E book readers

I have over 20GB and all were free 

My wife gave me a Kindle a year or so ago and I love it - I have a lot of sci fi on it and as far as I am concerned, it ain't that expensive - Between Amazon (free, 1.99, 2.99, 3.99 and 4.99) and the Baen Publishing free library I've probably averaged about 3 bucks a book  for the 47 books that have been put on it since she gave it to me. (the same number of paper backs would probably cost me about 8.50 each over the same period.)

it may be a dumb ? but do these e-book reader allow you to print out pages    i like having a printout of color profiles  for the models   on the wrk bench as ref and to make notes

As mentioned, fsm is on Zinio, I also subscribe to 3 other magazines through them. For European modeling magazines, I go through pocketmags.com.  Their digital subscription price is about 1/2 of physical US subscription price - making them affordable for me again - about $40 vs $85-95 a year.

Both zinio and pocketmags have apps on Ipad, iPhones, Android based tablets and phones, PC's and Macs. So can download all your issues to any or all of these devices. Copies are stored on the server, so you can always download them again.

I personally mostly use my Samsung 10.1 tablet, but occassionaly use Windows 7 also. The tablet versions are more responsive than the PC viewers - especially with pocketmags. The only problem I have with tabelts and magazines is that you will most likely have to zoom in to read articles, but some of the articles are formatted mainly for print so you will have to move around to read the thing zoomed in on a tablet.  Otherwise, I have no complaints - just wish FSM offers a discount for digitial.

dmk's reply brings up the biggest shortcoming of all ebooks, including PDFs that I know of.  That said, though, I am enjoying reading FSM on our iPad.  It uses an app called Zinio.  The nice thing is you can quickly zoom in to get a good look at a detail that's becoming too small for my tired, old eyes to view in a paper magazine.  

The mag downloads quickly, even on my out-in-the-woods DSL line.  I usually go front-to-back on magazines anyway, but yeah, trying to quickly get to a page is a hassle.  Luckily, most of the e-zines have links in the table of contents to the start of the articles.  

Gene Beaird,

Pearland, Texas

I use an Asus Transformer tablet with ezPDF reader. Not as good as an eInk reader in plain sunlight, but better indoors. The bigger screen (10" compared to 7") is better fitted to PDF reading (landscape format, my eyes are not good enough for portrait). More expensive as well than a plain ebook reader, but much more powerful.

Ebooks are nice. I have a Kindle and the free Kindle software on my laptop.

The biggest problem I have with digital format is browsing for a specific article or topic is awkward.

I keep stacks of print Finescale and often flip through them to look for tips of content related to the current project. It is much easier and quicker to do this with print magazines than it is with digital, unless you know exactly what you are looking for (and I rarely do).

So with digital formats you end up with huge amounts of data and no easy way to search or index it. That is the huge Achilles heal of the digital formats. Someone (Google?) needs to come up with an efficient way to search through various digital books, magazines and articles for certain topics. (although this is still an elusive problem in these forums as well)

I also have the kindle fire and it is a wonderful asset.   I read books and magazines all the time

I have the $79 Kindle and love it. I have read 18 books since December. I have 22.6 GB of books on file so I could literally read the rest of my life.

Thank you all for the input.  I agree about real books and magazines, but the main problem I have is a US postal service locally that either damages my magazines beyond readable or just plain does not deliver over 30% of them.  After numerous complaints to the local offices and even as far as the main office in Seattle I have abandoned all hope.  Unless the present mail person is transfered or dismissed I need to find a way to get my magazines.  I am hoping this will be the answer.

It goes so far that the mail person will just leave a pile of mixed mail on the top of the neighborhoods mail boxes for us to sort out.  I wonder why they are in financial trouble

I use a Nook App for my IPad,it works fine and you can store books and mags.it reads great indoors but it is not as glare proof as a dedicated reader.That being said in most cases I prefer having a book or magazine in my hand.

I'm not sure about Finscale magazine but their downloadable articles are in Adobe PDF format. I believe most ebooks can read PDF's out of the box or with an app.

I have been reading ebooks since the 70's (Guttenburg Project) (ASCII text). Modern ebooks are all nice and pretty with pictures, indexes, search functions, bookmarks, sound, video, etc. However, I still prefer the real thing.

Ebooks do have the advantage if you are on the go or travel extensively. In all honesty when I travel I load up a USB stick with a variety of ebooks (novels, magazines, tech books) just in case of a mood change or getting stuck somewhere.

 One thing ebooks havent been able to duplicate is the smell of the ink and texture of paper. Nothing like the smell of an old paperback book!

I have a Kindle and an iPad which I mainly use as an ebook reader.  Although I use them frequently, I much prefer traditional books.  There's nothing like picking up a real book and read.  Plus, ebooks are not cheaper. 

Rhino

Sorry if this has been asked before I looked but did not see any postings.

Thinking of switching to an ebook format for my magazines and some of my books.  Has anyone here had much experience with this?  Curious about how the magazine subscriptions work, how long can you store a magazine or book you purchase, how well does it work as far as reading, eink or lcd better, and any recommendations as far as which is better?

Hi Rhino, welcome to the forums. Hard to say which one is the best. All I can say is that I've been a happy camper with the Nook Color. The resolution is very nice. I have a few photography magazine subscriptions and the pictures look AWESOME. I can also watch movies from my Netflix account. My son got last holidays a Nook Tablet. Pretty much the same case with faster processor inside. I have no complaints with the Nook Color but the responsiveness on the Nook Tablet is noticeable.

The battery life on the Nook is VERY good as well.

Dunno.. This is the first time I've bought a E-subscrition, and damned if I can even figure out how to look at it...

Glad I kept the paper one..