Nokia 770 or Reader, which one do you want?

[javadou]

I am still wondering about the market of E-Reader,just like SONY PRS500,Jinke V2,iRex.... My friend bought a Nokia 770. It's very good. It's based on the real linux OS and you can develop software on that. Real color screen and high resolution (800*600) and so on. The price about Nokia 770 and E-reader are around 350USD. the only big difference between them is E-ink screen. In my opinion, if the e-reader is under 250USD, I maybe buy it. If under around 150USD, I will buy it.

what do you think about that?

[lasala]

I own a N770 and I think that the 770 should not be considered an ebook reader. The screen is great but its an LCD screen and consumes a lot of power.
Reading books on this device is not very good. However, it is a rgeat device to read RSS feed and visit news sites.

I have uploaded a couple of pdf books. Every page turn, takes long and scrolling is a hassle.

[javadou]

thanks,
What do you think of the price?

Originally Posted by lasala

I own a N770 and I think that the 770 should not be considered an ebook reader. The screen is great but its an LCD screen and consumes a lot of power.
Reading books on this device is not very good. However, it is a rgeat device to read RSS feed and visit news sites.

I have uploaded a couple of pdf books. Every page turn, takes long and scrolling is a hassle.

[ascherjim]

I beg to differ regarding the Nokia 770. I also have recently purchased one (on sale at $299) on the basis of this recommendation (http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=3994) and my own perceptions. I have previously used a eBookwise 1150 which I love but which my wife has taken over. Rather than buy a second one, I thought I'd try the Nokia. It's wonderful. Highly legible with instant page turning. I use the FBReader, which enables a wide range of font and type size formatting. In advance, I decided againt the upcoming eInk readers, as they have reported to have quite slow page turning and no back lighting. I can read for over seven hours without recharging the battery. And of course I can surf the internet with it and read email with it. But the eBookwise is excellent also, at a third the price.

[drachasor]

I would think that the 6" screen of the Sony or V6/2 ereader devices would be more important than a color display--the Nokia has just a bit over a 4" screen.

[ascherjim]

I also was initially dubious regarding the screen size, vis a vis the EBookwise (and Sony). However, I agree with the web recommendation I cited: it's not the size of the screen but the clarity of the image (type). I, surprising to myself, do not in any way feel disadvantaged in my reading comfort by the use of a smaller screen. In the portrait mode, I have the feeling I'm reading a full sized-page.

[drachasor]

Really? Hmm. Maybe I'll take a look at the Nokia, though I think I'd prefer the longer battery life of an eink display, as well as the passive display technology (less straining on the eyes).

[ascherjim]

Your concerns are certainly viable. Unfortunately, you're probably going to have a longer wait than anticipated to be able to personally have a hands-on look at the eInk readers. I will look forward to learning your eventual findings.l

[Liviu_5]

Hi,

I have several questions about book reading on the Nokia 770?

1. Did you try pdf's and how they display?
2. What about images (say jpg but any format will do), what is the maximum resolution they can have?
3. How do you turn pages? Button or pen?
4. How do you access the books? Open then from a folder like on a pc, and then they stay in something like a taskbar until closed?
5. When reading do you have anything else on the screen (e.g. taskbar) or automatically you get only the full text like in Ebk1150?

As mentioned before, I am looking for another reading device outside my Ebk1150 (which I really like) for various reasons and I am excited about the new eink devices, but price, refresh rate, unclear conversion tools (for the Sony) as well as unclear availability make me very willing to consider alternatives.

Thank you,

Liviu

Originally Posted by ascherjim

I beg to differ regarding the Nokia 770. I also have recently purchased one (on sale at $299) on the basis of this recommendation (http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=3994) and my own perceptions. I have previously used a eBookwise 1150 which I love but which my wife has taken over. Rather than buy a second one, I thought I'd try the Nokia. It's wonderful. Highly legible with instant page turning. I use the FBReader, which enables a wide range of font and type size formatting. In advance, I decided againt the upcoming eInk readers, as they have reported to have quite slow page turning and no back lighting. I can read for over seven hours without recharging the battery. And of course I can surf the internet with it and read email with it. But the eBookwise is excellent also, at a third the price.

[ascherjim]

To answer your questions in order:

1. No, I have not tried pdf files. I have been able readily to convert all my downloads (from their initial formats if necessary) to some variation of .txt or .html file. These work fine.

2. I have not tried images, but with the high quality screen, I would expect no problem. I may be wrong on this, though, as I haven't tried it, and really have not too much interest in it.

3. I turn pages with the toggle button wonderfully positioned on the side. And the pages turn instantly, as I mentioned.

4. When I bring up the FBReader application, the last book I was reading comes up on the screen, at the place where I left off (the same as with the eBookwise 1150). When I want to read another title, I click on the library icon with the stylus, and the list of book titles on my memory card is listed (again, the same as on the 1150). I can then tap on a different title, and that then appears on the screen.

5. On the screen, you have your choice of having a taskbar present or to push a button on the side to get a full text screen eliminating the task bar, to maximize screen space. I also designate a 90-degree roatation so I can read the book in portrait mode. When the taskbar is not present, you can accomplish similar commands using the keys on the front or side.

