Quote:
Originally Posted by bodryn
Hi - I'm a long term user of my own kind of ebook reader. I bought a TRGpro in 2001 which is based on the Palm IIIx but with a CF card in the back which serves not only as a total backup medium but also can hold lots of full size novels. Over time I have found it to be a very good ebook reader.  It runs on AAA batteries I can get anywhere, and with a 2GB CF card in the back, I can have immediate access to some 100 or so ebooks I have downloaded free, mostly from Gutenberg and Black Mask - not too long ago I read two novels by Joseph Conrad which I had earlier found too difficult to understand. The fact that I always have books in my pocket to read means they are likely to get read whenever I have some spare time.
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I would like to find someplace not too far away that I can look at one and maybe buy one. It would be nice to buy one that used alkaline batteries. Rechargeable batteries seems to me to be just a ruse to keep getting money out of customers - what do you do when the rechargeable battery wears out and you can't get a replacement? That's why I'm still using the TRGpro after so long. I take good care of it, and all I have to do is replace batteries; I can even use rechargeable AAAs if I prefer. |
Hi, Bodryn.
Welcome to MobileRead. I see you made a similar post over on 1src.
My device is a Tapwave Zodiac 2, which is also a Palm OS PDA. It's a color device with a 320x480 screen, 128MB of RAM, and two SD card slots, each with a 2GB card.
I have about 3,200 books on the Zodiac. Most are in HTML format, converted to the format used by the Plucker offline HTML viewer for Palm OS, but I have stuff in PalmReader, PDF, plain text, and MobiPocket format as well.
The Zodiac is a LiON battery unit, as are most things these days. I don't believe you'll find a reader that uses AA or AAA batteries. The Zodiac recharges through a cable, with a charger plugged into an outlet, but it can also take a charge (though more slowly) from a USB sync cable. Having to migrate to a LiON device that required recharging when my old Handsrping Visor Deluxe bit teh dust was a bother, but I got used to it soon enough. I top my device off each night, and I seldom see it drop below 80% in normal usage.
I get a lot of stuff from PG, converting from their HTML editions, and have accumulated a fair bit from Blackmask as well. (Blackmask was off the air for a bit, but is back as Munseys.com with a different site design but largely the same content.) Plucker can also be used to "pluck" websites for download and offline reading.
I prefer my PDA for ebooks, because I want a device that does other things besides view books, so while I'm watching the progress of the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle with interest, I'm not a likely buyer..
I've been in Fargo, though not in many years. You would think
someone would have a reader you could see and tough before purchase. You might see if the university book stores can assist.
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Dennis