Nokia N800 Internet Tablet as an e-book reader?

TadW · 01-09-2007, 05:49 AM

Perhaps you've heard of the latest Nokia Internet Tablet device that should come out any time soon. If not, check out the photos over here.

My question to everyone who owns a dedicated e-reader device: would you consider switching back to a "multi-function" device such as the N800 to read your precious e-books? I am asking because I have so many devices to carry around that I would love to reduce the amount to what's really necessary.

nekokami · 01-09-2007, 12:00 PM

If the price of US$399 mentioned on this page turns out to be accurate, I might. It depends on battery life and a few other factors. It's a Linux device, which is a big plus.

Jack B Nimble · 01-09-2007, 02:56 PM

I love the device, and have considered it and the 770 before it. I admit to being rather spoiled now that I have my eBookwise, especially the book selection, so I would have trouble going back to something like that unless it had access to a reader with DRM support (eReader, Mobi, etc.). Still I wouldn't mind consolidating my phone and PDA now that I have a dedicated ebook reader, but again, the N800 only makes calls via WiFi.

Now, Apple's new phone... that might be a nice choice!

Jack

Liviu_5 · 01-09-2007, 07:26 PM

I use Nokia 770 exclusively as an ebook reader (with Fbreader) and I think the 800 version is tilted towards improving the Net experience so it does not tempt me.

I like my Ebk1150 but I really love my Nokia, I take it everywhere with me and the reading experience is really beautiful (as with all software e.g. Adobe, MsLit, uBook, that allows it, I use yellow text on black background).

Fbreader can read unencrypted mobi say from Fictionwise, opf (the output of conversion from MsLit), and txt/rtf/html, lots of character sets, also zipped or tar, though not rar, so using zipped files you increase considerably your storage (have rs-mmc 1Gb, not sure if 2Gb works).

The downsides are navigation which is ok but unpaginated just with an indicator bar, and fragility, so for rereads, short story colections, Eb1150 is better. At home I split my reading between the two, overall I estimate I use Nokia 65%, Ebk 35% for my ereading (hard to count but in 2006 I estimate more than 100 new novels or equivalent in short story colections/magazines and about similar rereads in eform)

pdam · 01-10-2007, 10:22 AM

In answer to your question - yes, if it had a large enough e-ink type screen ...

Laurens · 01-10-2007, 11:21 AM

No, but an internet tablet complements an e-ink reader very well. E-ink for (long) books and the tablet for (short) news.

wallcraft · 01-10-2007, 01:15 PM

I use my Nokia 770 as my primary e-book reader, via the FBReader software. This is missing some features (e.g. bookmarks), but it supports many non-DRM formats and is very customizable. There is no way to read encripted books on the 770 or N800. The sreen size and resolution are what make them outstanding pocket-sized e-book readers. On the other hand battery life is not outstanding, I have not tested it but probably 4 hours without WiFi.

FBReader only runs under Linux, but if you have a Windows PC and want to try it out it is possible to run Linux/FBReader via VMWare (see a post on the FBReader Google Group).

If you want a N800 to replace several devices, make sure first you are OK with the Linux based software it uses. It is very good for web browsing and e-books, not necessarily full featured in other application areas.

mjposner · 01-30-2007, 10:58 PM

I am testing the N800 and one test area was as an ebook reader. FBreader runs fine so far and the screen is very legible. Can also rotate screen as well. I make palm format books from text files and they ran fine on the fbreader. Lately I have become obsessed with reading movie scripts. They are free and fun to me.

jungwolf · 02-14-2007, 01:37 AM

I use my n800 mainly for reading books. The screen is wonderful and is backlit. Great for reading in bed. The battery life is unfortunately short, 4-6 hours. If you are reading indoors you can turn down the display to conserve battery life.

Getting books onto it was a pain at first, but I set up a webserver (abyss, very lightweight) on my main pc and can now browse and download files easily.

On thing lacking on the n800 that I liked better on the 770 is the case. The 770 had a great cover that also automatically activated the sleep mode. The n800 just has a cloth cover; I need to find something soon or the convenient portability factor goes out the window.

If you want a pure ebookreader, I'd probably go with something e-ink. If you want a reader and you like the idea of being able to fiddle with the gadget, you'll love the n800.

Tabster · 02-16-2007, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liviu_5

Fbreader can read unencrypted mobi say from Fictionwise, opf (the output of conversion from MsLit), and txt/rtf/html, lots of character sets, also zipped or tar, though not rar, so using zipped files you increase considerably your storage (have rs-mmc 1Gb, not sure if 2Gb works).

