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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kesh" data-source="post: 1330033" data-attributes="member: 1308">Personally, I love eBooks. They're slowly gaining ground, as the price barrier breaks.The biggest problems have been: 1) expensive hardware, and 2) proprietary formats.#1 is almost broken now. A Palm Zire 21 (8MB B&W) is $99 brand new. You can find older, used PDAs on eBay for as little as $20, the same you'd pay for a hardback book. With an 8 MB device, you can store any where from 4 books to two-dozen books, depending on their contents. If the unit features an expansion slot, the only limit is your budget.In the case of #2, that's also opening up. I personally prefer the <a href="http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com" target="_blank">Palm Digital Media</a> Palm Reader format for my ebooks, and other vendors like <a href="http://www.fictionwise.com" target="_blank">Fictionwise</a> support it as well. It's a format made for PDAs, but still has viewer software for Mac/Windows. Also, the "serial number" for purchased ebooks is your credit card number, so people aren't likely to just toss these ebooks out on the 'net for everyone else. Plus, you can download their software to turn your own text files into Palm Reader documents.Plus, there are plenty of places to pick up free ebooks, such as <a href="http://www.memoware.com/" target="_blank">Memoware</a>. I've got about 23 MB of ebooks, just in Palm Reader format, about half of which were free downloads. That's over 60 books I can put in my jeans pocket!Admittedly, PDFs still suck on PDAs. (Oooh, acronyms...) They either have to be stripped bare, or you'll do a lot of scrolling.HTML is great on PDAs, though. Products like <a href="http://www.isilo.com" target="_blank">iSilo</a> can take an entire downloaded website or folder of files and tie them into a readable file, complete with clickable hyperlinks. Someone did this for the SRD a while back, which was extremely useful.In short, ebooks are just starting to hit their stride. The Dot-Com bust weeded out a lot of the weaker formats and companies, and the ones that are left have survived to the point where ebook hardware and software have become practical.Admittedly, sometimes it's still a bit silly. For instance, new ebooks from popular authors (like Stephen King or Tom Clancey) often cost as much as the hardback when they first come out, and don't drop quickly. Other books, though, can be purchased for less than their paperback cost. And sometimes, you get some great sales, such as "buy this ebook, get this one free!" Palm Digital Media puts out an email newsletter with a weekly coupon code, giving you a good chunk of savings on many of their books.So, yes, I love it. I'm actually replacing some of my paper books with ebook versions, because I'm tired of lugging them everywhere. The only drawback is that many of my favorites have yet to make the transition... older Stephen King novels, for instance, or more obscure authors. Still, it's only a matter of time.</blockquote>

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