Is the ETI-2 from Filament really a deal?

[jabberwock_11]

The Filament book club is currently "giving away" an ETI-2 with a new subscription to their book club. The ETI-2 (AKA EB-1150) is the ereader that I have had my eye on for a bit (I currently use a windows mobile device with mobipocket), but I am hesitant to go for this deal because I am not sure if I will be able to download books from other sources or if I will be restricted to the Filamnet book club's selection. I am assuming I will be able to use it just like I would the EB-1150.

Does anyone know if you can still download ebooks from fictionwise and other such sources using an ETI-2 from Filament?

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by jabberwock_11

The Filament book club is currently "giving away" an ETI-2 with a new subscription to their book club. The ETI-2 (AKA EB-1150) is the ereader that I have had my eye on for a bit (I currently use a windows mobile device with mobipocket), but I am hesitant to go for this deal because I am not sure if I will be able to download books from other sources or if I will be restricted to the Filamnet book club's selection. I am assuming I will be able to use it just like I would the EB-1150.

Does anyone know if you can still download ebooks from fictionwise and other such sources using an ETI-2 from Filament?

They are both the same device; as far as I can tell, other than the machine, they are identical. In other words, you can use fictionwise and ebookwise for books.

--
Bill

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by bill_mchale

They are both the same device; as far as I can tell, other than the machine, they are identical. In other words, you can use fictionwise and ebookwise for books.

--
Bill

as bill said, you can read books from any bookshop, providing you convert them to .imp format first (very easy, with nrapallo's imp conversion tools for lit and mobi formats).

whether it is a good deal will depend more on whether the bookclub offers books which interest you, in my opinion. if it doesn't, you'd be better off buying the eb1150 without the bookclub deal.

i will say, that despite its shortcomings, it's a brilliant device. i love mine.

[bill_mchale]

I seriously thought about getting an eti2 when I was searching for my ebook reader. There were two reasons I didn't.

The first concern I had was about the limited size of the memory cards available for it (and the fact that they are fairly pricey).

The second concern was that it plays far nicer with Windows systems than it does with either Mac OS-X or Linux systems. Since I don't use Windows, I decided not to go with it.

Oh there was one other factor...
While it is fairly easy to convert books to imp, the reverse is not true. As far as I can tell there is no tool that will convert an imp file into another format. Therefore, if you buy it, I highly recommend buying your books from someplace like fictionwise which allow you to download non DRM'd books in multiple formats.

--
Bill

[zelda_pinwheel]

i must agree with bill's comments above, but for me they weren't serious enough considerations to convice me not to get an eti2. here is my perspective on them.

- small and pricey memory cards : true. but on my original 64mo card i could have over 100 books (including several omnibus editions, and several illustrated books, so i estimate closer to 120 books or more). now i have a 128mo card which will hold over 200 books. for my needs, this is plenty ; i recently took it on a 3 week trip and had plenty to read whatever my mood. if, with over 200 books to choose from, i still can't find anything to tempt me, i must not really be in the mood for reading. and since i'm rarely away from my computer for so long, i can easily add new books as i go, depending on what i want to read. as for the price, i definitely recommend buying the eti2 with a memory card to start with ; one might be enough for you, depending on your reading habits / how far away you are from your computer on a regular basis. if you want more, keep your eyes open for deals, sometimes you can find a (somewhat) better price (check ebay and also our flea market here).

- plays nicer with windows than other OS : true if you use the original software, however take a look in the ebookwise forum, i'm pretty sure that the same nrapallo has been developping some linux tools, and i think the perl tools can work on other OS (but i'm not positive). i don't know how far along they are, i don't use linux so haven't been following too closely. nonetheless a good point, particularly for mac users.

- imp is a dead end format : sad but very true, and not only that but it is in some ways frustratingly limited (doesn't support a complete UTF-8 charset, so for instance the phonetic transcriptions of dictionary entries using special characters often can't be displayed properly), and the two default fonts (which can't be changed, to my knowledge) are not the most attractive i've ever seen. ironically, in other ways it is actually better than, say, mobipocket (supports true pagination, can embed images in the text rather than just insert them between two blocks of text...). nrapallo (him again !) is also working on a way to recover the text from imp files, but it's still an imperfect system and might never be really satisfactory. so like bill, i strongly recommend that any book you buy be in a more easily archivable format (like mobi or even better lit, both of which can be "exploded" into their basic elements including an html file, which is very good for archival purposes and can be converted to imp or any other format in seconds).

i originally bought mine because i wasn't sure i would like the digital reading experience, and it was a cheap way to test the waters. now that i've used it i love the ergonomy so much that i find it compensates for all the other shortcomings (although i do get frustrated and complain about them sometimes). i still want a liseuse with an e-ink screen, but to be honest i'm not sure i'm willing to sacrifice the brilliant ergonomy for it. my ideal liseuse would have an e-ink screen with those two big buttons on the eb1150, and you would be able to rotate the screen and have the buttons automatically remap correspondingly, so you could hold it in either hand comfortably and read one-handed (oh, and it would support at the least html, epub, rtf and doc natively, with images and external links). i'm still waiting for that...

[nrapallo]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

...nrapallo (him again !) is also working on a way to recover the text from imp files, but it's still an imperfect system and might never be really satisfactory.

To simply convert .imp to .txt, use deimp v0.1 available from the thread Converting .IMP to anything? WE ARE NOW THERE!

Then, convert the .txt to your preferred ebook format. Crude, but at least now there is a way!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by nrapallo

To simply convert .imp to .txt, use deimp v0.1 available from the thread Converting .IMP to anything? WE ARE NOW THERE!

Then, convert the .txt to your preferred ebook format. Crude, but at least now there is a way!

well there you have it.

of course, without wanting to diminish in any way the worthy efforts of nick, any book converted to .txt format will lose all of its formatting (bold, italic, headers, images...) so this is brilliant if you have an .imp book you can't find in any other format but i'd save it as a last solution.

[nrapallo]

BTW, you can only read .IMP ebooks natively on this reader.

All other formats must first be converted to .imp using the ETI's (manufacturer's) freely available software eBook Publisher or one of many other programs listed here in our own wiki pages (see IMP software).

Converting .imp to .html (with formatting styles and images) is "on my plate", but I'm not there yet... eh, did I hear anyone ask for Impperl ...