Pandigital Novel Personal 6" $20 at Big Lots!

[twowheels]

Yeah, I noticed that about the screen too. During the refresh it goes very dark. Also, the home screen images are nice and dark. It apparently can show some nice deep blacks. If it's based on a Linux kernel and FBReader (as some of the documentation I've seen implies) then one should be able to try to fix that. I wonder if I can get a fully buildable set of source files. One link that I read indicated that it used Qt as the graphical framework, so there might be a way to tweak the font rendering, but I haven't had a chance to look any deeper.

[AnemicOak]

If anyone is looking for one of these, 1 Sale A Day has them for $19.99 (+$5 S&H) as one of their items today...

http://1saleaday.com/

[tracings]

Does anyone know if this works with library books from Overdrive? It's not listed as one of the compatible devices, but perhaps it's not popular enough to be on their radar?

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by tracings

Does anyone know if this works with library books from Overdrive? It's not listed as one of the compatible devices, but perhaps it's not popular enough to be on their radar?

My son is away right now and has his with him, but I seem to remember it supporting B&N and Adobe DRM...

[twowheels]

Here's a review that agrees with my recollection:

http://www.the-ebook-reader.com/pand...-personal.html

[tracings]

Thanks, twowheels. I checked out the reviews at Amazon, and at least one fellow mentioned that he was able to use ADE with it. Sounds like the screen is pretty sharp; I'll see if any are around in my local stores this weekend.

[Shushan]

Thank you guys SSOOO MMUUCCHH for this heads up. I just nailed 2 Pandigital Novel 6" readers for my kids for 20.00 each at the local Big Lots in VA. Without this thread I would never have known they were supposed to be $20 as they were still marked 69.99. The low price came up at the register though!

That's much better than Ollie's price for them - 39.99, but this week everything in Ollie's is on sale for at least 15% off so they ring for $35 w/ tax

Yes, these are touch units with buttons. The side-loading is easy. Page turn speed is better than we expected. Comes with a few classics (added a bunch more classics thanks to manybooks.net). Contrast isn't great compared with modern e-ink but it is very readable. Fonts only get as big as last gen readers (not enough for the truly visually disabled). All-in-all, for those with reasonable eyesight, they are a true bargain (so far!)

[egarbacz]

Originally Posted by Shushan

All-in-all, for those with reasonable eyesight, they are a true bargain (so far!)

I agree, I just received one of these readers for $25. It is my first e-ink type reader and so far it is great for the price. There are many bugs with it and I certainly would not have been happy had I paid much more or if I wasn't familiar with the various conversion tools allowing me to load my own epubs.

I found that the browser works with dropbox allowing me to download epubs right from my calibre library that I store on dropbox, however the browser does not remember your login so you have to type it in each time. Another frustration seems to be it doesn't load the bookcover for books downloaded that way. Therefore it is just better to load the books through the PC.

I have also found that there are occasions where it doesn't remember the last page read in a book, it has only happened a couple of times to me when switching between a bunch of different books. Since I only tend to read one book at a time this shouldn't be a problem.

If anyone figures out how to make the contrast better I would love to see it. Overall for someone who knows what they are doing and gets it for under $50 it is a great deal.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by egarbacz

I found that the browser works with dropbox allowing me to download epubs right from my calibre library that I store on dropbox

How did you get it download and use epubs? I couldn't get the browser to download anything.

[egarbacz]

Originally Posted by ApK

How did you get it download and use epubs? I couldn't get the browser to download anything.

I have only tried downloading through dropbox. I browser to the folder containing the epub file and tap on the file and it downloads it into the downloads folder on the device. Mine is a refurb model, maybe it has a newer version of firmware? I am not sure how to check what version I have, I will look around and see what I can find.