community with many different homeschool groups. There are various reasons to homeschool one of the bigger reasons is for religious reasons. I'm certainly not saying that's the only reason, because each family is different. Another reason is politcal for those who have a strong sense of individual and parental freedom and think that the federal government really has no business educating our children.

Yes, a parent can screw up a their child's education, just like public school can screw a child up all too often. There a risks involved in any decision you make. However, the statistics show that messed up educated homeschool kids are a rarity, and that the norm is that they tend to excel much more than their public school counterparts. I think that can be attributed to the fact that most families who do homeschool are serious about their children excelling and take responsibility to see that it happens.

The most common way to homeschool is groups of people coming together to teach certain classes once or twice a week or once a month. However, most of the day to day schooling is done at home. Children are taught how to study better and research things on their own at an earlier age in a homeschool environment. I hear that a more popular thing going on with high-school age homeschoolers (mine are grade school) is to do online college classes, so they go to college with a lot of credits by the time they graduate high school.

In the US, homeschooling takes on many shapes and sizes not just because of each family being different, but each state has certain requirements when it comes to homeschooling. Some states are real strict to almost abolishing it like California and others have a lot more freedom such as Alabama.

[mike_bike_kite]

Thanks for taking the time to explain it to me - I feel a bit more enlightened now. Hope your kids do well.

[Latinandgreek]

Yes, thanks for sharing some information about home-schooling. I have to admit I find the idea of home-schooling fascinating.

Are your wife's PDFs mostly text based, or scans? The Sony PRS-600 has a zoom feature, so that might be something to take into consideration if her PDFs are graph or picture heavy. I often read text-based PDFs on my Sony PRS-505, and in most cases I have no problems with text re-flow. Tables and graphs are legible on it, but just barely in most cases, the prs-600's zoom would be great. I have no idea how well Sony products work with linux, however.

[jgatkinsn]

Originally Posted by Latinandgreek

Are your wife's PDFs mostly text based, or scans?

I think most of the pdf's are text based. Most of the pdf's she gets are "ebooks" that someone has written to sell or give away. Sometimes they may have diagrams such as a sewing pattern or just simple images to go along with the story.

Thanks for the tip on zoom feature of the PRS-600.