Challenge and Urgent Appeal --- EReaders Required

I wish someone would turn or hack a cheap $20 or $30 5 inch or 4 inch lcd digital photo frame into a ebook reader for text and rtf files.

I don't want wi-fi, bluetooth, internet access and fancy writing screens,pushing up the price.People who want that can pay extra.

A 4gb flash memory can store 10000 books easily.

Ideally it should have 4gb storage from a internal flash or memory sdd card with a long battery life or the option to turn the backlight off.

By the way why is the amount of memory on the present over priced devices so niggardly?
I mean you can easily get a flash memory of 4 gig for
$3. Most devices have 64 megs or 256 megs.What a joke.

A lcd displays don't consume much power this could extend the battery life.

Eink is unfortunately over priced and SLOW.

Ebook readers like the amazon kindle and sony ereader cost as much as a laptop at present! Rip off pricing.

ebook readers cost from $300 to $800.

They are a rip off.

Manufacturers by keeping prices high are shooting themselves in the foot with poor sales.Very stupid people at the top.

What a rip off.

I mean $300 to $800 for a ebookreader.

You can buy a complex mini netbook for less then a ebook reader now.Only reason I don't use a netbook is due to the poor battery life of only a few hours.

I don't want to pay that much on principle.

Even a mini netbook is unsuitable for ebook reading due to the short battery life.

A low power low cost photoframe would be ideal.

I am surprised that no one has done this hack.

The focus in various forums unfortunately seems to be turning photo frame into video displays for moving pictures which they are not really designed due to their poor frame rates of 8/second! A pointless exercise.

They would are more suited to be ebook readers.

Anyone up for this challenge?

I also appeal to Chinese folk here if you could start producing a simple dedicated paperback sized 4 .5 or 5.00 inch sized screen size thin ebook reader with a lcd screen with optional back light.

Should be able to read text,rtf,pdf,html,word.

no blue tooth.no wi-fi,no hi-fi,no screen annotations,no screen writing,no hand writing,no editing,no coffee making.People who want these gizmos can pay extra for it in mark 2/3 versions.

should run of 2 aa batteries for a month.

should be under $50.

If these are your requirements I am sorry to say you will never get an eBook Reader anytime soon. Your requirements are currently unrealistic based on the technology available.

Dale

If these are your requirements I am sorry to say you will never get an eBook Reader anytime soon. Your requirements are currently unrealistic based on the technology available.

Dale

You are completely wrong again.

My requirements are minimal.

I mean you can get a 4 gig TFT screen device which can display complex color moving images at 25 to 30 frames a second ,plays mp3,mp4,avi,etc,files all for under $25 and you are saying to me that a cheaper lcd creen device cannot display a simple blacl and white static text image at a very slow frame rate of 1 every 30 seconds or so?

Sorry, but I agree with Dale. The market/business is (as always) doing it's best to adjust and optimize formats, prices, technology. Sony in particular is quite adept at this and have done an excellent job with the PRS 300 and in tracking and building the market as it currently exists.

Eink is used instead of lcd for many reasons which I won't go into. There's tons of information out there if you want to know - google is your friend.

Same with most of your other requirements/wishes.

If you think you can do something like this, get financial backing and have a market, then I say go for it! See what happens.

Sorry, but I agree with Dale. The market/business is (as always) doing it's best to adjust and optimize formats, prices, technology. Sony in particular is quite adept at this and have done an excellent job with the PRS 300 and in tracking and building the market as it currently exists.

Eink is used instead of lcd for many reasons which I won't go into. There's tons of information out there if you want to know - google is your friend.

Same with most of your other requirements/wishes.

If you think you can do something like this, get financial backing and have a market, then I say go for it! See what happens.

You agree with Dale as he is your buddy.Not because there are any merits to his lame reasons.

You agree with Dale as he is your buddy.Not because there are any merits to his lame reasons.

:rofl: No. and :offtopic:

I don't know Dale any more than I know you or you know either of us.

We are both responding to your initial posting.

MobileRead is a forum dedicated to the discussion of reading on electronic devices. We strive to keep things here polite. Please refrain from being confrontational in your posts.

pshrynk (moderator)

I wish someone would turn or hack a cheap $20 or $30 5 inch or 4 inch lcd digital photo frame into a ebook reader for text and rtf files.

... A low power low cost photoframe would be ideal.


This has already been done.
If you turn your text into images then you can read on a digital photograph frame now.
See the wiki page on the Zune Ebook Creator:
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Zune_ebook_creator

Other members have reviewed digital photograph frames:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26295

The miBook is an version of the photo frame idea:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25478

Incidentally, might I suggest that you ask a question in just one place on the forum? Your recent posts seem to duplicate this question.