I am looking for a way to read my books from Fictionwise on my N800. (my old Rocket eBook is not too well..)
I have installed FBReader onto the N800 but don't know what format it can use from the available ones from Fictionwise.
What is the "unencrypted mobi" you talk about?

thanks in advance

Azayzel · 02-16-2007, 12:36 PM

Hmm, looks like the screen isn't much larger than the PSP screen. Is that correct (judging from the pics w/ the mini-SD card on the screen)? If that's the case, while being a bit wider than my PDA, not sure if I'd like to read too many books on the go on that small of a screen. Of course I could always use my PSP for this too. ;-P

Tabster · 02-16-2007, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tabster

I am looking for a way to read my books from Fictionwise on my N800. (my old Rocket eBook is not too well..)
I have installed FBReader onto the N800 but don't know what format it can use from the available ones from Fictionwise.
What is the "unencrypted mobi" you talk about?

thanks in advance

I tried many formats from Fictionwise and found that "Palm Doc (PDB)" can be read by FBReader. The formatting is not great but I can read the books

NatCh · 02-16-2007, 01:11 PM

From the FBReader site:

Quote:

Main features:

.....● Supported formats are

..........• fb2 e-book format (style attributes are not supported yet).
..........• HTML format (tables are not supported).
..........• CHM format (tables are not supported).
..........• plucker format (embedded images are supported, tables are not supported).
..........• Palmdoc (aportis doc).
..........• zTxt (Weasel format).
..........• TCR (psion text) format.
..........• RTF format (stylesheets and tables are not supported).
..........• OEB format (css and tables are not supported).
..........• Non-DRM'ed mobipocket format (tables are not supported).
..........• Plain text format.

.....● Direct reading from tar, zip, gzip and bzip2 archives. (Multiple books in one archive are supported.)
.....● Supported encodings: utf-8, us-ascii, windows-1251, windows-1252, koi8-r, ibm866, iso-8859-*, Big5, GBK. Automatic encoding detection is supported.
.....● Automatically generated contents table.
.....● Embedded images support.
.....● Footnotes/hyperlinks support.
.....● Position indicator.
.....● Keeps the last open book and the last read positions for all opened books between runs.
.....● List of last opened books.
.....● Automatic hyphenations. Liang's algorithm is used. The same algorithm is used in TeX, and TeX hyphenation patterns are used in FBReader. Patterns for Czech, English, Esperanto, French, German and Russian are included in the current version.
.....● Text search.
.....● Full-screen mode.
.....● Screen rotation by 90, 180 and 270 degrees.

Hope that helps.

Liviu_5 · 02-16-2007, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tabster

I tried many formats from Fictionwise and found that "Palm Doc (PDB)" can be read by FBReader. The formatting is not great but I can read the books

For Fictionwise multiformat (unencrypted) books you have different choices of how to read them with Fbreader:

- directly: .pdb and .prc work though not always give you good formatting
- indirectly: convert .prc to rtf/html using BookDesigner, or convert .lit to opf/rtf using your favourite tool (Amber, BookDesigner, others...)

Personally I prefer zipped .opf for well designed packages and zipped rtf/html otherwise. I always zip my files or the folder containing them in the case of .opf since for Fbreader it makes no difference in access speed and it saves space on the card.

jriihi · 03-05-2007, 04:43 AM

I am also thinking getting this one since its cheap compared to others (expect maybe sony ereader that I would need to order from USA). I still dont know if it would be right to get less screen space and get more than ebook reader or just go with sony

01-09-2007, 05:49 AM	#1
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,583 Karma: 1094606 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	Nokia N800 Internet Tablet as an e-book reader? Perhaps you've heard of the latest Nokia Internet Tablet device that should come out any time soon. If not, check out the photos over here. My question to everyone who owns a dedicated e-reader device: would you consider switching back to a "multi-function" device such as the N800 to read your precious e-books? I am asking because I have so many devices to carry around that I would love to reduce the amount to what's really necessary.

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01-09-2007, 12:00 PM	#2
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	If the price of US$399 mentioned on this page turns out to be accurate, I might. It depends on battery life and a few other factors. It's a Linux device, which is a big plus.

