I only just noticed this thread, so I guess it's basically dead, but I just wanted to say that the Haali Reader and BookDesigner software are basically the reasons I have adopted FB2 as my primary reader format.
Prior to getting an eInk device, I used an Acer n10 PDA running Windows Mobile 2003. I installed the CE version of Haali Reader on that and it was absolutely fantastic. Beat the pants off of Microsoft Reader and MobiReader for Windows Mobile devices. Download page here:
http://haali.cs.msu.ru/pocketpc/
With MS Reader I was constantly getting crashes whilst reading, especially if I wanted to jump back to something I had read earlier. It seems the processing overhead for the poor little ol' MS software was not up to the task - even on a mobile device built for their mobile OS! MobiReader just looked godawful as far as displaying books for reading goes. I guess I could have persevered and tried to adjust the Mobi Reader more, but why bother when FB2 on the Haali Reader was awesome!
And how's this for standardisation - basically the same reader with the same GUI and config options was available for PC (different installer, of course). I used to use Haali on the PC and PPC with FB2 format books.
The Reader has a huge set of options, and you can add your own TT fonts to the PPC and these are then selectable by the reader. You could adjust the display colour schemes, the kind of status information shown when reading, the formatting and hyphenation. You could add bookmarks and there is even a dictionary support function that I never bothered with.
What I liked was the easy to use and edit XML based format, the tools around for converting to/from FB2 (Any2FB2 and BookDesigner, just to name two of the most popular). And so many readers can handle the FB2 format - the FBReader is probably the most universal port, Stanza on the Mac can read it, the Haali Reader on Windows and Windows PPC platforms.
The one disadvantage of FB2 is awareness, or lack of. I came across FB2 because I bought the Acer n10 primarily as a reader in 2004 and was so diappointed with MS Reader and Mobi reader. I searched around for eBook readers and tools and stumbled across the Russian pages. Added to that, my wife is Russian and there are tonnes of Russian language texts available for download and easy conversion to FB2.
I suspect if this was developed in US or Europe, the format would have taken off. As it is, many long-time hardcore e-Readers like myself have been aware of the format for some time, and have used it extensively.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colin Dunstan
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To be honest, the reader sofware is pretty much fine as it is. There have been a number of minor updates up until 2007 - see the News page:
http://haali.cs.msu.ru/pocketpc/news.html.en
Here's a changelog extract back to Oct 2003:
# 02/04/07 2.0b264 Added an option to search from current position, added Longvo 12 support.
# 07/09/06 2.0b257 Bugfixes.
# 12/01/05 Small fixes in ExportXML word macro.
# 03/11/04 2.0b249 HiRes support.
# 29/09/04 2.0b243 Fixed PDB reader.
# 17/09/04 2.0b242 Small fixes and improvements.
# 04/12/03 2.0b237 Fixed chapter title display in status bar, fixed search in builtin dictionary.
# 22/10/03 2.0b227 Fixed a few small issues.
# 21/10/03 2.0b223 Fixed lingvo call, current chapter title can be shown in progress bar now.
EInk devices are definitely the way to go, for ease of reading, great battery life, paper-like display, etc. But I sometimes miss the Haali Reader on the little PPC - it was a compact easy-to-carry device, and a fantastic reader and format. I will probably take a stroll down amnsesia lane and do comparison of my PPC vs my BeBook, just for fun.