With the arrival of the iPad and new social networking features for the Kindle it’s safe to say that the digital book landscape in Canada has changed dramatically this year. Prices have dropped, the selection of stores and devices has grown, and those who decided to wait for just such changes are surely now eager to make the leap. Once again, let me help you land into the right reading experience.

Kobo Reader

$150 

An entry-level reader, the Kobo speaks to those on a budget. It’s made from low-cost materials, offers just the basics for book reading, but suffers the occasional bug or two. It’s a good first reader, but plan on making the upgrade to one of the more expensive models later on when you become impatient with the Kobo’s limitations.

The Good – Very comfortable reading experience with a wide selection of books through the Chapters/Indigo online store. Support for ePub and PDF files offers access to a wide range ofcontent beyond the store itself.

The Bad – Multiple applications needed to transfer books from a home computer, physical controls are a bit clunky.

The Future – The $150 price tag is the Kobo’s biggest advantage, but can it hold that for long the way the competition keeps slashing theirs? Thanks to the release of a Kobo app for iPad and Smartphones, you’ll be able to move your collection forward as you evolve to other devices in the future.

Amazon Kindle

$189 USD 

Comfort is key with the Kindle. A wireless connection to the store, Amazon’s vast selection of titles, and a 16-greyscale screen that offers dark text make it all too pleasurable to fall into a book. While the Kindle does make a strong effort to explore other uses – music playback, text-to-speech, Twitter and Facebook connections, it does so in a rather uncoordinated way. It’s often difficult to find these other features, let alone use them.

The Good – Screen contrast will satisfy even the pickiest of eyes. Wireless store connection makes it a breeze to add new books and subscribe to newspapers, magazines. It’s all about the reading experience.

The Bad – Clunky keyboard, limited range of font sizes and poor title organization system. You need a third-party program to convert and use ePub files while PDF files are often displayed with mixed results.

The Future – The Kindle desperately needs touchscreen controls and a bookshelf for organizing content. As more and more devices like the iPad emerge, the Kindle may have a hard time competing if it can’t evolve new features reliably, something Amazon seems to struggle with. The good news is that the Kindle app for iPad and smartphones make it easy to move your collection to the next generation of devices, so the Kindle is a safe investment.

Sony Reader Touch

$230 

The Sony Reader is designed for those who want to do a great deal more than just read books. It has the same size screen, but in a smaller more durable design. Added features such as note-taking, bookmarking, music playback, are done very competently and with touchscreen controls are very intuitive to use.

The Good – With a stylus you can sketch and make handwritten notes. Content organized with a virtual bookshelf. Photos are displayed beautifully. Large font sizes for those with poor eyesight. Support for wide range of content including PDF, ePUB, and Word documents.The Bad – Screen has 8-level grayscale, not the strongest on market. Small storage of 512 MB, must be expanded with added memory cards. The Future – The best version of Sony’s device, the Reader Daily Edition, has yet to arrive in Canada and, with a 16-level grayscale screen, 3G wireless connection, would be the better model to include on this list. Sony certainly is invested in business and has been working hard to evolve their product. Of the other dedicated reader manufacturers, they are the best prepared to make the leap to colour screens including OLED technology. What’s missing is a mobile app, although the compatibility of their books means that the Kobo apps works just as well for that need.

Apple iPad (Recommended)

$549 - $879

Apple’s iPad delivers all the benefits of the other devices, but none of the weaknesses. The iBooks Store may have the smallest selection right now, but through its apps the iPad is also a Kindle, a Kobo Reader, a comic book reader, a PDF workhorse, a music sheet reader, and more. All publications look gorgeous on the iPad’s vibrant, back-lit, colour screen and have a tactile presence and unparalleled interactivity thanks to Apple’s fluid touchscreen controls. No wonder magazines and newspapers are tripping over themselves to reinvent their industry with it.

The Good – It may not be E-ink technology, but books look incredible on the colour screen and so far eyestrain has not surfaced as an issue.

Like the Kindle it can wirelessly download new content, but from a wide variety of stores including iBooks, Kindle, Kobo, Marvel, DC, Comixology, and more. Like the Sony Reader it can play music, photos, record handwritten notes, sketches, and organize content through virtual bookshelves. It has bookmarking, highlighting, search, and dictionary functionality plus accessibility features (for all apps) that include zoom, text-to-speech, and negative screen contrast.

The Bad – At 9.56 inches tall, the iPad is a large device to carry around or travel with. With a starting price of $549 it is the most expensive E-Book reader on the market, but then it’s also a portable computer too.

The Future – That competitors Amazon and Kobo have been so quick to convert their systems over to the iPad says everything about the role Apple will play in the future of publication. Investing in books for the device is very safe indeed. This year Apple introduced a new screen technology through the iPhone 4 called “Retina” that delivers the best display of text on a colour screen I’ve seen on any device. Surely this will be included in the next iPad model, so those wondering if they should wait should feel very comfortable doing just that.