Foxit eSlick, New eInk based reader for $229

[astra]

Originally Posted by da_jane

I don't understand the limitations of Adobe on eink devices (and why there is no iPhone Adobe app escapes me), but the real question is does the Foxit read Adobe DRM'ed books. I think any device on the market has to read at least one DRM'ed format in order for it to be viable.

It is not Adobe limitation on eInk devices, it is Adobe limitation on 6" screens.

[Bookathon]

This device will be a great one for pdf crowd like me, I have tons of text books which I consult almost everyday and I have amazon kindle and unopened sony prs 505 with lousy support for pdf, I also subscribe to online edition of print magazines and now I can say viola I want to buy this thing badly

[Daithi]

An ebook that is built for displaying PDFs sounds like a pretty good idea. According to their website --

The zooming feature allows users to magnify the page size from 50% to 400%.

and

In the reflow mode, users can read the text that has been automatically reorganized to fit the screen size and also control the font size via the menu.

I like my Kindle, but I wished it had this kind of support for PDFs.

[DaleDe]

I have created a wiki entry for this device. eSlick As we find our more it can be enhanced.

Dale

[alehel]

Originally Posted by da_jane

and why there is no iPhone Adobe app escapes me

There is a very simple answer to this. Apple has a lot of limmitations on what kind of applications you can develop (several applications have been turned down by apple) and one of the limitations is that users of their applications cannot create and store local files (other than configuration files). In other words you can't store pdf files on your iPhone which basicly means that you can only browse online pdf files, and the safari web browser already does an excellent job of that. So basicly, due to the limitations sett by Apple, Adobe reader on an iPhone wouldn't be allowed. Opera has already had their application turned down, and Adobe is said to have a version of Flash working on iPhone but it breaks several of the rules and therefore can't be released.

[Penforhire]

Your iPhone basis may be partly correct but it is also partly incorrect. There are several App Store offerings (Air Sharing and similar) that will let you store and view files including PDF's on your iPhone.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by Daithi

An ebook that is built for displaying PDFs sounds like a pretty good idea. According to their website --

The zooming feature allows users to magnify the page size from 50% to 400%.

and

In the reflow mode, users can read the text that has been automatically reorganized to fit the screen size and also control the font size via the menu.

I like my Kindle, but I wished it had this kind of support for PDFs.

The reflow, I think, is critical for this device to be a generic PDF reader. As eInk device, scrolling would be rather painful. The jetBook uses the Foxit PDF reader and it works fairly well, but the version on the Jetbook doesn't reflow. Even with the faster scrolling LCD provides, I wouldn't want to read books that way. Fortunately, there are tools available that make it easy to take HTML (which .lit and .mobi files can be converted into) and convert it into custom sized PDFs... but not every user is going to want to go to that trouble.

Still a device like this would be very nice for reading public domain books available on feedbooks and Manybooks.net (PG books might need some reformatting... which I have found isn't hard, but then again, I am a perl programmer and text processing is what Perl is really good at).

--
Bill

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by da_jane

I don't understand the limitations of Adobe on eink devices (and why there is no iPhone Adobe app escapes me), but the real question is does the Foxit read Adobe DRM'ed books. I think any device on the market has to read at least one DRM'ed format in order for it to be viable.

I am not sure that is true at this point. Project Gutenberg has something like 30,000 public Domain books available, Fictionwise has almost 20,000 multiformat (i.e. no DRM) available. So there are plenty of books out there to read on any device... And of course, the more devices without support for DRM, and the more people refusing to read DRM'd material (and buying non-DRM'd material) the more pressure there will be for the publishers to dump DRM.

--
Bill

[alehel]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

Your iPhone basis may be partly correct but it is also partly incorrect. There are several App Store offerings (Air Sharing and similar) that will let you store and view files including PDF's on your iPhone.

I did a quick check on the App store and I see that I wasn't partly wrong, but completely wrong. Either Apple changed part of the rules or I missunderstood something. Probably the second.

[LexHall]

Hmmm... i wonder if there is any video

[Crisby]

Originally Posted by astra

It is not Adobe limitation on eInk devices, it is Adobe limitation on 6" screens.

I agree. Unless its a text-only PDF that's reflowable or PDF created specifically for a 6" device (such as the fantastic Feedbooks offerings), I'm not interested in reading PDFs on a 6" device of any kind. Its too small.

I asked around my office and we ALL absolutely HATE the name "eSlick"! Its a greasy, slimy, ugly name. We wouldn't buy one because of the name, even if it was a wonderful ebook reader.

A much better name would have been Foxit or something else that's Fox-based.

"What's that?" "My Foxit reader"... I really like that. I'd be embarassed to say its an eSlick. Yuk.

The PDF reader in eSlick can reflow the PDF file and the introductory price is very attractive.

I hope Foxit's reader is a success - they're great at PDF. Its just such a shame about the awful name.

[Soulcatcher]

So will it render pdfs much better than prs-505? I mean, the main problem for me with prs-505 is that pdfs have much less contrast and font isn't as clear as with, say, rtf.

Well, i always wanted to ask actually why prs-505 can't render pdf exactly as rtf file. Is it because of pdf itself so eSlick will have the same problem or is it Sony's fault?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Dedale

I hope Mobileread could receive one in order to give us a review

We'll be getting one after Christmas.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Soulcatcher

So will it render pdfs much better than prs-505? I mean, the main problem for me with prs-505 is that pdfs have much less contrast and font isn't as clear as with, say, rtf.

Less contrast than what?

BOb

[Dedale]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

We'll be getting one after Christmas.

That's sure a good news