I am looking for an ebook reader that will meet my needs
:
- small, handy, lightweight
- less straining for the eyes than computer/lcd screen
- budget 300 euros
- must be able to display emagazines (linux magazine and php architect for example) and ict books (o'reilly, apres, php architect, wrox).
I have several questions : hardware (which device is best suited for my needs) and software (converters to ebook friendly formats).
I've uploaded (temporarily) 2 ebooks for testing purposes:
http://www.johan-mares.be/bebook/phpa_09-2005.pdf if you could test pages 19 (graphic with text, bottom of page) and 20 (plain text and colored code on light colored background).
http://www.johan-mares.be/bebook/mys...rpt-5.1-en.pdf, if this text is readable, my other ict books will be too
If you test them, please mention the ebook reader and zoom level you've used.
I live in Europe so don't suggest the kindle or sony ebook readers. Given my budget I've found 3 candidates:
- asus eee pc notebook: I don't want another pc, I already have a dual boot desktop, a desktop used as xenserver hypervisor and a macbook. Heavy. No less eye strain (
).
- iPod Touch: very nice gadget
, lots of feautures, maybe good for reading half an hour but not for hours (eye strain), battery life.
- BeBook or Hanlin v3: looks very good
, good battery life, looks like it can handle o'reilly ict books (http://pookey.co.uk/blog/archives/61-BeBook-review.html), but from reactions so far I think I can forget reading emagazines. Ofcourse the emagazines are the most demanding ebooks that I have (I've got lots of other ebooks), but if I can't read those magazines on it, it becomes a lot less useful for me.
- Any suggestions ? If some of you have other ebook readers like the iliad, could you test the phpa_09-2005.pdf ?
Software. It looks like chm files are a real pain in the ass on ebooks. I found that I can use iCHM (on Mac) to convert chm books to pdf (a bit smaller fontsize, but if the mysql-linuxunix-excerpt-5.1-en.pdf is readible, than the converted chm ebooks will be too).
Does anyone have any experience with ABC Amber Conversion software ? Links for
CHM and for
PDF. Apparently you can even convert to fb2 and rtf. Can fb2 and rtf display images ?
Any other conversion software available ? Maybe to convert pdf emagazines to something more readible on reader ?
It is ofcourse possible that I will have to wait till the technology matures. It's better to be safe than sorry. Better to be disappointed before I spent my money.
Thanx,
Johan