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Originally Posted by Gregg Bell
Hey Dennis, Thanks for all the great info. To answer your other post I use Xubuntu for the distros.
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I thought that might be the case. I have Xubuntu on the desktop, multibooting with Windows, and Ubuntu using Lxde instead of XFCE4 on an ancient notebook
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Can I use FBReader if I don't have an Android? FBReader sounds really fantastic.
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Reread what I said. FBReader comes in two basic versions, One is written in C, and is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS/X. (I have it up under Windows and Linux here.)
Another is a rewrite in Java, and the Java version is what runs on android.
See
http://fbreader.org.
It's in the Ubuntu repository. Apt-get is your friend.
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There is a MicroCenter about 50 miles from my apartment. I've heard nothing but great things about them but haven't gotten out there yet.
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They have a reputation for price and service. They fill the same niche as the late Computerland before it's brick and mortar business imploded and it became online only.
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Your comparison of tablet vs. ereader was helpful. (And I never thought of wanting to not have online capability). I wouldn't need a tablet, but I suppose if I could get it inexpensively I would't turn it down either.
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eReader users want online capability. The Amazon Kindle's Whispernet is a feature, because it means they can browse Amazon, select a book, buy it and download it for immediate reading at any hour of the day or night. The Nook has Wifi for similar reasons. What the dedicated reader fans
don't want is the distraction of all the
other things you can do online, like Facebook or YouTube.
eReaders and tablets share similar form factors. What varies is the use to which they will be put.
The Amazon Kindle and the Nook are both Android devices. But Android was designed so that device makers could create Android builds with only what their device required included. For instance, Android supports Bluetooth and GPSes, but my tablet doesn't have that hardware, so the build of Android it uses omits those modules. The Kindle and Nook are delivered locked down with custom user interfaces optimized for the purpose of buying and reading eBooks. But they can be rooted to unlock them.
People were buying Nook Tablets to root them, and get a cheap Android tablet. People were doing the same thing with the Kindle Fire for the same reason. I advised spending $50 more and getting to Nook Tablet over the Fire. The specs were a lot better, and the user would be happier with the end result,
(One thing I downloaded and installed on my tablet was a widget to toggle Wifi on and off. Screen brightness and wifi are the biggest power drains, so the screen is dialed back to about 1/4 of full brightness, which I find quite readable, and I turn wifi off when I don't specifically need to connect.)
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Oh, and I got the Kingston usb drive today. I don't know. It looked kind of crappy. lol
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All you care about is that it works.
A friend is doing some volunteer tech work for the USS Constellation, which is now a maritime museum. He's been working on things like interactive displays. His boss bought a batch of Hannah Montana branded thumbdrives for use in the displays. He apparently got them cheap as a closeout deal. My friend does
not keep current on pop culture, and had to Google to find out who Hannah Montana was. But the drives would be buried in the displays with a packaging not visible, so the provenance didn't matter.
The last I knew, the drives worked fine.
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Dennis