What with Black Friday bargains, holiday gifts and post-holiday sales, a lot of us were playing with new gizmos and gadgets as we rang in the New Year.
One of the things I found most frustrating while researching newer techno-goodies was trying to find reviews by people with the same needs and desires as I have. Reading two hundred thirty-eight reviews on the Best Buy site may have been helpful with the basics but not the practical day-to-day needs of an author or an ebook reader.
I thought, now that we’ve had our new gizmos for a month or so, why not share some hands-on, our world opinions for those considering gadget purchases of their own. As it happens, I got both writer and reader gadgets this holiday season, so I’ll start.
The Asus EEE PC 900a netbook: Shortly before Christmas I bought this—the Linux 4GB SSD $280 at Best Buy one—for myself. I’d done some research before hand, so I was fully aware of the severe limitations of the machine. What I was looking for: basically I wanted something as portable as an Alphasmart, but with a backlight, more lines visible per page and keys I didn’t need to poke hard.
What I got: To say the Asus is smaller and lighter than my monster Toshiba laptop is an understatement. I love that. Unfortunately, that’s about all I love. I knew the keyboard was small, but the position of the spacebar is awkward if you’re writing more than a few sentences. I noticed recently that, when using the Asus, I touch-type with my left hand, but do all of my right-hand typing with my middle finger. A hybrid method, I guess. It’s faster than handwriting, slower than full touch-typing.
The computer comes at like 96% full. I don’t think I can even download the waiting updates. I knew before I bought it that would be the case and I work from the jump drive. No biggie. I’m a little annoyed by the amount of primitive, useless games and programs that can’t be deleted. And the touchpad sucks. Horribly. I use a USB mouse, which puts a little dent in the portability aspect.
It was perfect for our trip up to camp, though, and I did use it quite a bit there. But there are only two reasons I use it at home instead of the laptop: 1) if I’m just going to bomb around the net, it’s light and small on my lap and 2) I make a point of being seen using it to deprive my husband of the “I told you so” opportunity.
Would I recommend the Asus EEE PC 900a netbook to a working writer? NO.
The iPod Touch: I asked for an iPod Nano because my mp3 player wasn’t iTunes compatible, meaning I couldn’t benefit from my son’s downloads, but the husband surprised me with the Touch. I was a little intimidated at first, but then I turned it on.
First, after a month of interacting with the common-sense-driven Touch, I’ve decided Microsoft is nothing more than a mass science experiment testing how insanely frustrated they can make consumers before we implode. My next laptop will be a Mac, even if I have to sell my car to afford one.
Once I had the Touch powered up, I remembered reading about Harlequin and Stanza offering 4 free Minis for the iPhone, and since the Touch is essentially an iPhone with no phone or camera, I decided to try it. It was so incredibly easy to put Stanza and the books on the device, I was sure I must have missed something, but no…it was that simple.
I hadn’t read many pages before I knew I wouldn’t be reading ebooks on my Palm TX anymore. There’s something crisp and attractive about the look of the page on the Touch, and the pages turn with a swipe of the thumb. Instead of keeping my thumb near the bottom of the Palm to hit the button, I can turn the page from wherever my thumb naturally rests.
Not that it’s without a “cons” column. One, the device is so small and sleek, it can actually be hard/awkward to hold. I solved that with a leather case that was half-price at Borders. (Accessories for the iPod Touch are seriously overpriced. Another not so nice aspect.) Two, none of the formats the eHarlequin ebook site sells work with my Touch as far as I can tell. With my Palm TX, I had Mobipocket. Everybody sells the Mobipocket format. But if a Touch reader wants an ebook from eHarlequin (which is nice because you can get them early), she’s left with three options. 1) Wait until it’s released on Fictionwise in eReader format. 2) Have to read on—and keep track of and charge—two separate devices. 3) Crack the DRM in order to load it on the device of choice, which is illegal in the United States, among other places. Not a very nice predicament in which to leave a loyal reader. But, that’s the publisher’s shortcoming, not the device’s. (And if I’m wrong about their lack of compatibility, please, please let me know.)
