Turn Your Netbook into a Feature-Rich E-Book Reader

[Madam Broshkina]

Via Lifehacker.com

E-book readers are popular for reading digital books, but they've got their limitations. If you have a netbook, you already have a powerful and virtually unrestricted portable e-book reader on your hands. You just need to know how to set it up.

Read the article here:

http://lifehacker.com/5468581/turn-y...-e+book-reader

[desertgrandma]

Outstanding.........karma to you for this!

[Terisa de morgan]

Thank you but no for me. I've all the applications they say at my netbook (and some others), but no reading for me. I can read at a Palm or an iPhone, but not at a netbook, and turning it isn't the trick.

[Madam Broshkina]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Thank you but no for me. I've all the applications they say at my netbook (and some others), but no reading for me. I can read at a Palm or an iPhone, but not at a netbook, and turning it isn't the trick.

I agree I could never see reading on a netbook sideways or not.

[phenomshel]

I *could* read on mine, but always wanted something with a tablet form factor. The Asus T91MT gives me what I feel is the best of both worlds. The power of the netbook and the compatibility to read all formats, but the tablet form factor of a dedicated reading device. The battery life isnt' two weeks, but I get about 10 hours out of Li'l Bit and that's plenty for me.

[jswinden]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

I *could* read on mine, but always wanted something with a tablet form factor. The Asus T91MT gives me what I feel is the best of both worlds. The power of the netbook and the compatibility to read all formats, but the tablet form factor of a dedicated reading device. The battery life isnt' two weeks, but I get about 10 hours out of Li'l Bit and that's plenty for me.

I just got an Asus T91MT this week. I swapped out the 1GB of RAM for 2GB and uninstalled a lot of the OEM software from Asus to make it run faster. I am using it as my primary eBook reader and it rocks! A bit heavy at 2.1 lbs, but having a backlight, a very responsive touch screen, and a truly open device that also is a fully functional tablet computer (with built-in keyboard) is great. I still have my Sony PRS-300 and iPod touch for portable use, but nothing compares to the Asus T91MT, especially when reading PDFs. I'm currently running MobiPocket reader (my favorite), Kindle for PC (okay but lackluster), and FBReader (good for ePubs). I tried out the B&N PC software but it sucks worse than the Sony Reader Library, neither of which are very customizable.

For those who don't know about the Asus T91MT , it is a 8.9 inch netbook with a touch screen. But rather than being the tradition clamshell-only design used in most netbooks and laptops, the screen can be rotated around and collapsed backwards onto the keyboard to create a tablet notebook. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium. I wouldn't try to use it as my main PC, but as a eBook reader it has more than enough power, speed, and flexibility. Plus it runs any software written for Windows. I got mine from Amazon for less than $500.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I just got an Asus T91MT this week. I swapped out the 1GB of RAM for 2GB and uninstalled a lot of the OEM software from Asus to make it run faster. I am using it as my primary eBook reader and it rocks! A bit heavy at 2.1 lbs, but having a backlight, a very responsive touch screen, and a truly open device that also is a fully functional tablet computer (with built-in keyboard) is great. I still have my Sony PRS-300 and iPod touch for portable use, but nothing compares to the Asus T91MT, especially when reading PDFs. I'm currently running MobiPocket reader (my favorite), Kindle for PC (okay but lackluster), and FBReader (good for ePubs). I tried out the B&N PC software but it sucks worse than the Sony Reader Library, neither of which are very customizable.

For those who don't know about the Asus T91MT , it is a 8.9 inch netbook with a touch screen. But rather than being the tradition clamshell-only design used in most netbooks and laptops, the screen can be rotated around and collapsed backwards onto the keyboard to create a tablet notebook. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium. I wouldn't try to use it as my main PC, but as a eBook reader it has more than enough power, speed, and flexibility. Plus it runs any software written for Windows. I got mine from Amazon for less than $500.

Since I'm still using my desktop for buying and deDRM'ing purchases, and I intend to keep doing that, I just put two gigs of RAM in mine, uninstalled unnecessary software, and installed Calibre as an all purpose reader. I keep my books on SDHC cards. Once I figured out (duhhhh) that you can open a file with Calibre's ebook viewer rather than having to add the book to Calibre (which means copying it to Calibre's library on the hard drive) and THEN open it; this system works great for me. I got mine at Tiger Direct for less than $500, too.