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ilovejedd · 03-03-2012, 02:07 PM

As others have mentioned, lots of nitpicking in that YouTube review. I found the default font used in the iRiver to be pretty nice and blocky unlike the defaults on the Sony PRS-x50 (those really needed changing) so I'm not bothered by the lack of font face options. The page numbering used on the side is based on ADE page numbering that's why it was jumping around and it's not even present in the new firmware now. However, the device is overly simplistic and that's not just with reference to the lack of audio and social media stuff (which I don't care about).

There's no support for user collections and the default Collection View is useless for large libraries (particularly since you can add up to 32GB storage). Thankfully, it does support Folder View so this is probably what you would end up using if you've got more than just a handful of books.

Given the presence of wi-fi, it's also a bit annoying that the device doesn't have even a user accessible web browser or an OPDS client for downloading books from the web. The web browser is limited to the Google Books mobile webpage (which is, unfortunately, optimized for devices with tiny screens such as smartphones). Thank goodness for frostschutz' mods. Haven't really noticed ghosting from my unit aside from the ones caused by the progress bar at the bottom so this might have been fixed by a firmware update or just something funky going on with his particular unit (there are slight variations on e-ink screens regardless of manufacturer).

At $49, though, you can pretty much ignore all the faults and complaints against the iRiver Story HD. It's a good epub reader, a pretty decent PDF reader and the resolution is excellent for its size. Text is very crisp. Letter-sized PDF documents and comics are readable without the constant need for zooming despite the small screen size. Really, at the current price at Target, it's a huge bargain. Well worth it if someone just wants a basic ebook reader. It gets even better if you install frostshutz's mods (particularly the Web Portal mod).

03-03-2012, 02:07 PM	#43
ilovejedd hopeless n00b Posts: 5,111 Karma: 19597086 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: in the middle of nowhere Device: PW4, PW3, Libra H2O, iPad 10.5, iPad 11, iPad 12.9	As others have mentioned, lots of nitpicking in that YouTube review. I found the default font used in the iRiver to be pretty nice and blocky unlike the defaults on the Sony PRS-x50 (those really needed changing) so I'm not bothered by the lack of font face options. The page numbering used on the side is based on ADE page numbering that's why it was jumping around and it's not even present in the new firmware now. However, the device is overly simplistic and that's not just with reference to the lack of audio and social media stuff (which I don't care about). There's no support for user collections and the default Collection View is useless for large libraries (particularly since you can add up to 32GB storage). Thankfully, it does support Folder View so this is probably what you would end up using if you've got more than just a handful of books. Given the presence of wi-fi, it's also a bit annoying that the device doesn't have even a user accessible web browser or an OPDS client for downloading books from the web. The web browser is limited to the Google Books mobile webpage (which is, unfortunately, optimized for devices with tiny screens such as smartphones). Thank goodness for frostschutz' mods. Haven't really noticed ghosting from my unit aside from the ones caused by the progress bar at the bottom so this might have been fixed by a firmware update or just something funky going on with his particular unit (there are slight variations on e-ink screens regardless of manufacturer). At $49, though, you can pretty much ignore all the faults and complaints against the iRiver Story HD. It's a good epub reader, a pretty decent PDF reader and the resolution is excellent for its size. Text is very crisp. Letter-sized PDF documents and comics are readable without the constant need for zooming despite the small screen size. Really, at the current price at Target, it's a huge bargain. Well worth it if someone just wants a basic ebook reader. It gets even better if you install frostshutz's mods (particularly the Web Portal mod).