This has already been done.
If you turn your text into images then you can read on a digital photograph frame now.
See the wiki page on the Zune Ebook Creator:
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Zune_ebook_creator

Other members have reviewed digital photograph frames:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26295

The miBook is an version of the photo frame idea:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25478

Incidentally, might I suggest that you ask a question in just one place on the forum? Your recent posts seem to duplicate this question.

I am afraid text to jpgs is too much hard work and is for people who have free time.

The frames u mentioned seemed to have limited functionality with very poor battery life of a few hours.Hardly advanced.Over priced also.

The forum needs to be tightened up as is too unwieldy and cluttered with too many separate forums making it highly cluttered and looks disorganized.It need to be streamlined and look tidy.

I am afraid text to jpgs is too much hard work and is for people who have free time.
1. paste text into OpenOffice.org Writer
2. Format Text - set page size, margins, font, ...
3. Print into pdf file
4. load pdf into GSview program, and export it onto series of bitmap files. I suggest that you use some greyscale loseless format (NOT jpeg)

Once you have all programs installed and you know what to do it takes less than 3 minutes of your work per book.


The forum needs to be tightened up as is too unwieldy and cluttered with too many separate forums making it highly cluttered and looks disorganized.It need to be streamlined and look tidy.
Hold your horses!
How long have you been here?
You have 17 posts under your belt.
I have been here for years and I am happy with the organization of the forum. The organization of the forum has been developed over many years.

I strongly suggest, take your time in learning how to use the forum. I also strongly suggest you learn basic netiquette. Like not posting exactly same question in two different places on the same forum ...


If you look for dirt-cheap solution, try to purchase cheapest second hand notebook. This is how I started with e-books. I salvaged an old notebook from trash. Later on I managed to buy very cheap and hopelessly obsolete Cassiopeia A-11, and later Cassiopeia A-20. They have transreflective grey LCD display and last up to 20 reading hours on a pair of AA batteries

You are completely wrong again.

My requirements are minimal.
No, he's not wrong.

I don't care how minimal your requirements are. Before this will happen, someone with the ability to do it will have to see an opportunity to make money doing it.

The first question is how much you can make on a device like what you desire.

Semiconductor electronics are pure economies of scale. A good chunk of the cost of a device is the debt service on the financing needed to build the factory to make the device. The more widgets you can make, the smaller a share of the overhead each will carry, and the cheaper you can make the price.

The problem is, to get really low pricing, you have to make and sell lots of widgets. Is the market for what you want large enough to let a manufacturer make them at your preferred price point and make enough money to justify doing it? I very much doubt it.

We aren't talking about something like an iPod for whom everyone is a potential customer. Devices to read ebooks are a niche market. It's a growing market, with more competitors tossing their hats into the ring, but it's nowhere near supporting what you want to see.
______
Dennis

Zune ebook creator is actually very quick:
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Zune_ebook_creator
once you have tweaked the basic settings to your requirements.

If these are your requirements I am sorry to say you will never get an eBook Reader anytime soon. Your requirements are currently unrealistic based on the technology available.

Dale

Are they really? All it would take is a firmware hack on a photo frame! But then there is the issue of battery life.

Are they really? All it would take is a firmware hack on a photo frame! But then there is the issue of battery life.

exactly, the requirements say it must run a month on two AA cells. I have tried using a photoframe to read ebooks. the screen resolution was 480x234 pixels which was not very clear to read text on. There are programs that can turn ebooks into images for displaying on the device. In addition it would eat batteries like they were going out of style due to the backlight.

Dale

1. paste text into OpenOffice.org Writer
2. Format Text - set page size, margins, font, ...
3. Print into pdf file
4. load pdf into GSview program, and export it onto series of bitmap files. I suggest that you use some greyscale loseless format (NOT jpeg)

Once you have all programs installed and you know what to do it takes less than 3 minutes of your work per book.


Hold your horses!
How long have you been here?
You have 17 posts under your belt.
I have been here for years and I am happy with the organization of the forum. The organization of the forum has been developed over many years.

I strongly suggest, take your time in learning how to use the forum. I also strongly suggest you learn basic netiquette. Like not posting exactly same question in two different places on the same forum ...