In summary, based on my current experience, if you like and are comfortable with the features of the 1150, you should feel comfortable using the Nokia. I understand that designers of the FBReader are in the process of making improvements, such as search and highlight functions, which at present are not yet incorporated (but which are in the 1150). I hope this is useful. Let me know if there's any other information I can provide. Jim

[CommanderROR]

for me screen size is important. those tiny PDa screens are really uncomfortable for reading. You either have to make the fonts very small, move your nose up to the touchscreen so close it almost touches or you make the font larger and thenyou have to turn pages every 3 sentences.
I'm hoping for e-ink...pricing is an issue, availability too, but I guess I can wait a bit....it won't kill me...I still have enough paper book slying around.
The slow display is not really a problem. Turning a page in a book also takes a second...I'm sure nobody is complaining about that. I haven't seen it "live" yet, but from waht I've read and seen in the vids it appears to be acceptable. You probably won't notice the delay after a couple of days.

My only real concern is, that content has to be made available...I don't want to be forced into "pirating" my books just because ebooks are scarce and priced on par with hardcovers.
As for the Nokia and similar devices...taking into account how much I read, it would probably not be a good idea to use one of those. battery-life would be my first concern. Even if the battery is great, it'll be flat after 2-3 days at most (my PDA can hardly manage 3 hours of reading) and that's not what I want, especially if I take my "book" with me on vacation or read it on the train where there is not necessarily an AC output available at all times...

[Liviu_5]

Hi,

Thank you for answering me promptly. The Nokia sounds interesting though I am not sure I would be comfortable to a screen that small, however good the fonts. Fortunately they have one in store at my local CompUsa so I can go and check it out by this weekend.
The other concern I have is more "philosophical", namely that Nokia is designed as a Net tablet so most of its features are geared towards that, so it is like buying a BMW to drive to my grocery store. For net, though I use the tablet in bed, I am too used to a 3 monitor setup that I have been using now for 7 yrs or so, so even a laptop seems so small...
The good part about Nokia is that from what I read in the Teleread review kindly provided earlier, I can write my scripts to run on it, so if I have enough energy to do it I will probably be able to get/hack software to take a pdf/djvu book and convert one page at a time in readable format like people did it with the Librie, if the natively provided pdf reader is not good.

Thank you again,

Liviu

Originally Posted by ascherjim

To answer your questions in order:



In summary, based on my current experience, if you like and are comfortable with the features of the 1150, you should feel comfortable using the Nokia. I understand that designers of the FBReader are in the process of making improvements, such as search and highlight functions, which at present are not yet incorporated (but which are in the 1150). I hope this is useful. Let me know if there's any other information I can provide. Jim

[ascherjim]

One (hopefully) final observation on the Nokia screen size. I gave up years ago trying to read my ebooks on my PDA (Dell Axim) as the screen size was just too small. The Nokia screen size, in my estimation, is just enough larger than that of a PDA to make the difference. I recognize that it's a fine line between a screen being too small and not too small. For me, obviously, the Nokia has crossed that line. Good luck in your quest. Jim

[ascherjim]

A correction to an earlier statement I made regarding the FBReader -- that it did not yet have a search function. I'd forgotten: it has a very good "find" function. So for now it's only lacking the highlighting and dictionary look-up functions that the 1150 has.

[Liviu_5]

Hi,

I want to thank you for recommending the Nokia 770. I went to CompUsa on Thursday (4/6) and when I saw it, I immediately bought it. I had a problem in that the display failed after several hours (seems to be a relatively common problem this display failure in the first several days of use, once you pass the 10th or so boot, it seems that you are safe - as mentioned on a Nokia forum), but I exchanged it without hassle on Friday and it's been working great since then.

I use Sans 20, yellow text on black background, portrait, default formatting for the Fbreader and indeed it is a pleasure to read, better than print in some ways. It is a bit quirky to set up the encoding of the text (I tried several books in all the languages I read in -english, french, romanian and I managed to get an encoding that works for any book, though sometimes it is different for the same language in different books - even english language etexts who work on US ASCII in general have funny mostly russian characters if they have french quotations say - for example the latest issue of National Review that I read last night; just a pity that The Economist does not allow me to download the whole issue as a file like NR does, even though I am a print subscriber since it would be so great to read it on Nokia, far better than on my PC). Page buttons are positioned acceptably, sometimes they seem small in comparison to Ebk1150, but I got used with them.

For pdf I installed Evince and it works nicely since it does portrait, though it is somewhat slow. Also images are a pleasure to view either in the image viewer or collated in a html file in Fbreader which allows to move through them with the buttons so in full screen mode. Once I get my 1 Gb card (48$ Ebay), I will try to implement the swap and later if I get the time/energy to implement the extended file system. For pdf's the swap seems to be necessary to get acceptable speed. I can read comfortably my math books, though I will wait for the card to decide if I keep them pdf's or do them jpg's for Fbreader, it will depend how fast Evince gets once I implement the swap.

The Net works ok, a bit slow due to memory, but I need a browser that does portrait. Since I do not really care about Net surfing on the Nokia right now (in bed I use the tablet which is pretty fast), I have not checked if someone provided one in the application list at maemo.org

Once again thank you for pointing me to this great device.

Liviu

Originally Posted by ascherjim

One (hopefully) final observation on the Nokia screen size. I gave up years ago trying to read my ebooks on my PDA (Dell Axim) as the screen size was just too small. The Nokia screen size, in my estimation, is just enough larger than that of a PDA to make the difference. I recognize that it's a fine line between a screen being too small and not too small. For me, obviously, the Nokia has crossed that line. Good luck in your quest. Jim