Seeking a Good eBook Reading Device?

Quimbly asks: "I'm an avid reader, and I find that downloading books is much more convenient that trying to get them from the bookstore or library. However, I'm tired of sitting in front of a monitor to do my reading. I'm looking for a hand-held device to do my reading on, and I'm hoping the community has some suggestions. It seems to me that most PDAs have too small of a screen for convenient reading, and a notebook / tablet computer is too big and bulky for this simple task. So, I've been looking at a few devices designed specifically for eBook reading (e.g. the RCA REB1100, the eBookwise-1150, etc.). These look more promising, but I was disappointed to discover that the RCA device ONLY reads an encrypted, propriety eBook format, making it essentially useless. (Has anyone ever hacked one of these?) Similarly, I believe both of these devices have been discontinued by their manufacturers. I want a device that can read a variety of file formats, especially scanned, non-text PDFs. A large screen, long battery life, and good interface are other attributes I'm looking for."

PSP?

Seeing all the PSP hype, with the screen that even looks great when someone holds it up to a camera on TV, I wonder if that will make a fantastic ebook reader.

Re:PSP?

The PSP looks good on TV because it has a fairly colorful and bright display, but it doesn't seem particularly well suited to being an e-book reader:

• The screen is the wrong orientation (you can turn it, but then the controls are awkward), and the long-and-skinny format a bit odd
• The screen is somewhat low-resolution for displaying a reasonable amount of text (though fine for games). I'm not sure how much better you can do with a cheap unit, but a higher-resolution grey-scale display would be much more suitable.
• The PSP is really heavy, it's like a brick, and most of this weight is probably due to components which are completely unnecessary for reading (massive batteries, lots of chips for high-speed graphics).
• It's very expensive -- ideally an e-book reader should be something cheap enough, or robust enough, to just throw in your pocket and always have handy.
• Is there any software for this?!?

You need rbmake

Free, Open Source .rb format creator: http://rbmake.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]

print it out

I have a PDA that I used to read books on, and then an iPod that I used to read books on. Then I discovered book folds.

Print that sucker out. Our campus labs use Word which does two things I've never figured out how to replace on Linux:
1) Text editing on linux (as far as I can tell) only does things line by line. In Word I can treat the whole document as one big string which makes converting a Project Gutenburg text to a sensibly formatted document involve 3 find&replace commands. (newline to |, || to newline, | to space)
2) Book fold printing. I put the text at a <8pt font (i can read at 4pt), give it 0.2" margins, and set the page as a book fold of 12 pages. It prints out double sided and I simple fold every three pages together to create a physical book. The latest Harry Potter [tinyurl.com] book cost me 35 pages which folded down into a neat little booklet I can fit in my interior coat pocket.

Re:print it out

There's lots of text editing programs for Linux, with a wide variety of features, and I'm sure some can do the find and replace commands you mention. You can do it from the command-line too; here's what I'd do:

$ perl -i.bak -0e '$book=<>; $book=~s/\cM//g; $book=~s/\n/\x01/g; $book=~s/\x01\x01/\n/g; $book=~s/\x01/ /g; print $book'perl -e 'undef $\; $book=<>; $book=~tr/\n/|/;' book.txt

That'll format the book with one line per paragraph. If you do this a lot, you can put all of that into a script instead, so you just have to remember the name of the script instead of the whole command

In file named process_book:

#!/usr/bin/perl -i.bak -0

my $book = <>;

$book=~s/\cM//g; # Unix line endings
$book=~s/\n/\x01/g; # Collapse lines
$book=~s/\x01\x01/\n/g; # Separate paragraphs
$book=~s/\x01/ /g; # Insert whitespace

print $book;

To process a book:

$ process_book book.txt

By the way, notice that I used \x01 instead of |, since | characters might appear in the book.

Sharp Zaurus SL-5600

I read a lot of books (several a week) on my Sharp Zaurus SL-5600. I convert to Plucker from HTML, and it works great. Still not as good a reading experience as a dead tree version, but the screen is good and I can carry several hundred books around on a CF card and still have plenty of room for MP3s. I can read at night without an external light too. Don't rule out the PDA until you try it.

e-ink!

I think you are looking for something that uses e-ink. The only one that currently is out on the market is sony's E-book [dottocomu.com]

I know Philips (One of the main minds behind it) isn't ready to mass produce because they want to increase the switching speed (from black to white and inbetween) aswell as adding color.
However I've seen them work, at let me tell you, it's sweet technology. It reads very comfterably.

