MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

Spiffy · 05-28-2010, 08:27 PM

One thing I'd look at is how they organize the books. One of my big issues with PP is that it does pretty much nothing, organization-wise. You have to kludge together your own method of organization, with directories, otherwise everything is just dumped on there. There no searchability, no front end showing covers or database behind it, etc.

For someone who reads one or two things at a time, and only copies things to the reader right before reading, that's no big deal. But if you want to keep your ENTIRE ebook collection on the unit all at once? Its a nightmare.

No idea what the 360 does in this department. I've heard a lot of things about the unit, but haven't actually used one.

Back to the PP for a bit and its inability to manage, on the device, a large inventory of book files. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of other things about the PP. Okay screen (not excellent, but pretty darn good for the price). Decent ergonomics for either left or right hand use (big centrally placed easy to use buttons for page turning with your left hand, a nice "lever" switch for doing the same with your right hand). Replaceable battery, as long as you order the part. Decent case coming with it by default. The ability to read just about any format (although I think the 360 also has that). But the lack of ANY kind of book organization interface is a price to pay for that, and the low cost, with the PP.

The 360's ergonomics, frankly, look even better. You've got those HUGE page turn buttons, and apparently you can flip the display to use the buttons with either hand. That's a great idea. Plus apparently there's some kind of accelerometer built in, like Wii peripherals have, and it can be used to turn pages just by tilting the unit (don't know how well it actually works though).

The differing gray levels between the PP and the 360? No idea if that really makes a difference if your focus is text and not pictures.

re: RSS feeds - by default I don't think either can do it "out of the box", but either probably can (or ANY ebook reader) if you use Calibre as your ebook management/copying utility. Calibre also makes up for some of the PP's shortfall in book management, since at least if the unit is hooked up to your PC, and Calibre is running, you can get a nice searchable database of what's sitting on the unit.

05-28-2010, 08:27 PM	#2
Spiffy Groupie Posts: 160 Karma: 416 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: Astak EZ Reader Pro AND Sony PRS-505	One thing I'd look at is how they organize the books. One of my big issues with PP is that it does pretty much nothing, organization-wise. You have to kludge together your own method of organization, with directories, otherwise everything is just dumped on there. There no searchability, no front end showing covers or database behind it, etc. For someone who reads one or two things at a time, and only copies things to the reader right before reading, that's no big deal. But if you want to keep your ENTIRE ebook collection on the unit all at once? Its a nightmare. No idea what the 360 does in this department. I've heard a lot of things about the unit, but haven't actually used one. Back to the PP for a bit and its inability to manage, on the device, a large inventory of book files. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of other things about the PP. Okay screen (not excellent, but pretty darn good for the price). Decent ergonomics for either left or right hand use (big centrally placed easy to use buttons for page turning with your left hand, a nice "lever" switch for doing the same with your right hand). Replaceable battery, as long as you order the part. Decent case coming with it by default. The ability to read just about any format (although I think the 360 also has that). But the lack of ANY kind of book organization interface is a price to pay for that, and the low cost, with the PP. The 360's ergonomics, frankly, look even better. You've got those HUGE page turn buttons, and apparently you can flip the display to use the buttons with either hand. That's a great idea. Plus apparently there's some kind of accelerometer built in, like Wii peripherals have, and it can be used to turn pages just by tilting the unit (don't know how well it actually works though). The differing gray levels between the PP and the 360? No idea if that really makes a difference if your focus is text and not pictures. re: RSS feeds - by default I don't think either can do it "out of the box", but either probably can (or ANY ebook reader) if you use Calibre as your ebook management/copying utility. Calibre also makes up for some of the PP's shortfall in book management, since at least if the unit is hooked up to your PC, and Calibre is running, you can get a nice searchable database of what's sitting on the unit. Last edited by Spiffy; 05-28-2010 at 08:33 PM.