If you look for dirt-cheap solution, try to purchase cheapest second hand notebook. This is how I started with e-books. I salvaged an old notebook from trash. Later on I managed to buy very cheap and hopelessly obsolete Cassiopeia A-11, and later Cassiopeia A-20. They have transreflective grey LCD display and last up to 20 reading hours on a pair of AA batteries

Thanks for your input.I still disagree.The text to jpeg is cumbersome.I don't want to spend 3 minutes (really 30 minutes since you have to switch on computer..do conversion.get the reader..get the usb wires...connect to the computer usb..copy/loadfiles....unplug usb...put away wires..files delete surplus files..switch computer off).

So are really misleading with the 3 minutes.it is more like 30 minutes.


Regarding this mess of the site you are wrong again.

Spending 17 years on a unwieldy site has accustomed you to its untidyness in the same way a teenager gets used to the mess in his bedroom.

I am new and fresh,young and perceptive, and can see how it is such a mess. It lt also looks very plain old fashioned and dowdy, and thus you are giving reading a bad image. A bad ambassador for your cause.

The owner needs to get up ,do some work and rise above his complacency and make the site more funky and modern.

This will increase traffic which means he can start putting adverts and make some more money,perhaps enough for him to buy a new car and toys for the kids and a nice dress for his wife.

We actually do believe we have the best site possible for promoting electronic reading. Thank you for your input.

We actually do believe we have the best site possible for promoting electronic reading. Thank you for your input.

Yes. And it is! :)

Thanks for your input.I still disagree.The text to jpeg is cumbersome.I don't want to spend 3 minutes (really 30 minutes since you have to switch on computer..do conversion.get the reader..get the usb wires...connect to the computer usb..copy/loadfiles....unplug usb...put away wires..files delete surplus files..switch computer off).
So are really misleading with the 3 minutes.it is more like 30 minutes.
I use computer at home every single day, so for me there is no waiting for it to start. It is usually already started when I decide to prepare another batch of books for reading. I use an e-ink reader, but I still convert the vast majority of my reading material for it. And I am usually extremely annoyed with books I can not convert to my liking.

I also very rarely convert a single book at the time. Usually I convert a batch and load up my reader for months of reading, so time needed for starting applications (and recording macros and writing and debugging elaborate scripts) dissolves among dozens of books I convert at the same time.


Let's get back to digital frames.
I have recently purchased a digital photo frame in a "damaged goods" corner in a thrift store. I paid hefty sum - 11 Euro.
I was hoping I might be able to use it as an "emergency" reader, or perhaps for reading colour picture books with my kids or as a backlit reader for those rare occasions when I need to read in dark. Like when I am traveling in a car at night as a passenger.
That thing is Completely, Totally, Utterly, Absolutely Unusable as reader. Period.

It is the cheapest and the most featureless model, mind you, so Your Mileage Might Vary if you purchase something that has more sophisticated firmware and display that has reasonable resolution and does not blink.

The major "feature" that would prevent even the most determined reader from using it as an e-book reading devices are those random effects then pictures are being changed/advanced. Imagine reading from a powerpoint presentation where author used a fiendish mix of all possible animated effects for changing slides. Each page change animation takes about 5 seconds and the frame can not be configured not to use those effects.

Thanks for your input.I still disagree.The text to jpeg is cumbersome.I don't want to spend 3 minutes (really 30 minutes since you have to switch on computer..do conversion.get the reader..get the usb wires...connect to the computer usb..copy/loadfiles....unplug usb...put away wires..files delete surplus files..switch computer off).

So are really misleading with the 3 minutes.it is more like 30 minutes.

Perhaps an 8-minute process--if I allow 3 for the computer to wake up. Since I work with my computer every day, and it doesn't turn off, the wakeup time for my computer is less than 30 seconds.

The rest of it? Less than 5 minutes. Less than two, if the wiring's all connected because it's a procedure I do often enough to leave them connected.

Of course, if you're new enough to the process that those are slow and clumsy steps, it will take longer. But don't blame the process for your lack of experience.

Regarding this mess of the site you are wrong again.

Spending 17 years on a unwieldy site has accustomed you to its untidyness in the same way a teenager gets used to the mess in his bedroom.

I am new and fresh,young and perceptive, and can see how it is such a mess. It lt also looks very plain old fashioned and dowdy, and thus you are giving reading a bad image. A bad ambassador for your cause.

The owner needs to get up ,do some work and rise above his complacency and make the site more funky and modern.

Why? So it can attract more people like you, who don't like anything currently on the market and complain that companies aren't working to meet your anti-tech preferences for an ebook reader?

This will increase traffic which means he can start putting adverts and make some more money,perhaps enough for him to buy a new car and toys for the kids and a nice dress for his wife.

