Showing posts with label ebooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ebooks. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Archos 5IT: It's Getting Better All the Time
Sure the Archos 5 Internet Tablet is a work in progress. Firmware updates are pushing out every 7-10 days, and there are reports of this or that not working. Youtube playback was broken for over a week because of a change that Google made to its API. Yet, Archos released a new firmware update 1.3.7 with a long list of fixes. Youtube is once again working. Plus, yesterday Fictionwise announced the release of ereader for Android. The software will read books purchased from either the ereader.com or fictionwise.com sites. The newsletter offers 15% off until November 22 when you use the promo code "ANDROID15." Ereader for Android is a very basic reading app, much more so than more advanced versions for Windows Mobile, for example. Aldiko is a more elegant eBook reader, but Ereader offers the opportunity to read the latest bestsellers and commercial publishers because, at least for now, those all come saddled with DRM. A real win for Aldiko would be to license the Adobe ePub DRM. Until then, I'll enjoy my ereader books on the Archos' big screen.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Sony Reader: I Like it!
Here's a photo taken with the iPhone of my Sony Reader PRS-505 in the optional cover with reading light:
Here's a close-up of the screen with the reading light on:
@mikecane on Twitter was a great help in introducing me to the Sony Reader. I've been reading ebooks from eReader on my iPhone and on Windows Mobile devices before that, but the larger screen size and the e-ink display make reading a book on the Sony Reader much more pleasant than reading on cell phone.
I've been experimenting with several ways to get content on the Reader. The Sony Reader software only works with Windows. That's one black mark; they need a Mac version! Fortunately, it works with Windows running in Parallels or VMWare. Alternatively, wetasphalt.com describes a method for putting ebooks on your Reader using a program called calibre. Using those instructions and some scripts I found on the Internet, I was able to convert some of the books I'd purchased from Ereader.com to Sony's format and copy them to my Reader. The reader also works with books in ePub format, which @mikecane says will be huge. Adobe Digital Editions content can also be transferred to the reader as can PDF, RTF, and TXT documents. I found that PDFs can be tricky. If the documents aren't formatted for the Reader's 3x5 screen, they can be hard to read. I've already read a couple of books on the Reader, and I'm hooked.
Here's a close-up of the screen with the reading light on:
@mikecane on Twitter was a great help in introducing me to the Sony Reader. I've been reading ebooks from eReader on my iPhone and on Windows Mobile devices before that, but the larger screen size and the e-ink display make reading a book on the Sony Reader much more pleasant than reading on cell phone.
I've been experimenting with several ways to get content on the Reader. The Sony Reader software only works with Windows. That's one black mark; they need a Mac version! Fortunately, it works with Windows running in Parallels or VMWare. Alternatively, wetasphalt.com describes a method for putting ebooks on your Reader using a program called calibre. Using those instructions and some scripts I found on the Internet, I was able to convert some of the books I'd purchased from Ereader.com to Sony's format and copy them to my Reader. The reader also works with books in ePub format, which @mikecane says will be huge. Adobe Digital Editions content can also be transferred to the reader as can PDF, RTF, and TXT documents. I found that PDFs can be tricky. If the documents aren't formatted for the Reader's 3x5 screen, they can be hard to read. I've already read a couple of books on the Reader, and I'm hooked.
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