Was trying to get Kindle but now looking at Boox

I have been following ebook readers for couple of years now and from the start wanted them to win. Most ebook readers such as Amazon’s Kindle use the e-ink technology.

Since 2007, I am using the French Cybook Bookeen. I buy a couple of books from ebook stores such as Fictionwise. I am also able to download PDF files, HTML files and various other free ebooks available on Project Gutenberg and Feedbooks.

In addition to ebooks, I use the Cybook Bookeen to store e-tickets when I travel, I don’t like printing stuff if I don’t have to. I also save the Wikitravel page for the city I am traveling to onto my Bookeen.

I am also able to borrow books from couple of libraries (Singapore’s wonderful National Library is one of them).

The reading experience is great but I have to say the book publishers have let us down. When you borrow out a digital copy of a book, others are not able to borrow it. Creating artificial scarcity in digital world is not nice at all. Even the prices on ebook stores are the same as physical books which prevents widespread adaption. With ebooks, you don’t need to worry about printing and disctribution costs. Why still you price them at printed book cost? Only Amazon with its Kindle eco-system has shown some innovation in pricing ebooks.

I found this video of an e-ink reader from China. Looks good and has wi-fi too. Wi-fi is one thing that I miss in my Bookeen. It syncs to my computer but it is nice to be able to download stuff straight away.

Kindle is still tempting because of the low prices on the books. I hope Amazon makes Kindle content appear on some of these non-kindle ebook readers.