Reexamine notebooks and tablet PCs.

They come in all shapes and sizes. Heck...there are some notebooks out there that are too small.

iPAQ

I have enjoyed reading on my iPAQ.

At first I did not like the small screen relatively low res. screen; however, after using it for a while I got used to it and prefer it for a couple of reasons.

1. The small screen, means there are fewer words per page. The smaller word count helps me read faster, because I am not getting lost or distracted.

2. Backlight for low-light conditions. Its nice to read at night with out having a light on in the room. I think it is easier on my eyes when I get tired.

3. one hand operation. It is a lot easier to turn pages one-handed on an PDA. I can generally be more comfortable, and have good posture longer when reading off a PDA than with a book.

-MS2k

HiEbook

If you can still get your hands on one, the HiEbook (by some Korean manufacturer) is fairly decent device. I've been using mine for 10 months now, and my friend and his wife have theirs for at least twice as long. It's mainly designed just for reading ebooks, and is about A6 in size.

It can use html, doc (if you have MS Word to autoconvert) and its own format. Upload via small USB cable with (windows only) software; or via a card reader if you get a SmartMedia card for it (only up to 128MB though).

It also has some minimal PDA functions, although the CPU is underpowered, and the touch screen a little insensitive. It can, however, play mp3s through the headphone port; and has an inbuilt microphone for voice recording (can't vouch for the quality, never used it).

It comes with a few apps such as text/draw memo (no graphiti input), calendar, address, schedule; and 4 games: othello, omok, sokoban and puzzle. There is a version of minesweeper [sourceforge.net] available, and my friend is wrighting Taipei for it.

It also has a decent backlight (which unfortunately has a soft whine, so there are contraindications for using it in a quiet room), and a nice pleather holder with wrist strap; and if you do get one, use the strap, as the screen can crack if you drop it from a metre or so.

Pros:

• Decent sized (touch-)screen
• Doesn't require proprietary formats
• 3 font sizes
• Pretty pleather holder
• Pretty green backlight
• SDK available
• Charge lasts quite a while if just reading without backlight

Cons:

• Backlight whines slightly
• Contrast changes when environment is hot (have to jump to system to change it)
• Hard to find (there were only 2 left in my small city when I got mine)

Overall, although the design is a few years old now, it's the best ebook reader I've managed to find that doesn't have bad DRM. (I really wanted the sony LibrIe when I read about it, mmm e-ink, but the DRM was horrible so I didn't bother spending all that money.)

Me too

I bought an Ipaq 4150 to read ebooks on, and I've been using it a lot recently. The screen is ok, but I don't really Windows CE + MS Reader - the software leaves a lot of wasted screen space, so the amount of words on screen per page is a lot lower than I would like - I'm constantly pressing the next page button (as a comparison, a Neuromancer-sized ebook works out at pages).

I got the chance to check out the Sony Librie last year in Japan and was hugely impressed with its screen, using that new e-ink jazz. I checked it out again a couple days ago and read some reviews; unfortunately its still not available outside Japan, which is a pain (worked out around US$250 I think to import one).

I've only ever seen one displaying Japanese books, so have no idea if it can even display romanji, or what it would look like. They take Sony Memory Sticks, which is a bit annoying (but to be expected), and apparently the ebooks are all in some annoying DRM format as well (but clever people have already figured out how to make software [mobileread.com] to convert to the format, so if you're lucky enough to have a non-DRM'ed library you can just convert your .txt files, or whatever.

The only other alternatives that I've found (haven't looked too hard as my iPaq is bearable at the moment) are dedicated ebook readers which have their own pitfalls (quite expensive considering that's all they do, use their own proprietary DRM formats, not able to read other common formats, etc) and more advanced iPaq-type devices (some of the newer iPaqs have high-resolution screens, plus the ability to use MS Reader in landscape mode, which I would definitely prefer), but I', not prepared to part with the $$$ at this point.

Priorities

"I'm an avid reader, and I find that downloading books is much more convenient that trying to get them from the bookstore or library. However, I'm tired of sitting in front of a monitor to do my reading.

Sounds to me that reading in front of a monitor is 10 times the hassle of heading to the library and picking up a book or two. You've got to worry about power, portability, selection, price. In other words, you're lying when you say that downloading books is more convenient or else you wouldn't be asking how to make it more convenient.

Re:Priorities

also libraries are useful creatures, and utilizing them helps convince those who fund them to continue to do so.

