Tome raider
And, yes, once you've opened an e-book, it does provide a decent reading experience, nicely presenting the ePub-format iPad User Guide I cheekily copied across. DRM-protected downloaded from iBooks showed up in the list and could be opened but no text or images appear - better, surely, not to present them to the user in the first place - and I couldn't view any PDFs, even unprotected ones, without first registering with Adobe Digital Editions, to which the main menu's Bookstore icon links.
Well, on the review unit. E60s out in the field will go through to WHSmith's e-book shop instead. What this means for PDF viewing over here remains to be seen - I'm waiting to hear back from Samsung.
The manufacturer bundles a utility called Virtual Printer that converts documents into E60-frienldy forms. I couldn't try it - on a Samsung laptop, no less - because it won't run on a 64-bit OS. Another irritation: I tried to connect the E60 to the computer with two different mini USB cables I had handy because they're used with a couple of external hard drives, but neither cord would work with the E60. Only the one in the box would do, even though it appears no different from the others.
WHSmith is selling the E60 online for £199, which is considerably closer to what it's worth than the £300 list price the site claims Samsung reckons it should be sold for. Over-engineering always ups the price - just ask Newton buyers...
Verdict
Samsung could have produced a simple, slim gadget to display e-books, but instead it over-engineered the E60 in a bid to beat the opposition. The result is a chunky, clunky device the looks backward rather than forward and is expensive too. Two or three years ago, it would have been great. Now it just grates. ®
Samsung E60 e-book reader
COMMENTS
Rip Off!
£300?? A Kindle is £109 with Wi-Fi, so you can't touch the screen, boo hoo, it's for reading, not scribbling on! And as several people have said, get a Sony if you want touch and lower price. I think Samsung are having an Apple moment - huge prices for mediocre products, their Galaxy Tab would be another example of an Apple moment.
For £200...?
Each to their own, but is it *really* worth shelling out a couple of hundred quid for an e-reader?? OK, it may have other bells and whistles, but nothing most mobile phones won't do (other than screen size, I suppose). Like the review implies, 15 years ago it may be a goer, but I still would have plumbed for a Palm Pilot.
As a parting shot, my local bookshop sells paperbacks from less than a pound. I can stuff 'em in my bag without worry of damage, and they don't need batteries. Probably just me, but I can't see the attraction of e-readers.
Agree most of the way...
I agree with you most of the way, but these things do have their uses.
As someone with a visual impairment, I have to use a hand magnifier to read paperbacks and newspapers. That's fine when I'm at home, but when I'm on the bus or train it's cumbersome and looks odd. I've always envied those who could read papers on the train or lounge around on the sofa with a paperback held at arm's length (or even use laptops, but that's another story!), for me reading can be something of a chore.
These devices are a great *compliment* to traditional books. In public I can use one to increase the print size so I don't have to have the thing up against my face and on that long journey I don't have to have loads of papers and books around. But at home I can goggle through my magnifier at my beloved 1950s paperback collection or chuckle at Private Eye.
One thing stopping me from going out and getting a Kindle or whatever tomorrow is the content. I haven't looked into it properly, but I'm guessing that alot of older, more obscure (or non-American!) material isn't available in ebook form.
Books will never die, but anything that lets me and millions of other blindies enjoy reading again can only be great news.
Amundsen
..."is a wanker". That made this review worthwhile for me. Nice one!
£200 buys a lot of books, even shiny new hardbacks.
£200 buys you about 20 hardback books from Amazon, even fewer from Waterstones. Try carrying them all onto a train, let alone trying to read such a heavy tome whilst standing next to irritable commuters on a packed train.
My only gripe with eBooks is the likes of Waterstones selling the file for more than the printed hardback and then selling you exactly the same file 3 months later for more than the paperback price. The publishing world just can't handle ebooks yet.
Even more amusing is my local library. You can now download eBooks, but they only have one copy (in some cases for the whole of London). So you have to reserve them. Worse still, you book it out for two weeks and there is no way to hand it back early.
Luckily there are loads of free books to keep me amused.
