Amazon Kindle

I haven't got it but I can see that it natively reads PDF files so compatibility should not be an issue.

The 4Gb of internal memory (actually 3.3 Gb for user content) might be an issue though given the bulky byzantine book PDFs we have seen so far. My current book collection far exceeds that storage amount.

Battery life is excellent, 7 days on a single charge and up to 3 weeks if you turn Wi-Fi off.

Dimitri,

I really need to buy a reading device (10''), tablet PC or ebook-reader, my .pdf collection is getting bigger and bigger and PC is not convenient anymore.
But tablets, Apple and Windows -10 inches display of course- are pretty expensive and as for Android I still wait for reliable devices in a balanced price.

So, Kindle DX seems to be a choice with the extra advantage of being a dedicated reader using a display especially designed for easy reading like a book.

Anyway, thanks for the post, I 'm still thinking about it, money is the problem of course, a rather pressing one if you have a family, as you know.

Indeed. It is expected that all those devices will soon drop in price as more and more companies get into the tablet game (a few products are advertised by the end of this year already and more coming later).

If you plan to use the tablet for liturgical use you should be able to get away with taking only the most commonly used books with you and not your entire library or even better (don't know if supported on Kindle DX) you could just download each time what you need from a web directory or website.

The web browsing capability of the Kindle is limited. So if you want to access the Typikon of the day for instance you can't as I understand, at least not on 3G.

But let's wait to hear from someone who has actually used the Kindle DX.

The epad is a cheap(er than ipad) alternative by the way.

Thanks for the input.

Another question I have about tablets, I know you have used ipad, is about the display, how friendly it is for the eyes, especially if you read for long like a real book. E.g. is it convenient to take it in your bed and read?

The feedback I have heard from people that have the Kindle here is that it is much easier to hold and read than the ipad as it is lighter and the screen is not glossy (less glare than the ipad), more like paper than like a computer screen. Having said that, I have been reading stories to my daughter with the ipad in bed and it wasn't much trouble although at times I wished it was a lighter. Reading applications (like Stanza) will allow you to control the brightness of the screen so glare is not a huge issue either. But overall, Kindle is supposed to be friendlier in that respect.

Dimitri said:

The feedback I have heard from people that have the Kindle here is that it is much easier to hold and read than the ipad as it is lighter and the screen is not glossy (less glare than the ipad), more like paper than like a computer screen. Having said that, I have been reading stories to my daughter with the ipad in bed and it wasn't much trouble although at times I wished it was a lighter. Reading applications (like Stanza) will allow you to control the brightness of the screen so glare is not a huge issue either. But overall, Kindle is supposed to be friendlier in that respect.

Click to expand...

I chanted from an iPad for the first time this morning. I combined several musical scores into a single PDF file and opened it with iBooks. Even with the brightness turned down, glare was still a major problem because there is a large window behind the psaltiri in my parish. I do not believe this would be a problem during evening services. Furthermore, iBooks shrunk my 8.5×11″ scores to its approximately 6×8″ display. This effectively reduced the 20-point EZ Psaltica neumes to 14-point EZ Psaltica neumes, which were rather small from even two feet away. This problem could be resolved by developing leaf-sized PDF files, for use in either folio prints or portable e-book readers. Unfortunately, the current typesetting technology for Byzantine music does not easily facilitate the creation of variable-width scores. For the time being, I still prefer to chant from printed scores, but I am hopeful that in the near future e-book readers will become a viable mechanism for vocal performance.