Electronic / Portable Book Reader

[Siji]

I'm looking for a device of some sort that allows me to do the following:

- Store electronic books/documents on a memory card (e.g. PDF)
- Support text AND images
- Have a color screen (for displaying images in color)
- Be portable
- Have a screen that won't make me blind

I've heard about the Sony eReader or whatever it's called, but $400 is more than something like this should cost. I've browsed tablet PCs but $800+ is WAY more than something like this should cost. You can read books on an iPod but the screen is way too small, especially for any books with graphics in them.

Other options? I suppose I could look into the $200-$300 Palms - but I'm not sure if they display graphics, and I'm not sure how big the screens are these days. I could carry my laptop around with me but that's bulkier than I'm looking for (not to mention battery life is much shorter).

Anyone have any suggestions? I'd love to find a paperback or next size up book sized screen that is specifically made for reading books and documents. I don't need it to play DVDs, MP3s, synch to Outlook or connect to the Internet for anything. I just want a portable book reader that is comfortable to read and doesn't lose the images from books I'm reading. Seems like such a simple thing.

EDIT:
I just took a look at the Archos devices (605/705) which look pretty nice. As usual, they do a lot more than I'm looking for but it seems that they support PDF pretty well and have a color screen. Does anyone have any experience with these things?

[Aabidano]

Not sure what you're looking for, in the past I bought a number of e-books from Peanut Press that were readable on my Palm III, looks like they were taken over (or whatever) by E-Reader.com.

The current client looks to run on most platforms, Palm, Windows, *nix, etc.. My previous experience with the Peanut Reader software was very good. It was text only back then and might still be for that matter.

[Siji]

I'm looking for something portable to read PDF books on.. in color. There's plenty of 4 shade gray scale readers apparently, but color seems to be rare.

[Fash]

I realize you said the ipod is too small, but I've already put in a few hours reading on mine (ipod touch)... very slick and sharp display, light, and great battery life. 3rd party pdf reader is in alpha but works quite fine as far as i've used it.

[Boogahz]

I've been using one of the eBook readers and the pdf viewer on my iPod touch too. It actually works really well!

[pyrella]

What fash and boogz said - it even feels more booky by using your fingers to 'turn' the page.

The ebook reader is far and away better than the pdf viewer, but they have to be formatted for it - however the pdf viewer is your standard display, with the ability to zoom, scroll, search, etc

[pyrella]

Oh! I totally forgot - what i've used for the past several years - an HP jornada 720

you can find them for a couple hundred bucks used or new - they support pdf, use compact flash (not sexy slim SD but hey, whatever), full color, etc.

Not the best refresh rate on the screen - but your reading books not watching movies. It's been by my bedside forever, and I read 5-6 ebooks every month on it in addition to the dead trees.



quick edit: http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... category0=

even cheaper now a days, hell i might pick up a spare.

[Canelek]

In reference to eBooks on the iPod Touch--

Standard eBook formats or is there a special Apple iTunes variety? I have a regular iPod, but would consider buying the touch for eBooks/mp3s for the gym, etc while securing my old iPod in my glove box (after some aftermarket modifications).

[pyrella]

http://code.google.com/p/iphoneebooks/

basically txt/htm/html files only