I shifted from simple code monkey to SQA and need to learn lots of tech from various domains, programming,architecture, networking and enterprise IT in general. Not enough space for those 1000+ pages books.
What's your thoughts on e-readers? I had Paperwhite 2 in my hand once, but 6 inches seemed a bit too small for reading that kind of books with charts, code snipps et. I've heard there are going for 7-8 inches right now.
I was thinking about Kindle, but they do not read Epub, and PDF handling is pretty meh. There are lots of companies, inkpad, kobo, onyx... What are your experiences
iPad is not an ereader.e-readers are better for the eyes, and are for reading ebooks only. Tablets and crap like that is not so good for the eyes.
Sebastian Hughes
try going around the city with those mammoth tech books I have lots of paper tech books already, it's a chore with most of them.
Isaac Price
bump i have same question
Jackson Wright
ereaders are NOT better for the eyes because their screens are super fucking small unless you pay for niche readers with larger screens. if you can use a computer for an extended period of time, you can handle the eye strain of a tablet.
Hudson Foster
E-readers are a meme. They're good for reading fiction, but for any research and tech stuff regular LCD/OLED tablet is much better.
You need to take notes, search things on the internet, visit footnotes and turn pages back and forth too often. Eink is just too slow for this kind of job and software (assuming e-reader uses Android) is just not suitable for eink with all those animations. Not to mention Android itself is often outdated or somehow restricted.
Kayden Roberts
Your eyes will be fine if you're using hidpi screen in appropriate light conditions. The only advantage for eink in this regard is working outdoors hence no reflection. Then again, reading outdoors is more of a leisure activity.
>if you can use a computer for an extended period of time, you can handle the eye strain of a tablet. I can, but with my profession this isn't helping. Eye strain is a serious problem with age in this buisness. I would just read pdfs on my computer screen if that would not be a concern.
Carson Ward
I think reflection is also a problem indoors, unless you are using artificial light.
Xavier Phillips
E-readers are the shittiest shilled meme here on Jow Forums. For one, the good ones are expensive for what is essentially an e-ink screen with an 8 year old processor. Second, all of them run closed-source operating systems that can't be modified for shit, so you're stuck with whatever shitty adware filled crap Amazon fucks you over with. Third, they're built extremely poorly. And I mean most of them feel like plastic chinkshit.
Large-screen Andr
Adrian Barnes
*Large screen Android phones or even iPads work better as a reading device, are more customizable, and you can use whatever fucking books you want instead of the "store" you're stuck with a Kindle or whatever.
I'd rather use a good LCD or AMOLED for reading than an e-ink with shitty software and refresh rates, but that's just me.
John Allen
>For one, the good ones are expensive for what is essentially an e-ink screen with an 8 year old processor That does not matter, in this profession you earn enough to not care. We are not speaking about beles-letres reading here. >Second, all of them run closed-source operating systems that can't be modified for shit, so you're stuck with whatever shitty adware filled crap Amazon fucks you over with Not really, for many e-readers. >Third, they're built extremely poorly. And I mean most of them feel like plastic chinkshit. If there would be an alternative, I would gladly pay.
Gavin Cox
You just transfer books from your pc to the e-reader. Don't know what you are talking about. Not every reader is a kindle with ads. Some of them do not even have e-shops
Bentley Barnes
>shitty refresh rates That isn't relevant with the newest models, there is no 'ghosting' anymore.
Evan Lopez
I've had an ebook reader since highschool. Kindle keyboard -> Kindle classic -> Nook simple touch -> Kindle paperwhite 2.
Neither of which are good for technical books, but are great for news and "techncial" books focused on theory (eg. architecture, design).
Sebastian Evans
Also if all you care about are techncial books just buy amoled android tablet like user said.
Nolan Green
e-ink is better for eyes than amoled
Jayden Richardson
It is. Try reading anything technical on 6" eink screen which takes >= 1s to zoom in a pdf. At this point you have to ask yourself whether you want to compromise the quality of reading (with an eink) or quality of screen (with an amoled).
Nathan Sanchez
>Try reading anything technical on 6" eink screen which takes >= 1s to zoom in a pdf. as already said in this thread, looking for 8'' and above. I know that 6'' is ass.
Asher Flores
Kobo aura one. Big screen. Software updated to handle pdf better Can install koreader that deals with pdf even better - set margins and shit. Can do that red light on screen that suposedly doesn't fuck your sleep cycle. 8gigs of space. Water resistant. Updates that actually does something instead just breaking jailbreaks (amazon... fuck you)
Aiden Lee
It's an awful idea to read tech books using e-reader. They are too slow for that shit.
