Story HD for $49 in US target?

[CJJ]

Originally Posted by chuckz

I am wondering also what will I get within my $7 2-year replacement policy purchased at Target if the Story stops breathing ?

$49.99 in-store credit.

[steven522]

Just went to a Target in the area I normally do not go to. They had no iRiver units in stock, but they did have about 2 dozen Belkin covers designed for the Story HD on clearance. I got a form-fitting case with easy access to the port and power switch for about $20. This is about half-price of normal:

http://www.target.com/webapp/wcs/sto...2/-/A-13730190

[CJJ]

That's a good deal. How does it stay closed? Is there a fastener of some sort?

[steven522]

The cover has a tight, form fitted sleeve that the Story slides into almost like a leather version of a silicon skin. The hard outside flaps fold around this inner cover from the top back underneath to fold up in front. There is no magnet or snap to secure this, but honestly, it feels like just the inner sleeve alone would offer pretty good protection without the outside.

I guess a simple elastic band would keep it securely closed, but I carried it around for a while yesterday and I don't think it is really an issue.

The best part is the ease of access to the power button while the unit is still inside the case.

...oh, and the full keypad is open with no chance of a side or corner button being "squashed" under the cover's edge.

[frostschutz]

Sounds good but a pic says more than thousand words. I don't get why a shop would not provide pictures from both sides... maybe even one with the device inside? Is it really that much effort to make a simple picture...

[soilwork]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Sounds good but a pic says more than thousand words. I don't get why a shop would not provide pictures from both sides... maybe even one with the device inside? Is it really that much effort to make a simple picture...

Amazon has some photos that might be helpful. (I think it is the same product).
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-UltraTh...ef=pd_sxp_f_pt

I am currently using it and it is quite good. But in terms of the screen protection, Speck will be better with harder and thicker screen cover.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...00_i00_details

But Belkin UltraThin Folio works as a bookstand so it offers some convenience over Speck case.

[frostschutz]

Ah. I checked with Amazon, but they didn't have it in Germany... although they have lots of other belkin cases there. Oh well. It sure looks nice.

[jameshunter]

i bought the belkin folio case for my iriver a few days after the target price drop. i found it on ebay for $8 shipped in the US (open package, brand new). so you might want to keep an eye on ebay for similar deals. it's kind of crazy the case sells for $40 at target (or was when i bought my iriver).

the functionality of this case is really nice. you're able to prop up the ereader at a perfect angle for your reading pleasure.

[steven522]

I just found one drawback to the belikin case. Yesterday, I had it along with me and did not back out of the book I was reading. I just flipped the cover closed, tucked it under my arm and walked from one location to another. When I got re-settled and opened the case to continue reading... the book was back to page 1. The pressure of my arm across the reader in the cover was pressing the toggle bar in the center and causing it to flip pages.

I just have to remember to back out of the book before closing the cover.

[frostschutz]

Just send it to standby. Depending on what your standby is set to it would do that anyway after a time.

If you don't want it in standby you could just open the option menu / dictionary. The center bar is useless there, whereas in the file menu it could still select an other book...

[CJJ]

Broke my screen last night. I had gotten out of bed where I was reading and hastily covered the ereader with the covers. Forgot about it when I got back in and put my palm on it when I leaned in to get back in bed. I heard a soft pop. The screen looked fine and I thought I had dodged a bullet until I turned the page. 1/2 the screen went black. Must of cracked it cleanly across the middle.

So it's off to Target for another one. Good thing they're $50 bucks. So now I have some spare parts for my other two.ha ha

[jmseight]

I just bought one from Target - I think it is the last one in my area.

I bought the Kindle 3G about a month ago (also from Target), and have been playing with it quite a bit.

I was attracted by the amazingly sharp display of the Story HD and the low price.

The Story definitely respond faster than the Kindle, and the PDF reflow works well. It also boots faster if you have a lot of books. Being able to view by folder is great.

Few things that can be improved (well documented in the forum) that I find particularly problematic: poor PDF zoom, lack of landscape zoom, margins that are too wide as specified by the epub, Chinese characters not showing up in epub (even though txt files show up great -much better than Kindle), not being able to make the PDF text darker.

From reading on the forum the Story is MUCH more difficult to hack, and easier to brick.

Thanks,
James

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by jmseight

Chinese characters not showing up in epub

I can only speak for Japanese, but characters show up fine (and I can specify custom font with my UserStyle mod). The real problem is that it does not actually recognize Japanese, i.e. it considers the whole paragraph or whatever as one word. Which in turn causes problems with the way the Story HD counts pages; which in turn causes problems with page flipping because it just can't handle pages being dozens of screens long. It starts skipping pages or gets stuck on a page etc.

But epub seems to be not that interesting for Japanese anyway as it does not support vertical mode. That only works with PDF... so you have to take the document on the PC and use some software to produce a PDF with suitable

Originally Posted by jmseight

From reading on the forum the Story is MUCH more difficult to hack, and easier to brick.

The real problem is lack of unbricking method really. If we knew how to unbrick it, it wouldn't matter that it's easy to brick in the first place. And we could do some more interesting experiments. Alas so far no experienced hardware hacker / electronics guy volunteered to crack this nut...

[jmseight]

Hi Frostschutz,

Regarding the Chinese, it may be a problem with Calibre (or my configuration). I got the txt file and converted to mobi for the Kindle, then converted to epub and fr2 for the the Story. The txt and fr2 files work great on the Story, but every chinese character of epub shows as a box with x in it.

Regarding unbricking, I think I saw a video where they show possible JTAG connections when they took apart the Story. I guess no one has been able to get this to work.

Thanks,
James

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by jmseight

Regarding unbricking, I think I saw a video where they show possible JTAG connections when they took apart the Story. I guess no one has been able to get this to work.

I tried but those JTAG pads are ridiculously small and close together.

Impossible without serious soldering experience which I don't have - I probably ruined my JTAG pads instead and it's a miracle the device isn't completely dead after what I did to it with the soldering iron.

There ought to be an easier method somewhere. I doubt iriver service does such complicated soldering when they fix bricked devices. Preferably you shouldn't even have to open the device...