Hacking an LCD picture Frame? Appeal

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Name something with an LCD screen that runs on 2 aa batteries for a month.

My 2" Garmin GPS device! With a transflective LCD screen which turns off its backlight after 30 seconds...

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

My 2" Garmin GPS device! With a transflective LCD screen which turns off its backlight after 30 seconds...

D'you think it could be hacked to allow Gutenberg feeds so it could read ebooks?

[esecallum]

2" is to small.Women prefer 8 to 12 inches.

This is more like it:


http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2009/10/1...vice-launched/

by Darren Allan

Openmoko has announced the US launch of its WikiReader, a portable device which provides offline access to Wikipedia articles.

Priced at $99, WikiReader features a basic monochrome touchscreen display, and three million English language Wikipedia articles stored on a microSD card.

The company plans to offer updated memory cards every quarter, so you can keep up to speed with Wikipedia’s ever-changing landscape. Minus the editing cat-fights, of course. A year’s subscription to the updates will cost $30.

While the display isn’t backlit, the good news is with a low energy consumption it will apparently run for the best part of a year on two AAA batteries.

No word yet on whether it’s due for a UK release.


amazing they can do it and the batteries last a year!!!!

for $99.

Now i wonder if can be used to read txt,html,rtf,etc...

i wonder how big the screen is?


update!!!!


Here are the pictures:-


http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wikirea...et-13-10-2009/

my comments...my review

oh my god it is so ugly...........so hideous...so awful looking...

the proportions are all wrong!! a horrible square shape.it looks disgusting.

what were they thinking?

it looks so uncool....nobody would want to be seen dead with that...

what brain dead designer thought of that shape...why not rectangular....?

designer morons...


arrrrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

[Sweetpea]

I rather like it actually. And I find 2" large enough for my Garmin. I don't need a TV on my bike. And as ebook reader, I prefer 5 or 6 inches.

I think they made it square because it's easier to hold. It should fit in the palm of your hand. It's not made as a book reading tool, but as an encyclopedia tool. I find the looks of it appealing. I'd buy it right now...

[PhishStyx]

Comparing the image of the hand holding the device to my own hand, I'd say it's roughly actual size, thus about 2.5" vertical x 4" wide x just under 5" diagonal.

[DrMoze]

That looks more like a 4" diagonal screen to me, based on the hand size, etc.

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

My 2" Garmin GPS device! With a transflective LCD screen which turns off its backlight after 30 seconds...

Technically your colorado will run about 18 hours on one charge. The rest of the time I suspect it is off. I have a Vista HCx I love with similar excellent battery life

[esecallum]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I rather like it actually. And I find 2" large enough for my Garmin. I don't need a TV on my bike. And as ebook reader, I prefer 5 or 6 inches.

I think they made it square because it's easier to hold. It should fit in the palm of your hand. It's not made as a book reading tool, but as an encyclopedia tool. I find the looks of it appealing. I'd buy it right now...

rectangular is easier to hold that is why cell phones are rectangular.In fact most devices including remotes

"It's not made as a book reading tool, but as an encyclopedia tool".

so you saying encyclopedias are not books?

[sigmax]

Hi there folks

Even transreflective technology is bad as hell. The solution is the NEW lcd technology (used in "one laptop per child" XO computers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm8Wo...rom=PL&index=7

Mary Lou, The inventor of this new "lcd twist" explains in that video why it is really better than other technologies, and you can see it actually in there, working out quite well (compared for example to the transreflective technology).

Other fact that sucks up battery is LCD REFRESH SPEED. Each time the LCD refresh with new information, there is a power surge, both for the processor and the needed power to produce the change in the LCD.

But guess what: An ebook reader would not need refresh until something changes on the display

Regards!

[BillSmithBooks]

Esecallum:
To elaborate a little, there are "work arounds" for what you want. I'm assuming that low cost is your primary concern.

Two options spring to mind:

1) Rasterbook allows you to convert text files to a series of picture files (jpg I believe), which can then be loaded onto a datacard that you can slip into your picture viewer. (Most digital picture viewers do accept some type of datacard.)

You read the book by moving from one picture file to the next--just like turning a page. The biggest challenge is picking the correct screen/pixel size.

This technique also works on not-so-smart phones with picture viewers.