Nolan Carter
kobo aura h2o (edition 1 has microsd slot, 2 doesn't) is a goldilocks size for me when reading technical manuals/educational books
but i recently came across a poorly (officially) mastered epub though that would cause me to display a blank page and be unable to advance unless using chapter select to get past the problem pages of the 50 books i've been through so far that was the first to give me a problem, so the software seems mostly fine
Henry Stewart
Depends on book. And unless you are zooming to some small graphic often - speed doesn't matter. Hell I used kindle paperwhite in landscape mode to read several technical books with code examples. Nothing beats paper books, but good ereader is second best thing.
Christian Walker
It matters a lot, when you actually need to cross-check.
Hudson Ramirez
that thousand dollar old sony one
Jason Robinson
They came a long way in e-ink readers in those 10 years, response times are better, backlight is better, color of light etc. Now doing 7 inchers instead of 6 for mainsteam. But still nowehere near the quality I would want. Perhaps another 5 years and we'll be there.
Alright instead of e-readers, which tablet should I get for notes and reading research papers/textbook PDFs?
Zachary Jenkins
get the onyx reader if you aren't poor Kobo is good, but smaller, depends how big the pages of tech books are. How big are the books you read(pages diameter?)
Isaac Ward
>the good ones are expensive for what is essentially an e-ink screen with an 8 year old processor You don't need a 9 jiggahertz decacore CPU or a high refresh rate screen to read books. Those things would only enable you to waste time instead of reading and also decrease battery life.
>you can use whatever fucking books you want instead of the "store" you're stuck with a Kindle or whatever That's just incorrect.
>all of them run closed-source operating systems that can't be modified for shit Ok, that's true, but I'd still take something with an e-ink screen over a crappy android tablet for reading.
Xavier Morgan
iPad. Android tablet market is mostly dead, but there are few Huawei and Samshit models. If you want a stylus, that leaves only iPad. Samshit has stylus tablets, but iOS software is way ahead in that regard.
Ryder Thompson
>onyx reader I had an Onyx Cleoptra and it's shit. Cover didn't always turned off the screen, so you end up with unexpectedly uncharged battery right when you wanted to read. Then one of the magnets just fell off the cover. Sometimes forward button turned 2 pages instead of 1, but only sometimes and it was driving me crazy. Android is stuck on 4.something version. Screen was sharp though.
Most importantly - just like any other ereader - it was almost useless for reading tech books. Screen is slow even for zooming large PDF and a relatively large estate (7.9" I think) often wasn't enough.
There were also troubles with contrast. Some PDFs were just gray-on-white for some reason. With built-in software you could change the contrast, but that made the reader unbelievably slow.
You can't search internets or take notes. I mean you can, but it was easier and faster to grab a smartphone or fire up the PC.
>Those things would only enable you to waste time instead of reading Those things enable you to actually do the research. The main selling point of e-readers on Jow Forums is this "I'm not gonna waste muh precious time because of the eink constraints", but it's not going to work. If you don't want to waste your time, you just don't waste it, it's that simple.
William Bailey
This discussion was all on another thread. This just seems like cheerleading now.
But what the hell:
I just started doing that too, tech books on a tablet, it rocks, especially with a Logitech k375s keyboard to switch, quickly open books.
I have at least 25 large 300pp to 1100pp books on a Kindle Fire HD 3rd gen. Handles pdfs with ease, absolutely no problems or concerns, the software updates accommodated this need, and have done it well. chances are you may lose, or batteries go bad, or break, this is easily replaceable. pdfs are relatively small. You'll fit all the books you need on a 16 GB. Don't put a lot of other useless apps on it, and it'll be more than fast enough. I have absolutely no complaints.
Jaxon Sanders
Search, table of contents, bookmarks - these work fine. (Kobo bookmarks suck though)
Luke Kelly
I think sony made an epaper that was the same size as a standard letter
Wyatt Perez
I use a pocketbook touch hd 2 daily to and from work. It basically runs all formats that you throw at it, indexes stuff directly from sd-card (I just copy them to the sd card from my pc) and the battery lasts for over a month if you turn off wifi. Couldnt be happpier with it. Also, it runt a custom linux dist, not bloated android
Jose Smith
isn't 6 inches too small for tech books?
Joshua Morris
>This discussion was all on another thread. Which one? Could you please give link?
Asher Robinson
>Most importantly - just like any other ereader - it was almost useless for reading tech books. Screen is slow even for zooming large PDF and a relatively large estate (7.9" I think) often wasn't enough. not all are slow in zooming pdfs, and Cleopatra is only 7 '', that's not enough for PDFs. You should get 9'' at least for PDFs, unless you want to zoom around.
>You can't search internets or take notes. I mean you can, but it was easier and faster to grab a smartphone or fire up the PC. Personally I take notes in the notepad, then research on PC points of interest after I'm done reading. Ideally, a good tech book should not let you in the dark with plenty of terms, but explain them thoroughly.
Isaac Kelly
If the book's a pdf with many pictures, it could be, yes. Otherwise (with epub etc), the page will just automatically scale to fit my fontsize and layout (e.g. one page becomes two)