Punt on dedicated e-book readers--use a Pocket PC

The e-book readers that you can actually buy are always too large and heavy. Just punt and get the very cheapest Pocket PC you can find running Windows Mobile 2003 and has a QVGA screen. The web browser and MS Reader will use the full VGA 480x640 resolution with font smoothing turned on and you can rotate it into landscape mode. Curiously enough you will need to download a hack to keep the font smoothing turned on in landscape mode.

If you want to use Tome Reader or Adobe Acrobat Reader you can download the SVGA hack that forces the entire system into VGA mode (normally it's in QVGA which is pixel-quadrupled mode). I suspect at least Adobe will have a VGA-compatible reader soon. I know that AvantGo will not.

Total cost will be way cheaper than any dedicated e-book reader and you have the choice of Tome Reader, MS Reader, Adobe Acrobat Reader, HTML browser, eDoc, MS Word, and any other format you can think of.

You might also consider a PalmOS PDA, but in order to get on that is fast enough and has high enough resolution you will be way beyond the cost of a perfectly suited Pocket PC.

What I want is a wireless VNC touchpad

What I want is a bluetooth VNC protocol based [realvnc.com] display/touchpad/terminal. The VNC RFB protocol [att.com] is lightweight enough to be deployed on the cheaper embedded processors and bluetooth chips are cheap enough. An open source PC side driver would act as a networking proxy between the PC side Xvnc virtual display [csd.uwo.ca] and the PC bluetooth network device.
Instead of an inbuilt just have two PS2 ports for a standard PC keyboard and mouse. For display sizes, 600x800 would be good, 768x1024 would be great.

In fact these devices would be cheap enough to set up a whole classroom with VNC based terminals.

Mount a solarpanel on the back to recharge the display batteries and you would help save the planet! Down with rooms full to 300-400Watt power sucking PCs!

REB 1100

I just got one a few weeks ago, there are several sources of books in the format including fictionwise and the Bean free library, blackmask online also sells a DVD (r) containing thousands of books.


the software that comes with the eBook reader points you to some software that is listed as not working with the REB1100 for making .rb files, but it does work, just don't select encrypted format and you have to reopen the project file between putting it together and exporting it unless you want a tiny useless file I have made it work before to convert HTML ebooks into .rb

An ideal device, IMO

I'd like a reader that could also double as a comicbook viewer. There's a substantial amount of CBR/CBZ files floating around, so it would be interesting to find a device, maybe magazine-sized, that had a colour display & support for various ebook formats. A Tablet PC, while close, is still a little too bulky for lying on the couch and reading.

What I'm looking for, ideally, is device with a portrait-oriented (taller than it is wide) screen, supporting at least 600x800 24-bit resolution.

I'm not an engineer, so I don't know if this could work, but what I'm thinking is this: dedicate all the space in the guts of the machine to displaying the picture and reading data from USB memorysticks. So someone make an OS that works with this specific hardware (device drivers and a minimal file-browser) and sticks it on the aforementioned memorystick. Plug it in and boot the machine.

Any external files you'd like to load have to be on a SECOND memorystick plugged into a second USB port.

A touchscreen and a few buttons would make loading and navigating through documents a breeze.

I doubt anyone will ever make such a device, though... Maybe I'll build one myself eventually.

Personally

I'd spring for one of the pocketPC line, though maybe you could find a linux palm that does the trick. Skype is worth an extra $100.

But For my ebooks I use the Palm Tungsten E with iSiloWeb (don't get X it's bloated crapware).

Handles html and pdf just fine. For downloading books try irc.nullus.net #bookwarez

Dedicated to e-Books

Interesting topic! You might want to browse through Mobileread [mobileread.com] which is discussing the pro and con of e-books and e-book devices in every possible way.

Nothing beats paper

I've looked for the same device for two years now and my conclusion is that nothing beats a laser printer and a big pile of A4 sheets.

Laptop - A desktop replacement is out of question, a portable one (Centrino) is way too big and an ultraportable one is amazingly expensive and still too big. Plus, you can't use a notbook in places where you wan't to just chill and read something because you will look like a moron and you will be forced to stay in the classic desktop position.

Tablet PC - Nice ideea, nice design (Compaq), a bit bulky but otherwise a good device for reading. Much better then a notebook. Unfortunately in Romania this things are extremely expensive. They start at 1500 euro (2000$). I don't know how long the battery can hang on but otherwise this device seems to be the best choice.

PDA - Way too small, you can't make electronic notes on the document you read, very limited processing resources, stupid user interface, pretty expensive for what it offers in the reading area.