Overall, the ease of use and the look of the books make the iPod Touch my new ebook reader of choice. Caveat: I’ve never used a dedicated ebook reader, such as the Kindle or the Sony, and I understand the screens are larger. I, personally, am not willing to spend that much only to read a book, so I’ve always used multi-function devices (the iPaq, then the Palm, and now the Touch). $230 for the Touch may seem like a lot, too, but if you’d pay $115 for a good mp3 player and $115 for a good ebook reader, then everything else the Touch can do—and it can do a lot—is just a bonus.
Would I recommend the iPod Touch as an ebook reader? YES.
There are a few other reviews I’d like to point out:
Jane’s technology articles for Dear Author are an incredible resource (look for the tag cloud in the sidebar and click on ”ebook-technology” or use the search function for a specific product).
John Scalzi gives an update on how he and his Acer Aspire One netbook are getting along here. (I kick myself for not getting one of these instead of the Asus.)
Angela James is Breaking up with the Kindle
Jan reviews the Sony PRS 505 for Dear Author here
How about you? Have you had some hands-on experience with any of the techno-goodies being talked about around the ‘net? Do you have a gizmo you’d recommend to other writers or a gadget you think other readers would like?
No related posts.
Wow, Shannon. Not only did I buy the same two devices late last fall, but I’ve had the same experience with both. The Asus eee is difficult for me to type on. Apparently, the way I rest my hands on or near the touchpad causes the machine to select gigantic blocks of my text and irretrievably delete them as I type. Not productive. Also, when I open novel-length books in Open Office for Linux, it gets buggy and crashes. Finally, when I open those docs in Word, they come with bizarre formatting that’s a pain to strip out.
I went on a trip and I did enjoy the portability. We watched some YouTube videos on it, and it was good for surfing the net and keeping up with my correspondence while I was out of town.
The iPod Touch — now there was something I never expected to love nearly half as much as I do. I got it to replace a dead iPod Nano, and decided that while I could get a regular iPod with more storage for the same price, I was intrigued by the ability to add different types of programs (apps), and I also liked the idea of watching video podcasts on the relatively large iPod Touch screen.
Turns out I use the thing as a PDA more than an MP3 player. Who knew? I never realized I even needed a PDA. I loved reading a book (with the Stanza app) on the airplane on that tiny, handheld device with the crisp, crisp screen and resizeable text. I also love watching video podcasts on it. And the Toodledo app (a task manager that synchronizes to an online account) has made me a to-do list diva.
For ebook reading, I find the easiest way to get books onto the iPod is to buy the Lit format and convert it on my desktop with Stanza, then wirelessly transfer it, though that doesn’t leave the italics intact. I believe they’re working on that. I’ve done the conversion successfully on both a Mac and a PC.
And just to make our common experience particularly weird and synchronistic, I also bought a leather case for the iPod. But I got a cheap one on eBay and I need to slide the iPod half out of it to hook the audio thing up to my car player.
I have the 4GB Linux Asus, too, and while I don’t use it as I much as I thought I would, I don’t dislike it. I don’t have trouble with the touchpad, or the spacebar at all. I’ve had to learn to type smaller so that when I reach for the backspace key I get it, but typing on it isn’t an issue.
My rationale for buying it was much the same as yours. I wanted a replacement for my Alphasmart that had the backlight and more lines of text, but having it wireless and still connected to the web means that’s what I do with it because I have no discipline. *g*
Also, since I have the Linux version and it runs Open Office, integrating those files into Word wasn’t seamless. Not hard, just an extra step or two that annoys me. I haven’t given up on it. I want to try it again when I’m not crunched. Being crunched means I want what’s comfortable, and that’s the Dana/Alpha for me.
Also, my Asus gets really hot on my lap, hotter than my Acer laptop. Don’t like that bit at all.
Also, my Asus gets really hot on my lap, hotter than my Acer laptop.
Now that’s one really important detail most tech reviews overlook! Thanks, Allison!
I was considering an Acer Aspire One but the display model in the (air conditioned) store felt warm and it wasn’t running any processor intensive applications. Looks like Asus might not be a good alternative after all.
You’re so right. Most techno product reviews are for “civilians” not for writers.
Back in December, on my other blog JoanSlingsWords dot com, I reviewed keyboards, also from the standpoint of “would writers like this?”
