Re: Highest priced e-reader?

Mary E Tyler wrote:
>
>
> <snip>
>
> I don't necessarily want the Asus for ebook reading. It's my dirty
> little secret that I, personally, FAR prefer to read pbooks. I thought
> it would be a nice productivity gadget for me when I am out and about.
> If I happened to read ebooks on it, so be it. It just looked like a
> neat toy. And with my arthritis, I need something much lighter than my
> Mac Book Pro.


I bought the Asus EEE PC 701 last year and I love it. It's very light 
and portable, has about the smallest charger (which even includes 
fold-in prongs for the plug ) I've ever seen associated with a 
laptop/UMPC (Are those the right combination of initials?) and comes 
equipped with a very wide range of open source software, not all of 
which I've even fully explored  yet.

The screen is small but has good resolution. The touchpad and cursor I'm 
not wild about but with some adjustments to the settings I've gotten to 
the point where I'm comfortable with them although I'm still thinking 
about getting an add-on mouse. My model doesn't have a camera (which I 
don't care about one way or another) and has 4 gigs of  storage, less 
than 2 of which is available for my files. But I assumed from the 
beginning that I wouldn't store anything much on the machine itself 
anyway. I use thumbdrives filled with files from my main computer and 
the office computer that I  use at my freelance gig and save back to the 
drives rather than onto the machine itself. There are three USB ports, a 
wired network port and an MMC/SD port so there's lots of room for add-on 
storage and accessories.

It's great for finding hotspots and wireless connections in hotels and 
on the road and I regularly stop on the NY State Thruway to check my 
email when I'm traveling--very handy for keeping up with freelanc 
contacts at all times.

For under $400 including shipping, it's a pretty amazing device.

My latest investment, for well under $200, was a 320 gig portable hard 
drive which I use as a backup for my desktop and which I sometimes use 
to access files directly from the EEE and, of course, everything is there.

Battery life is only about 2-1/2 hours but I hear there's an aftermarket 
battery that should come close to doubling that.

I've been using my Treo 700p for reading e-books for well over a year 
now (a successor to a Palm V and before that a Palm III) and it does a 
fine job. I've worked on editing and reading some manuscripts on the EEE 
but haven't yet tried it for recreational reading since the Treo is very 
handy, has quite good resolution on the screen, small though it may be, 
and has better battery life.

Best of all, no Microsoft anywhere. I can't tell you how happy that 
makes me. I may go completely Linux with my next desktop if I don't 
succumb to the lure of the Mac.

I guess you can tell that I like the EEE a lot. I 'm not getting any 
graft from Asus for this rave/plug, but then they're probably having 
more trouble keeping up with demand than Amazon is with the Kindle.

John Douglas

-- 
John R. Douglas
johnd16555_at_gmail dot com



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