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I love my Kindle Touch. I really, really do. I love the ability to instantly download ebooks, anywhere I am (and that I can use 3G for free to download them). I love how I can carry thousands of books around without it getting heavy. I love that the e-ink feature doesn’t strain my eyes when I read, like reading on-screen does. But there’s still a lot that for me is wanting.

Here’s my current wishlist for an ideal ereader device. I want it to have:

• e-ink in color. No eye strain, but be able to read picture books, comics and graphic novels, and magazines all in color–and to be able to see book covers in color. I miss that.




• access to millions of current novels that are DRM-free, so that if I change my eReader device, I am not limited to a specific format. (I know that’s more about ebook format wishes, not eReader, but I’m including it any way.)




• the genres and tags for ebooks automatically download with the ebook itself, so that they’re easily sortable, and have ebooks be able to be sorted in those genres or tags (and have all the tags and genres be editable) such as YA fantasy, YA realistic, suspense/thriller, etc.




• the ability to *easily* and intuitively change any of those tags and categories/genres to ones that work best for me.




• the ability to *easily* take notes, highlight material, etc, and share them. Emphasis on easily, and without any delay. This, for me, means more of an Android tablet-like interface, where, if you’re typing by touch on the screen, an arrow pops up where you touch the screen, and you can drag it to the correct place to edit. And better word suggestions pop up while you type, and learn from what you type, the way some Android keyboards do.




• software that allows me to easily create file folders on my eReader; add or delete ebooks; file ebooks; and create tags and categories. I would also love it to have open software so that 3rd-party developers can add their own tweaks and products.




• the ability to file and sort ebooks the way you can on a computer, not just with folders (and the genres and tags) but also with subfolders (folders contained within others) to make sorting even easier, so that I could put, say, YA fantasy within YA books.




• the ability to buy ebooks no matter what country you’re in. Really. (Okay, that’s something that publishers control, but it makes my wishlist).




• spell check for when you’re typing or making notes.




• easy social networking and sharing of notes and book recommendations (Kindle Touch already allows me that through allowing me to tweet notes and comments while reading….). AND the ability to completely turn off that social networking and sharing or to choose what you share and what you don’t.




• an intuitive and easy interface.




• a way to request (and receive) notifications of when new ebooks come out for specific authors, from all the places I buy ebooks. The request part is important. I only want notifications for authors whose books I love, not every book I buy.




• a way to request (and receive) notifications of price drops for specific books (like books in my wishlist, or books that I create a list for just for that purpose, to get a notification if the price drops) from all the places I buy ebooks.




• a way to resize graphic content using the pinch and pull method, and to have the graphics be clear and vivid, including the text that comes with them. (And of course a way to resize text–that’s a given).




• a way to intuitively read graphic novels and comics, more like some of the online graphic novels are, where you can move from pane to pane, so that each pane is clear, and follows the story consecutively.




• the ability t
  2 Comments on What I Want In My Ideal eReader Device, last added: 6/13/2012
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  JR Wagner said, on 6/13/2012 1:15:00 PM
  

  I love this post. I think about it all the time. My eReader MAY be able to do this already -but I have yet to see a book take advantage of it. If I’m reading a book with a map, I want an icon somewhere on every page that will take me to the map and return me to the page from whence I came. And it would be really cool if it could animate the map based on where you are in the story (ya’ know, a little red dotted line that tells you where the characters started and where they are based upon your page number). AND, while I’m asking for the world, how about interactive timelines?

  Cheryl Rainfield said, on 6/13/2012 1:19:00 PM
  

  I love those ideas, Josh! That would be very cool. Love the idea of a map that charts the progress of a character! I bet it will come in the future.

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I just saw that Astak’s 5″ EZ Reader is on sale at $199 until the end of September. That’s one of the best prices for an e-ink reader I’ve seen, especially one that has 20-plus open formats, including PDF, DOC, and HTML, AND plays MP3s (for audio books or music), AND has 8 levels of greyscale and extra storage up to 16 GB. AND you can also read digital library books on it! It even comes with a leather cover.

It’s one of the e-ink readers I’ve been seriously thinking about getting. Open format is important to me–and so is price. Check out the ZDNet review; they like it, too!

ZD Net’s Astak EZ Reader video review

The other ebook reader I’m still considering is the Cool-er ebook reader, @ $250.

Do you have an e-ink ebook reader? Do you like it?

There’s a new, affordable ebook reader out, to compete with all the others! Cool-er e-book reader, which uses the same e-ink technology (easy to read, even in direct sunlight), but is almost 60% lighter than the current e-readers out there, at 5.6 ounces–compared to 10 oz and up (which is very appealing to me, when I don’t want to weigh my bag down more). Cool-er also comes in bright colors that I love–purple, pink, turquoise, silver, black, red, brown, and green. It also runs on Linux, and has a 1 GB storage card slot. It doesn’t offer wireless…but do you really need that? I don’t. Also, since it doesn’t use wireless, Cool-er can be used in any country–a bonus for any of us outside the US. Cool-er supports ebooks in ePub, Txt, JPEG and PDF formats. It’s PC and Mac compatible, and one charge lasts for overn 8,000 book turns.

And the best part of this appealing e-reader? The price! The Cool-er is $250, and will be available June 1st from the manufacturer’s website. So far, it’s the most appealing e-reader, at least to me, on the market.

I’d still like to see a reader review, but…it’s tempting me.

How about you?

**update: US residents can pre-order using this link, while people in other countries should check back in the next two weeks.

According to MobileRead, a vendor is finally coming out with a $200 or lower priced e-ink ebook reader–a 5″ mini BeBook.

This is exciting news for many of us who needed the price to come down before we’d buy an ebook reader. And hopefully this competition will help the price come down even more.

Now, if we can just get publishers to lower their ebook prices to a reasonable amount (say $1-5/book), then I’d be estatic! As it is, I’m still excited.

How about you? Would you consider getting an e-ink ebook reader for $200?

The first color ebook reader is now available for consumers in Japan–FLEPia by Fujitsu–at a $1000 price tag. That’s too much for most people in the market for an ebook, but eventually the technology will get cheaper and the general public will be able to afford it.

Personally, I love the idea of having some color–being able to see book covers in color, and hopefully being able to read comics and manga in color on an e-ink ebook reader. How cool is that? But it sure won’t be in my budget until it comes down a lot.

How about you? Would color entice you to get an ebook reader if the price was right?

It turns out the rumors about a new, redesigned Kindle was wrong. Craig Berman, Amazon.com’s chief spokesperson, told the New York Times: “One thing I can tell you for sure is that there will be no new version of the Kindle this year. A new version is possible sometime next year at the earliest.”

So if you were hoping for a new Kindle with no page delays and a sleeker design, or snatching up a cheaper earlier version, then you’re out of luck–at least for now.

However, Amazon currently has a promotion where, if you sign up for a Chase/Amazon.com credit card, you can get $100 off the price of a Kindle, bringing the price down from $359 to $259. That’s quite a jump, and may make it more affordable for some readers.* Though whether you want another credit card or not is up to you.

*Canadians should remember that it’s a huge hassle to purchase ebooks through the Kindle; you need to have a valid US address to do so, and whispernet won’t be available to you.

Thanks to Gizmodo for the info.