Which one for online fanfiction etc?

[KleMC]

Hello and Servus from Austria,

my wife is a maniac reader. I got her an iPAQ (I think it was a hp2210) three years ago and she has rarely spent a day without it ever since. Once we got a SD WiFi card added (yes, I know, it is an old one she has primarily used it for reading fanfiction online.

christmas is (eventually) approaching and I thought of getting her a new one as the display is badly scratched already and the battery life is no loger what it used to be.

the device should fulfill the following:

- WiFi capable (I guess that rules out eINK devices apart from the iLiad) - WPA is a must
- good online reading experience (fanfiction.net) with browser
- reading without external light (ie in bed when I am sleeping or trying to ignore her addiction...)
- device should be sold in Europe

Now some specific questions:
1. Does the iLiad browser allow online reading?
2. Is there a new device coming up in the next weeks/months that would be best for these purposes?
3. Does anything speak against a Nokia 770 or even N800?

or is there any other idea?

many thanks in advance,
KleMC

[HarryT]

Sounds like a Tablet PC or UMPC would be your best bet if online browsing is important for you. The iLiad CAN do it, but it's not a pleasant experience, due the the extremely slow refresh rate of the eInk screen. Plus, having the iLiad's WiFi turned on dramatically reduces the battery life.

[Hadrien]

Websites such as fanfiction.net should offer an easy way for its users to download the texts in a large number of formats.

The strength of this website is the community based around it, not the fact that you MUST be online to read what the community is creating.

I can see a huge market for fan fiction + e-paper devices, but I'm not sure that the fan fiction community realized the potential yet.

[KleMC]

I agree - I have looked at the fanfiction website and was rather surprised to find very little support for online readers (or those who would want to convert on the fly for their devices). Maybe this will change over the years...

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by KleMC

I agree - I have looked at the fanfiction website and was rather surprised to find very little support for online readers (or those who would want to convert on the fly for their devices). Maybe this will change over the years...

I'll try to get in touch with some of these websites in the upcoming months. Feedbooks could easily act as a service transforming these fan fictions into something useful for a reading device...

[JSWolf]

If you don't mind using your computer to capture the stories and then format them for your reader, I highly suggest a Sony Reader. I'm selling mine for $200. The good thing is that the tools Book Designer and the Libprs500 suit of converters will do a great job of getting the content to your reader. So you will have no problem with that from the site.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

I'll try to get in touch with some of these websites in the upcoming months. Feedbooks could easily act as a service transforming these fan fictions into something useful for a reading device...

I have been in contact with Melindaleo.com and obtained permission but the mobileread site has requested I withdraw them from the site based on their interpretation of the legality of fanfic.

Most of the fan fic sites have authors with different skills and may not be all that technical. In general the html I have found at the sites need some cleaning up for example.

I do think this is an untapped resource of great ebooks. The biggest concern that Melinda had is with regard to the slippery slope of legality. There can be no hint of commercial interest in the fan fic books to avoid legal issues with using characters from commercial books. I do have a book in a couple of formats on my home site and have more that I have not posted.

Dale

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

I have been in contact with Melindaleo.com and obtained permission but the mobileread site has requested I withdraw them from the site based on their interpretation of the legality of fanfic.

Well... Feedbooks could act like Feedburner somehow. We wouldn't exactly host the content, the content would stay on fanfiction.net etc... and we would simply transform into the right file format. I guess the legality issues are a lot easier to deal with, in this case.

Most of the fan fic sites have authors with different skills and may not be all that technical. In general the html I have found at the sites need some cleaning up for example.

We're already using Tidy for this. Not much of a problem.

I do think this is an untapped resource of great ebooks. The biggest concern that Melinda had is with regard to the slippery slope of legality. There can be no hint of commercial interest in the fan fic books to avoid legal issues with using characters from commercial books. I do have a book in a couple of formats on my home site and have more that I have not posted.

Dale

I think it's one of the most promising resource and community for e-books. There's millions of people reading fanfic every day. Reading on e-paper devices would transform the experience of reading fanfic into something much closer to reading a real book.
No hint of commercial interest at all might be a bit hard: I can clearly see many ads on fanfiction.net.

[tichkiir]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you don't mind using your computer to capture the stories and then format them for your reader, I highly suggest a Sony Reader. I'm selling mine for $200. The good thing is that the tools Book Designer and the Libprs500 suit of converters will do a great job of getting the content to your reader. So you will have no problem with that from the site.

How do those tools get something like fanfiction.net content into a reader usable format? I mean, fanfiction.net content is all multi-chapter, each chapter on a separate, javascript linked to, page. What tools do you use to pull and clean up the html before converting?

Thanks

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by tichkiir

How do those tools get something like fanfiction.net content into a reader usable format? I mean, fanfiction.net content is all multi-chapter, each chapter on a separate, javascript linked to, page. What tools do you use to pull and clean up the html before converting?

Thanks

Your keyboard. You'll have to copy/paste everything. That's why it would be easier to have some kind of service that would do the work for you.

I guess, a custom tool, extracting the data on each page could work too, but it would be more geek-oriented than a feature already included on the website.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by tichkiir

How do those tools get something like fanfiction.net content into a reader usable format? I mean, fanfiction.net content is all multi-chapter, each chapter on a separate, javascript linked to, page. What tools do you use to pull and clean up the html before converting?

Thanks

Both MobiCreater (for mobibooks) and ebook Publisher for eb1150 books support multiple html files easily. Just drag the files to the converter, arrange them like you want and then press the build button. Of course this means they have to be fairly clean to avoid errors.

Dale

[kovidgoyal]

Handling non javascript links is trivial. many many tools will download the html for you. And lots of other tools will convert it to whatever format suits your fancy.

[KleMC]

many thanks for all your input!

to maximise the WAF, the device really needs to read direct, ie without any downloads and conversions. we went through this with our current PDA and converting to .lib via word was not amongst my wife's favourite activities...
...although I am sure that there will be easier ways these days...

So, sorry JSWolf, that rules out your Sony reader for us...

Currently, I am favouring the Nokia 770 although it seems rather difficult to get hold of in Europe. The N800 seems to be rather worse for reading.

Is there anything else in that area likely going to pop up in the next months?

cheers again,
KleMC

[HarryT]

Have you looked at UMPCs?

[KleMC]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Have you looked at UMPCs?

I have (is the 770 and the N800 not considered as such?). The pepper pad is EUR 150 more expensive, not to speak of the differenct to a Samsung Q1.
It should be a handy one (without keyboard) and < EUR 350.

Do you have a suggestion?