Being an older user, I second James low-light low-contrast issues. I increasingly find it difficult to read magazines that have low contrast (black text on a blue background) except in bright light.

I often read in an easy chair or in bed. While a reading light is fine for paper books, I enjoy being able to use ambient light, my UMPC and Mobipocket more. Certianly a laptop makes a crummy eReader (too heavy!) but a UMPC is pretty cool indoors.

I also like the fact, that the Sony is a non-wireless device. No network to deactivate, no roaming costs, etc.

Actually, I would have taken a Kindle model without wireless module.

I’m a user of e-books since the Newton MP130. Half a year ago I switched from eReader to Mobipocket and recently to the Sony eReader PRS-505.

I still have Mobipocket installed on my Treo 750, but I’m using the PRS-505 more and more even for business documents. (The PDF update will change this even more!) I slightly agree with the missing back-light issue, but it teally works wonderful in planes and trains.

Librie Gen 1
500 Gen 2
Kindle Gen 2.5 (low ghost technology)
505 Gen 3

James, you didn’t mention working with the font size and your photo shows the Kindle using a smaller size. You’ll find the eye strain is reduced by increasing the font size in lower light. For myself, one of the nicer points about the Kindle has been its support for six font sizes.

I’ve also found that all of the e-Ink panels prefer high-noon color light. I personally do most of my reading using a 110V screw in LED light bulb employing Cree’s micro laser array technology in their high-noon “Day Light White” color. Makes a noticeable difference to my eyes.

Thank you for putting the Kindle down…
Are you sending it back to Amazon? That’s where my Kindle was sent. I seem to remember that on my returns page at Amazon there was a 1-year return window for the Kindle.

Oliver, devices like kindle are not small usually they try to ‘books sized’. For a while now I’ve been reading on my cell phone. Since you just add books to the phone it’s a kind of infinite portability. I find that reading sucks charge much much less than speaking, I don’t notice myself wanting to charge the phone more. I get books from http://www.booksinmyphone.com they package their books with a neat little reader that runs on my middle of the road phone, oh and they give away the books.

I am so delighted to avoid the eyestrain that back-lite devices has inflicted upon me, plus forcing me to avoid well lighted areas where my laptop screen is totally unusable. And this is besides the fact that my laptop battery only works for about two hours whereas my Kindle will go ten days without wireless, or three days with it.

I know the writer wants to read in the dark, but I challenge him to do that with the paperback that the Kindle is designed to replace. Me, I love to read outdoors, preferably in bright sunshine. I have to read and use my laptop in a much darker environment than I prefer.

Charles Wilkes, San Jose, Calif.

Woadan, convergence devices are useful if they are good at what people want from them, and don’t require too many compromises. I don’t want to read ebooks on my laptop (ThinkPad X60 Tablet) as it’s way too big/heavy. I also don’t want to read ebooks on my Treo (or for that matter, any cellphone convergence device) because either the screen is too small or I am running down the battery that I desperately need for other purposes.

Isn’t the iPod an example of a non-convergence device that is successful, too? I don’t know many people who carry around a PDA or mobile phone for the sake of listening to music. My Treo can play MP3s just fine, but again I don’t want to run down the battery on my six-hour flight tomorrow and not be able to make a call upon arrival. A small MP3 player (no iPod here) dedicated to entertainment doesn’t take up a lot of space and does the job fine.

I still keep coming back to the question of why? (As in: Why a tech device that does only one thing?)

Isn’t the rage to have a converged device? Isn’t that why the iPhone is such a hit?

(shaking my head in wonder)

Woadan

I was pleasently surprised to find that uBook (www.gowerpoint.com) turns my WiBrain into a great ebook reader. It supports screen rotation (and the mouse works properly!). I use it in portrait mode.