Below you'll find the E-reader review in progress by the Mann e-reader group. A Word version as of April 5, 2010 is attached below.
From Dan McKee:
"For those interested in eBook usage in the classroom, Princeton has recently posted the report on their pilot project testing the use of Kindles for course readings. You can see the reports (full and summary versions) here: http://www.princeton.edu/ereaderpilot/
The executive summary states: The goal of printing less in the pilot courses was achieved: pilot participants printed just over half the amount of sheets than control groups who did not use e-readers. The classroom experience was somewhat worsened by using e-readers, as study and reference habits of a lifetime were challenged by device limitations. This pilot suggests that future e-book manufacturers may wish to pay more attention to annotation tools, pagination, content organization, and in achieving a more natural "paper-like" user experience. In summary, although most users of the Kindle DX were very pleased with their "reading" experiences with the Kindle, they felt that the "writing" tools fell short of expectations, and prevented them from doing things easily accomplished with paper.
Comparison of E-Readers
| Apple iPad | Apple iTouch | Amazon Kindle 2 | Amazon Kindle DX | Barnes & Noble Nook | Sony Daily Edition | Sony Touch | Plastic Logic Que proReader |
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Link | iPad | iTouch | Kindle 2 | Kindle DX | Nook | Reader Daily Edition PRS-900BC | Reader Touch PRS-600SC | Que |
Available | March (WiFi only) April (WiFi/3G) | Now | Now | Now | Now | Now | Now | Mid-April |
Price | WiFi: $499-699 3G/WiFi: $629-829 | $199/$299/$399 | $259 | $489 | $259 | $399 | $300 | WiFi/4GB: $649 WiFi/3G/8GB: $799 |
Size | .5 inches thick | 4.3x2.4x.33 in. | 8 x 5.3 x 0.36 inches | 10.4 x 7.2 x 0.38 inches | 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches | 8.13 x 4 x 19/32 inches | 6.9 x 4.8 x .4 inches | 8.5 x 11x .33 inches |
Weight | 1.5 lbs. | 4 oz. | 10.2 oz. | 18.9 oz. | 12.1 oz. | 12.75 oz. | 10.1 oz | 17 oz. |
Screen Size | 9.7 inches | 3.5 in. | 6 inches | 9.7 inches | 6 inches | 7.1 inches | 6 in. | 10.5 inches |
Display | Backlit IPS Color |
| Grayscale | Grayscale | Grayscale reading, color nav | Grayscale | Grayscale | Grayscale |
Touchscreen/Rotate | Yes/Yes | Yes/Yes | No/Manual | No/Yes | Yes/No | Yes/Yes | Yes/? | Yes |
Battery Life | 11 hours | 30 hrs audio; 6 hrs video | 7 days with wireless Whispersync on | 7 days with wireless Whispersync on | 10 days | 7 days with wireless on | 2 weeks/6,800 (ePub) Continuous page turns; 7,500 (BBeB Book) Continuous page turns | N/A |
Storage/Expandable | 16GB; 32GB; 64GB/No | 8 GB; 32 GB; 64 GB/No | 2GB/No | 4GB/No | 2GB/Yes (microSD) | 1.6GB/Yes (Memory Stick Duo/SD) | 512 MB/Yes (~ 380MB Dual Memory Card Expansion Slots for Memory Stick PRO Duo™ and SD Card™ up to 16GB) | 4GB; 8GB/No |
Input | Touchscreen/Soft keyboard (wireless keyboard available) | Touchscreen/virtual keyboard | Keyboard | Keyboard(kind of hard to use and "joystick" feature not as easy as touchscreen) | Virtual keyboard | Touchscreen/stylus/virtual keyboard | Touchscreen/stylus/virtual Keyboard | Touchscreen/Virtual Keyboard |
Wireless/Bluetooth | 3G through AT&T/WiFi3G plans: up to 250MB, $15; unlimited $30. No contract. | WiFi/Bluetooth | Units sold through Oct. 22, Sprint 3G; Now 3G/roaming through AT&T/NO | 3G (Whispernet/Sprint) | 3G (AT&T)/WiFi | 3G (AT&T)/WiFi | No | 3G (AT&T)/WiFi/Bluetooth |
International | No deals yet; 3G unlocked |
| 3G Roaming (AT&T) | 3G Roaming (AT&T) | No | No | No | N/A |
Native Formats | EPUB; Audible; Kindle (through app); iTunes;additional formats NA | EPUB; Audible; Kindle (through app); B&N Nook (through app); other ebook readers like Stanza; etc | Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC; Native PDF | Kindle (AZW), Native PDF, TXT, Audible (formats 4, Audible Enhanced (AAX), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC | EPUB, eReader, PDFs, MP3s, JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP. | EPUB, PDF, JPEG, BBeB, TXT, RTF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP , MP3, AAC | EPUB, PDF, BBeB, TXT, RTF, Word, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, MP3, AAC | Native PDF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, ePub, and TXT; Will work with Office, HTML via Que software |
