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Old 05-21-2007, 03:26 AM   #1
noneother
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Need a reader that does these things:

Hi guys I just want an e-ink reader that can:

- read PDFs straight away after transferring into the player without having to convert it
- be able to zoom in and out of PDFs
- option to recharge via USB
- expandable memory

Thanks for your suggestions guys
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Old 05-21-2007, 08:32 AM   #2
NatCh
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Welcome to MobileRead, noneother!

Unfortunately, there are only a few e-ink readers out so far, and none of them has the feature set you're asking for.

As far as I know the only one that recharges via USB is the Sony Reader, and while it does read PDF's without conversion, it displays each page as a screen which makes them hard to read unless the PDF files' pages are the same size as the Reader's display. It doesn't really zoom in PDFs, just kinda crops the margins. You're really unlikely to be satisfied with it for PDF viewing, of A4 (letter) sized PDFs.

Pretty much all of them offer some sort of memory card slot, if you consider that to be expandable memory, you're probably okay there.

The iLiad offers PDF zooming, but I don't believe it recharges via USB.

Of the others that are out, the STAReReader handles only its own format. The Jinke devices handle PDFs but I don't know about any zooming or USB charging.

The rest aren't out yet, so we can't really be sure of exactly what they will or won't do.

Sadly, even after 15~20 years of e-reading devices, the tech is still pretty immature, but it does seem to finally be approaching a turning point, thanks largely to the advent of e-ink. Further, there are other devices on the way, so it's reasonable to expect the options to grow going forward.

Part of the problem you're running into is that PDF is really meant to make documents portable electronically, not readable electronically (after all, it's Portable Document Format, not Readable Document Format ). It's specifically meant to hold formatting static so that I can send a doc to you, and it'll print exactly the same for you, as it does for me.

It's only the success of Adobe's strategy of giving away the Adobe Reader software that has made PDF so ubiquitous. The fact that everyone uses PDFs for lots of stuff, and the unfortunate fact that they named the Reader software what they did, has led everyone to think of it as a reading format.

Personally, I have better hopes for the Digital Editions product that Adobe has in beta right now (What a concept -- actually testing your product in beta rather than selling it! Ever think of trying that approach, Microsoft?). D.E. looks pretty promising at the moment, as it allows for files to be freely re-flowed to fit whatever screen size they're displayed on. The fact that it's Adobe will go a long way towards it being generally accepted.

Anyway, welcome, as I said, and hang around, if such a device as you're looking for does pop up, you'll hear about it around here very quickly, if not first.
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Old 05-25-2007, 08:22 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by NatCh
Personally, I have better hopes for the Digital Editions product that Adobe has in beta right now (What a concept -- actually testing your product in beta rather than selling it! Ever think of trying that approach, Microsoft?). D.E. looks pretty promising at the moment, as it allows for files to be freely re-flowed to fit whatever screen size they're displayed on.
That's pretty awesome. Any time frame on that?
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Old 05-25-2007, 10:12 PM   #4
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They're somewhere in beta releases at the moment, but I don't remember if I've heard a time frame on full release or not ... anyone else know of one?
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