Laser printer, A4 paper sheets - It's a pretty inexpensive solution and there are only two things that you need in order for it to work. The first one is to have some kind of ideea on what you want to read. We're talking books here so if you want to just browse things out you can do that on your desktop's LCD. The second one is to keep your printed books ordered in cabinet files. You can print out just a few chapters from one or more books and read those. When you're done you move to the next chapter and you file the previous in cabinets. At the end of any book you'll have you're own copy with annotations, stains and shit. It shure helps my photografic memory.

If you really want to stay with an electronic device my guess is that a Tablet PC is as good as it gets but it's too expensive so that it justifies it's only purpose. However the best way to read books is printing them out even though it can be a challenge to format CHM files :). The only downside to this method is the fact that you must be a little organised because it is already more expensive to print your own book then it is to get a printed copy and the only justification for doing so is the fact that you will actually read it. This chapter by chapter printing techinque can also help keep you focused on what you're reading and even though at a page level the cost is higher than a tipographic printed copy, the fact that you pay only for what you read can be more cost efective on the long run.

check out the Sony Librie

You can download converted pdf files to the device. It's very expensive, but very cool (170 dpi E Ink display).

It's available from some of the more popular grey-market importers from Japan.

treo

For me, it's primarily about availability of the device - I hate carrying around stuff. I have a treo 600 that's taken over a great deal of my PC tasks. I never started reading e-books until I got it. I have two different reader programs installed -- palmreader (for "secure" files) and tibr (which I prefer, but it doesn't handle the "secure" files). The treo 650 has better resolution and so would be be easier on the eyes, but I haven't got one yet.

Anyway, I've done so much reading with the treo (wherever I find myself waiting I can read) and gotten used to - the convenience of not turning pages - having my place saved automatically in multiple books - having a backlight so that ambient lighting is irrelevant - having all the books I've read on the device present for reference and electronic searches - etc. - that I have a hard time picking up a paper book now.

Second-hand Palm or Handspring

If a notebook or tablet PC is too big, then a Palm or Handspring might be about right. It'll run for ages on rechargeable batteries and it'll should be cheap enough not to worry about losing.

For e-book reading software, try:
http://www.plkr.org/ [plkr.org]

Homebrew ebook readers?

I've been poking about on Google for some time, with little success, searching for any project to build an ebook from off-the-shelf parts.

I'm not in any way knowledgeable in electronics, so I'm not asking about a how-to for myself. I am wondering if anyone has tried it. An LCD screen, a circuit board, a Linux-based OS, a simple means of moving ebooks in and out of the device. It doesn't have to be very complex or expensive. Color isn't necessary. If a builder wanted to be cute, build an ebook into a bound book; the paper and leather would make a nice shock absorber if the unit were dropped.

The big advantage is the flexibility of the device. No DRM. Evolving open source ebook software. Textbooks. Did I mention textbooks?

Federal law slaps a mandatory 5 year sentence for scanning a copyrighted textbook into ebook format, so good luck bringing it to class. Unless you could rig a futuristic set of display spex so that you alone could read the book without someone calling the Feds down on you. A pretty pass it has come to, when we are hiding our books from cops.

Brings me to advocating open source textbooks. A major expense for money-starved American schools is the stranglehold of the textbook industry. Phonics, arithmetic and history aren't changing so much every year that new $100 textbooks for each are required periodically. Make them free and openly available for download, and be done with it. Such projects are already online; we just need a ebook to go along with them. Laptops are overkill for this purpose.

And the censorship of the Texas school system on American textbooks has reached critical mass of late, affecting science and history taught in every part of the country.

I'd like to see every student carry ONE ebook, cheaply made and powered by open sourced software and filled with open sourced textbooks and materials. Not made by Microsoft, not controlled by the publishing industry, and not subject to cultural cleansing by the most rightist school boards in the nation. I'd have killed for such a thing when I was toting 15 books at a time in high school.

Mostly -- I want to not drown in paper books! We can't cut down every tree in the world even if it does bring on the Rapture. Literacy is going up everywhere, and no doubt book publishers are gleeful, but we can't cut down every tree in Canada. The paper-based book is an environmental disaster. Trees ain't corn; cutting them down causes Problems.

Ignore all but the first paragraph if you wish; I want to know about any projects people have heard about or even done in regards to making their own ebooks.

