Hi from Bodryn; new on this site

bodryn · 01-12-2008, 11:41 PM

Hi - I'm a long term user of my own kind of ebook reader. I bought a TRGpro in 2001 which is based on the Palm IIIx but with a CF card in the back which serves not only as a total backup medium but also can hold lots of full size novels. Over time I have found it to be a very good ebook reader.

It runs on AAA batteries I can get anywhere, and with a 2GB CF card in the back, I can have immediate access to some 100 or so ebooks I have downloaded free, mostly from Gutenberg and Black Mask - not too long ago I read two novels by Joseph Conrad which I had earlier found too difficult to understand. The fact that I always have books in my pocket to read means they are likely to get read whenever I have some spare time.

I also often find interesting articles on the internet that I want to read later, so I cut and paste text files from the internet into the TRGpro and in spare moments can catch up on those. What is frustrating is that when I called around Fargo/Moorhead to look at and buy an ebook reader, it was hard to find anybody who even knew what I was talking about, let alone find a place to buy one.

This is a town with 3 colleges, two of which they call universities. You might think somebody in town would sell these. It would be nice to have a larger one which is easier to read. I would like to see one before buying one.

I would like to find someplace not too far away that I can look at one and maybe buy one. It would be nice to buy one that used alkaline batteries. Rechargeable batteries seems to me to be just a ruse to keep getting money out of customers - what do you do when the rechargeable battery wears out and you can't get a replacement? That's why I'm still using the TRGpro after so long. I take good care of it, and all I have to do is replace batteries; I can even use rechargeable AAAs if I prefer.

MickeyC · 01-13-2008, 08:34 PM

Welcome to the Forum

DMcCunney · 01-13-2008, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bodryn

Hi - I'm a long term user of my own kind of ebook reader. I bought a TRGpro in 2001 which is based on the Palm IIIx but with a CF card in the back which serves not only as a total backup medium but also can hold lots of full size novels. Over time I have found it to be a very good ebook reader.

It runs on AAA batteries I can get anywhere, and with a 2GB CF card in the back, I can have immediate access to some 100 or so ebooks I have downloaded free, mostly from Gutenberg and Black Mask - not too long ago I read two novels by Joseph Conrad which I had earlier found too difficult to understand. The fact that I always have books in my pocket to read means they are likely to get read whenever I have some spare time.

<...>

I would like to find someplace not too far away that I can look at one and maybe buy one. It would be nice to buy one that used alkaline batteries. Rechargeable batteries seems to me to be just a ruse to keep getting money out of customers - what do you do when the rechargeable battery wears out and you can't get a replacement? That's why I'm still using the TRGpro after so long. I take good care of it, and all I have to do is replace batteries; I can even use rechargeable AAAs if I prefer.

Hi, Bodryn.

Welcome to MobileRead. I see you made a similar post over on 1src.

My device is a Tapwave Zodiac 2, which is also a Palm OS PDA. It's a color device with a 320x480 screen, 128MB of RAM, and two SD card slots, each with a 2GB card.

I have about 3,200 books on the Zodiac. Most are in HTML format, converted to the format used by the Plucker offline HTML viewer for Palm OS, but I have stuff in PalmReader, PDF, plain text, and MobiPocket format as well.

The Zodiac is a LiON battery unit, as are most things these days. I don't believe you'll find a reader that uses AA or AAA batteries. The Zodiac recharges through a cable, with a charger plugged into an outlet, but it can also take a charge (though more slowly) from a USB sync cable. Having to migrate to a LiON device that required recharging when my old Handsrping Visor Deluxe bit teh dust was a bother, but I got used to it soon enough. I top my device off each night, and I seldom see it drop below 80% in normal usage.

I get a lot of stuff from PG, converting from their HTML editions, and have accumulated a fair bit from Blackmask as well. (Blackmask was off the air for a bit, but is back as Munseys.com with a different site design but largely the same content.) Plucker can also be used to "pluck" websites for download and offline reading.

I prefer my PDA for ebooks, because I want a device that does other things besides view books, so while I'm watching the progress of the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle with interest, I'm not a likely buyer..

I've been in Fargo, though not in many years. You would think someone would have a reader you could see and tough before purchase. You might see if the university book stores can assist.
______
Dennis

bodryn · 01-18-2008, 10:44 PM

I think this idea of sticking consumers with rechargeable batteries is a BIG mistake. I have had a few gadgets with rechargeables, including some Toshiba laptop computers. Invariably the rechargeable batteries die and can no longer take a charge. Then if you try to get another battery to replace it, you may be out of luck. What if you like your gadget and don't want to replace it? One battery I recently tried to replace was a battery for my Toshiba T4600C, a DOS computer for which I still occasionally had use. I spent several years writing a long involved program in QuickBasic 4.5 for which I had other users. I bought a battery from Batteries Plus thinking I had a new replacement. I started the computer up after several hours of charging and it seemed fine. Some days later I came back and found that "new" battery, for which I paid some $130, was dead. The computer won't run at all without a battery. Now what?

