EvilZone
General Tech => Hardware => : FlzedZ August 20, 2014, 01:32:37 PM
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I want to buy either an eReader or a tablet. I want one because I have to study computer science, programming, eth. hacking and other things.
So, what should I do? If there are many good video tutorials I can use, I'd go for the tablet. If I only use ebooks, I'll go for an eReader
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Table imo are worthless things ; big phones that cant call.
In my experience reading on a tablet just doesnt really cut it, ereader s are far more comfy to actually read books, mostly due to the backlight lcd type screen.
A small netbook is by far more flexible for a linuxboy like meself especially compared to android.
I had the same dilemma btw.
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I thought about the same some time ago. I am not that kind of a guy that can sit in front of his PC and read a thousand pages pdf on the screen. I thought it would be great to have a ebook reader and I still use mine (its a cheap one from a local book store) for reading novels and such. As the screen of most ebook readers is not that big there is a feature called pdf reflow. That means the reader will rearrange the contents of a page to make it better for you to read. Bad thing about it is that code samples and such are not formatted anymore and if you try to learn a new language and you see that unformatted stuff its much more difficult to follow the sample codes and to understand them. Sure you can turn of that reflow stuff but that will make the content on the screen extrem small and its no fun to read it. Thats just my experience I had with those readers. Best advice I can give you is to visit a store which sells them and ask them to load a programming ebook for you so you can see it for yourself.
Cheers,
RBA
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I'm the kind of guy who CAN sit and read a lot of pages in front of a PC. However, an ebook reader looks nice and far more natural.
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I'm the kind of guy who CAN sit and read a lot of pages in front of a PC. However, an ebook reader looks nice and far more natural.
I agree, after x hours of staring at a pdf on a computer screen I get tired and bail.
Another factor is that I would probably store less data in my brain.
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I use amazon kindle for ebook reading . I have kindle(ebook reader) machine itself and then i have kindle app on my phone and tablet. No matter what machine i use it syncs the last page i was on book.
Kindle has this great feature also, where you can send e.g. pdf documents in email to your kindle account. You can also use it for converting documents to kindles prefered ebook format. This has been great combination with evilzones ebook library.:)
Edit: And to give little bit more precise answer to OP question i would say that if you are going to read alot with the machine, then pick reader not tablet. It its much better for you eyes and easier to keep reading because of that. This is atleast my experience on my kindle reader and galaxy tab3 tablet.
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Thanks to everybody, I see many of my issues that you posted you have (for example, less learning after hours in front of my PC).
It seems that the kindle / eReader is winning at the moment.
But can anybody answer here, too? In my OP I wrote: " If there are many good video tutorials I can use, I'd go for the tablet "
What do you think? Are (e)books still the best, or are there many good video tuts?
What about Surface?
When answering, remember what I will study :)
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I had the same dilemma myself not long ago. IMO a single device should not multitask. You should get a tablet if and only if you will be moving a lot, you will need to prepare spreadsheets, write documents, prepare slides, check email and all that shit without having to carry a large computer around. And even then I'd choose a netbook (Asus eeePC, Acer Aspire One, why didn't netbooks catch on?) over a tablet most of the time. An eReader is only good for 1 thing - reading books. That's what it was invented for and only choose this if you wish to read books and nothing more on a tablet-sized thing.
Now comes into mind - which model to choose. Ofcourse the Kindle has gone mainstream (probably for a really good reason) and I will get one eventually, because it only does 1 thing - lets you read books. That's it. There are those PocketBook bullshit readers and others that compete with each other by adding really unneeded features. IMO a device like an ebook reader should NOT have unrelated features to distract the reader.
A Kindle doesn't have all that crap, only wifi support and in newer models an experimental internet browser. While PocketBook and others offer a fucking touchscreen, music player comes with speakers built-in, a full internet browser, basically a tablet with epaper screen. That is garbage. The more features you have the more you'll want to drop the book and go do something more entertaining, you'll go read some website or try and listen to music on your device or something else.
Kindle doesn't have all that and that's why it's great.
But what I don't really like about eReaders is that they come in very small screens. Reading a normal book on it becomes unnatural, and with a pdf-reflow as RBA said, code samples and other text blocks that should not be reflown become unreadable. AFAIK Kindle doesn't offer bigger screens and that is kind of a bummer.
I myself can't stand reading a book on a computer, I cannot get comfortable with the screen and position I sit and I am just that kinda person that cannot sit calm on a computer and read. The computer screen isn't designed to look at for many hours. ePaper screen has few advantages over the capacitive tablet screen. For one it doesn't give a fuck about bright sun cumming on your screen, the screen is as visible in sunlight as if a paper book. The screen doesn't glare and only use battery energy when repainting the screen (flipping a page etc.). As some reviews said, if you would read a Kindle for 1 hours every day, the fully charged battery would last for a month (or so...).
So tl;dr, get an ereader if you will only read books on it. Get a tablet if you choose to multitask on it. Remember that you can always check video tutorials on a computer. With coding/CS you will most likely watch whole series or video tutorials, and the tablet won't last that long anyway.
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The more features you have the more you'll want to drop the book and go do something more entertaining, you'll go read some website or try and listen to music on your device or something else.
Kindle doesn't have all that and that's why it's great.
But what I don't really like about eReaders is that they come in very small screens. Reading a normal book on it becomes unnatural, and with a pdf-reflow as RBA said, code samples and other text blocks that should not be reflown become unreadable. AFAIK Kindle doesn't offer bigger screens and that is kind of a bummer.
