Should I Buy the iRiver Story

[Rejet]

Hi,

Currently, my country, Singapore, has only 1 e-ink reader for sale. It's the iRiver Story. Apparently Amazon doesn't want to bring the Kindle into the SE Asia market. I have the option to import Sony readers, but it'll compromise warranty and support as Sony doesn't have technical support for their e-readers in Singapore.

My question:
I have a collection of e-books, mostly in pdf format. I tried it out with my own SD card at the store, and reading is quite erratic for pdf files. ie,
a)I can't zoom on certain files,
b)have to read on landscape view, instead of my preferred portrait view
c) on files that can be zoomed in, i have to pan around the page to read it completely
So, is it because I have to format my pdf files somehow, or is it because the device can only read pdf files this way?

Or should I convert the pdf files to ePub format on Calibre then transfer it to the iRiver?

I hope you guys can help with my problem. Thank you for your time.

[desertgrandma]

Welcome to MobileRead, Rejet

Someone will chime in shortly with advice, I'm sure.

Oh.........and please don't think Amazon "doesn't want" to get into the Asian market.

The money to be made is tremendous, and they know it.....they would be there if they could!

[Rejet]

Oh, please don't get the wrong idea. I fully understand that amazon is restricted by some copyright laws of some sort to sell the kindle in my country. Just kinda pissed that its being sold in so many other countries but not mine.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Rejet

Oh, please don't get the wrong idea. I fully understand that amazon is restricted by some copyright laws of some sort to sell the kindle in my country. Just kinda pissed that its being sold in so many other countries but not mine.

The frustration is perfectly understandable.

Have you downloaded any books from here yet? You don't even need a device to do so. Then, when you do get yours, you'll have a ready made library!

[Rejet]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

The frustration is perfectly understandable.

Have you downloaded any books from here yet? You don't even need a device to do so. Then, when you do get yours, you'll have a ready made library!

Thanks desertgrandma. I'll be browsing through the forums!

[caxandra]

I've tried diffrent kind of pfd's and epubs and it works just fine for me. But sometimes I need to step one down on zoom otherwise it will miss half a sentence.
I'm quite happy with my story. Would be nice if they could come out with another bag/case so I dont have to make my own... I bought the only one out there and it works fine but not that stylish... Batterytime is lovely! The sound is nice.

[Rejet]

Originally Posted by caxandra

I've tried diffrent kind of pfd's and epubs and it works just fine for me. But sometimes I need to step one down on zoom otherwise it will miss half a sentence.
I'm quite happy with my story. Would be nice if they could come out with another bag/case so I dont have to make my own... I bought the only one out there and it works fine but not that stylish... Batterytime is lovely! The sound is nice.

Thanks for the heads up caxandra. Btw, my friends are persuading me to hold out for a better reader in the near future. The iriver story fits my needs well, but should I wait for better readers in the future? Hope to get some advice as this will be my first ereader. Thanks!

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Rejet

Btw, my friends are persuading me to hold out for a better reader in the near future. The iriver story fits my needs well, but should I wait for better readers in the future?

If the iRiver does what you want, then I can't see any reason to wait for long (or at all). You might want to wait until after CES in early January. There will be lots of new readers announced at that show, although many won't be immediately available. The major players, like Amazon and Sony won't announce at CES but everyone else probably will.

[Harry001]

i just found out about the iriver story today. personally i am a big fan of iriver mp3 players. i have 4 big ones with hdds 20 and 40 gig and 3 small ones. so much because i don't like ipods and other player who need a programm to get the files on the player(so i am good for the future).

the iriver story looks a bit like a kindle to me and is to long with the keypad below.

what i found out in the ads is, that the iriver uses a lot of formats (pdf, epub, .doc, .xls ...) and has an integrated mp3 player which is worth the name - and has a pretty good speaker.
the screen should be as good as the one from the sony 505.
and it is expensive - over 300 euro or 369 US $

keep reading
harry

[isaak]

Originally Posted by Harry001

i just found out about the iriver story today. personally i am a big fan of iriver mp3 players. i have 4 big ones with hdds 20 and 40 gig and 3 small ones. so much because i don't like ipods and other player who need a programm to get the files on the player(so i am good for the future).

the iriver story looks a bit like a kindle to me and is to long with the keypad below.

what i found out in the ads is, that the iriver uses a lot of formats (pdf, epub, .doc, .xls ...) and has an integrated mp3 player which is worth the name - and has a pretty good speaker.
the screen should be as good as the one from the sony 505.
and it is expensive - over 300 euro or 369 US $

keep reading
harry

Actually its RRP is 279€ or 230GBP in Europe.
The screen has 8 grayscales compared to sony's 16.

[caxandra]

Well, I did get enoyed by the fact that the screen blinks every time you turn the page.
I never read enough info to know this so that is my fault.
But since all readers do it, then I'm okey with it. =)
I never really consider any one else when I found the Story.
Sure it would be nice with a wireless connection, but then I could really just get a new small laptop/notebook instead. And then I would even have backlight... =)

In Sweden its not much money between a small notebook and a ereader...

I do like irivers stuff.
Doesnt break, and almost never freeze up .
Got a spinn aswell and love it!

With the amount of books I alreday read since I got it, It's almost paid it self now!
Okey, stopped smoking aswell =)

[Rejet]

Finally got my iriver story! Thanks for the advices! btw, was trying to read drm PDF from my library and encountered some problems. Used adobe digital editions to put in the files to my iriver. The ebook appears on my iriver but can't be read( 'Cannot read files' appears on the screen) Anyone knows how to troubleshoot this?

[martinmach]

Originally Posted by caxandra

Well, I did get enoyed by the fact that the screen blinks every time you turn the page.
I never read enough info to know this so that is my fault.
But since all readers do it, then I'm okey with it. =)
I never really consider any one else when I found the Story.
Sure it would be nice with a wireless connection, but then I could really just get a new small laptop/notebook instead. And then I would even have backlight... =)

In Sweden its not much money between a small notebook and a ereader...

I do like irivers stuff.
Doesnt break, and almost never freeze up .
Got a spinn aswell and love it!

With the amount of books I alreday read since I got it, It's almost paid it self now!
Okey, stopped smoking aswell =)

where did u buy it? did you have any other options available? is there warranty available? i was going around the shops in stockholm and i cannot find any readers.

[y1ang]

I think iriver is a good one, i have used it a few days, it's enough for me.

[Skyflyer]

Originally Posted by martinmach

where did u buy it? did you have any other options available? is there warranty available? i was going around the shops in stockholm and i cannot find any readers.

I bought mine from Webhallen on Sveavägen 39 in Stockholm. It seems that they have no more readers in stock in the shop but they have in their central stock so if you place an order you should be able to go to their shop and pick it up after a day or two.