[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by Siwickimom

Thanks for all the input. My son is pretty comfortable on a computer, but honestly, I'd most likely be obtaining/converting and loading everything on his reader for him. And I'm VERY comfortable doing the conversions,as long as it isn't *too* complicated. I'm no programmer, but I do know my way around most user interfaces to at least be competent. I just don't want to spend hours and hours on it, kwim?

And, if you encounter any problems/issues, just post here for help and hopefully our community can assist in resolving them.

What about converting non DRM'd .LRF files that are on my Sony so that he can read them on his reader? Or PDFs etc? Would I basically just use something like Calibre to convert any existing books to Mobi and then use Mob2Imp?

In most cases, if a .prc/mobi ebook version exists of the .lrf you have on your Sony, then get that first and convert with Mobi2IMP.

Calibre won't convert .lrf to .html, but LRFTools will. Experiment with it if you can get good results. Then use eBook Publisher with the resulting .html or use any of the other capable software tools listed in our IMP software wiki.

Also, am I correct in understanding that the only DRM'd content it can read are the IMPs from the eBookwise store? So no reading of eBooks from the Library, etc, unless I strip out the DRM and convert them for him.

Yes, www.ebookwise.com is THE source of secure/DRM'ed .imp's for direct download onto the EBW1150. Another source is it's parent company, www.fictionwise.com. Just search for Secure Half-VGA OEBFF (aka EBW1150 .imp's). FYI, the Secure Full-VGA OEBFF ebooks are for the REB1200 (the EBW1150's big brother and my reader).

Yes, but any library ebooks will have to be de-DRM'ed and converted to .imp. This may not be trivial and can be a consideration to see if the EBW1150 is a good fit. I guess most library ebooks are available from retail channels, however, with over 10,000 .imp's available at www.munseys.com and several thousand available here, PD titles surely abound!!! Then toss in all those .prc/.mobi ebooks here that can easily be converted to .imp using Mobi2IMP and hopefully there's enough to read, even for any 11 year old.

That's very good info about the EZ reader's limited native file support, thank you very much. I have been under the impression it is going to be a lot more open.

I just keep coming back to this kinda clunky but cute little reader and thinking it can stand a bit of a knock about in his backpack and would be a good fit for young hands...and if he does kill it, I most likely won't pop a blood vessel.

The EBW1150 does seem to retain it's value should you choose to re-sell it when you're son looses interest...

I would imagine I would put maybe 3-5 books on it at once, no more, so that he can stay focused. And if he does well with it, then perhaps in a couple years he will be ready for something a bit more delicate with more features.

Hopefully you can get a model with 64MB internal/external memory, in which case, you can easily store up to 50-100 ebooks!

Happy shopping!