Tech Suggestions

[athelind]

I need something that can work as an e-book reader for HTML and TXT documents. I hate being chained to my desk to read novels, and my IBM Transnote is too heavy and has no battery life.

I'd want something PDA-sized -- either a Cheap Ebook Reader, or a Cheap PDA that'll read HTML. I'd prefer something that doesn't restrict itself to proprietary formats, or, if it does, has nice, simple software to convert common file types. I know that older PDAs sell for bargain-bin prices these days; surely there's something out there that'll read HTML for a C-note or so.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Comments

[tprjones.livejournal.com]

There are several free and easy-to-use conversion programs and readers for the Palm OS available for download from ZDNet, and Palm systems are dirt cheap these days. If all you want is books, that'd be the way I'd go. I used to get upwards of 20 novels in my 8MB Handspring Visor, before I went and lost it.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

I second that.

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

The pricey (but beautiful) solution: Hacking on the Librie to support multiple media-types.

[waywind.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest buying a bargin-bin older PDA, and then going to http://www.freewarepalm.com to make up for any .txt or .html reading abilities that it might lack. The PDA I've got (Palm Tungsten E, a year old) is capable of reading not only those, but assorted kinds of .doc files... and it can read Interactive Fiction files.

B&W software alternatives are abundant enough, and the advantages of color so small, that you may as well get a B&W PDA without having any regrets.

The last couple vacations I've had, I was able to get some books on gutenberg.net and some IF to play. I left the Gameboy stuff and the hardback books at home. It really lightened up my backpack.

[tprjones.livejournal.com]

The best reason to go B&W over color is battery life. The B&Ws usually use much simpler and energy-efficient screens (more like a calculator screen type of thing) and their batteries tend to last much much longer.

Also, if you tend to travel, I'd recommend going for something that runs on AA or AAAs and buy rechargable batteries, rather than getting one with an internal rechargable battery. When one of those latter ones goes dead, you have no option but to plug it in and wait, but with the former you can swap 'em out and keep reading.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Agreed. With the caveat that the thing will be drawing some power even when shut off, so alkalines can have surprisingly short lives even in a mostly-idle Palm OS device. At least they did in my Visor Platinum. Whereas NiMH rechargeables last me a lot longer. So if one has to go alkaline, one should back up (or sync up, if you prefer) to a computer frequently.

[drakegrey.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be bad and ask a question in kind - what OS are you running on the TransNote? Can you get support for the notepad functions in WinXP, or (be still, my twin beating hearts) Linux?

Disney has two that it's got no interest in using and I'm aching to salvage from the trash... :)

--Drake

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I'm still running Win2K on mine, but word has it that you can, in fact, get everything up and running on WinXP. I know at least two other people who got theirs at the same time I got mine.

A quick Google on "transnote linux" got me to http://www.netjunki.org/projects/transnote/index.php -- there is SOME support, but it's all experimental. Open-Source software on a machine that never quite caught on...

It's a useful little thingumbob -- I mostly use the TransPad for drawing rather than trying to save copies of my illegible handwriting -- look, ma, no scans! Having the touch screen is nice, too (I use a chopstick as a stylus on mine, to minimise fingerprints).

If The Mouse is tossing two of them, GRAB THEM. They're entirely servicable for any number of things.

Heck, grab'em both, and use one to play around trying to get Linux to work

[normanrafferty.livejournal.com]

Yes, grab the Transnotes! There's a thriving Transnote spare parts community.

Possible workaround

[normanrafferty.livejournal.com]

I've used TextAloud to convert books to MP3 and then listen to them on my MP3 player. Admittedly, that's not for everyone.

Re: Possible workaround

[shavastak.livejournal.com]

Ooo nifty. Must check that out.

[shavastak.livejournal.com]

I'll ask Chris whether his PDA will do that or not. He has a current model (second-from-the-bottom in price, just over $100) which does a lot of nifty stuff and he's very happy with it.