Get Rasterbook at:

http://a-i-studio.com/rasterbook/

This was originally noted at the BooksforaBuck.com site; thanks to Nick Preece for pointing this out:

http://www.booksforabuck.com/writers...one-ebook.html

http://www.booksforabuck.com/writers/creative_zen.html

I don't think spending three minutes to convert a book is a big deal considering that you will most likely spend hours reading it, but to each his own. *shrugs*

2) Get a cheap mp4 player. No-name knockoffs that mimic the form of the IPod Touch can be had for $20-30 on Ebay. They plays mp3s, mp4 videos, have picture viewers and many of the newer units have built-in plain text readers. Screen size is small, normally about 2.5" diagonal.

Again, you're better off getting a unit that can accept a memory card, but it is fairly straightforward to load files on most units--just plug into your PC via USB cable. Your PC should see the device as just another USB drive. Drag the files across to the player.

Even without a text reader, you can still use (Rasterbook) to produce picture files to read and load them into the picture viewer directories on the device.

This is one of the things I'm most excited about when it comes to ereaders: Very cheap ebook readers are HERE if you're willing to do a little legwork and accept some compromises. As technology continues its relentless pace of improvement, I expect this will become a much more viable option for people on a limited budget.

I also find the wikireader intriguing. I suspect we'll see an ebook hack appear about three seconds after the reader is released into the wild.

I'm surprised that the ebook community has not made a bigger deal about this. We should be trumpeting "Ebook readers for $20" from the rooftops.

This approach is a lot more likely to be adopted by teens and those on limited budgets--most people in that age group would snort Monster energy drink out their nose at the suggestion that they should run out and spend $200 on a Kindle or Sony reader. (Although quite a few have netbooks.)

Of course, maybe the reason it's not being promoted is that the only people who benefit from this functionality are publishers. The device manufacturers throw the ebook reader on as a "here's a little something extra," a throwaway.

But the very same publishers who could sell ebooks to millions of people with portable media players are paralyzed about selling non-DRMd books in an open format like plain text...and so they lose out on a HUGE potential market.

[esecallum]

Originally Posted by BillSmithBooks

Esecallum:
To elaborate a little, there are "work arounds" for what you want. I'm assuming that low cost is your primary concern.

Two options spring to mind:

1) Rasterbook allows you to convert text files to a series of picture files (jpg I believe), which can then be loaded onto a datacard that you can slip into your picture viewer. (Most digital picture viewers do accept some type of datacard.)

You read the book by moving from one picture file to the next--just like turning a page. The biggest challenge is picking the correct screen/pixel size.

This technique also works on not-so-smart phones with picture viewers.

Get Rasterbook at:

http://a-i-studio.com/rasterbook/

This was originally noted at the BooksforaBuck.com site; thanks to Nick Preece for pointing this out:

http://www.booksforabuck.com/writers...one-ebook.html

http://www.booksforabuck.com/writers/creative_zen.html

I don't think spending three minutes to convert a book is a big deal considering that you will most likely spend hours reading it, but to each his own. *shrugs*

2) Get a cheap mp4 player. No-name knockoffs that mimic the form of the IPod Touch can be had for $20-30 on Ebay. They plays mp3s, mp4 videos, have picture viewers and many of the newer units have built-in plain text readers. Screen size is small, normally about 2.5" diagonal.

Again, you're better off getting a unit that can accept a memory card, but it is fairly straightforward to load files on most units--just plug into your PC via USB cable. Your PC should see the device as just another USB drive. Drag the files across to the player.

Even without a text reader, you can still use (Rasterbook) to produce picture files to read and load them into the picture viewer directories on the device.

This is one of the things I'm most excited about when it comes to ereaders: Very cheap ebook readers are HERE if you're willing to do a little legwork and accept some compromises. As technology continues its relentless pace of improvement, I expect this will become a much more viable option for people on a limited budget.

I also find the wikireader intriguing. I suspect we'll see an ebook hack appear about three seconds after the reader is released into the wild.

I'm surprised that the ebook community has not made a bigger deal about this. We should be trumpeting "Ebook readers for $20" from the rooftops.

This approach is a lot more likely to be adopted by teens and those on limited budgets--most people in that age group would snort Monster energy drink out their nose at the suggestion that they should run out and spend $200 on a Kindle or Sony reader. (Although quite a few have netbooks.)

Of course, maybe the reason it's not being promoted is that the only people who benefit from this functionality are publishers. The device manufacturers throw the ebook reader on as a "here's a little something extra," a throwaway.

But the very same publishers who could sell ebooks to millions of people with portable media players are paralyzed about selling non-DRMd books in an open format like plain text...and so they lose out on a HUGE potential market.

