LCD vs. e-ink: The eyestrain debate - do bifocals make a difference?

LCD vs. e-ink: The eyestrain debate | Fully Equipped - CNET Reviews
CNet: LCD vs. e-ink: The eyestrain debate. Thoughts on the NookColor. PCW Top 5 Tech | TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics
I still read on my old LCD eBookwise reader and I find that I can read it fine without any eyestrain as long as I'm not wearing my bifocals. When working on the computer and occasionally having to glance down to print material or my ebook I find that wearing my bifocals is essential.

I don't know why, but there it is.

In all cases I find I can go longer if I glance away from the screen every couple of minutes. Ultimately the type of device is less important then sensible use. A glass of water is good for you. A hundred glasses of water will kill you.

E-ink may be better on the eyes but you cannot read in dim lighting conditions. A reading lamp is necessary. I find it annoying to look for a suitably lit location to read since I've become so used to reading a device with it's own built in lighting. Those clip-ons for e-Ink devices look silly, too.

Augen The Book e-Reader - 7" Color LCD for $89

Nathan at The e-book Reader Blog picked one up at K-Mart for only $89US. Its being sold online (for pre-order in some cases) for $129. While it doesn't have a touchscreen it does have a full QWERTY keyboard.

7" Color Screen / 2GB Internal Memory / SD Slot / WiFi capable / Built-in Speaker / MP3 and Video Player / CPU: Ingenic 4755, Arm9 400 MHz / OS: Linux 2.6.24

I hope the K-Mart price drop leads to a quick drop on the gadget websites out there. With the Wi-fi web surfing this could be a great dual e-reader/web surfer.

Augen The Book e-Reader Video Review, First Impressions | The eBook Reader Blog

Kindle-Like LCD eReader: Augen “The Book” Available for Pre-Order | e-Bookvine

Auria 26" LCD TV installed - review

Next day delivery of the TV/monitor was a pleasant surprise, though it left me a bit unprepared. It worked flawlessly out of the box. The HD picture quality is fantastic. I borrowed my brother's OTA antenna for a bit, then switched to a pair of regular rabbit ears. Without spending any time looking for the best reception alignment I got several channels right away, including the World Cup on CBC-HD. Gorgeous.

It functions well as a monitor as well. I tried the VGA input and the DVI-HDMI inputs and both work resonably well. The image is a bit fuzzy but for watching AVI/YouTube its fantastic. I got a bit nervous swapping cables around on my aging desktop XP machine -- at one point It would not boot at all -- so I haven't played with all the possible configurations. It may be my imagination but I thought the VGA input quality was significantly better than the HDMI connection.

My biggest complaint is that the user-interface is very slow: whether you are changing channels, input modes, or fiddling with any of the TV options, the interface is very slow to respond. This is a disappointment as I wanted to be able to quickly switch between TV and monitor modes (so I can write these blog posts during commercial breaks). As it is I'm getting used to not having CNN or CBC Newsworld buzzing in the background while I'm working on the computer.

The audio quality, as I was led to believe, leaves a bit to be desired, but that can be solved quite easily by plugging TV audio out to a decent speaker setup.

Overall, for the price ($199 + $20 shipping), this is a great bargain if you are looking for a primary-use TV and secondary-use monitor.

Newegg.ca - Auria 26" 720p LCD HDTV EQ2688

Newegg.ca - Auria 26" 720p LCD HDTV EQ2688

Just ordered this monitor with TV tuner from newegg. HDMI and VGA inputs and ATSC/NTSC Tuner with 1366 x 768 resolution. Pretty good for the price--$199 marked down from $399.

The resolution is not great, but I plan on using it as the "second" monitor in a dual display setup. Hopefully I can sit back 8 to 10 feet when watching TV or a YouTube video.

EQD Auria EQ1988 / EQ2288 / EQ2488 / EQ2688 Reviews - alaTest USA

Boogie Board Paperless LCD Writing Tablet

Boogie Board Paperless LCD Writing Tablet

I really like this thing. Its an LCD replacement for a whiteboard. You can stick it on your fridge or carry it around like a clipboard of sketchpad. Unfortunately there is no connectivity of any kind but for $35 its a pretty cool child-safe/kitchen safe 8.8" x 5.6" message board. Its 3v (sealed) watch battery will theoretically last for 7 years if used 20 times a day.

Apparently new versions of the tablet will be coming soon with at least the capability to save/transfer a screen as an image file.

7 inch TFT screen ebook reader - EB710

7 inch TFT screen ebook reader - EB710

This may still be vapour or only available in the far east, but I thought it looked pretty cool. No pricing yet. Not the software is Asian but the buttons are in English.

7-inch LCD (since when were those deemed fit for reading on?), Li Poalmer(2100mAH) battery, multimedia player(s) (jpg, avi,flv,h264, mp3/flac) , optional FM radio, USB 2.0, g-sensor, looks like like Android but not sure.

Supports ASCII/UNICODE TXT/DOC/PDB/HTML/PDF/FB2 etc.formats. (note that ePub not in list, nor is DRM mentioned)

Engadget

Paradigm Shift EER-051D e-reader - cheap... but is it cheap?

There is little hard news out on this yet. You can check out the Press Release at Engadget. It has a 5" LCD color screen, has an FM tuner and MP3 support. It also has 2GB of internal memory and an SD card slot. I'm hopeful, but it may be a new version of the crappy Delstar available from Walgreens.

At $130 US it may be the best bang for the buck.

Aluratek Libre Pro e-reader

The Aluratek Libre Pro e-reader is on sale at NCIX.com

$139.99 CAD
Savings Code 50398-1230. SAVE $30.00 off our regular price of $169.99 if you buy today! Special price ends 4/20/2010.

Its has a 5"-640x480 LCD screen and supports ePub, PDF, and the other basic formats. It comes with a 2GB SD card, and can be upgraded. It also plays MP3s.

There is a so-so review at PCWORLD. Its a bit short and I'm not particularly swayed by their complaint about battery life.

I'm tempted by this one but apparently the unit doesn't come with a back-lit screen. Apparently the Aluratek people wanted to look like e-ink without actually using the technology. Since I do much of my night-time reading solely in the warm comforting glow of the TV or computer screen this can be a deal breaker.

Apparently there is a market out there for add-on night lights for e-ink readers -- those clip-on LED lights that are still marketed for reading dead-tree books in bed. If I'm going to plunk down some green for a new reader I do not want to have to pay $20-30 bucks extra for a 3W lamp.