Best PDA To Read e-Texts On?

GabrielStrange writes "I've been thinking for a while now that I'd like to own some sort of portable device on which I could read e-Texts. This device should be able to read both simple text files (i.e. Project Gutenberg e-Texts) and more complex formats, like Plucker, Acrobat or Microsoft Reader. It should have a fairly high-res display with a backlight that would be easy on the eyes... but doesn't particularly need to be a color display. I'd like it to work with at least one (if not both) of the machines on my desktop, which run Linux 2.6 and MacOS X Panther... And to use a USB port. And I'd like it to have a built in, rechargeable battery, because I already have enough devices to worry about batteries for. And, of course, I don't want to pay very much for it. Anyone got any recommendations for such a device? It's proving to be almost impossible to even obtain an actual list of devices that have these features."

No such thing?

[Carnildo]

If you drop the battery requirements, you can probably find a few PDAs that will fit the bill.

Try to pick up a web pad type device

[Anonymous Coward]

I think national semiconductor made some of them along with other companies. You should be able to pick one up second hand off ebay, or from liquidation companies. Most of the devices I saw ran windows CE, but they could probably run Linux with some hacking.

Toshiba e800/e805

[Kenja]

I use a Toshiba e805 (same as the e800 but with some image software thrown in). It has 128MB of built in memory and both a SDIO and CF expansion slot (along with built in 802.11b) so you can load it up on storage or (as I did) add bluetooth to access the web via a cell phone. Its got a very nice 480x640 screen that is perfect for reading text on (its larger then most PDAs) with a 2MB ATI graphics accelerator. Granted you need to install some third party software to get the default mode to be anything other then 200x320, but once setup right its very slick. If you poke around you can also find 480x640 skins for many apps such as PocketPlayer, MS Media Player, PocketDV and others.

Tungsten T3!

[jameslore]

While I'm sure I'll be mocked (since Palm OS isn't Linux), my T3 is great for ebooks.

+ Palm Reader is all good, and plenty of other choices.
+ Large library available (http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com/)
+ Small device, great resolution (320 x 480, potrait or landscape).
+ Lots of other software :-)

- Anti-aliasing is mediocre at best. Resoltion does make up for it somewhat...
- T3 battery life is very mediocre. Perhaps a Clie instead, if this is a concern.
- Not cheap.

Cheers - James

Philips/Sony 'Electronic Paper'

[Warlock48]

http://www.eink.com/news/releases/pr70.html [eink.com] ... Whenever it's available!

Re:iBook

[JesseL]

You have a very crippled imagination. I've read nearly 100 books on PDAs, first my handspring visor and later my ipaq 3150 (monochrome). These include some fairly long books like Cryptonomicon and The Count of Monte Cristo. I've never found it particularly straining or anything. In fact, I find it preferable to paper books these days.

Re:No such thing?

[Trejkaz]

Even _with_ the battery requirements, the GameBoy Advance SP can be set up to read eBooks. The only problem is the screen is a little smaller than some people may like. Nevertheless...

screen screen screen

[Incy]

Its all about the screen. I have been reading ebooks exclusivly for the last 2 or 3 years. I really like my palm t3 for its nice large screen. Its nice not to have a nightstand light keeping the wife awake when I read at night. Also nice to always have a book with ya when your get bored and have a minute or two to kill. I think there are plenty of PDAs that will fulfill most of your requirements... cept maybe price.. cuz you didn't say how much you wanted to pay..:)

Re:iBook

[JesseL]

I always liked the limited amount of text per page on my ebooks. If I get too much text on the screen it just makes it easier to lose my place when I get interupted. Next page and previous page buttons make scrolling pages much less of a chore than flipping paper sheets.

it doesn't take much...

[schwaang]

Indeed, I dug my gf's old PalmV up from its grave a couple months ago. Have been happily reading e-books and NY Times using Plucker (& JPluckX) since.

I don't prefer it to a book but do like it better than my desktop's 17" LCD for lengthly reading. Having it in hand makes the experience more book-like. (Every try taking a 17" monitor to bed? Don't answer that.)

What form factor?

[Myself]

Technically the IBM Workpad Z50 and Vadem Clio (Sharp Mobilon Tripad) are PDAs, but they're clamshell notebook style. The Clio/Tripad has a flip-over screen that turns it into a tablet, but otherwise the specs are quite similar: 131MHz vr141 MIPS CPU, 16 or 32 meg internal storage, CF slot, PCMCIA slot, RS232 port, internal modem.

