01-29-2008, 04:16 PM | #1 |
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Any one handed readers out there?
I've been reading on Palm and Psion devices for about ten years now, but my latest device -- a Palm Tungsten|T3 -- seems to be on its last legs and I've been thinking about a possible replacement. I was hoping to get some ideas from the forum because the big name readers from Sony and Amazon don't seem to fit my use pattern.
I find that although I read lots of CBRs and web content on my laptop and desktop, I never read full length books on either them. I read novels on the Palm instead, usually to fill in little spaces of time. The vast majority of books I read are text or HTML from Project Gutenberg, Black Mask, Baen etc. so being able to see the occasional illustration is nice, but I don't need or want full PDF-style page layout. As far as formats go, I have bought many books from Baen, but I have never paid for any content that is locked to a proprietary or DRM'ed format and likely never will. The following is a list of the features I care about, roughly in descending order of importance: Must have (deal breaker if missing):
Nice to have (things I need to make reading convenient and/or enjoyable):
Regarding layout:
Explicitly don't care: - dictionary - e-ink - on-line stores - wireless capability - annotation, bookmarks or highlighting - publishing meta-data From what I can tell, the Sony isn't for me because you essentially "compile" a book into a PDF-like fixed format. I usually switch the font larger if I'm on the bus and switch it back when I can sit down. The Kindle has multiple sizes of font, but you can't change the typeface. It also seems too big to me. Right now, my Palm falls down on fonts and tables and the screen isn't quite wide enough. I'm willing to consider any device that does what I want; it doesn't need to be specifically an ebook reader. Thanks in advance! Last edited by radius; 01-29-2008 at 04:21 PM. |
01-29-2008, 04:24 PM | #2 |
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The eBookwise 1150 meets all of your requirements and most of your desires. Whether it fits in your pocket depend on the size of your pocket. It is the smallest of the dedicated readers I believe. PDA's are smaller and also meet your requirements but they are more difficult to read on.
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01-29-2008, 04:35 PM | #3 |
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01-29-2008, 04:49 PM | #4 |
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No you dont compile the book into a fixed font size format. You compile the book into a reflowable format. SONY's reader software supports increasing the font size to two levels (+2.5 pts each). The Kindle to six levels.
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01-29-2008, 04:50 PM | #5 |
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why not a smart phone?
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01-29-2008, 04:58 PM | #6 |
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01-29-2008, 05:01 PM | #7 |
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Because Palm keeps disappointing me with the phones they release. I'm waiting for a GSM version of the Palm Centro to make it to Canada... But that would have a slightly small screen for reading and it would still have issues with fonts.
Plucker with Alex Pruss' font generation is mostly a good solution, but I find that Plucker isn't focused enough on longer length texts. I considered a RIM Blackberry Curve running Mobipocket, but the phone plan you have to get with one of those is pretty expensive. Any smartphone in particular that you recommend? |
01-29-2008, 05:05 PM | #8 | |
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Quote:
The Sony's hardware looks pretty sweet to me... |
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01-29-2008, 05:08 PM | #9 |
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You can embed whatever unicode enabled fonts you like, set the base size to whatever size you want, etc. If you want to read primarily non DRM content, the SONY reader is the reader for you. It has the best, cross platform content conversion tools of any reader.
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01-29-2008, 05:10 PM | #10 |
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They were probably referring to making Sony friendly PDF's as opposed to LRF's, both of which the Sony can display.
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01-29-2008, 05:18 PM | #11 | |
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01-29-2008, 05:27 PM | #12 | |
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Quote:
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01-29-2008, 07:04 PM | #13 | |
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01-29-2008, 07:25 PM | #14 |
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I've had a bunch of ereaders. At present I have a Sony Reader and a Nokia n800. I got a Kindle, but hated it and sent it back (should have sold it on eBay). I am finding, rather unexpectedly, that the Nokia is easier to deal with than the Sony. Its positive points: 1. it's backlit, 2. its screen has very high resolution, 3. it's smaller (but not lighter) than the Sony -- which means the print is smaller and it's easier to hold in one hand, 4. it's very easy using Book Designer to create fb2 files for it, 5. it's easier to organize material than the Sony, as you can make your own folders from your PC, 6. it's a lot faster than the Sony at everything (especially turning pages), 7. it has color, which is nice for illustrations. It has Russian built in, but you can't add your own fonts as you can on the Sony. But it's smaller, easier to hold, and you can read it at night. On the other hand, the Sony has larger print for the same material on the screen and may be easier on the eyes. It's all pretty subjective, but I'd suggest you not confine yourself to epaper. A very high res backlit display like the Nokia seems to be as readable as epaper. Note that the successor to the N800 (I forget the model number) is smaller, though the screen is just about as big and is supposed to be readable in sunlight. The n800 does lots of other things -- has a browser, mail, etc. But compared to the iPhone, those features are pretty useless. I only use mine only to read ebooks. One other note: you can buy DRM'ed ebooks, decrypt them with ConvertLit GUI, and then make a FB file for the Nokia with Book Designer. You can also use Book Designer or Kovid's wonderful program libprs500 to make Sony Reader lrf files. This is perfectly legal, I believe, as long as you don't distribute the files.
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01-29-2008, 08:02 PM | #15 |
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The N800/N810 is a good choice. Note that it runs FBReader, which also reads Plucker and DRM-free MobiPocket e-books. So most of your existing files will work as is.
You can try out FBReader on any Desktop computer. There is also a two part screenshot tutorial made on a Nokia 770 (essentially identical to N800 for e-books): Part I and Part II. Click on any of the images to get a full sized version (which will be bigger on your screen than on the Nokia). FBReader is highly customizable, but this has the downside that you will probably have to customize it because the defaults are often not what you want. From your list, FBReader does not handle tables and you can't edit e-books within FBReader. The Nokia's come with about 10 fonts. I have never added any new ones, but apparently all you need to do (as usual with Linux) is copy a .ttf font file to ~/.fonts. |
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