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."

Comments

Why not a PDA?

[rgarcia]

I've used my Tungsten for the last 12 books I've read. With an SD card, you can fit all you like and the screen legibility is great, although it may be that I'm just used to it. I know some people have issues with it.
You may not think color is important, but the change I made from b&w to color (Palm IIIxe to TT) improved legibility incredibly. The increased resolution was also a great factor.

Older Sony Clie models + Weasel Reader

[Elrond, Duke of URL]

I would strongly suggest finding an older used Sony Clie. I'm using a Clie S300 model. It's B&W with a 160x160 screen. Admittedly, this is low res by current PDA standards, but the text is still very readable.

The best aspect of this model is that the contrast on the screen is superb and excellent for reading. I previously used a Palm Vx for the same tasks, but comparing the screens is like comparing night and day. Even with the backlight on, the Clie's battery (internal LiIon) lasts for several hours.

As for reading software... I'm a little biased. I'm the author of Weasel Reader. It runs on Palm OS and is under the GPL. I wrote it specifically for reading Project Gutenberg texts, but you can read any text file. See http://gutenpalm.sf.net for more info.

Sony CLie SJ22

[brownja]

I read tons of Gutenberg e-texts on my Sony Clie SJ 22. Good res, great backlight, cheap, etc. etc,
Jog dial is very handy for reading e-books.
I use makedocw and cspotrun to create and read files.

Tablet PCs

[antek9]

I've been reading 'Shogun' on my Jornada cover to cover (if you can say that in this case), and it was okay, while not perfect. The perfect reading devices these days nevertheless are of course tablet PCs, although the slashdot crowd does not seem to subscribe to that. If you get a slate like the Fujitsu Stylistic or a Motion, then they are portable and lightweight enough, they got real screens from 10 inches onward, do in fact run all the reading apps you might ever need, sport reasonably sized hard discs and will, if you so desire, run linux with only minimal discomfort. Original poster of article didn't name price limits, but if that's a problem, try to get a good deal on a refurb or via eBay, obviously. Worked for me, works great, I hardly ever need to leave my machine alone now, reclining chair, terace, uni, bed (yes indeed), bathtub. Better strike out the bathtub, though...

Re:Tablet PCs

[larryj]

I have a Motion M1200 that's a little over a year old (hardly the latest model).

There's no fan. It's silent other than the occasional clicking of the hard drive. Battery life has never been a problem for me either. I just put my tablet in it's dock this morning. The battery is at 100% and the battery life remaining is 3.5 hours. My battery may be losing some of it's capacity. I remember that number being 3:45 at some point.

I've done some e-book reading on my tablet, especially when Microsoft gave away several books per week last summer. For the most part, it was fine. No worry about bookmarks, you can take notes directly on the text, easy searching capabilities, etc.

The negatives:

Sitting in bed at night is great, but if you want to read outdoors it might kind of tough. You also have to look directly at the screen to avoid glare (not an issue in a dark room). Motion's latest model has a 'view from any angle' screen that is supposed to be very nice.

I have no problem carrying my tablet to meetings at work. It's not that heavy at all. But I do find that it can suddenly seem to get heavier when you're trying to balance it on you chest to read while laying down. It's not that bad, but obviously a paperback book (or even a hardcover) can be easier to hold for long periods of time.

That's about it though as far as negatives involved with reading e-texts on a TabletPC. I've never been able to read a long book on a PDA. The tablet's screen size, quality display and Microsoft Reader make it a very pleasant experience IMO.

I've been doing this for years...

[jimfrost]

...and have tried out an array of these devices, everything from the original Palm to the beta Zaurus.

Skip the Zaurus, you won't be able to get readers for the locked formats. I presume the many other flaws I found with my Zaurus have been smoothed over since then, but it just doesn't matter if you can't get a decent reader.

You're pretty much left with PocketPC and Palm devices. I'm not a fan of the PPC devices because they have poor battery life and a difficult to use interface and cost more than anything else, but since you can get all of the maintream readers for them they may be worth a look. I can't say I like their screens that much but they're a lot better than a low-end Palm.

My personal choice, the one I've read dozens of books on, is a Clie PEG-NR70 (the flip-screen dragonball one). I don't believe this, or even its follow-on PEG-NX70 with the ARM chip, is still available but its big, sharp screen is the best I've seen on a palmtop. Sony has really done a knock-down job on screen quality.

If I were to buy one right now, and I'm thinking about it because my NR70 has been beat to death, I'd probably get PEG-TH55. It seems to have the same screen, or at least a similar one, but I like the form factor better than the NR70.

Palm's Tungsten T3 is very interesting, and I really like the way it collapses, but fails for me because there's no lid to keep you from smashing the screen -- you have to get one of those awful bulky armor cases.