I myself can't stand reading a book on a computer, I cannot get comfortable with the screen and position I sit and I am just that kinda person that cannot sit calm on a computer and read. The computer screen isn't designed to look at for many hours.
Ok, so, first: thank you for your answer!
Well, I agree with you, the screen size sucks. :( I don't know. And it sucks for the code blocks, too.
What should I do then?
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Kulverstukas made a good point about tablets screen when reading under the bright sun, but you should also think a situtation if you need/want to do reading in a place where you can't adjust your enviroments lightning when it's dark. Because in most of ebook readers doesn't have any inside lightning like lcd screens have, AFAIK. Kindle doesn't have, that's for sure.
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That sucks too :\
I don't really know then
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Well yes, I forgot about the dark. However you can't read a paper book in the dark anyway. Kindle has a cover designed for it that has built in light for you.
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However you can't read a paper book in the dark anyway.
True.
I really need to make a choice within some hours! Kindle or not Kindle? What else?
Help me make that choice!
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I'm going to say tablet, even though you all seem to like ereaders so much. I've used Kindles, Nooks, knock-off stuff that have used eink and hd screens. And honestly, I prefer my Galaxy Tab 3. Gaming is easier, so is watching movies and tv, ebooks, calender, web browser, 9gag, reddit [so much better on mobile], blah blah blah.
Also, a lot of ereaders don't have an sd card slot. Or be able to ftp, ssh, and VNC data on a home network. I am opposite of Kulver, I want one device to do everything.
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One device to do anything is great. I was saying that a device like an ereader should not do all those things, it just distracts the reader.
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I see.
So, tablet? :( why am I always struggled with this question
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We gave you enough pointers and opinions, we can't decide it for you.
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The only (big) issue is with the code snippets.
I am going to study a lot coding and computer related topics, so this is a problem
You'd buy one but you don't like the screen size, right?
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I see.
So, tablet? :( why am I always struggled with this question
Tablets are gay consumer toys that dont add anything to anything.
There.
Ereaders are excellent book replacers.
Done.
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Tablets are gay consumer toys that dont add anything to anything.
There.
Ereaders are excellent book replacers.
Done.
Ditto.
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Bump.
So for once I got an eReader for christmas. Not the kindle as I originally wanted, but a PocketBook Basic Touch 624 and it's awesome, maybe even better than the kindle.
First, this model doesn't have much shit in it that I wouldn't use, actually it doesn't have any shit, just the basic things one could use reading all sorts of books, badly scanned or technical docs or magazines and whatnot.
I tried few books to see how it works. First things first, it has wifi and a browser. Reading news isn't very nice, maybe just basic HTML :P can also collect RSS feeds if you're into that kinda thing. After I had connected to wifi to see how that works, I got a message that a software update is available - cool, was released just recently.
So I transferred some books to it and started reading. Reading on it is nice, like reading a book, the screen could be brighter, like white, currently it looks gray-ish but meh.
First was a math book, with all sorts of formulas. For PDF's it has 4 modes - Fit width, The whole page, Columns and Reflow.
When reading a book with badly scanned text, it's probably better to have it on Reflow, because it adjusts that text to best fit. For magazines that have text in columns it's better to have it in Column mode - everything gets zoomed so only one column at a time is visible. Fit width is best for proper books and whole page mode goes best with technical books where you don't want the formulas fucked up.
So if reading a coding book, set it on The whole page to keep that formatting, but for that you'll see small letters.
The device itself isn't large, fits in your hand quite nicely.
All in all, it's a really great device and I am happy I have it (for few hours by now :P)
(http://i.imgur.com/GcCmayb.jpg?1)
(http://i.imgur.com/OCHH2i5.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/qzi0hij.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/HtmvQ2x.jpg?1)
(http://i.imgur.com/HyOmr8O.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/Ji4G3Qv.jpg)
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Thats a nifty little thing :)
Since you will soon know the entire ebook lib.. :P We can refer to you as 'the oracle'
I am curious about the battery charge, I presume you do not know that yet.
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I am curious about the battery charge, I presume you do not know that yet.
It was fully charged when I unboxed it, didn't come with a charger, only a micro-usb cable. I'll update about charging once it discharges :P the manufacturer says it holds up to a month fully charged (without wifi ofc) and few reviews says they can confirm it. It seems likely, because the e-ink screen doesn't use any power, it has no on-off state or LEDs to illuminate the screen. E-ink screen only uses power when it has to re-draw the contents and that is with every page flip.
It isn't too big, I'd say whole thing is like A5-sized paper, feels nice in your hand, doesn't slip.
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It was fully charged when I unboxed it, didn't come with a charger, only a micro-usb cable. I'll update about charging once it discharges :P the manufacturer says it holds up to a month fully charged (without wifi ofc) and few reviews says they can confirm it. It seems likely, because the e-ink screen doesn't use any power, it has no on-off state or LEDs to illuminate the screen. E-ink screen only uses power when it has to re-draw the contents and that is with every page flip.
It isn't too big, I'd say whole thing is like A5-sized paper, feels nice in your hand, doesn't slip.
That sounds awesome , I'll consider one of those :)
Pretty clever yet simple/effective tech.
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Bump, I said I'll post when I'll have to charge it - so there. The battery got drained about a week ago. I can confirm that reading it for ~2 hours per day, it can hold for a month, without wifi on. It uses energy when it has to redraw the screen, so the more frequently you flip pages, the more energy it uses, however on normal reading it's awesome! Currently I'm going through the SE newsletters I kept archiving since 2010 lol, finally I can read them!
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My family has such a device, too and I support the positive feedback it got. if I'm not mistaken, it's Linux-based and uses a lot of open-source software like libpng etc.