Cheap Solution

I spent the last year trying to find the right ebook reader for me;

My requirements:
- cheap
- mulitple formats: txt, pdf, doc, isilo, mobi, etc;
- color screen bigger than most palms, smaller than laptop

My Solution:
- used NEC MobilePro 780 off ebay running WinCE: about $99 from a reputable seller;

So far I am happy; Using serial instead of USB kinda sucks, but for the price, I am pleased. I am about to get a wireless card for it and connect it to my home network.

Worked out great for me but do you own homework first ;-)

The Everlasting Newton

The Newton's large screen makes it wonderful for reading text, even though it is in green.

REB1100 and ebookwise-1150

I have been using the REB1100 to read ebooks for years, and have recently purchased 2 ebookwise-1150 models for myself and my girlfriend. They are priceless! For the reb1100, I used the rbmake tools in Linux and the old rocketlibrarian in windows. Other shave posted links to rbmake.

Now, the ebookwise-1150 has a number of advantages over the REB1100. The battery life isn't quite as good, but it makes up for it in features. The interface is a little nicer, and the book won't lose your place if you keep reading past the "warning, battery low" message. There are other small things I like about it. Overall, I would highly recommend the ebookwise-1150. It contains all the good of the REB1100 and adds a polished interface and upgradeable firmware (this is VERY important).

Now, you can hook it up to your computer with a USB coord and, without even having to register your ebookwise, load books onto it with the "GEB eBook Librarian" (http://www.breeno.org/eBook/ [breeno.org]). Otherwise known as "ebookwise librarian", this little piece of software can convert many different formats into the ebookwise ".imp" format: txt,html,rtf,doc,etc (including those documents that contain images and hyperlinks). It also becomes the "online bookshelf" you log into from your ebookwise device, from which you will download the books themselves. There is a $15 registration fee but it is well worth it. There's also a shareware/demo version so you can try it out free. Note that unless you have a smartmedia card for your ebookwise, you won't be able to use it in Linux. This is a very small price to pay, imo.

Any more questions, send me an email.

- Eugene

Pocket PC PDAs

I personally just did the same thing and went on a quest to find a reader I could carry with me. I was spending too much time locked in front of my PC reading books.

My criteria for a PDA was cost more than anything, so I will share the problems with going for the low price as opposed to usability. I shopped Ebay for my PDA and bid on many units before I got the one that I wanted at the price that I wanted. $100 was my limit and I met that with enough to spare to upgrade my unit.

I ended up purchasing the Compaq iPaq 3765 for $75. The battery was a bit weak, as it was the original, so I immediately replaced it with a much larger one for $25. It is a gourgeous unit, I have to admit. The screen is extremely legible even when sitting in that shaded corner of the airport lobby.

I am very happy with the units handling of most ebooks. It really only likes to use Microsoft's E-reader, I have however loaded Moby Reader and Acrobat Reader on their too. I have found however, that most DRM'ed ebooks will only work with the MS reader, forcing me to buy books only in that format. It's not true for all books, but most Adobe DRM'ed books will not work on a Pocket PC device. I found an article on MS Technical Support that states that Adobe's DRM scheme won't work on the MS Mobile OS/Pocket PC. The software loads, but DRM'ed books don't work.

In short, a Pocket PC is apparently going to lock you into the MS reader format for DRM'ed books. I cannot speak for a Palm OS PDA or any other readers. I haven't ever uesed them.

Tungsten T|3 does all you want...

...except that Adobe have written the world's worst PDF reader for the Palm. Pity, as the hardware is perfect. If I had the time I'd write an application to convert PDF to bitmaps that can be viewed on the Palm - but that's easy enough that surely someone out there has done this already.

Psion PDA

I have a Diamond Mako (rebranded Psion Revo Plus) and have read a lot of ebooks on it. The screen is relatively hi-res and very crisp, so it makes reading a pleasant experience. Also, with MobiPocket Reader (free download), you can utilize 100% of the screen for reading without any toolbars or other visual junk. Also, because the screen is fairly wide for a PDA (5"), I find that speeds up reading a bit because you're not jumping lines every 5 words (although my reading speed is still slower than with a book). There are always a number of Psion devices (Mako/Revo, Series 5, Series 5MX) on Ebay. Note that the Mako/Revo does not have a backlight, although the Series 5 does.

Franklin's eBookman

The Franklin eBookman is a pda-style device designed for reading books. Internal storage is between 8-16 megs but additional storage can be handled through mmc cards. Even the os can be backed up on a mmc card. http://pdaref.homeip.net/ [homeip.net] for advice and programs.