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Old 04-16-2007, 04:51 AM   #1
moriakaice
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What should I get?

Hi! I've been reading MobileRead for couple of days... But delayed registration till now. Anyway, to the topic...

I really love the e-Ink technology, but ATM I'm only reading e-Books on my PC. The LCD screen doesn't hurt your eyes that much, but it's still not mobile, which is my biggest problem. Therefore I'd like to ask you - with which e-Book device should I start? I liked the description of eBookWise 1150, but it's only for sale in USA and Canada (and I live in Poland - God, why it's like it's 3rd World country? :/), so it's unavailable for me
Then, I've seen some of you recommend Tungsten T3 palm... Or Cassiopeia A-20 in case of kacir... I'd like to ask if it's hard or not to read on Palm? I'm probably going to read mostly during my travel to the university (which takes me about 1 hour).

Oh, and the second problem (aprat from the shipping one) - the price. I'd like something up to 150$ (not everyone is rich enough to afford iRex :P) - it can be used device... + I don't want to be forced to pay another 150$ for shipping costs :P

So, what should I get?
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Old 04-17-2007, 03:57 PM   #2
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moriakaice, first of all welcome on board! Most of us started reading e-books on a PDA. I read my first e-books on a classic green-monochrome Palm Vx. So given your current budget, I think you'd be happy with a (used) Tungsten T3 or any other PDA that has at least a resolution of 320x320. I wouldn't go for a Pocket PC unless it offers VGA resolution.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by moriakaice
Hi! I've been reading MobileRead for couple of days... But delayed registration till now. Anyway, to the topic...

I really love the e-Ink technology, but ATM I'm only reading e-Books on my PC. The LCD screen doesn't hurt your eyes that much, but it's still not mobile, which is my biggest problem. Therefore I'd like to ask you - with which e-Book device should I start? I liked the description of eBookWise 1150, but it's only for sale in USA and Canada (and I live in Poland - God, why it's like it's 3rd World country? :/), so it's unavailable for me
Then, I've seen some of you recommend Tungsten T3 palm... Or Cassiopeia A-20 in case of kacir... I'd like to ask if it's hard or not to read on Palm? I'm probably going to read mostly during my travel to the university (which takes me about 1 hour).

Oh, and the second problem (aprat from the shipping one) - the price. I'd like something up to 150$ (not everyone is rich enough to afford iRex :P) - it can be used device... + I don't want to be forced to pay another 150$ for shipping costs :P

So, what should I get?
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Old 04-17-2007, 05:20 PM   #3
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moriakaice,

I just got a Sony Reader and I'm crazy about it but I still read at night in bed (wife = lights out) on my Palm T|X. Reading with a backlight doesn't bother me at all, especially with the adjustable colors on most Palm reader apps. At $300 sticker, the T|X is expensive but I'm sure you can find used Palms for less. Just stick with Alexander's advice and get 320x320 (or 320x480, just avoid 160x160) resolution.

My experience with Lithium Ion batteries hasn't been great and I think every Palm with a 320x320 screen has a Lithium Ion battery. The battery life rolls off substantially after a year or two. So a used Palm you may not get much battery life, maybe an hour or two. If you can find one of the older Palms they allow you to turn the backlight off in strong light, which saves a lot of battery.
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Old 04-21-2007, 08:35 AM   #4
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Thanks for reply, both of you.

@Alex:
Thanks for welcome. I was looking for T3 on Allegro, yet the only auction I've found was featuring T3 with TomTom navigation (and I don't need no stupid navi in eBook reading device!), that was going for ~260$. No way. I've also found some auctions selling Tungsten T/E/E2 - how those compare to T3?

@KDawg:
Congrats on getting Sony Reader =] When you find out that it sucks (and we all know it does), you may send it to me :P OK, just kidding. I've seen Tungsten TX (new one) on eBay for 230$... But that's a bit too much for me... And I couldn't find used TX's for much less...

As for battery, it's not that expensive to buy a new one if it'll lasts for two years or something like that.

What about Nokia smartphones, especially 9x00 series? I've seen 9300, while it's not the biggest one, it has nice wide screen. How's that for eBook reading? And what about battery life - is it short when reading for a longer time?

I've also wondered about where is a good place to buy eBook device. I've got a friend whose girlfriend is living in Portugal (and he's probably moving there next year) - so, can I get electronics there cheaper? Or maybe UK (I'm considering going for a month for a work there during my summer vacations - so I'll have a chance to buy something nice)?

How about language support? We've got a lot of 'funny' characters in Polish... Are Palms capable of displaying those?
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Old 04-21-2007, 09:47 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by moriakaice
Thanks for welcome. I was looking for T3 on Allegro, yet the only auction I've found was featuring T3 with TomTom navigation (and I don't need no stupid navi in eBook reading device!), that was going for ~260$. No way. I've also found some auctions selling Tungsten T/E/E2 - how those compare to T3?
The TE & E2 have a smaller screen than the T3 (the graffiti area is real rather than virtual like it is on the T3). Other than that, I think the screens are about the same.

If you're in the UK this summer, you may be in luck -- we're hearing some rumors about a June UK release for the Sony, but we're not much to support that so far.
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Old 04-21-2007, 01:00 PM   #6
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At your price point, an eBookWise 1150 may be your best bet - even it is isn't officially available outside North America. I used to have one and was very happy with it for the price. I now use a Nokia 770, which I highly recommend but even though these are now only $275 new I think used prices are still higher than you want to pay (worth looking into though). Note that on the Nokia you can't read DRM-ed books at all, but the 800x480 screen is awsome.