01-09-2007, 02:56 PM	#3
Jack B Nimble Groupie Posts: 154 Karma: 672 Join Date: Oct 2006 Device: Tapwave Zodiac, eBookwise 1150	I love the device, and have considered it and the 770 before it. I admit to being rather spoiled now that I have my eBookwise, especially the book selection, so I would have trouble going back to something like that unless it had access to a reader with DRM support (eReader, Mobi, etc.). Still I wouldn't mind consolidating my phone and PDA now that I have a dedicated ebook reader, but again, the N800 only makes calls via WiFi. Now, Apple's new phone... that might be a nice choice! Jack

01-09-2007, 07:26 PM	#4
Liviu_5 Books and more books Posts: 917 Karma: 69499 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: White Plains, NY, USA Device: Nook Color, Itouch, Nokia770, Sony 650, Sony 700(dead), Ebk(given)	I use Nokia 770 exclusively as an ebook reader (with Fbreader) and I think the 800 version is tilted towards improving the Net experience so it does not tempt me. I like my Ebk1150 but I really love my Nokia, I take it everywhere with me and the reading experience is really beautiful (as with all software e.g. Adobe, MsLit, uBook, that allows it, I use yellow text on black background). Fbreader can read unencrypted mobi say from Fictionwise, opf (the output of conversion from MsLit), and txt/rtf/html, lots of character sets, also zipped or tar, though not rar, so using zipped files you increase considerably your storage (have rs-mmc 1Gb, not sure if 2Gb works). The downsides are navigation which is ok but unpaginated just with an indicator bar, and fragility, so for rereads, short story colections, Eb1150 is better. At home I split my reading between the two, overall I estimate I use Nokia 65%, Ebk 35% for my ereading (hard to count but in 2006 I estimate more than 100 new novels or equivalent in short story colections/magazines and about similar rereads in eform)

01-10-2007, 10:22 AM	#5
pdam Groupie Posts: 199 Karma: 100 Join Date: Aug 2006 Device: iLiad, iPaq, Psion5&7, Blackberry	In answer to your question - yes, if it had a large enough e-ink type screen ...

01-10-2007, 11:21 AM	#6
Laurens Jah Blessed Posts: 1,295 Karma: 1373 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Netherlands Device: iPod Touch	No, but an internet tablet complements an e-ink reader very well. E-ink for (long) books and the tablet for (short) news.

01-10-2007, 01:15 PM	#7
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,975 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	I use my Nokia 770 as my primary e-book reader, via the FBReader software. This is missing some features (e.g. bookmarks), but it supports many non-DRM formats and is very customizable. There is no way to read encripted books on the 770 or N800. The sreen size and resolution are what make them outstanding pocket-sized e-book readers. On the other hand battery life is not outstanding, I have not tested it but probably 4 hours without WiFi. FBReader only runs under Linux, but if you have a Windows PC and want to try it out it is possible to run Linux/FBReader via VMWare (see a post on the FBReader Google Group). If you want a N800 to replace several devices, make sure first you are OK with the Linux based software it uses. It is very good for web browsing and e-books, not necessarily full featured in other application areas.

01-30-2007, 10:58 PM	#8
mjposner Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Sunny South Florida Device: Kindle 2 and iPhone	I am testing the N800 and one test area was as an ebook reader. FBreader runs fine so far and the screen is very legible. Can also rotate screen as well. I make palm format books from text files and they ran fine on the fbreader. Lately I have become obsessed with reading movie scripts. They are free and fun to me.

02-14-2007, 01:37 AM	#9
jungwolf Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2007 Device: Nokia n800	I use my n800 mainly for reading books. The screen is wonderful and is backlit. Great for reading in bed. The battery life is unfortunately short, 4-6 hours. If you are reading indoors you can turn down the display to conserve battery life. Getting books onto it was a pain at first, but I set up a webserver (abyss, very lightweight) on my main pc and can now browse and download files easily. On thing lacking on the n800 that I liked better on the 770 is the case. The 770 had a great cover that also automatically activated the sleep mode. The n800 just has a cloth cover; I need to find something soon or the convenient portability factor goes out the window. If you want a pure ebookreader, I'd probably go with something e-ink. If you want a reader and you like the idea of being able to fiddle with the gadget, you'll love the n800.

02-16-2007, 12:36 PM	#11
Azayzel Cache Ninja! Posts: 643 Karma: 1002300 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Tokyo, Japan Device: PRS-500, HTC Shift, iPod Touch, iPaq 4150, TC1100, Panasonic WordsGear	Hmm, looks like the screen isn't much larger than the PSP screen. Is that correct (judging from the pics w/ the mini-SD card on the screen)? If that's the case, while being a bit wider than my PDA, not sure if I'd like to read too many books on the go on that small of a screen. Of course I could always use my PSP for this too. ;-P

03-05-2007, 04:43 AM	#15
jriihi Member Posts: 16 Karma: 21 Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Espoo, Finland Device: Sony Reader, Apple iPad	I am also thinking getting this one since its cheap compared to others (expect maybe sony ereader that I would need to order from USA). I still dont know if it would be right to get less screen space and get more than ebook reader or just go with sony

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