Private e-reader search

[Renate]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Great for those who read more than one book at a time.

But that's why you own multiple ereaders!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Renate

But that's why you own multiple ereaders!

[december-99]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your responses.

It is frustrating when technology changes so drastically in such a short amount of time.

I have another related question that I feel you may be able to answer:

If a manufacturer wanted to, do you think they could make an e-reader where you could have the ability to turn on and off a touch screen?

Part of the reason I’ve stuck with the kindle is that I learned the Jim Kwik speed reading technique. Part of the technique involves using your finger or a highlighter (with cap on) as a pacer, underlying the text as you read. I’ve found it very helpful.

It was only after months of doing it that I found I was technically doing it wrong — I was putting my finger directly on the screen. They corrected me, saying that you are supposed to not actually touch the screen (or pages if it is a physical book).

That being said, I actually prefer my way, and that is the reason why I’d rather no touch screen. Doing this really helped my reading speed and comprehension. It’s quite frustrating that everything has a touch screen now, though.

Gormagon, in terms of comments about the buttons, the early kindles have a few more buttons and you can actually look things up and bookmark, though admittedly, it is quite cumbersome.

[Sirtel]

Most modern touch screens are capacitive, i.e. they respond either to a finger or to a capacitive stylus. You could use an ordinary pencil or a piece of paper for tracking your lines, capacitive touch screens don't respond to that.

Avoid infrared touch screens, those respond to anything touching the screen.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by december-99

It is frustrating when technology changes so drastically in such a short amount of time.

It will only get worse.

Originally Posted by december-99

If a manufacturer wanted to...

We're getting into the fantasy world here. Manufacturers don't want to do anything.

To disable the touch sensor totally is not difficult. To switch it on and off is another thing. Finally, to come up with a user method to control it is yet another.

This would all be not difficult if you could accept the screen being always inactive and using a Bluetooth mouse (or even USB) when you wanted to select something. You wouldn't even have to touch the software. Just open the device and unplug the capacitive sensor.

[Frogm4n]

Originally Posted by december-99

That being said, I actually prefer my way, and that is the reason why I’d rather no touch screen.

The Kindle Oasis can have touch disabled while reading, only responding to the turn and power buttons. Normal function is returned by pressing the power button to turn the screen of and back on. You can bypass registration, but some features are not activated until it is registered.

[Gormagon]

Originally Posted by Renate

But that's why you own multiple ereaders!

I own multiple ereaders (I also define tablets as ereaders when using them to read a book, comic, magazine or paper) and I must admit that I use different sized ereaders for different purposes. My Meebook and the TCL Nxtpaper 11 tablet and Nxtpaper phone for epubs, larger tablets for comics and magazines or epubs where colours are important. Also a larger screen is helpful with scientific papers (mostly PDFs, although more and more papers are also available as epubs these days). Besides the TCL phone or 11 tablet are more suitable using on the train than a larger tablet (plus I bought the tablet quite cheap so I don't have to treat it like raw eggs while riding on a train).

Originally Posted by Renate

Manufacturers don't want to do anything.

If it sells then manufacturers want to do anything. Most gadgets are me-too-products anyway. There's hardly something totally new these days. A little tweaking here and there, that's usually all.

[Renate]

I was playing with the not-very-documented FocalTech FT5452 touch sensor on my Go6.

# ./fts
In use
FocalTech FT5452, version 08
3 points

I haven't found a (nice) way to kill it yet.

Edit: Well, I did find a way to kill it for the Poke3, Poke5, Go6.
It kills it dead. To restore, just close the cover, wait a second, open it.
You have to be rooted and you have to figure out a way to run a small executable.
ADB shell works but doesn't score high for accessibility.

If you want to try this for one of three devices above or another Android-y device, just shout.

[Gormagon]

There's also the Penstar eNote which has no touch feature and works with a stylus and lots of buttons. Here's a review from My Deep Guide: https://youtu.be/2QRATzuP8-k