MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Throwing in another eReader alternative into the pot ...

redbaron101 · 02-18-2008, 06:59 PM

Has anyone considered the iPod Touch / iPhone as an alternative? (The iPhone is basically an ipod Touch with a phone built in). I have spent days trying to find my dream reader, Illiad came up tops but the price / startup times have steered me away, Hanlins intrested me, but theres not a lot of enthusiam for the device considering it looks good when you look at it specs/cost. Being in uk, eReaders are really hard to buy, only one or two places online that will deliver, and only a limited range. I never even considered iPods. Best of all - you can buy them anywhere!!

I managed to get my hands on one for mp3 playing, I soon grew very tired of Apples iTunes rubbish, and i think it took all of three days of the iPod Touch being in my posession before I decided to 'tweak' it, to allow third party apps to run and full customisation (its called jailbreaking the iPod). I have done it countless times now and settled on firmware 1.1.2 (having played with 1.1.1, 1.1.2 & 1.1.3) - it kicks total ass for a portable eReader!!

I currently use a Books apps to read html, txt ebooks, a pdf/cbr viewer to read comics. Still some works needs to be done on the pdf software and I'm still looking for a mobi/lit reader though. Best of all it plays mp4 video and mp3 songs, picture viewer, calender, contacts etc and runs apps like my trusty palm - can even browse the net (wifi)! Anyone familiar with linux/unix will love this device, has a bsd unix style subsystem. The touchscreen is optimised for finger control (good news to all big fingered guys like me!), it has some gyro gizmo built in - some games you have to actually tilt the ipod to play them! And reading books on it is an absolute delight.

Most apps on this device use a stroking movement to scroll up/down, and moving two fingers apart to zoom out or moving them together to zoom in. Hats of to Apple for the HUI aspect of the ipods design. Size wise the iPods come in 8/16/32 GB, yes Gb, so I think even with a 8gb device Im still very happy with storage. I think I might wait for the eReader market to mature a lot more before I invest in a dedicated eReader.

My current needs are exceeded in this small device, don't get me wrong there are a number of small niggles, the main cons for most I would assume is the small size (compared to eReaders), and the of the infancy of GPL/open source software for the iPods, although this appears to be growing very rapidly (despite Apples reluctance to release a public SDK which they hinted at ages ago).

Anyone else care to comment?

02-18-2008, 06:59 PM	#1
redbaron101 Zealot Posts: 121 Karma: 24 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: uk Device: palm t3, iphone, bebook (hanlin v3 clone)	Throwing in another eReader alternative into the pot ... Has anyone considered the iPod Touch / iPhone as an alternative? (The iPhone is basically an ipod Touch with a phone built in). I have spent days trying to find my dream reader, Illiad came up tops but the price / startup times have steered me away, Hanlins intrested me, but theres not a lot of enthusiam for the device considering it looks good when you look at it specs/cost. Being in uk, eReaders are really hard to buy, only one or two places online that will deliver, and only a limited range. I never even considered iPods. Best of all - you can buy them anywhere!! I managed to get my hands on one for mp3 playing, I soon grew very tired of Apples iTunes rubbish, and i think it took all of three days of the iPod Touch being in my posession before I decided to 'tweak' it, to allow third party apps to run and full customisation (its called jailbreaking the iPod). I have done it countless times now and settled on firmware 1.1.2 (having played with 1.1.1, 1.1.2 & 1.1.3) - it kicks total ass for a portable eReader!! I currently use a Books apps to read html, txt ebooks, a pdf/cbr viewer to read comics. Still some works needs to be done on the pdf software and I'm still looking for a mobi/lit reader though. Best of all it plays mp4 video and mp3 songs, picture viewer, calender, contacts etc and runs apps like my trusty palm - can even browse the net (wifi)! Anyone familiar with linux/unix will love this device, has a bsd unix style subsystem. The touchscreen is optimised for finger control (good news to all big fingered guys like me!), it has some gyro gizmo built in - some games you have to actually tilt the ipod to play them! And reading books on it is an absolute delight. Most apps on this device use a stroking movement to scroll up/down, and moving two fingers apart to zoom out or moving them together to zoom in. Hats of to Apple for the HUI aspect of the ipods design. Size wise the iPods come in 8/16/32 GB, yes Gb, so I think even with a 8gb device Im still very happy with storage. I think I might wait for the eReader market to mature a lot more before I invest in a dedicated eReader. My current needs are exceeded in this small device, don't get me wrong there are a number of small niggles, the main cons for most I would assume is the small size (compared to eReaders), and the of the infancy of GPL/open source software for the iPods, although this appears to be growing very rapidly (despite Apples reluctance to release a public SDK which they hinted at ages ago). Anyone else care to comment?