Also I have Canon cameras which run very nicely on AA batteries and can take hundreds of pictures on a set of AAs. Fine, but I decided to buy some rechargeable batteries since I heard they last longer and take more pictures. Unfortunately if you leave them in the camera and say two weeks later you go out to take pictures, the batteries might well be dead or nearly so. It happened to me. Then what? I had to fall back on my alkaline AAs. I am SO GLAD I had that choice. I have decided that forcing rechargeable batteries on consumers is part of this whole business of built-in obsolescence. Consumers ought to have more choice than that. If I spend several hundred dollars for an eBook, I ought to be able to plan to use it for 20 years if I want. I am very careful with my gadgets. They last a long time, but only if I can get batteries for them. Otherwise pray for good luck.

PDAs used to be for sale lots of places. Last time I went to Office Depot, I was told they sold all the PDAs as there "wasn't much of a markup for them". I thought I'd check up on a later version of one. I was told they couldn't sell enough of them and no longer offer them. I won't be going back there; they want volume sales and are losing the variety they used to have. I guess I'll stick to my TRGpro. It does quite well and it will probably work indefinitely if I take care of it. I have 2 of these so if one fails I can continue for now. TRGpro was a great innovative product but the bean counters at Palm made the OS so expensive that TRGpro (HandEra) stopped using it. All the sickening crap consumers put up with - it's enough to turn me into a Luddite.

01-12-2008, 11:41 PM	#1
bodryn Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: TRGpro, Palm IIIx	Hi from Bodryn; new on this site Hi - I'm a long term user of my own kind of ebook reader. I bought a TRGpro in 2001 which is based on the Palm IIIx but with a CF card in the back which serves not only as a total backup medium but also can hold lots of full size novels. Over time I have found it to be a very good ebook reader. It runs on AAA batteries I can get anywhere, and with a 2GB CF card in the back, I can have immediate access to some 100 or so ebooks I have downloaded free, mostly from Gutenberg and Black Mask - not too long ago I read two novels by Joseph Conrad which I had earlier found too difficult to understand. The fact that I always have books in my pocket to read means they are likely to get read whenever I have some spare time. I also often find interesting articles on the internet that I want to read later, so I cut and paste text files from the internet into the TRGpro and in spare moments can catch up on those. What is frustrating is that when I called around Fargo/Moorhead to look at and buy an ebook reader, it was hard to find anybody who even knew what I was talking about, let alone find a place to buy one. This is a town with 3 colleges, two of which they call universities. You might think somebody in town would sell these. It would be nice to have a larger one which is easier to read. I would like to see one before buying one. I would like to find someplace not too far away that I can look at one and maybe buy one. It would be nice to buy one that used alkaline batteries. Rechargeable batteries seems to me to be just a ruse to keep getting money out of customers - what do you do when the rechargeable battery wears out and you can't get a replacement? That's why I'm still using the TRGpro after so long. I take good care of it, and all I have to do is replace batteries; I can even use rechargeable AAAs if I prefer.

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01-13-2008, 08:34 PM	#2
MickeyC Grand Sorcerer Posts: 16,731 Karma: 12185114 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Florida Device: iPhone 6 plus, Sony T1, iPad 3	Welcome to the Forum

01-18-2008, 10:44 PM	#4
bodryn Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: TRGpro, Palm IIIx	I think this idea of sticking consumers with rechargeable batteries is a BIG mistake. I have had a few gadgets with rechargeables, including some Toshiba laptop computers. Invariably the rechargeable batteries die and can no longer take a charge. Then if you try to get another battery to replace it, you may be out of luck. What if you like your gadget and don't want to replace it? One battery I recently tried to replace was a battery for my Toshiba T4600C, a DOS computer for which I still occasionally had use. I spent several years writing a long involved program in QuickBasic 4.5 for which I had other users. I bought a battery from Batteries Plus thinking I had a new replacement. I started the computer up after several hours of charging and it seemed fine. Some days later I came back and found that "new" battery, for which I paid some $130, was dead. The computer won't run at all without a battery. Now what? Also I have Canon cameras which run very nicely on AA batteries and can take hundreds of pictures on a set of AAs. Fine, but I decided to buy some rechargeable batteries since I heard they last longer and take more pictures. Unfortunately if you leave them in the camera and say two weeks later you go out to take pictures, the batteries might well be dead or nearly so. It happened to me. Then what? I had to fall back on my alkaline AAs. I am SO GLAD I had that choice. I have decided that forcing rechargeable batteries on consumers is part of this whole business of built-in obsolescence. Consumers ought to have more choice than that. If I spend several hundred dollars for an eBook, I ought to be able to plan to use it for 20 years if I want. I am very careful with my gadgets. They last a long time, but only if I can get batteries for them. Otherwise pray for good luck. PDAs used to be for sale lots of places. Last time I went to Office Depot, I was told they sold all the PDAs as there "wasn't much of a markup for them". I thought I'd check up on a later version of one. I was told they couldn't sell enough of them and no longer offer them. I won't be going back there; they want volume sales and are losing the variety they used to have. I guess I'll stick to my TRGpro. It does quite well and it will probably work indefinitely if I take care of it. I have 2 of these so if one fails I can continue for now. TRGpro was a great innovative product but the bean counters at Palm made the OS so expensive that TRGpro (HandEra) stopped using it. All the sickening crap consumers put up with - it's enough to turn me into a Luddite.

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