[clug] Kindle 3 WiFi

[Paul Warren]

On 03/03/11 11:29, Michael James wrote:
> On Thu, 3 Mar 2011 08:00:43 am David Schoen wrote:
> 
>> This definitely isn't quite right. Calibre transfers incompatible file
>> types as MOBI, not PDF to the kindle and they mostly seem to come out
>> just fine (I normally use LRF or EPUB source documents). PDF would
>> probably work as well, but you would lose some useful data from LRF
>> and EPUB files.
>>
>> Also I've placed regular .txt files directly on the kindle via
>> mounting it as a USB drive and the kindle picked up and displayed them
>> without issue.
>>
>> I have a 3rd generation kindle.
> 
> Something that hasn't been said yet
>  is that the Kindle is nice reading hardware.
> 
> For reading the eink displays are unbeatable.
> LCD screens aren't suitable for long reading sessions,
>  they exhaust both batteries and eyes quickly
>  giving you a "U-Tuber"; not a Reader.
> 
> The new "Perl" display in the Kindle3 has better contrast.
> Pages turn fast enough, it wakes fast enough.
> You take your kindle away for a week without the charger.
> While the Amazon ecosystem is frighteningly proprietary,
>  it delivers. Want the next volume of that thriller at 1am?
> Just click here, ~$10, thanks, you can start reading in 1 minute.
> 
> The Kobo, the only other "Reader" I've tried is cheap, unreliable and nasty.
> It takes forever to wake, too long to turn a page, has lousy battery life.
> And it's proprietary ecosystem is dying and dysfunctional.
> 
> michaelj
> 

As an alternative, and while not as cheap, my EcoReader certainly does
the job.  It's a clone of the Hanlin V3+. It mounts as USB storage (on
most computers*), and reads just about anything with the CoolReader
engine, xpdf and Adobe Digital Editions software on it. You can use it
with the Digital Editions full DRM thing, but as I remove the DRM from
any books I've purchased (which aren't many, DRM free is the way to
go!), I've never used that functionality.

I'm not sure if it's the Pearl e-ink screen, but it's very fast, less
than half a second for a page turn. It has no 'sleep' mode, because it's
asleep about a second after a page is turned, when it's really quiet at
night, you can actually hear the power electronics turn off, kind of
spooky sometimes. Battery lasts me some 6000 odd page turns.

I got mine for $200 + postage from dadirect.com.au, but it appears
they're no longer selling it. More info from http://ecoreader.com.au/

The downsides are: No wifi or 3G, so it needs some sort of machine to
get books to it.

I had tried the $180 Kobo in a Borders store, and had the same opinion
of it as michaelj, as well as the $500 sony equivalent, with
touchscreen, wifi and all the bells, which was not really what I wanted:
Just a book reader, and more than I wanted to pay.

Previous to this, I had an iRex iLiad, which was completely awesome,
except very slow. Page turns were several seconds, battery life was ~15
hours, no sleep mode, but it did come with an SDK so I could build
FBReader for it, which was heaps of fun :)  It was also an 8 inch
diagonal screen, which is far superior for PDF reading, 6 inches on the
Ecoreader is most excellent for novels.

--
Cheers
Paul Warren


* I've never got it to work properly on OS X. Ubuntu and windows, it
works fine. You can always just load things on to an SD card, and stick
the card in the reader.

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