Meet Li'l Bit

Before I introduce y'all to my newest companion; a bit of background explanation is in order here. I'm a geek, and I read ebooks.  The reason I went to all ebooks, all the time (well, most of the time, anyway, unless something just flat isn't available in ebook, and there are still some holdouts - a pet peeve of mine),  is a disastrous move from Texas to Illinois five years ago that resulted in me leaving an extensive book collection behind because of lack of money to ship them.  When I heard about ebooks, the sheer portability is what sold me, even more than the shiny new gadget factor.  I'd never have to worry about moving boxes of books again! And I'd never have to worry about lack of space for more shelves, either.  That last wasn't a huge concern, even though we live in a small house - Chris has told me from the beginning if I wanted the walls lined with bookshelves, all I had to do was say something and out would come the saw and wood.  But it's still a nice convenience factor. 

So, last year at tax time, Chris bought me an Astak EZ Reader.  I got a deal on it, it was a model that the company had ordered for the Consumer Electronics Show to display the device with colored shells.  Due to being a Mobile Read member, I had an inside contact in Robert Barry from Astak.   An EZ Reader is like a Kindle or a Nook or a Sony Reader.  It's an e-ink device, solely for reading ebooks and listening to audiobooks with.  I did extensive research and got lots of opinions from the fantastic people at Mobile Read before I made my decision.  And once I got it, I loved it!  2009 was quite a year for dedicated ebook reading devices.  Two different versions of Kindle came out, Barnes and Noble announced the nook, and  Sony announced and implemented a whole new line up of their Sony Readers.  Even the EZ Reader line got some upgrades, and switched to supporting a different DRM format.  The big problem with most e-ink devices is that they only support one or at the most two of the DRM'd formats.  If you want to read everything DRM'd, you'll have to use a PC.

Another huge feature of note about most dedicated ebook reading devices such as the Kindle, the nook, the Sony, and the EZ Reader/Pocket Pro is that they all use e-ink technology.  This is a technology that mimics ink on paper, and is not backlit.  In other words, you still need a light to read on one of these devices in a dark room.  Supposedly, e-ink is easier on your eyes than LED backlit LCD screens, but I have to say that personally, it makes no difference to me.  This technology (so far), only displays black and white.   Several companies such as Mirasol and Pixel Qi are working on this, but no devices on the market at this time have that technology.  The other big differences are that e-ink screens can be read in direct sunlight, and they get incredible battery life.

So, why, after all that, did I end up this year with an Asus T91MT convertible netbook/tablet? 

Well...I'd been looking at the Archos 9 tablet for awhile.  Drooling over it is closer, *laugh*.  I really liked the idea of being able to read every format natively, even without removing DRM, and I also liked the idea of a color screen for reading comics.   LCD vs. E-ink has never bothered me, as I've said, I personally can read on anything without a problem.  I very seldom need to read in direct sunlight, and battery life isn't much of an issue for me, either.  Every comfortable place to sit in this house is near enough to an outlet that I can plug in if needed.  I *might* run into a problem if we ever go on a long car trip, but since I don't know of one of those in my future, I'll cross that bridge if I need to.
But - the Archos 9 kept getting delayed (it was supposed to debut October 22, coinciding with the release of Windows 7), and it only comes with Windows 7 Starter Edition, which lacks several key touchscreen features.  It also got a price increase along the line. 

In November, Chris ran into a deal on an Acer Aspire One netbook.  Little workhorse, 11.6 inch screen, 2 gigs of RAM, 250 gigs of hard drive space.  He bought himself one, and then I tried it.  Decided on the spot that it would work admirably for an ebook reader, and was a ton cheaper than the Archos 9.  We went back and got me one, too.  And even though I loved the netbook, and it made a pretty good ebook reader, I found I still wanted a tablet form factor, or at least the option of one.  So, back to the drawing board.  

Chris and I researched, and debated, and researched some more.  Tax time came again, and it was decided that we'd sell my netbook and get me some sort of tablet.  It came down to the Asus T91MT for less than $500.00, or the Gigabyte 1028T for right at $700.00.  The Gigabyte had better hardware, but the Asus had multitouch and a lighter price tag.  The deciding factor was when I called over to the Tiger Direct store in Naperville and found that they had them.  To Naperville we went, *laugh*.   I've now had Li'l Bit for about two weeks, and I'm still discovering all it can do.  I installed an 8 gig SDHC card for book storage, and installed Calibre for ebook viewing.   Works like a charm. I can put it in tablet mode to read with, or swivel it into netbook mode for surfing.   I have color, and the ability to read any DRM'd format out there without converting hassles, if I so desire.  Christened "Li'l Bit" by Chris,  here's my new reading machine.

And here she is, in action, tablet form, running Calibre's ebook viewer.