You'll have to put up with the lack of a USB port, but RS232 works well for small transfers, and flipping CF cards is fast when you want to move a lot of data.

Both the z50 and the Clio/Tripad have big screens with excellent contrast. They share great battery life, about 8 hours on the stock battery if you're not running a power-hungry PCMCIA card. (wireless) Optional double-capacity battery packs are available for the z50 that really do achieve 16 hours. Both can run the hpcmips port of NetBSD quite capably, but for reading text you might as well keep the stock WinCE.

Personally, I'd use the Clio because of the flippable screen. Holding it by the hinge side is very comfortable, and the touchscreen allows easy page-turning even while in tablet mode. The z50 is stuck in a clamshell shape and uses a pointing nipple.

Did I mention that both can be had on eBay for under $200?

Zaurus all the way

[ruhk]

Sharp SL-5500 Zaurus. Sure, its only a 320x240 screen, but its cheaper than almost every other PDA out there.

I always thought I couldn't stand to read ebooks, and never gave them much thought, until I lost my job and needed another way to feed my book addiction. Surprisingly, I found that reading on my Zaurus was an absolute joy.

I've been reading my way through the Baen Free Library CDs on it. I use Plucker to pluck the frameless version of the books I want to read. Before that I, wrote a perl scrip to rtf2txt it, then split the file on criteria I specified. I read these files on the magnificent OpieReader, which is as full featured as you could possibly want.

I've found that I use three light settings. In the dark, or minimal light, I used the lowest light setting. The Zaurus has a continuous life of about five or six hours this way. In the mornings, in bed, reading my plucked streams before facing the world, I have to crank the light to max. Of course, I'm next to an outlet the entire time there. You'll get about an hour untethered time this way. Finally in pretty much any other lighting condition, I can just turn the light completely off. You'll want to embolden the text if you do this, mind you. You'll be able to read for days on end this way.

One might expect that 320x240 might strain the eyes during long reading, but I have found that it doesn't bother me at all. If its problematic for you, you can always crank the font size up with the touch of a button.

Re:Sony CLie SJ22

[bigNuns]

I use an SJ-20 and it rocks... hi res screen for fairly cheap... and the job dial on the left rocks... this is a big deal... the newer sonys moved it to the bottom and i have no desire to upgrade because of this... of course its all i use it for (reading), so...

Re:Ug.

[jagne]

I used to think the same.

I am the owner of an old and battered Palm IIIx and I read lots of documents on it via Plucker. I somehow "got it" reading "e-texts" on this model's small screen and I sure can relax while reading it. I have to take compromises with just 8Mb, but I guess someday buying another Palm will become priority on my shopping list.

I've read lots of documentation, HOWTOs and manpages with it.

I've read lots of books. Cryptonomicon was a splitting festival.

I've got a nice Perl script + cron which fetchs and parses Advogato and Planet GNOME daily in a nice HTML, so I can catch up with all unread posts any day later.

I'm recently reading Google News with it.

Whenever I find an interesting interview, article or post of Joel Spolsky, I use Plucker and read it at any convenient time (bank, lunch, queues, even bathroom, yes).

I carry lots of interesting productivity articles [dexterity.com] on my Palm everywhere.

I think you get my drift. Carrying the equivalent of all this material on paper is prohibitive. Having it all in one convenient plastic case is way cool. Don't get me started on printing everything I've ever read with Plucker.

Oh, and I can search.

Re:Tungsten T3!

[metlin]

Hmmm, I've a Palm Vx, and use it to read when I fly. Its backlight is not too bright, and the text has a very soft greenish-glow, which makes it quite easy on the eye.

Its small, cheap, robust has good battery life and is easy to carry (since I do not really have to worry too much about losing it or breaking it :).

You can get one off eBay for as little $20 and odd, and its really handy.

Ofcourse - this is solely for the purposes of airport/flight reading, and I hardly use it for anything else. But its really simple and handy, and is a constant companion when I travel.

Re:e-ink?

[daymitch]

As a person who can't stand to read longer articles (esp. scientific literature) on the screen, I've already been waiting a long time for e-ink.

I vaguely remember a Popular Science (I think) article from the early 80's/late 70's describing thie rudiments of the E-ink technology.

Man, it's a long haul from the lab bench to the store shelf, isn't it?

Anyone else remember this stuff?

Auto Scroll

[slapout]

Whatever you get, make sure the reader program you use has some kind of autoscroll feature. Its way better than having to keep hitting a button to get to the next page.

