eReaders

Article in the Houston Chronicle this morning caught my eye. It was all about the impending release of the iPad into the eReader market. What was astounding to me was the number of eReaders already on the market. I knew about the Kindle, as I own one (and enjoy it much more than I thought I would), I knew about the Nook and the iPad. I wrote about the iRex a view weeks back when it was reviewed in the WSJ, but it's the others that surprised me.

• Amazon Kindle - Pro: Huge e-book library. Con: Not a touch screen.

• Sony Reader Touch Edition - Pro: Touch screen; small, lightweight, sturdy. Con: E Ink display is a little light.

• Sony Reader Pocket Edition - Pro: Lightweight, fits in pocket or small purse. Con: Holds only 350 books.

• Barnes & Noble nook - Pro: Touch screen below main screen. Con: Small virtual keyboard.

• enTourage eDGe - Pro: Read e-books, surf Internet, send e-mails, watch movies. Con: Big, heavy as a laptop.

• Interead COOL-ER - Pro: Similar to Kindle and nook; bold colors; long-lasting charge. Con: Very basic.


Coming soon

• Apple iPad - Pro: Backlit, color, multi-touch screen; thin and light; could replace some laptops. Con: Relatively expensive; multiple bookstore applications may overwhelm consumers.

• Kobo eReader - Pro: Comes loaded with 100 classic books; can synch library to computer. Cons: No 3G connectivity.

• Que proReader - Pro: Reads a range of things from ePub to Power Point presentations. Con: Expensive; keeps getting delayed.

• Skiff Reader - Pro: 11.5-inch screen makes it easy to read newspapers and magazines. Con: Size could make it cumbersome.

One other aspect of this article that caught my eye was the con under the Kindle. Personally, and I'm speaking as a person who works at a tech company were our products use touchscreen, I'm glad that the Kindle doesn't have a touchscreen. It's not hard to press page forward, and I always find my fat fingers fumbling over the touchscreen here at work. I don't want that when I read. If I was to put a con up there for Kindle? Lack of a backlight. How can I be expected to read while my 6 week old baby goes to sleep if I have to have all the lights on. Come on Amazon, you can do better than that.