tech.tarts

The most popular, and arguably most functional gadget of the past year was most certainly the e-book reader. Whether we were reading about the Kindle 2’s 10 second e-book delivery, or scrutinizing the Nook’s partial color screen, I bet most of us wondered which device was a better fit for our lifestyle. I personally am a Kindle 2 kind of girl, but I can’t help but wonder sometimes whether my loyalty is dependent on the fact that the device was a gift, and I had not gotten any other e-reader instead. Here are some things to think about when you are in the process of choosing your machine:

1. Look, Feel and Function
2. Battery life
3. Content
4. Format
5. Extras

Photo by Flickr user CuriousLee

Look, Feel and Function

If you’re a voracious reader like me, you want to be able to hold your e-reader in one hand for a long period of time, and for that not to be too heavy or to make your wrist cramp up. Weight, then, is a factor for me. Also, try to go to the electronics store and to the extent you can, play with the units. Do you like a touch screen? Do you want it to be in color (or some color, like the Nook which has one color pane coupled with a fuller e-ink pane?) See which ones you feel most comfortable with in terms of button placement, see which menus feel most intuitive to you and which design best fits your style. While my device only comes in a stark white, the Sony E-book readers come in a variety of attractive colors, and that could be a very lively expression of your personality from your device.

Battery Life

Another necessity is an excellent battery life– I can barely remember to plug in all my other devices on a daily basis and too often go “Dang, I might drop the call, my phone battery is about to die.” Now imagine being in the middle of your commute, be it on a train or an airplane– having your machine die mid-sentence would be a major buzzkill. My Kindle 2 has an amazing battery life of over 2 weeks, if the Wi-Fi is kept off when not in use. Can you believe that? What do you own that you know would run continuously for 2 weeks without stopping? Not even your boyfriend!

Content

Now, you know what they say, “content is king.” It’s certainly worth some research into the content provided by the e-Book manufacturer. Most devices, like the Nook from Barnes and Noble, the new iPad from Apple, and the Kindle 2 have their own content stores. Don’t you want the bundled-in book store to be the biggest? To have choices right at your fingertips, and not have to download them separately from your PC and then upload them later (because all e-readers do that.) The Kindle 2 and Kindle DX (it’s sizably larger cousin) are products of Amazon, which we all know to have a massive collection of physical books, and of which the same is true for their e-versions. Close contenders, however, are still the Nook and the new iPad, which has it’s own iTunes-like iBooks store, complete with licensing agreements with some of the publishing world’s biggest names.

Format

The format that your e-reader can handle is pretty important to be aware of. The Kindle handles a format proprietary to Amazon, called .azw. Your Kindle-bought books will not run on any other reader, then. Similarly, the other major format e-Pub, which is open source, is not supported by the Kindle. There’s no two way street then, between all the electronic books available on the web and the ones you purchase for your machine– it’s important to decide if that’s a limiting factor for your reader.

Extras

And now the fun stuff– extras! Some of the e-readers on the market have their own interesting little features that could be the tie-breaker for many folks. For example, the Sony E-reader can be linked up to your local library, so that you can borrow e-books from your library right to your reader and “check” them back in when you are finished reading or the loan period is over. For me, that would be a killer feature since I’m not always quick to part with all the dolla dolla bills I’m spending buying my Kindle books.

The Barnes and Noble Nook has “Lending” capability. You can lend out a book from your e-library to a friend with a Nook for two weeks, for free. Sure, there are catches, like the lending period is limited to 2 weeks, and during that time the book disappears from your machine. Also, you can only lend to one friend at a time. But still, saving money and sharing between friends is a definite plus.

The iPad has a billion extras– after all, its not just an e-reader, but a multimedia tablet capable of a ton of functions, including but not limited to web browsing, sending email, playing games, or running the thousands of apps Apple has in the app store. Also, the introductory price of the unit is $349– nothing to sneeze at, but only just slightly more for full tablet functionality than the main e-reader competitors Kindle 2 and the Nook, both priced at $259, and the Sony E-Readers, which range from $179 to $399.

Guest writer tt.mg- Maya Grinberg is a young geek extraordinaire (or possibly an ordinaire, but she prefers not to think that.) She is a proud graduate of Cornell University and hails from New York City by way of Belarus. She transplanted to Silicon Valley to surround herself with the tech-loving community she dreamt of becoming a part of, and so far, it seems to be working.