I did this because I’d bought a keyboard with on-board mouse, trackball, etc. Wireless so you can sit in an easy chair within view of your monitor with the keyboard in your lap and write away. I love it.
Some of the keyboards are pretty amazing. One is backlit so you can write in the dark so you won’t disturb the household if you’re up late. Another is heated to help those whose fingers are permanently cold.
I got my iPhone in December, which is the iTouch with the phone. I love reading books on it. Like you said, a simple brush of the finger. Downloading books is easy. Now if only I could get books from Harlequin to load on it, I’d be happy.
And I also got a Mac laptop, my first switch from PC to Mac. It’s truly heaven.
Recently attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas and there wasn’t a lot in eReaders. Sony was there. Their eReader is also an MP3 player (isn’t MP3 built into every gadget now?) and holds more books but it is still in black and white.
Me? I’m reading on an IBM ThinkPad. It is small, light, and it has a better keyboard (ie more Kimber friendly) than the really small machines. I still prefer a full keyboard for heavy duty typing but it does okay in a pinch. The hubby bought my ThinkPad for $300.
I love my iPod Touch (and I converted to all Mac about six months ago. Best decision ever.)
You can download books for the Touch from eHarlequin in eReader format. eReader has a free app in their app store. It’ll also let you connect to fictionwise to buy books and download from your personal collection.
I can walk you through it if you need help with it.
Shoot. I’m wrong. My eHarlequin books are on my Sony. The ones I have on my Touch came from Fictionwise.
That’ll learn me to comment before I think. Teehee.
Thanks for this helpful post. I had been on the fence for 6 months, and just bought a Kindle (not arriving for 5-7 weeks, of course).
The deal breaker for me was that I am a Mac user and was not confident that I, as non tech savvy as I am, could make the OSny EReader work with my Mac.
I also wanted the ability to annotate — because I am taking writing these romance book reviews for my blog a little too seriously– , which only the Sony 700 has (besides the Kindle), but the 700 screen is not as clear as the 505 or the Kindle.
Another good source of info, BTW is mobileread.com forums.
Anyway, I have a question: How on earth can you people read on an Itouch? Don’t you have to turn “pages” every five seconds? If you didn’t require multifunctionality in your device (which I can understand), would you even consider the itouch as an ereader?
Jordan, that’s really bizarre! And see, this is why non-heavy-technical, practical reviews are nice. I probably wouldn’t have bought the Asus if other writers weren’t writing on theirs.
Apparently, the way I rest my hands on or near the touchpad causes the machine to select gigantic blocks of my text and irretrievably delete them as I type. Not productive.
My Toshiba does that, too. I’ll use the touchpad for surfing, but if I’m working, I have to disable the touchpad and use the mouse, no matter which machine I’m on.
Turns out I use the thing as a PDA more than an MP3 player. Who knew?
Listening to music is maybe 10% of my Touch usage, which is funny because I HAD a PDA—the Palm. I just loved the Touch so much more. The screen is beautiful, and no stylus.
I haven’t given up on it. I want to try it again when I’m not crunched.
I’m in the same place. I don’t want to give up on it, but if I’m in the right frame of mind to work, I want to work, not fiddle with the keyboard and the backspace key. And mine is the Linux, but has Star Office on it. The rtf files aren’t too bad, but I certainly wouldn’t submit it without going through it in Word and making sure it’s not wonky.
I’ve read that replacing the stock distro with Ubuntu frees up a bunch of space and cleans up some glitchiness, including the touchpad, but I have neither the technical know-how nor the external CD drive to do that, so I’m leaving it as is.
And, while the plan was for it to be my internet-free work computer, that lasted about five minutes. Oops.
Joan, that’s probably what I should have done—bought an awesome keyboard and left the monster laptop on the coffee table. A drawback for me is that we go up to camp every other weekend April through November, and that’s more to carry, instead of less. But the desktop keyboard’s my favorite of the bunch, so simulating that with the laptop would have been ideal.
Jaci, I’ll be bugging the crap out of you when I finally get my Mac. How do you…where is the…what is…
Kimber, I’ll admit one of my shopping limitations is that I’m a brick and mortar girl, and I couldn’t find one of those locally to look at. Basically Best Buy had the Asus and Staples had the Aspire, so I never really considered anything else. I really should have, I think.