Thanks but unfortunately your method is very cumbersome and laborious.

I just want to copy/paste the books to the the memory and voila!

I don't want to read books from display which emits light.

The wiki reader is awful and tied to a format.


Kindle is too expensive but competition might drive th price down.

As Perez Hilton said ,"Cry havoc and unleash the dogs of war!"

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by sigmax

Hi there folks

Even transreflective technology is bad as hell.

I love transflective screens. For me they have the best of both worlds. Easy to read in daylight with the backlight turned off, easy to read in the dark with the backlight turned on and available.

Please give me a link where I can buy a device with a Pixel Qi screen.

Originally Posted by esecallum

Thanks but unfortunately your method is very cumbersome and laborious.

I just want to copy/paste the books to the the memory and voila!

I don't want to read books from display which emits light.

The wiki reader is awful and tied to a format.


Kindle is too expensive but competition might drive th price down.

As Perez Hilton said ,"Cry havoc and unleash the dogs of war!"

Wait... How do you think those LCD picture frames show pictures? Last I checked, they emitted light...

[esecallum]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I love transflective screens. For me they have the best of both worlds. Easy to read in daylight with the backlight turned off, easy to read in the dark with the backlight turned on and available.

Please give me a link where I can buy a device with a Pixel Qi screen.



Wait... How do you think those LCD picture frames show pictures? Last I checked, they emitted light...

Not if they were transreflective.

anyway i accidently went to waterstones booksellers and they had the sony pr600 reader on display both the 4 and 6 inch version...

you were allowed to play with them.

Here is my hands on review:-

the 4 inch screen was silver and more acceptable but again the screen was small and the frame too thick at 1/2 an inch...screen was smaller then a paperback.They are really ripping you off by keeping the screen small.


by god they were ugly looking and clunky.

the 6 inch had a hideous black frame 1/2 inch thick just like phil spectors thick frame NHS glasses but even more uglier...surrounding the screen.

it was screaming dorkdom to me. hideous fugly ..no style at all.

bad design..the black frame was off putting...distracting and mendacious.

it oozed a dork's geekdom and frankly i would not bee seen dead with one of these shouting "i am a nerd" to the world.

the black looked like made from cheap slippery bakelite plastic.

the silver spray painted one had a horrible slippery slimy feel to it in the same way the metallic 6500s sony ericson moblie phone feels slippery with a that slippery silver finish.

the 6500 s mobile phone always feels very slippery ,as if about to slip out of my fingers any moment and gives me the creeps.

what were sony thinking?

the controls were like wading through molasses and slower then bill gates vista running crysis 1

you click and you wait....

and wait...


and wait...

poor response.

the price was a rip off at a rip off £179 for the silver 4 inch.

£256 for black 6 inch "look at me i am a geek" framed one.

page turning was slow and caused it to FLASH..surely a software solution could ameliorate this like a software dissolve....

when turning the page there was a hideous flash, LIKE THIS FLASH.

very unnerving and could cause pyschosis in the epileptic.

or even death.

[Patricia]

Actually, you saw the PRS 300, which has a 5 inch screen (not the 4 inches you claim), and the PRS 600.

Anyone in pursuit of accurate information about the size and weight of these devices may wish to consult the E-book Reader Matrix on our wiki:
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix

[sigmax]

esecallum:

Transflective = backlit, there is a mirror behind the screen which will reflect surrounding light, but it is also transparent so backlight will also get through. The better PDA's will have a screen like this.

Transflective is a technology, if I correctly recall developed by SHARP (and used in their biggest SHARP ZAURUS pda models and laptops, and later licensed to other brands), which is far from perfect, and not so cool to look at direct sunlight, when compared with eink (eink is way better), and the new LCD screens (like the ones built into the OLPC XO laptops I mentioned earlier (which are also better than transflective).

The "slipperish silvery paint" you saw on the PRS-300 is actually the metal itself, aluminium, (no paint) and is quite "grippable" (more than plastic).

The pause between pulsing a control and seen a change is about 1 second.

The second itself it is because the eink is slow, but also the device is designed so it is NOT using energy when you are reading. So every time you press the buttom the device gets powered and fulfill your request. I assume that the "revival" process also counts on the timing.

I've read lots of books in my different ebook readers, and in my opinion those facts are a minimal distraction. I press the change page button, there is the black flash (some readers do not have it), and I am on the next page, just under the same timing I would have turned a real page to the next one.

Regards,

SigmaX