[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by esecallum

Challenge and Urgent Appeal--Ereaders Required
I wish someone would turn or hack a cheap $20 or $30 5 inch or 4 inch lcd digital photo frame into a ebook reader for text and rtf files.

Making a photo frame read RTF and TXT files would mean major changes in the software; that'd move them well out of the under-$50 range. Right now, they display image files only; they don't have to parse internal text. The software for displaying images is much simpler than the software for opening data files and displaying the contents.

I don't want wi-fi, bluetooth, internet access and fancy writing screens,pushing up the price.People who want that can pay extra.

Second-hand Cliés sell for $25-$40 in my area, and they alllow reading ebooks in most formats, and a bunch of other features, which you may not care about, but are sometimes nice to have. They have screens a bit smaller than most photo-display screens.

A 4gb flash memory can store 10000 books easily.

TXT books. Not RTF books. (Although 4gb will hold plenty-plenty RTF books.) However, it won't hold nearly that many books if they're converted to TIF or PNG in order to be read on a photo viewer.

By the way why is the amount of memory on the present over priced devices so niggardly?
I mean you can easily get a flash memory of 4 gig for
$3. Most devices have 64 megs or 256 megs.What a joke.

Because external space--memory cards--is cheaper and easier to work with, than larger internal space. Also, most of these projects spend years in design, and cheap 4gb memory is VERY VERY NEW. Two years ago, it cost a lot more.

They're designing and adapting ebook readers as fast as they can, but they haven't caught up to storage & battery changes.

A lcd displays don't consume much power this could extend the battery life.

Yes, but it still eats battery much faster than e-ink. Even with a "turn off the light" option like many PDAs have.

Eink is unfortunately over priced and SLOW.

EInk is priced to what the market can bear. Also, it's priced to match production costs. It's new tech, still in development, and buyers have to pay for that development. Since many companies are selling out of ebook readers as soon as they release them, I'd say they're not overpriced.

EInk is indeed slower than LCD. It's not slower than turning paper pages one at a time, though. And it'll speed up as the technology changes. Many of the problems with slower eInk aren't actually the screen--it's the software, trying to parse bad code in the ebook file. Nobody complains about the speed of reading TXT files.

[quote]Ebook readers like the amazon kindle and sony ereader cost as much as a laptop at present! Rip off pricing.[quote]

New tech. Different features from laptops.

ebook readers cost from $300 to $800.
They are a rip off.

Feel free not to buy one.

Manufacturers by keeping prices high are shooting themselves in the foot with poor sales.Very stupid people at the top.

"Poor sales?" They can't keep up with demand! They're selling them as fast as they can get them produced. The only incentive to lower prices is to compete with each other; the public has shown they'll pay $300 for an ebook reader, and niche markets will pay $800 for one with the right additional features.

You can buy a complex mini netbook for less then a ebook reader now.Only reason I don't use a netbook is due to the poor battery life of only a few hours.

And that's the main reason a lot of us switched to ebook readers. For some people, the screen quality is also important--eInk isn't hard on the eyes the way backlit screens are.

I don't want to pay that much on principle.

And I don't want to pay $22,000 for a new car, when a used one for $2000 would be just as good. Oh wait... I didn't pay $22,000 for a new car! But I don't go around screaming that cars are over priced and ripping people off.

[quote]A low power low cost photoframe would be ideal.
I am surprised that no one has done this hack.[quote]

If nobody's done it, it's probably more difficult than you think.
Photo frames are built to display image files, not read data. The software change required would increase the cost a great deal. Adding an interface for flipping through pages, and searching for the book you wanted, would add more software and hardware costs.

And I suspect you have no idea how much battery power it takes to operate these for hours on end. Most photoframes I've seen are designed to be plugged in, not run on batteries.

I also appeal to Chinese folk here if you could start producing a simple dedicated paperback sized 4 .5 or 5.00 inch sized screen size thin ebook reader with a lcd screen with optional back light.

Are you under the impression that Chinese people are inherently more interested in designing technology than people from other nations?

Should be able to read text,rtf,pdf,html,word.

We have one of those. It's called a "netbook."

should run of 2 aa batteries for a month.

Name something with an LCD screen that runs on 2 aa batteries for a month.

should be under $50.

Why? Because that's how much you can afford to pay for it?