Laurie, you got me all excited! Well, I’m making it work right now, but I’m hoping the deal with HQ and Stanza giving away the four Minis for the iPhone will seriously prod HQ into offering that capability from their own website. Even though Fictionwise has the awesome micropay rebates, I’d buy directly from ebooks.eharlequin.com if I could because FW’s search & sort methods frustrate me with the category listings.
Hey, does anybody have one of those FLY pens that are supposed to remember your handwriting strokes, then transcribe it into a file?
Sorry. I got me all excited too.
Though, there’s been rumours for months that Mobipocket has created an app for the iPod Touch, they’re just waiting for approval from TPTB. I have a lot of mobi books I can’t read unless I pull out my old Palm, which is too many readers to control. I’ll be very happy when this one comes down…
Anyway, I have a question: How on earth can you people read on an Itouch? Don’t you have to turn “pages” every five seconds? If you didn’t require multifunctionality in your device (which I can understand), would you even consider the itouch as an ereader?
I’m reading a Blaze on my iTouch right now, and if I had to VERY roughly estimate, I’d say each Touch page is maybe a quarter, give or take a little, of a print page.
So yes, I turn the page a lot more, but it’s just the tiniest flick of the thumb.
I’ve never had my hands on an ebook reader of the Sony/Kindle class. Nobody I know has one, and the Sonys on display at Target and Borders are always broken or in some way messed up. Maybe if I used one of those for a few minutes, I’d never want to read on my iTouch again.
It’s probably a good thing the display models of that shiny Sony don’t work, then.
Oooh, a Mobi app would be awesome! I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for that one!
Great post, Shannon!
I got an Acer Aspire shortly after Christmas, during a Boxing Day sale at Staples ($299). I bought it for all the same reasons as you bought your Asus. I love it. I’m not having any trouble with the keyboard at all, the touchpad does sometimes fling me to a different point in my ms, because I guess my left thumb hovers over it or something. My Toshiba Satellite used to do that too. I do find it slow on the startup, but otherwise I really like it. Of course, I actually have to type more on it (I’ve been using it to read some wip crits for friends, late at night), so that I can justify to dh why I had to buy the Aspire when I never really used my AlphaSmart!
I have an HTC Touch which is a phone/mp3/camera, etc. I have mobipocket loaded on it and use it for reading when I’m waiting to pick up my kids. I used to use it for reading in bed at night too, but now use the Aspire for that.
My monster laptop is a Toshiba Satellite, too, and while it’s an awesome workhorse that I love and adore and hope funs for 10 more years, it does that horrible touchpad jump, too. Luckily, I usually catch it and can undo, but at some point and I gave up and disabled the touchpad.
I hate using a USB mouse because, if the laptop’s actually on my lap with the mouse next to me, my couch cushion keeps trying to eat the mouse. Fortunately I’ve had such horrible like with wireless mice (mouses?), I use a corded one and can fish it out.
The Staples guy told me I wouldn’t be able to find a laptop where you can move the cursor by the touchpad but have to actually press the button to make it “click”. I thought most laptops could do that, but I guess not.
I can’t read on the Asus. While I can have PDF files on the jump drive, my brain refused to leisure read on a computer screen a long time ago and refuses to change its mind.
Shannon asked me to review my use of the “Fly Fusion” for writing freehand.
Before I do, I should say, I would have bought the Livescribe (adult) version as it’s considerably smaller and holds more, but LS is strictly a PC computer accessory and will not work on a PC emulator for folks like me, who live and die on our Macs. The Fly, however, does work on an emulator like VMWare Fusion and the like.
Okay, here we go:
The reason I purchased the Fly Pentop computer was because I was finding that occasionally, my writing slows down on the computer and I need to handwrite things. But the transcribing is the time killer. Also, I have twins and they view my computer as “She That Must Be Crushed”. Notebooks allowed me to sit near them with considerably less assault. (More on that later)
PROS:
• The Fly is exactly what it says it is. A pen that you can write in the appropriate notebooks and it will record every dot and speck you make. You can save as document and it will translate your handwriting into text. You can draw and save as image. It stores all your pages from all your notebooks. As a translation tool, it’s a great shortcut and the Livescribe does NOT translate your handwriting into text, specifically. At least, it doesn’t promise to.
