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Fitzwaryn · 07-21-2006, 10:07 AM

I bought a Bookeen for the time being to replace my Ebookwise which won't handle PDFs at all and which I had need for.

I've looked pretty closely at the Iliad and the Hanlin but the Iliad is priced far too high for what it offers and the Hanlin... well I just don't get a good feeling for it's support and reliability and the price is not significantly different from that of the Sony. Sony's policies and software may be suspect, but the quality of their physical products is usually high.

So I'll probably go with the Sony. Since it's going to be offered directly in the US it won't take long for someone to hack it. I convert ALL my ebooks into non-proprietary plain text format immediately. Even if that means using a brute force method like bringing it up in a reader and capturing each page of text into a plain text editor using screen macros that are chained together or a VB program or setting up macros to grab hundreds of partial screen captures of large font size and then OCRing them to produce text.

I, quite simply, won't tolerate some suit somewhere deciding how and on what device I can read a book. I WILL pay for the book, but I won't accept someone else's dictate as to HOW I can read or WHERE or on WHAT device I own. That's the absolute bottom line.

So the formats supported on a device are not as much an issue to me as they are to some people. PDF support is a good selling point, but on the other hand, I have my Bookeen which is color and has a Large screen so PDF support alone is not a make or break issue.

I've been quite happy with my old Ebookwise and it only supports one format. And despite what many people say, by lowering the screen contrast and brighness I routinely get 15-20 hrs of use out of a single charge on it. And since I convert everything to plain text anyway, flipping it into the .IMP format wasn't really that much of an issue.

My fiancee has appropriated the Ebookwise for herself now. Her first venture into Ebooks and she's in love with it.

07-21-2006, 10:07 AM	#13
Fitzwaryn Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 395 Join Date: Jul 2006	I bought a Bookeen for the time being to replace my Ebookwise which won't handle PDFs at all and which I had need for. I've looked pretty closely at the Iliad and the Hanlin but the Iliad is priced far too high for what it offers and the Hanlin... well I just don't get a good feeling for it's support and reliability and the price is not significantly different from that of the Sony. Sony's policies and software may be suspect, but the quality of their physical products is usually high. So I'll probably go with the Sony. Since it's going to be offered directly in the US it won't take long for someone to hack it. I convert ALL my ebooks into non-proprietary plain text format immediately. Even if that means using a brute force method like bringing it up in a reader and capturing each page of text into a plain text editor using screen macros that are chained together or a VB program or setting up macros to grab hundreds of partial screen captures of large font size and then OCRing them to produce text. I, quite simply, won't tolerate some suit somewhere deciding how and on what device I can read a book. I WILL pay for the book, but I won't accept someone else's dictate as to HOW I can read or WHERE or on WHAT device I own. That's the absolute bottom line. So the formats supported on a device are not as much an issue to me as they are to some people. PDF support is a good selling point, but on the other hand, I have my Bookeen which is color and has a Large screen so PDF support alone is not a make or break issue. I've been quite happy with my old Ebookwise and it only supports one format. And despite what many people say, by lowering the screen contrast and brighness I routinely get 15-20 hrs of use out of a single charge on it. And since I convert everything to plain text anyway, flipping it into the .IMP format wasn't really that much of an issue. My fiancee has appropriated the Ebookwise for herself now. Her first venture into Ebooks and she's in love with it.