YAY! It's Here!

Okay, so that might be over doing it a bit with the smilies… but that is how I feel! My PDA came!

Yesterday afternoon in fact. I didn’t write anything up then as I had to try it out before telling you all!

So am I happy with it?

Oh yeah!

It does exactly what I want it to. First thing I did was get on the net with it and buy one of Harlequin’s Spice briefs. Worked wonderfully! (can I over use that guy? )

Oh and just so you know, Mobipocket is WAY cool! A hundred times
cooler then Adobe! You can do more than just alter the size of your
font and layout, you can do things like alter the colors of BOTH the
font and the background! Oh and I have to tell you this… the PDA comes
with microsoft word, excel, draw and all those types of programs but
what is really neat is that you can take those documents, load them up
with Mobi and view them through the Mobi program on the PDA! That was
really neat! Now obviously most of the time you aren’t going to want to
do that if you think you are going to make alterations to the word
document while working on it on the PDA but if you are just reading
something… its the best! Turning pages and everything is… well just
take my word for it, its cool!
I guess I got really excited about this because I am reading an ms for
a friend and doing a general comment… scrolling in the microsoft word
is not near as nice as page flipping in Mobi.

Okay I’m totally getting sidetracked!
But the thing is, I’m so excited I did go with the PDA instead of the
Kindle or Sony in the end. It has so many features compared to the
‘official ereaders’! (’official ereaders’ is what I’ve decided to call
the readers like Sony and Kindle since the PDA is not considered an
ereader) Anyhow, getting on the net, ordering from whomever, whenever, in any reader program I want… you can’t beat that! It’s working splendidly!

(now I sigh) Why? Because mentally I do love the screen size of the official
readers. And I do hope these PDA guys just take this same product they
are already creating and simply make it a tad bigger. That would make
the product to drool over.

But that having been said, the small size doesn’t bother me. I
thought it might. But it doesn’t. Obviously I’m already developing
favorite reader programs(MOBI all the way!!!!) but it is all very easy
to read no matter what program you are using. Very! I don’t know, I
thought I might be straining my eyes or something, but not at all! And
with a tap you can alter things bigger, smaller or color wise. So
though I think the product in and of itself would be nicer bigger… it
doesn’t really affect the main reason I bought it, to read.

The compatibility though is a different story. It is HUGE to me.
Being able to get all the books I’d bought over the past couple of
months on it even though they were all different programs… well, it
just would not have happened with any of the other products out there.
Hmmm, that is not completely true… there is one out there that is from
all that I can see a PDA just bigger, but it costs $700! I can’t figure out why… an inch or two wouldn’t in my mind cost so much more but…

Now I’ve been comparing for days obviously and I added up the pros
and cons of the PDA to the eReaders out there before purchasing. It
really came down to just that one thing that the PDA didn’t have - the
size. Thought I’d list them here just for visual.

PDA:

PRO –

**wireless

***can order from anyone

***choices of books is limited ONLY by what is in ebook format— so basically no limit from that standpoint

***will read all ebook readers

***about $280 depending on the one you get and for me this was cheaper then the Kindle

***it does everything else like email, word documents, excel, draw,
and many more… now I didn’t need any of these… wasn’t looking for any
of these but it wows me that it can do all these things and still cost
less then many of the eReaders out there.

***can read at night without a lamp–lights up on its own

CONS –

***not exactly as big as I ‘think’ I’d like it

***doesn’t have that cool paper like screen

***supposed glare— personally I’ve not been bothered by this glare I kept hearing about… but I am still new to it

_________________________________

Official eReaders(I put it this way because there are several out there but essentially they all have the same limitations)

PROS –

***awesome size for reading

***nifty paper like looking screen

CONS –

***each brand is aligned with only one type of ebook reader completely- yes , others can work with them as long as they are NOT PROTECTED

***the only way to read protected documents on their reader is to purchase them through THEIR store

***problem with this is you can’t then get specials AND lots of
books are simply not offered on all the differing stores out there yet.
Maybe someday but not yet. Which means your choices are limited.

***not wireless or as is the Kindle, is but only through their site

***or you have to use your computer to make your purchases but don’t forget, all the above still applies

Well, I think that covers it. Though I’m sure as soon as I published
this I’ll think of several more things I’d love to have said. The main thing I want to get across though is–I am loving my new toy! Here is the link
to it, if you want to know more specifics about it. It has taken me a
few weeks to get to this point, ton’s of research, questions, trial and
errors, thinking I had it figured out as to what I was going to do,
then discovering those options weren’t going to work… It’s all behind
me. I’m so happy I’m dancing! (not a sight you want to see )

I know I’ve said this before, but I really can’t understand why the
companies with the PDA’s haven’t made one bigger, called it the PDA
reader and made life SIMPLE for the consumer. A requirement if you want
people to jump on board something. Too complicated and forget it! The
only ones jumping then are the ones who REALLY want it. I’m dizzy just
thinking about the amount of time and things I’ve had to learn to do
this. My gram, my neighbors… heck 95% of the people I know for that
matter will NOT do what I’ve done to find this product and get the most
for my money as well as meet my demands. They’ll stick with the paper
books. Hmmmm, that might be why I’m the only one I personally know in
the flesh and blood(not through cyber space) that has a reader of any
kind.

Now there is one last thing I want to say– there is some syncing
with a PDA but ONLY if you wish to download things to your computer
first. You don’t have to. You can simply make all your purchases while on the PDA.
. You can even add storage cards to save more books and go on without
ever touching your computer. And for the most part I think that is what
I’ll be doing. But since I’m not one who has to keep life simple, I went through all the issues to make sure things would work program wise. I like knowing I have flexibility.

So that’s it folks! After all those posts, all those hours… I have a
reader! And its sooooo cool to think I have about twenty, maybe a bit
more, books on the little memory card which is only about an inch long!
My hubby may not like the money I’ve spent initially, but he’s going to like the extra space around the house!

Thanks everyone!

Cole

Nicole Reising
www.nicolereising.com
www.nicolereising.com/blog

Imagination... the magical whispers from within.