• Fly fits into a pocket, purse, or whatever. You can take it and the notebook anywhere. Very handy. I tuck it into the pocket in my car door.
• It plays MP3s and has an earphone port.
•Each notebook comes with calculator and several other small things to use, including a keyboard. Fun for tinkering.
•You can assign notebooks names and keep pages for different books separated as you like, or mix them as you please. Very customizable for the OCD among us.
• Really freaking long battery power, provided you charge it properly for over 4 hours when you first get it.
• At roughly $80 dollars, it’s half the price of the Livescribe.
CONS:
• The pen really needs a hard case of some kind, as it’s turned on by pushing a click button on it’s face and being pushed into a bag often means turning it on accidentally and draining the battery.
• Big ass pen. It can be kind of heavy and unwieldly. Also, reportedly, folks have trouble putting their finger in the way of small camera it requires to record your writing. (Which should only be a problem if you write with all your fingers around the very tip, and if that’s the case, you have bigger problems than if you can use this pen.) I have hand problems, so this poses a problem for me. If you’re prone to tendonitis, like me, I’d consider amount of usage and if it’s worth it.
• There’s virtually no instructions included.
• To upload your pages, you MUST sign up for the FLy.com program.
• It’s becoming harder and harder to find Fly products and notebooks. You may end up having to purchase supplies online. They’ve totally disappeared from my Target.
• The notebooks don’t have a hard back or many pages and they are wide ruled. You’ll use a lot of pages for not as much output.
• If you have crappy handwriting–like yours truly–this might be more trouble than it’s worth. You cannot use cursive if you plan to translate your handwriting. All print, and in the proper cases. The translations can be wonky. Also, running your letters together can cause problems and correcting your mistakes on the page is completely not worth it. Fly will confuse it badly. Just rewrite your sentence or word entirely and keep going.
Would I recommend this to another author: If they have good handwriting and some patience and no one tugging on them while they write? Definitely. In fact, for most, it’s handy and worth it’s money if used regularly.
Would I recommend this for anyone if they have hand issues or terrible, unfixable handwriting? No, not remotely.
I think I’ve picked the pen up and put it back down every time I’ve seen it in a store, so that’s an awesome overview!
I handwrite a lot and, even if I use it as a first editing pass, the transcribing totally sucks.
I had assumed it would be somewhat like using handwriting recognition on a PDA. When done, comb through the file and fix the places it screwed up the translation. Still faster than totally transcribing by hand.
My print handwriting isn’t too bad…until I get lost in the scene and I can’t write fast enough. The best parts of my books are always the chicken-scrawl pages.
But…I didn’t know it has dedicated notebooks. I—like many writers, I’m guessing—am a bit of a notebook snob. And without a hard backing…hmm. I guess I thought I’d write like normal in my own ridiculously over-priced notebooks and it would magically make a text file I could paste into my manuscript. If it even worked.
I appreciate your taking the time to write that up, Dee! I’ve always thought it was probably one of those gimmicky things that didn’t really work, but now I might check it out a little closer in the store and consider getting one. Handwriting’s still my muse’s favored writing method, but I make her type because it’s faster.
You can never have too many gadgets and gizmos.
This was a very informative post and all the replies. The Sony ereader on display at my Borders does work and I really like it. Of course I can’t afford it. I love my alpha smart but the keys are wearing out on my and some of them stick quite often so I’m really paying attention to all this advice. As far as having a laptop on your lap, I don’t think that is good for you or the machine. I bought a cushion lapdesk for under twenty dollars and it makes it very comfortable.
I get quite a bit of use out of my Asus EEE. I have the 8G model, running Windows XP. I save all my files to an SD card and still have half my hard drive open. I knew from the beginning that I do not like touchpads, so I bought a little USB mouse and disabled the touchpad. I can type fairly well on it; although the keyboard is small and takes a little getting used to.
I didn’t buy it to replace a bigger laptop. I wanted the EEE because it’s small, it’s light, and it has a solid state hard drive so it’s harder to damage. It’s not huge, powerful, or blazing fast. But it’s what I wanted and I use it on a daily basis, more than I had thought that I would.