One thing you could try is asking on the Legacy E-Book Devices forum if anyone outside North America has experience with the EBW1150 (or similar alternatives) and can tell you if using it in Poland is viable or not.
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Old 04-21-2007, 01:09 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by moriakaice
(and I live in Poland - God, why it's like it's 3rd World country? :/),
I live just acros the border so I do understand your financial limitations and your frustration with the "USA only" policy for selling Readers (and "Japan only" policy for Librie ;-) ). I have asked a friend that was returning from a visit to USA to bring Sony Reader for me.
This is THE cheapest way to get the Reader. You do not pay the shipping or our crazy European customs. It was still very expensive for me, at $390, yet it is worth every Zloty ;-) .
It is realy, realy superior device if you want to use it for reading books.
There are people that want to use it to read A4 formated pdf files, user manuals, html hyperlinked files, or to carry their entire collection of many thousand books around. For those people Sony Reader is less than ideal. But for reading fiction one (or a very few) book at the time it is just PERFECT.

Quote:
Originally Posted by moriakaice
Oh, and the second problem (aprat from the shipping one) - the price. I'd like something up to 150$ (not everyone is rich enough to afford iRex :P) - it can be used device... + I don't want to be forced to pay another 150$ for shipping costs :P
So, what should I get?
If you wish to get the cheapest possible device that still works as a very decent book reader look for a second-hand Cassiopeia A-20.
I got mine on an internet auction for about $50
- the "good old-fashioned" grey LCD display is big enough
- it can hold a CF card plus an PCMCIA card. So you just purchase PCMCIA reader for CF card, then you purchase an adapter SD -> CF and you can carry quite a lot of books.
- as a book-reader SW I have been using the built-in Word. If you create an rtf file with font Arial Bold 12 it is just perfect for reading.

The only thing that is less-than-ideal on Cassiopeia A-20 or even Cassiopeia A-20 is the relatively poor contrast of the screen.
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Old 04-21-2007, 05:52 PM   #8
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ebookwise is a smart choice if you can't spring for a sony reader

palm is good but not good on the eyes

phones break down and the one you love may not work with your plan or they may charge more to support it

small phones mean small screens
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Old 04-22-2007, 03:22 AM   #9
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WoW, more replies! Thanks everyone!

@NatCh:
So, it's not that big difference, I'd just have to scroll more often, right? And what's that funny area under the screen in Tungstens Ex? Is it something like touchpad in laptops?

And Sony... Even if I manage to see it live, I won't probably be able to afford it =] But hey, trying it in shop isn't that bad :P I'll have to have someone with my Fuji to take photos of me owning e-Ink reader :P

@wallcraft:
Well, I was looking at eBookWise, since it was in my price range... Anyone knows why they don't sell them outside US & Canada?

And how long can you read on your Nokia 770? It's got quite bad reviews, according to Wikipedia. What's your opinion? It's about 100$ cheaper than N800, which is 770's successor (and is said to address issues in 770).

@kacir:
Which border? East or west (because those are two different worlds I'd say). If you're living in Germany, you still probably have more access to modern technologies than we here.

And if Sony was priced at 390 zl (Zloty) instead of $... I'd get it probably :P Unfortunately, it's about 3 zl == 1$... Which isn't good ratio for me :/

And, you know, most PDFs are A4 formatted. But, in the worst case, I'd just convert them to RTFs or something like that.

I've seen only one Cassiopeia (that's a hard name!) A20 on auction, but for 300 Zlotys - that's a bit too much for an used old Palm I think. I've seen iPAQ COMPAQ on auctions for about 118$ (that's iPAQ 3835) - worth the price? Or for 72$ iPAQ 3870 (but it's looking like really hard used :/). For 22$ I can get Palm Vx (but it's 160x160, and without charger). For about 72$ there is Sony CLIE PEG-N610 (it's 320x320, 64K colors, TFT screen). Cassiopeia E-125 is going for 110$... There are also some HP Jornada palms going around for various prices... God, there are too many of them for me to choose from :/ Help me, please!

@UncleDuke
eBookWise may be a smart choice, yet I've got those problems I've talked about (I'm not sure about Polish font support and it's said to be illegal to ship it outside North America).

How bad for eyes are palms? Is it only because the font is kind small/the screen is small? Or anything else I should be aware of?
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Old 04-22-2007, 09:34 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by moriakaice
@NatCh:
So, it's not that big difference, I'd just have to scroll more often, right? And what's that funny area under the screen in Tungstens Ex? Is it something like touchpad in laptops?
That's the 'graffiti area,' where you enter text and numbers with the stylus (it uses Palm's graffiti text recognition).
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Old 04-22-2007, 03:04 PM   #11
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And how long can you read on your Nokia 770? It's got quite bad reviews, according to Wikipedia. What's your opinion? It's about 100$ cheaper than N800, which is 770's successor (and is said to address issues in 770).
With WiFi off, the battery lasts at least 4 hours with relatively high screen brightness. The 770 got bad reviews in part because the reviewers did not understand the device. It isn't a PDA, but instead is primarily for Mobile Internet access (via a WiFi hot spot or via your internet-capable cell phone). The newer N800 is better at Internet access (e.g. a newer version of the Opera web browser) and generally more capable, but the Nokia 770 was already a "good enough" Internet Tablet and is very solidly made (so I think it is likely to be in good condition if bought used). For reading e-books, the 770 is probably better than the N800 because its keys are better placed for use while reading. The difference is small, and FBReader works well on both devices. For reviews, I suggest you look at amazon.com where it gets 4.5 stars. This only means that people who bought the 770 were happy with it - and I guess these are mostly tech. savey and understood what they were buying. The 770/N800 has a very enthusiastic user community, see Internet Tablet Talk for everything you might want to know about these devices.
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