[stangri]

Hello,

I would welcome any help understanding some of the features of the 2nd gen ebooks from the comparison matrix.

First -- do any of the e-ink devices come with the backlight? I don't think it's too hard to cram a little LED inside, but then I found out that the 3rd gen Bookeen devices is only "day readable, no backlight" -- is it the case with the 2nd gen readers? If not -- which ones do have the backlight?

Then, since I'm on a Mac (and generally hesitant about adding hardware manufacturers' software on my computer) I'd rather avoid converting books on the computer before loading them on the SD-card. So from the matrix in wiki -- all the formats "supported" mean that they can be read directly on the device or do they have to be converted first? I'll be reading russian TXT/fb2 files and english chm/pdf files about 50/50 and that leads me to the last question.

From what I understood, all the ebook readers do not allow the 3rd party software (well, reader software) to be loaded and ran there -- am I correct in this understanding? If not, what's the most open (not in terms of the OS source, but in terms of the SDK and documentation available for the 3rd party developers) device and which device currently has most 3rd party apps developed?

If anyone has practical suggestions on which hardware should I get to read fb2/pdf/chm, I'd be grateful for tips.

PS. I can wait until September if there's a hope for a much better device by then, but wanted to buy something within a month or so, please help!