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E - BOOK experience anyone ?
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E - BOOK experience anyone ? // Roundtable
Post by RAYMAN // Aug 14, 2008, 7:27am
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RAYMAN
Total Posts: 1496
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I am one of these people who simply dont like to sit at the computer and read.
I much rather have something that I could take to bed and read my pdf files
ie. manuals etc. there. Does anyone have experience or have one of those e-books like this
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Reader
or this
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle
Anyone ?:)
Must be able to read pdf !
Peter |
Post by RichLevy // Aug 14, 2008, 9:10am
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RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
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I always thought they were too expensive, I'm still waiting for them to come down in price. The Amazon device sounds pretty cool though.. Here's a link to a conversation that brings up many interesting points I had not thought of.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/archive/index.php/t-84052.html
Rich |
Post by RAYMAN // Aug 14, 2008, 9:15am
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RAYMAN
Total Posts: 1496
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thanks for the link ... yes the price is very high at the moment for what it
does but I think we are not fat away from these devices with no more
printed manuals etc.
Peter |
Post by RichLevy // Aug 14, 2008, 9:21am
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RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
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I would love to hear first hand information from someone here who has and uses one. The Sony Reader at 300.00 and the Amazon Reader at 360.00 are pretty steep buy in prices. But it would be great to have a single device that can hold everything I have to read (reference, manuals, books and magazines) in one single device... I think that would make me one happy camper :)
Rich |
Post by RAYMAN // Aug 14, 2008, 9:32am
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RAYMAN
Total Posts: 1496
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I would love to hear first hand information from someone here who has and uses one. The Sony Reader at 300.00 and the Amazon Reader at 360.00 are pretty steep buy in prices. But it would be great to have a single device that can hold everything I have to read (reference, manuals, books and magazines) in one single device... I think that would make me one happy camper :)
Rich
Me too Rich I think there is a very big market its just not THERE yet and
the poor integration of pdf looks like makes it not easier ....
Peter |
Post by aidanodr // Aug 14, 2008, 4:15pm
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aidanodr
Total Posts: 90
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Hi Guys,
Yes I read EBOOKS, I buy them from sites like www.ereader.com
I have two devices of interest to you for this purpose. Do not discount these they are very useable in this regard.
First up is the Palm TX:
http://www.palm.com/us/products/handhelds/tx/
I have had one of these for near on 3 years. The screen is nice and big and it will take PDFs and the pdb format for ebooks. You can read a book on the hires colour screen either portrait or landscape, to turn pages you can use your finger on the touchscreen at the corners. Also can bookmark a page if you need. Loadsa features & IT HAS WIFI built in!
Next up is my favourite. I play alot of gigs .. weddings and that ... this can involve periods of hanging around. So my project was to find one device that was a phone, a reader for my books, WIFI and games. The device I found uses the Symbian Op Sys which is as close to windows as you get. So here it is:
http://www.nokia.ie/A4372065
The Nokia E61i - what a piece of kit. As well as all the phone stuff it has - seperate from your phone signal - WIFI. One of the profiles is OFFLINE - you can use this to turn off the phone portion but still use all the other toys in the phone inc WIFI. Loadsa memory and also a card slot on the side. On it - as well as games that I bought - great resolution ( tomb Raider ) - I have Emoze - a push email client ( free ):
http://www.emoze.com/en/get/index.asp
AND Fring:
http://www.fring.com/
Fring is a Skype, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk™, SIP, Twitter, AIM & Yahoo Client app. So for Skype - when using the WIFI on the E61i - you load up Fring, it syncs with your Skype account and see's your Skype contacts. Now you can call these contacts for free using the WIFI and Fring once in a hotspot. Lift the E61i to you ear and talk for free - same as using Skype on your PC.
Anyway - now onto EBooks on the E61i - Ereader for Symbian:
http://www.ereader.com/ereader/software/product/18842_pro_symbian.htm
With this downloaded via the E61i's WIFI and installed on the E61i you can read the common PDB Ebook format. The E61i already comes with Acrobat Reader installed. It also has a full MS OFFICE compatible app with Word processing, Spreadsheets, Presentation Software. So you load your books in any of these formats and just read.
The screen on the E61i is nice and big, great for reading and browsing. In both cases - for the Palm TX and the E61i you can increase / decrease the font size to your own preference and for ease of reading.
Both these devices are favourites of mine, but the E61i is at the top as it has everything in one device slotted in your back pocket - a mini laptop really.
Cheers
Aidan
PS - Another gizmo that I use alot is the Archos GMINI 402, old at this stage and superceeded by newer models, one of the best media devices around, in my book beats the Ipod for price, features ... but then thats just little old me. Check out the Arcos site for latest models, it is great kit:
http://www.archos.com/home.html?country=global&lang=en
Have a look at the Generation 4 & 5 devices .... mmmm! |
Post by notejam // Aug 14, 2008, 4:35pm
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notejam
Total Posts: 191
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Just think you might like to know that there are free pdf ebook programs on the net for making pdf type ebooks.
You might also like to know a vrml file can be put in a pdf book. That gives you an ebook that can have 3d pictures in it, or even 3d worlds in it, that you can view from all angles, and or explore, as long as they have a browser plugin that supports vrml viewing installed on the computer.
A laptop computer lets you view this type of ebook, and It would be great if the ebook companys published their books in pdf format too, with 3d illustrations in them. Until then, you have to make your own.
$300 or $350 I think is better spent on a laptop computer. There are plenty of free ebooks that can be viewed on computers for free at the gutenberg project. (google search for it) Also a search on ebooks brings up a lot you can buy for your computer. But I am not aware of any book size computers. Seems they make either palms, or laptops with 12 inch screens but no small book size computers. |
Post by aidanodr // Aug 14, 2008, 4:43pm
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aidanodr
Total Posts: 90
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Hi Notejam,
All of what you said I concur with. I have a Tosh Laptop and ebooks there also, but for shear portability - the E61i. Small, very useable, no weight and its your phone also.
So yes - spend $350 on a laptop - but it may not fit the bill for portability. Down the beach, in a waiting room, bored in a shopping mall .. so on. With the likes of the E61i its in your pocket - whip it out :)
I am probably assuming that the concept of having a device where you can read EBooks on the move is a preference. is for me anyway!
Aidan |
Post by seavu // Aug 14, 2008, 4:57pm
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seavu
Total Posts: 46
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I have a Sony reader. It's great for text but if your main interest is pdf it's pretty much useless IMHO. The screen is too small. Just in general, the text resolution is very good but it has dark gray letters on a light gray background leading to somewhat poor contrast. Under a strong reading light no problem. Low light conditions is not so good. |
Post by grymmjack // Aug 14, 2008, 5:04pm
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grymmjack
Total Posts: 87
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eeePC sounds like best bet. they have them sub 500 range on newegg.com :)
there are windows xp versoins and linux. my friend who is a published author bought one with linux and loves it to death. he is a pretty big guy and said the keyboard is just fine too.
im seriously considering an eeePC myself as my aging dell latitude lm laptop is on it's last legs. missing keys, etc. :) |
Post by RAYMAN // Aug 15, 2008, 12:16am
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RAYMAN
Total Posts: 1496
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interseting read... I´m not so much into the ebook software format
rather then the hardware ..I want to read pdf´s so the e 61 and the palm sound nice !
Peter |
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