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#1 |
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
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Karma: 23555235
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: DC Metro area
Device: Shake a stick plus 1
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Update on the new miBook
You may have seen the news yesterday about the new ebook reader from Photoco called the miBook. One of our members pointed out that the miBook has a startling similarity to an existing digital photo viewer. I've done some research, and I think she is correct.
The miBook isn't new; it's actually a repurposed digital photo viewer. Photoco has two 7" devices with almost identical specs. The only difference is that the one has speakers. This model, the 7Xl, is the one that I think is also the miBook. Here is where I've found some technical specs. (Screen resolution 480 x 234; I was expecting this resolution on a device that cost only $100.) The photo viewer itself is available on Amazon. Here is the back of the 7XL model from Photoco: ![]() It was bound to happen eventually. I know I've looked at a digital picture frame and thought about how it might be turned into an ebook reader. It looks like Photoco is the first to actually follow through on the idea. |
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#2 |
Junior Member
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Karma: 10
Join Date: Jun 2008
Device: Treo 700
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miBook
I'm from miBook's pr firm and I just need to straighten everyone out about the miBook. It is NOT an e-book reader. It is a multi-media player that provides video content (that's moving images) from popular television programs seen on Food Network, DIY, ParentsTV and HGTV. So you actually see the task in action. It pauses at each step so users can do the activity at their own pace, plus it's set up with menus for the various titles so you can find the recipe, task or topic you'd like to view.
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#3 | |
Fanatic
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Karma: 914
Join Date: Mar 2008
Device: iliad
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I know we are all enthusiastic about e-Book readers, but this goes too far to scream for every device that could display a book, Hoooray! When for this use it would actually be a step backward in technology instead of forward. |
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#4 |
Reader
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Karma: 8720163
Join Date: May 2007
Location: South Wales, UK
Device: Sony PRS-500, PRS-505, Asus EEEpc 4G
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#5 |
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
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Karma: 23555235
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: DC Metro area
Device: Shake a stick plus 1
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First, let me welcome you to MobileRead.
I'm going to have to disagree with you, Anne. The miBook was created to replace tour guides, cookbooks, and how to manuals. These are all books; and when converted to electronic form they are ebooks. True, they do not have much text. But I think they are just as much ebooks as a coffee table type book is a book. P.S. I can give an example of how someone can cross over from text to video and back to text while still in an ebook. There is a new ebook standard called EPUB. It is not just for text; the standard also includes the ability to have videos in an epub file. |
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#6 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Karma: 11844413
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Tampa, FL USA
Device: Kindle Touch
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BTW: Just because you intend a device to be one thing, doesn't mean ingenious people won't find other ways to use it. BOb |
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#7 | |
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
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Karma: 23555235
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: DC Metro area
Device: Shake a stick plus 1
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#8 |
Enthusiast
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Karma: 140
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Oregon, USA
Device: PocketBook 360, Nook
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The PhotoCo 7XS is essentially the same thing as the 7XL, and is on Clearance at OfficeMax for $79.00 if you want to check it out. I will try converting some food network content and see what playback looks like tonight.
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#9 |
Books and more books
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Karma: 69499
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: White Plains, NY, USA
Device: Nook Color, Itouch, Nokia770, Sony 650, Sony 700(dead), Ebk(given)
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I read several books as jpg's albums on my 770, though I actually embedded them in a html file to use Fbreader and the customization keys; reading them as albums with the 770 photo viewer also worked, but was a bit more cumbersome since I needed to use the pen for navigation rather than buttons only.
Once you set up a system, it's easy to press some buttons and let the computer do the work. You need pictures perfect for your device - so for 770 this meant 800x480 with just the right amount of text to be nicely readable. Sometimes this meant cutting a scan page in 2, sometimes not, you experiment. If you start from text not scan, it's even easier since you can change the font to big enough, bold format and all the tricks you use to see pdf's on Sony. Then you do page to jpg and that's that. To batch crop, resize, rotate I use xnview which is fast and free for pc's For batch renaming I use rename master again fast and free. To do text to image for example if you have pdf's manipulator software, you can do text-pdf-tiff-jpg, but I guess there are other ways to go directly txt-jpg. I always started from scan images or scan pdf's since after all if it's text Fbreader can handle it directly... |
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#10 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Karma: 13095790
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Grass Valley, CA
Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7
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Dale |
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