Hello from Germany

[CEW4]

Hello everyone!

I hit upon this forum "in the wake of" the great calibre software, which was only hours after I bought my very first ebook reader. Which, in turn, was only the day before yesterday, which makes me a greenhorn in the field (of readers, that is; not of reading - I hope. ;-) )

It was a classic "hadn't planned to" purchase: I strolled into the bookshop, went right past the reader demo-stand without a thought and lost myself in the back-room shelves. When I emerged again some time later I once again came by the stand, and this time remembered that even the day before I had expressly missed a device of that class. Of course, then I had been looking into tablet PCs (and found nothing elegible), not even considering a dedicated ebook reader. After all, these readers are notoriously locked into their various DRM schemes, and I'm not even tolerating such, much less buy into it.

As I made my third pass, I noticed that the signs mentioned not only EPUB, but also PDF and TXT support. I came closer to investigate, and after consulting the manual proved that, yes, one could just copy content onto the reader like you do with an USB stick, I took the risk. (To be perfectly honest, I did so after the sales clerk informed me that there was a special extended money-back period for the introduction offer. ;-) )

So I went home with my first ebook-reader. Shortly afterwards, I found calibre to convert the books I already had (mostly LIT), and so began what marketing experts would possibly call my "Reading Experience NT". <g>

Regards,
CEW4

[GeoffC]

Welcome to mobileread .... Enjoy .

Calibre is GREAT - as too is the Patricia Clark Library here on Mobileread ...

We also have a Deutsches Forum you may be interested in....

[CEW4]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Welcome to mobileread .... Enjoy .

Thanks, I'm sure I will!

Calibre is GREAT - as too is the Patricia Clark Library here on Mobileread ...
We also have a Deutsches Forum you may be interested in....

I've seen that, yes. I have a feeling that in the weeks to come there will be a lot more reading and a lot less TV for me than there ordinarily would be. Which, of course, was just what I had in mind. :-)

Regards,
CEW4

[ImogenRose]

Hello and welcome to MR!

Imogen

[neilmarr]

Good to have your company, CEW. And I think you're right about the convenience novel reading of an ebook reader overwhelms the convenience goggling of TV. The pictures are better. Best wishes. Neil

[jbcohen]

Geeze your English is great, my German is a bit rusty and needs practice. Have you thought of visiting the German forum on this site?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=159

[Bilbo1967]

Welcome CEW4!

How are you finding the Oyo? I was in Essen earlier this week and spotted the Oyo in a book shop there. I'd never seen one before (or even heard of it) so had a look. It looked quite nice, but I already have 3 Sonys and my wife would kill me if I spent any more on e-readers

[CEW4]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Welcome CEW4!

Thanks!

How are you finding the Oyo?

I'm downright enthusiastic, actually. For years, I've read articles about ebook readers, how they are holding promise, how they are not taking on, how this company and that company tried again with a new device, how this publisher and that made the monumental announcement to support ebooks in the future and so on.

All this time, I was sure never to buy into the scheme: Why should I? Why should I spend so much money to make my reading actually worse than it had been before? My paper book never has depleted power supply, the picture/contrast is the best it could possibly be, and if I accidentally sit on it on the train, no harm done. While being a nice gadget, an e-reader had only drawbacks for me, not a single (not one!) benefit.

Of course, if there would be a device that could display any content I already had in digital form, from that user manual that I scanned (GIF), that NASA report I'd been glancing at (pdf), and that Microsoft tutorial (whatever), not to mention all the ASCII texts I've collected during the past 25 years, all this with a decent battery life, then the issue would be a whole lot different.

But there wasn't a device like that. A device that I could not access myself at will like an USB-stick was not even a contender. And for years, all readers had exactly that flaw. Granted that you may have been able to circumvent this on a few devices by manually converting your content, but that was work, and again: Why should I pay money only to be required to work more than I had before?

The Oyo cleared all those issues for me:

- It is affordable enough to "take the risk and see how I like it"
- It is not locked in any way, you could transfer grandma's bus pass onto it and it wouldn't care
- It serves the basic formats natively (PDF, TXT, EPUB) and thanks to Calibre (invaluable!) displays anything in my store

That's the facts, probably equally important, after all, are the personal impressions:

- The Oyo is a basic down-to-earth no-frills provide-what-you-really-need device. I don't need a camera in a reader. I don't need a Facebook client. I don't need a shining silver polish that I have to wipe clean after every touch from the finger prints, either.

- On the other side, all you need is there: Mechanical keys so you don't have to use the touchscreen for basic operations (I really hate that gesture-mania. I want a "prev/next" key. Period.) For complex menu operations, the touch screen is still there.


From that description you can see why the Oyo is for me: I don't mind the slow touch screen response because apart from the menu, I don't use it. The display speed has also been criticized, but it's quick enough for page-turning, and I don't require more from it. The casing is plastic, not en-vogue-aluminium, but I rather have the plastic if I could choose, too. On the other hand, the textured back (still plastic) is very agreeable to me. And having left out all the frills I would in part not need and in part even resent, the device was within a friently price range.

Bottom line: My device. :-)

I was in Essen earlier this week and spotted the Oyo in a book shop there. I'd never seen one before (or even heard of it) so had a look. It looked quite nice, but I already have 3 Sonys and my wife would kill me if I spent any more on e-readers

While I don't think it's a must have for everyone, for me it's just about tailor-made. I'm even considering getting a second one - after all, you can't buy each book two times so you can have one laying around on each of your favourite resting spots, but with digital content that, too, might just possibly change... ;-)


Regards,
CE4

[Bilbo1967]

Good to see somebody who knows exactly what they want and don't want find it at a good price.

Congratulations!

[CEW4]

To each his own. ;-)

And, I forgot: The Oyo has the perfect size and characteristics to pass off as a PADD. You can't say this for a Kindle. <vbg>

Regards,
CEW4

[happy_terd]

Hello and welcome to MR!!!

[beachwanderer]

Originally Posted by CEW4

The Oyo cleared all those issues for me:

- It is affordable enough to "take the risk and see how I like it"
- It is not locked in any way, you could transfer grandma's bus pass onto it and it wouldn't care
- It serves the basic formats natively (PDF, TXT, EPUB) and thanks to Calibre (invaluable!) displays anything in my store

That's the facts, probably equally important, after all, are the personal impressions:

- The Oyo is a basic down-to-earth no-frills provide-what-you-really-need device.

From that description you can see why the Oyo is for me: I don't mind the slow touch screen response because apart from the menu, I don't use it. The display speed has also been criticized, but it's quick enough for page-turning, and I don't require more from it.

Bottom line: My device. :-)

Hi CEW4!

Welcome to MR!

Nice to hear that you have found what you are looking for. You will have noticed that some folks are not very enthusiastic about the device as they don't like the screen-quality (it not being eInk and seen by some as somewhat on the greyish side). But well, it's a question of personal taste. I myself have no intention of sending my "old" lBook V3 / Hanlin V3 into retirement just because there are devices with better screens (and half it's original price) around ...

Have fun here!

All the best from the shore of the Baltic Sea!

beachwanderer

[desertblues]

Hi, welcome to MR from the Netherlands. Check out the good formatted free classic books on M.R.