Platform | Open to approved third-party developers | Open to approved third-party developers | Closed now but SDK has been released for upcoming beta and store with approved third-party developers | Closed now but SDK has been released for upcoming beta and store with approved third-party developers | Closed | Closed to developers; open in terms of multi-format, non-DRM use. | Closed to developers; open in terms of multi-format, non-DRM use. | Closed |
Browser | Safari | Safari | Yes in U.S., Japan. NA in most countries. | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Available Content | Number of iBookstore titles N/A; Kindle Store; iPhone apps |
| 400,000-plus books, more than 130 newspapers & magazines, 8,000 blogs (Numbers vary internationally) | 400,000-plus books, more than 130 newspapers & magazines, 8,000 blogs (Numbers vary internationally) | 350,000 books for sale, public domain; about 30 newspapers, magazines. Google Books brings titles to 1 million | Includes public domain, access to public libraries through OverDrive | Includes public domain, access to public libraries through OverDrive | 350,000 books for sale, public domain |
Bookstore | iBookstore | iBookstore | The Kindle Store | The Kindle Store | Barnes and Noble eBookstore, Google Books | Sony eBook Reader Store (converting to EPUB this year), Google Books | Sony eBook Reader Store (converting to EPUB this year), Google Books | QUEreader.com (powered by Barnes & Noble); periodicals from Dow Jones, others. |
Book Sharing | N/A |
| Between devices, Kindle apps on same acct. | Between devices on same acct. | 14 days on many titles | No | No | No |
Microphone/Speakers | Yes/Yes | Yes/No | No/Yes | No/Yes | No/Yes | No/Yes | No/No | No/No |
Archive | Apple | Apple | Amazon | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Sony | Sony | Plastic Logic |
Annotation |
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| Y | Y |
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Highlighting |
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Ease of movement between books |
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Formatting and page locations/ease of citation |
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Individual registration/sign in |
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Resizeable fonts |
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| Y | Y |
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Screen Resolution |
| 480 x 320 pixels (163 ppi); | 600 × 800 pixels (167 ppi) | 825 × 1200 pixels (150 ppi) | 600 × 800 pixels (167 ppi) | 600 x 1024 pixels | 600 × 800 pixels |
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Shades |
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| 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 8 |
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Integrated Dictionary |
| Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
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User-replaceable battery |
| N | N |
| Y | Y? | Y? |
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Directory Organization Capability |
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| Y |
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Text-to-Speech/Accessibility |
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| Y | Y | N |
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Operating System | Mac iPhone/Touch | Mac iPhone/Touch | Linux | Linux | Android/Linux | Montavista Linux | Montavista Linux |
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Platforms | Apple iPad | Apple iTouch | Amazon Kindle 2 | Amazon Kindle DX | Barnes & Noble Nook | Sony Daily Edition | Sony Touch | Plastic Logic Que proReader |
Springer ebooks and articles |
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Elsevier ebooks and articles |
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Google Books and Scholar |
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Internet Archive |
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CUL collections |
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Ebrary |
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My iLibrary |
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NetLibrary |
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Hathi Trust |
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Books 24/7/Safari |
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Overall Rating |
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