My advice for anyone considering a netbook is to think about what your requirements are, compare models, and try to find a floor model somewhere to try the keyboard first.
I’ve got the ‘dinosaur’ eBookwise, but I love it. It’s the size of a real book, has two font sizes and is backlit so it’s wonderful for travel and in-bed reading. It doesn’t take all formats, but I’ve never had trouble finding enough reading material to fill it with. And I like the highlight and markup so I can search for things and make notes when I put my own WIPs on it. And the big buttons make turning pages and reading one-handed a breeze.
I tried the Sony, but the way the screen ‘jumped’ when you turn the page was an off-putter. And the price on these higher-end machines is out of my league.
I own the Sony Reader, and I love it. Totally love it. I bought it as a pre-Christmas gift to myself, and it goes everywhere with me. A charge lasts me nearly a month, I currently have more than a hundred books loaded on it, and the screen is heaven. I used to have the old Rocket eBook, which had a backlit screen, and compared to that, the eInk screens are amazing.
As for PDAs, my sister wanted one for Christmas, but she was iffy on the future of the Palm. So her husband got her an iPod Touch. She has music on it, sure, but she uses it for those PDA functions, plus reading (she’s been downloading Gutenberg Project books like crazy). She thinks the Touch is fantastic.
Me, I use my Sony Walkman MP3 player for music, podcasts, and pictures of my nieces. I have a weird aversion to Apple products.
And I like the highlight and markup so I can search for things and make notes when I put my own WIPs on it.
That’s one thing I’d like to be able to do. When I’m doing near-final read-throughs of my manuscripts, I like to make it an “ebook” and read it on my reader to put my brain in “reader mode”. But if I find something, I have to find a pen and make a separate note and try to find a way to note which page it was on.
As for PDAs, my sister wanted one for Christmas, but she was iffy on the future of the Palm.
She was probably right to feel that way. I’ve heard a lot of scuttlebutt about the PDA giving way to the smartphones, and I know from having the Palm TX there are many more accessories and information and everything for the Treo (or whichever’s theirs) than the PDAs. And still needing a stylus when everybody else is going touch screen isn’t going to work. It wouldn’t surprise me if the TX is the last of the traditional handheld PDAs.
If Palm was smart they’d try to mimic the iPod Touch. I think there’s always going to be a market for the phone-less smartphone, if that makes sense. One—they tie the phones to providers. I can’t have an iPhone with Verizon. Yes, there are ways to jailbreak them and this as that, but you need technical know-how and that has to void the warranty, I’d think. I could have a Blackberry, but making the smartphone worth having comes with hefty monthly costs we’re not paying when we already pay an exorbitant amount to have highspeed in the house. And my husband owns an electrical/HVAC contracting business, so our phones are sturdy and clipped on our pockets from dawn to dusk. No fancy cases and fragile screens for us. But I still want all the bells and whistles of the iPhone, which I have in the iTouch.
Asus & Wordperfect. I bought the Asus for portability but I haven’t used it much. Despite the fact that I have small fingers, I’m used to a longer reach with them and keep hitting the wrong keys. I also have a split ergonomic keyboard on my desktop, so I’m used to that think my cursor jumps around and I’m suddenly putting text into an already written sentence which causes a headbang.
Anyway, I am a Wordperfect freak and the Linux system drives me crazy. I can’t see the codes in my document and I didn’t realize how much I look at them for spaces, dashes, etc. So that means I will probably have to flip it over to Windows. Also the Asus will read wordperfect documents, but you need Open Office to open wordperfect documents on other computers.
Since I AM a wordperfect freak and there is no WP for Mac so I’d have to do a windows transfer I don’t think I’ll go that route for a while.
As for pda. I LOVE my very old cassiopeia, both for the very easy calendar (start date, end date, that’s it; also very easy to program every 3rd wednesday as opposed to the 3rd wednesday of the moth, start and end…) I’ve heard the Itouch doesn’t have a great calendar program.
Furthermore, for some reason itunes crashes my desktop so I’ve taken it off…so I’m leery of itunes, too. An emusic girl here… LOL, guess I’m all around “off-brand”.
Robin
OOOps. Open office opens wordperfect docs, but if you save in open office, wp will not open them, so you must have open office to convert or save to rtf.