It will only increase traffic if the "funky and modern" site doesn't drive away a substantial portion of the several thousand current members and hundreds of daily participants.

Right now, there are no complaints about the layout from people who read & love ebooks. There is occasional feedback about improvement possibilities--add a new forum, change how some labels work--but no complaints about the overall arrangement.

Are you GUARANTEEING several hundred fresh new participants, who will click on ads, if the forums are changed to fit your preferences? Because otherwise, you're wrong... the current arrangement works for hundreds of people, and we've only seen evidence that it doesn't work for one person.

More long-standing members will remember that we did have advertisements at the top of the page. Visitors who have not yet joined the forum still see them, but they are currently disabled for members, owing to problems with Google Adsense.

[QUOTE=Elfwreck;621197

feed the troll, anyone?

Perhaps an 8-minute process--if I allow 3 for the computer to wake up. Since I work with my computer every day, and it doesn't turn off, the wakeup time for my computer is less than 30 seconds.

The rest of it? Less than 5 minutes. Less than two, if the wiring's all connected because it's a procedure I do often enough to leave them connected.

Of course, if you're new enough to the process that those are slow and clumsy steps, it will take longer. But don't blame the process for your lack of experience.



Why? So it can attract more people like you, who don't like anything currently on the market and complain that companies aren't working to meet your anti-tech preferences for an ebook reader?



It will only increase traffic if the "funky and modern" site doesn't drive away a substantial portion of the several thousand current members and hundreds of daily participants.

Right now, there are no complaints about the layout from people who read & love ebooks. There is occasional feedback about improvement possibilities--add a new forum, change how some labels work--but no complaints about the overall arrangement.

Are you GUARANTEEING several hundred fresh new participants, who will click on ads, if the forums are changed to fit your preferences? Because otherwise, you're wrong... the current arrangement works for hundreds of people, and we've only seen evidence that it doesn't work for one person.

I stand by my convictions.

you should be thankful for my valuable insights and for trying to make you rich.If you were smart you would take up my offer and use some of the advertising money to buy and then give away free ebook readers in a monthly competition here to members.This would increase your traffic enormously.

I stand by my convictions look upon my convictions ye mighty and despair .


Now getting back on track look at this.IT SEEMS TO BE PROMISING.

at less than a 100$.

It is a wiki reader.check it out.below.

This is more like it:


http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2009/10/13/wikireader-portable-offline-wikipedia-device-launched/

by Darren Allan

Openmoko has announced the US launch of its WikiReader, a portable device which provides offline access to Wikipedia articles.

Priced at $99, WikiReader features a basic monochrome touchscreen display, and three million English language Wikipedia articles stored on a microSD card.

The company plans to offer updated memory cards every quarter, so you can keep up to speed with Wikipedia’s ever-changing landscape. Minus the editing cat-fights, of course. A year’s subscription to the updates will cost $30.

While the display isn’t backlit, the good news is with a low energy consumption it will apparently run for the best part of a year on two AAA batteries.

No word yet on whether it’s due for a UK release.


amazing they can do it and the batteries last a year!!!!

for $99.

Now i wonder if can be used to read txt,html,rtf,etc...

i wonder how big the screen is?

================================================== ========
UPDATE!!!


Here are the pictures:-

http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wikireader-puts-wikipedia-in-your-pocket-13-10-2009/

my comments...my review

oh my god it is so ugly...........so hideous...so awful looking...

the proportions are all wrong!! a horrible square shape.it looks disgusting.

what were they thinking?

it looks so uncool....nobody would want to be seen dead with that...

what brain dead designer thought of that shape...why not rectangular....?

It is unwieldy, uncomfortable to hold,not ergonomic...what i the name of the designer?

so that i can give scold him severely....

designer morons...this is just awful and is destined to fail....


i had such high hopes....


arrrrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

esecallum: Please would you try to make your points in a more courteous manner? There is no need for such an abrasive tone, which merely serves to alienate people.
Also, please refrain from making duplicate posts. We have already had to close one thread and this thread partially duplicates another here:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=624809#post624809
It is quite unnecessary to repeat your views on the wikireader three times in three different places.

We have posting guidelines here:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=624809#post624809
(or click on "Guidelines" on the blue bar at the bottom of this page).
May I suggest that you read them? If you don't care to follow them, then you may be happier somewhere other than this forum.

I admire everyone's patience with this fellow, I really do.

I admire everyone's patience with this fellow, I really do.

We're a patient bunch, but only up to a certain point. Patricia's warning was our last!

We have a tolerant, open and friendly place here, but we won't tolerate abusive language and aggressive behavior!

Exactly...