$13 eReader?

[dakini]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

People want simplicity, and this is a clumsy solution. All these things people access with their smart phones, Facebook, Twitter, train schedules etc, these are all things they directly access with their smart phones. They aren't using their smart phones to control other devices, that's just clumsy. And only having five books eliminates one of the biggest selling points of e-readers.

we get that you're not going to buy one. which is fine. there are lots of devices out there, all meeting different people's needs.

it's initially being touted not as an elegant machine, not as a machine with a lot of storage, but as a cheap machine. and frankly, i'll put up with a lot of inelegance and lack of storage if i can get a cheap ereader that i don't have to worry about it getting broken, lost, etc. by a family member on holidays, etc.

but will this replace the ereader i already have? nope.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by dakini

we get that you're not going to buy one. which is fine. there are lots of devices out there, all meeting different people's needs.

it's initially being touted not as an elegant machine, not as a machine with a lot of storage, but as a cheap machine. and frankly, i'll put up with a lot of inelegance and lack of storage if i can get a cheap ereader that i don't have to worry about it getting broken, lost, etc. by a family member on holidays, etc.

but will this replace the ereader i already have? nope.

I wouldn't buy one, but you would. But what you or I want is unimportant. I just don't think this is going to have a wide market. If you think it will, that's fine. But if cheap MP3 players haven't taken over the market, why should this device? People can buy cheap MP3 players, but they still are more likely to buy the more expensive - and more powerful - players.

Just because I don't think that this device will have much of a market doesn't mean that I am projecting my own desires on the market as a whole. It is possible that this device will be a bust.

[MikeB1972]

I can see advantages to having a dirt cheap e-ink reader with near unlimited battery life.

So it only holds 5 books at a time and you can't change font on the fly.
So what, you transfer from your smartphone (Where I'm assuming you can change the display settings for the output).
Your smartphone can hold all your books easy enough and you always have it with you so it's not like this 5 book limit is actually stopping you accessing any of your library.

Also if it does just store all the pages as images then it is effectively future-proof and can have any formatting (Yes, the smart-phone app may need updating to handle new file types and formats, but as long as there are no animated parts in the file the e-ink screen can handle them fine).
You could probably probably make a good case for publishers allowing you to lend the book as well (As it would, by technological constraints, be to someone in close physical proximity to you and they wouldn't be able to lend it on to anyone else)

[mpd123]

i just dont see the point of this device, seeing as most smart phones now have a reasonably large screen and this device seems to be aimed at the casual reader. would they go through all the bother of loading the book on the phone then transferring it to the reader just on the off chance that they may read a page or two now and again,
or take the easier route of just reading it on their phone. no extra hassle and one less device too carry round?

cheers, mick.

[frostschutz]

There's a new (long) article about this device + video (in German) http://www.golem.de/news/hands-on-tx...210-95278.html

which states that the reader may store up to 15 books - instead of 5 - as long as they fit. In the video they show screens of the android app which also show the 15 book limit.

They also say that converting and transferring of a 160kb ebook to the beagle took 9 minutes, but as previously stated you can start reading the already transferred pages right away.

It keeps track of reading progress for each book, but apparently when the reader is full you can not delete single books, but instead you have to wipe the whole thing and retransfer (and it does not keep reading progress then).

They also said that mobile phone carriers are supposed to sell this device for cheap, and in return get a cut of the profits when people buy books from the txtr store. So there may be a slight chance you might actually be able to buy at this price without paying the extra directly through a contract. I'm not sure how successful that'd be considering there will be people who simply won't use the txtr store?

[beachwanderer]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

There's a new (long) article about this device + video (in German)

Thanks for update and link!

[MrsAmandaK]

I dot know anything about it but the commercial for it is funny ...

http://vimeo.com/txtr/ereader

[Ladyrixx]

I think it could be really good for some things. I read a lot of manga on my reader, and when a new chapter comes out I have to download it using one piece of software, import it into Calibre, convert it to an epub, connect my reader and transfer it. If I could handle most of that on my phone, which I carry with me anyway, and push it out to my reader in almost real time, that would be a really big deal.

(Bonus if they make some sort of queue system with their app. So you have like 100 books on your phone, you finish one on the reader, it deletes it and pushes the next one in the queue to the reader)

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Ladyrixx

I think it could be really good for some things. I read a lot of manga on my reader, and when a new chapter comes out I have to download it using one piece of software, import it into Calibre, convert it to an epub, connect my reader and transfer it. If I could handle most of that on my phone, which I carry with me anyway, and push it out to my reader in almost real time, that would be a really big deal.

If it lets you push webpages to the reader: that would, indeed, be a handy device, worth the cost even if it only holds a few at a time.

If, however, it only works on already-formatted ebooks, which have to be uploaded through its special software, it's a lot less useful. And so far the descriptions imply the latter, but there's not enough detail to be sure.

[Dylrob]

At that price I would certainly grab one. It would be handy for reading outdoors, where my iPad and iPod touch screens are completely washed out.

[SteveEisenberg]

The Guardian had a highly positive review about two weeks ago, and (hope I'm right) I think it has not been linked to on this board before:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...-reader-review

To me, the big pluses are ePub and, of course, price. Given the planned introductory price, it might be just a couple dollars on Black Friday 2013.

The big minus would be the need for a smartphone. It seems to me that people who can't afford a basic Kindle or Nook also can't afford a smartphone.

Do any techies here have an opinion on whether a bluetooth wireless adapter such as this would allow use from a PC, preferably via Calibre:

http://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Wire...mputer+adapter

Cheaper yet:

http://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-USB-...bxgy_pc_text_y

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Do any techies here have an opinion on whether a bluetooth wireless adapter such as this would allow use from a PC, preferably via Calibre:

Not without a PC alternative to the smartphone apps which do the eBook-to-image conversion. The 'reader' itself cannot actually read eBooks.

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

To me, the big pluses are ePub and, of course, price. Given the planned introductory price, it might be just a couple dollars on Black Friday 2013.

The problem is it doesn't actually read epubs, as the Guardian article states, it stores and displays them as highly rendered bitmaps - it's essentially a bitmap viewer (and can only store a maximum of five).

Seems utterly pointless?

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by l_macd

The problem is it doesn't actually read epubs, as the Guardian article states, it stores and displays them as highly rendered bitmaps - it's essentially a bitmap viewer (and can only store a maximum of five).

I delete books on completion, and so this limit might work for me -- at least if it is five big books. But could it be that for an 800 page Victorian novel, the limit is really one? And how long would it take to load that one book? And how long would it take to load a bunch of newspapers each morning, as I am currently doing with my Kindle Keyboard, and did before the Kindle era with Palm PDA's? News reading is just as important to me as book reading.

My guess, after my last post, was that if thousands are sold, the device will be rather limited. But if millions are sold, the open source community will find workarounds.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by MrsAmandaK

I dot know anything about it but the commercial for it is funny ...

http://vimeo.com/txtr/ereader

Hee-Hee "Forever"