If you get a Zaurus, check out OpieReader at http://www.timwentford.uklinux.net/

Re:Philips/Sony 'Electronic Paper'

[thisissilly]

Mixed review here http://www.dottocomu.com/b/archives/002571.html

Re:No such thing?

[Sancho]

I read ebooks on a Palm IIIxe some time ago, and it worked beautifully. I recently had the chance to play with a Tungsten E, and while the screen itself was much, much nicer, the batter will be something of a problem. If it's possible to underclock, that may help somewhat, but even with the brightness turned all the way down and only using the reading software, the battery dropped to about half charge after only a couple of hours of reading. Charging up is quick, but still this is an issue for someone who really wants a portable solution.
The OP needs to realize that high resolution screens are a huge drain on the batter, as is a continuous backlight. The Zire may be a better option for reading books, since I suspect you'll get more hours out of it (though I haven't seen any real numbers on the Zire yet.)

Re:iBook

[ducman]

I think my PowerBook Titanium works extremely well. I open a text file in a word processor and use Mac OS X's ability to print to a PDF file. Then I open the PDF file with the Preview app, rotate it left, and view it full-screen. Then I hold the computer like a book, and turn pages by clicking the mouse button.

High resolution text, a bit larger than a hardcover, page at a time display instead of annoying scrolling, 3-4 hours battery life...perfect

Re:No such thing?

[TCaptain]

I am lucky to have one of the Tungsten E and I find it curious that your battery life is so short. Was it a very used one?

I don't dim my screen often(since I read outside a lot) and I do more than a couple of hours on it in a day (beyond reading there's the tasklists, notes, docstogo, the occassional game of bejeweled and listening to mp3s for the 45 mins walk home in the afternoons) and I find my battery level at the end of the day is about half...maybe a quarter if I've played more games than usual...

You are absolutely right though..the charge up is quick (whether by adapter or by USB which is a bit slower).

All in all, a great little machine (especially if you slap in a 256 Meg memory card)

Re:Tablet PCs

[Anonymous Coward]

Forget the tablet PC. I've been using an old IBM P2-350mhz...picked it up for $50. Slap on Linux distribution of choice, convert your ebooks to PDF format (not too bad, really)--use 16 point type, 1.5" margins and 5" top margin for each chapter--and setup gnome-ghostview (or xpdf, or whatever) to rotate the screen portrait mode. Bam...instant cheap ebook reader that meets most of the qualifications.

The conversion to PDF takes some time, but usually isn't too bad--just import into Open Office, fiddle for a few minutes, and out you go!

Palm Vx

[Laos]

I've been using a Palm Vx over a year now to read books. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages.

PROS:

• You can get an used one on eBay for $30-$50.
• I get over 8 hours of constant use before I have to recharge its internal batteries. It has 8 MB which is enough for 10 typical novels.
• It has a backlight.
• I find that there's more programs available for the Palm OS than the PocketPC OS. (I have a battery-sucking HP Jornada as well.)

CONS:

• The resolution is only 160x160 but I find that this is fine for reading.
• It is only 2-bit black-and-white.

NOTES:

• For software, I use Plucker [freewarepalm.com] for HTML pages, TiBR [indevsoftware.com] for simple text, and Acrobat [adobe.com] for PDF.

Re:Apple Newton or Toshiba E series

[TellarHK]

I have a Newton 2100 and love it. Unfortunately, I don't get to use it as much as I'd like to and the OSX support being put together by some of the Newton supporters still around is pretty good, though not nearly as robust as most people will be looking for. Tends to crash a bit, and I know that development stalled but was definitely not dead. The screen on the Newton is almost perfect for eBooks, I think, and the only real flaw with the Newton as a book reader is that there's no hardware switch that can be used to change pages. Everything involves the stylus or a fingernail if you're careful. I'm yet another of those folks that would sincerely love it if Apple produced another PDA with a large form factor. I don't care if a PDA can fit in my shirt pocket, what I value the most is screen size. It wouldn't be hard at all to make something like a Newton-sized screen in 1/4 the thickness, weight and with modern features that could really become so useful as to be invaluable at that size. Price would be a major factor as it usually is, unfortunately. But if any company has the balls, it could be Apple.

But back to the topic at hand, the Newton has survived surprisingly well, can be upgraded for battery life and backlight age repair and even has some crazy motherfuckers tinkering with the idea of Bluetooth enabling it. Pricing for Newtons on eBay was higher than that for many more "advanced" Palm devices like the IIIc (which I traded for my Newton a couple years ago) If I got into reading eBooks, I'd definitely try and see what I could put together using the Newton.