eReaders

[neuropsych76]

another advantage of the Ipad for an e-reader is the blackboard app. I have to read a lot of articles for my classes but I do is touch a few buttons and it's on my ipad.

[ktel]

A $99 HP Touchpad (if you can find one) also looks like a very sweet deal for a cheap pdf reader option.

My boyfriend just got one. Paid $250 though from someone who bought it for $99. They're discontinuing it, correct? Hence the cheap price?

[cogneuroforfun]

My boyfriend just got one. Paid $250 though from someone who bought it for $99. They're discontinuing it, correct? Hence the cheap price?

Yeah, Touchpad is discontinued. Supposedly HP is going to support webOS for awhile, but it isn't clear how much support anyone can expect. At the very least, you have a nicely specced and sized browser/media player tablet. At best, webOS may still get some nice upgrades and ports of Android, Linux, and maybe Windows will be developed. If you're in the market for a 10" tablet and don't care about getting 100s of games to play, even $250 is relatively cheap and decent. For $99 or $150, it is a steal.

[ekeekk14]

A $99 HP Touchpad (if you can find one) also looks like a very sweet deal for a cheap pdf reader option.

I read that these are actually selling like crazy right now.. seems like a pretty good deal

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/08/29/hp.touchpad.android/index.html

[runonsentence]

anyone have experience with the Kobo? my local liquidating Borders has them for half price. since Kobo is run by a company independent of Borders, there shouldn't be compatibility issues once Borders goes under.

[ktel]

My boyfriend just bought a cheap HP Touchpad and I plan on using it for reading electronic versions of papers. It's not easy on the eyes, but it's more comfortable to read than a computer screen.

[HandsomeNerd]

first semester grad student here. satisfied and generally pleased with my ipad as an ereader, but admittedly find myself wondering about e-ink readers when ipad-reading outside with glare.

currently using and satisfied with goodreader. in need, however, of stylus (?) suggestions as my finger appears to be heinously inaccurate when free-hand annotating pdfs (non-text converted). all advice welcome, thx.

[Eigen]

I use one of the Acase 2nd generation styluses, and I find it works quite well.

Also note that the 1st gen iPad is selling for $299 refurbished from Apple, and is quite a good deal at that price.

Edited September 2, 2011 by Eigen

[HandsomeNerd]

thx, i just ordered one of the acase 2nd gens on amazon prime (.edu free prime ftw!). do you have any advice on auto-syncing dropbox with the ipad+goodreader? one of the issues i havent been able to figure out is why, when i annotate a pdf on my ipad with goodreader (linked from my dropbox acct), the changes don't reflect on the actual dropbox file. they appear to be local only to the copy on my ipad. i can manually upload and download from my dropbox sync on goodreader, but that's quite a pain and sometimes i just dont remember which files are most up to date with annotations or not.

Edited September 3, 2011 by HandsomeNerd

[cogneuroforfun]

thx, i just ordered one of the acase 2nd gens on amazon prime (.edu free prime ftw!). do you have any advice on auto-syncing dropbox with the ipad+goodreader? one of the issues i havent been able to figure out is why, when i annotate a pdf on my ipad with goodreader (linked from my dropbox acct), the changes don't reflect on the actual dropbox file. they appear to be local only to the copy on my ipad. i can manually upload and download from my dropbox sync on goodreader, but that's quite a pain and sometimes i just dont remember which files are most up to date with annotations or not.

If the iOS app works like the Android app, you may have to tell it to upload the file. Even if you can browse your whole dropbox on your ipad, it may be the case that files aren't actually on your device until you tell dropbox to open or download them. I believe this is so you don't run into data overages (for example, having your phone constantly sync dropbox on a 2gb plan would quickly eat up your data for the month). It is still pretty pain-free: the file structures are preserved and uploads/downloads are very quick.

[HandsomeNerd]

alright, so apparently (in GoodReader, at least), you have to manually select individual files to sync, after manually connecting to your dropbox server. kind of a pain, but now at least i know.