As always YMMV, but as I said I've been exceptionally pleased with the Sony device. At $400 it's not cheap, but at least it's not a dedicated ebook :-).

About ebook readers: I haven't used Microsoft's reader at all so I have no comment about it. Adobe's palmtop ebook reader is total junk, the least usable most irritating ebook reader I've ever seen. It paginates strangely despite forcing you to spend a long time "formatting for your device" and has the worst DRM of any of them. Mobipocket is my favorite reader in terms of interface, but its DRM is mildly restrictive, allowing only 4 devices for any locked ebook. The PalmReader offers the best DRM flexibility (it's key is your credit card number; you probably don't want to give that away) and a clean, usable interface. When I am reading locked books I opt for Palm format whenever possible for DRM flexibility, but with unlocked books I prefer Mobipocket.

So far I've had excellent luck finding ebooks in Palm and Mobipocket formats. www.fictionwise.com has the greatest format flexibility of the ebook providers I've tried.

Enjoy,

Re:look down a few posts

[stuffman64]

True, but no PDAs in the lower price range can even come close to the screens on the Zauruses. The screen on my SL-C860 is so incredibly bright, crisp, and legible that in my opinion, no other PDA can match.
The 860's (and 750 and 760, for that matter) screen is native 640x480, and is truely remarkable to look at. If he doesn't want to drop $850 on the SL-C860, the 760 is almost identical and a few hundred cheaper. Even the 750's screen is a wonder. The SL-6000 mentioned earlier today looks promising, but I'd pay the extra for the clamshell 860 over it any day.
The new Toshibas with the 640x480 screens look promising, however, since I have not used one, I cannot make a fair judgement. Also, since the Zaurus runs Linux, free software abounds. The PDF reader is quite nice, but don't go porting all of your protected ebooks over, we all know what happens when you mess with ebook protection!

Weasel Reader review

[WiliLojik]

I've been meaning to write a review of Weasel Reader for a while now so I just did. The original work in progress is at Weasel Reader review.

While there are many formats for eBooks and a few dedicated pieces of hardware on the market I've found that after trying out everything I could find I've settled on just a few choice technologies that I have gotten the most actual reading out of. In fact just one aspect of one piece of software in particular pretty much wraps it up for me: Autoscroll Mode: Screen Wrap as found in Weasel Reader. Every other text reader autoscroll I have come across forces the eyes to contantly move, often very unsmooth, much unlike a book with its clear sharp letters that stay firmly in place. I believe this common misfeature leads to far greater eye strain and a lower overall acceptance of eBooks because of it. The only possibly superior scroll mode I would like to see added would be a flash mode where words or phrases are flashed sequentially onto the same spot allowing you to read without moving your eyes at all, then you just have to remember to blink on the periods!

Weasel Reader will run on most any PalmOS device which gives you not only a wide range of PDA hardware to choose from but also desktop emulators should you really fall in love with the Weasel! Having a good selection allows you to choose a device that fits well in your hand, has an easy to read high contrast screen, and enough capacity to store a selection of books. I'm currently using a Handspring Visor Prism and keep a few dozen books on hand to read at night after the wife goes to bed with the lights out or in the queue at the grocers or any other place those nasty slowdowns in our fast paced moderns lives creep up.

All that said Weasel Reader can be a bit overwhelming to configure so I offer the following as suggestions to get the most out of this great piece of software:

* Options, Preferences:
** Check Skip Project Gutenberg license
** Show zTXT size in index
** Always remember position.
** Use Scroll/Bookmark Buttons

* Options, Display Preferences:
** Line Spacing -2

* Options, Scroll Preferences:
** Autoscroll Mode Screen Wrap

Once the above are set open up a book and you will see a status bar that has a return to menu arrow, percentage of the book complete, the time, battery indicator, and access to the bookmarks menu. Frankly, I don't care about any of that and as long as "Always remember position" is checked as listed above that is the only bookmark I need. Thankfully a simple tap anywhere on the left hand letter side of the silkscreen hides this menu leaving our screen chock full of text and only a slim progress bar at the bottom to give us an idea how far we are along in our read.

Now for the fun bit: Press the Address Book button and a dotted line begins decending the screen, a virtual page flip in progess pacing your reading. Too fast you say? Tap the down arrow a few times. Want it faster? Just tap up until you are zipping along. I find myself automatically adjusting the speed as I read and punching the Address Book button when I take a break to rest my eyes. Once out of the auto scroll mode the up and down buttons move up and down a page at a time but I find myself tapping the top or bottom half of the screen with my fingernail quite naturally.

Overall Weasel Reader is an excellent piece of software I've gotten many hours of enjoyment from. Enjoy!