Comments on: Which extra-cheap MP3 plays would work well for e-books? Anyone know about that $19.99 model?

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:30:13 +0000

No need to hack anything; it been done as a commercial product. Repeatedly…

This one has a 7″ screen.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=205838962&listingid=41225442
I’ve seen them as small as 2.7 cm screens.
(Probably need a jeweler’s loupe to read, but it does exist.)

There is also software that takes document files and produces a folder of jpgs optimized for Zune or any other jpg viewer;
http://www.rover-soft.com/Zune-eBook-Creator.html

Features:
Ability to set output format of files, names of files
Ability to set output size of file
Ability to set color, font and another styles of font
Ability to set page number, position of pagination, margings etc
Save and load configuration settings
supports doc, docx, txt, pdf, fb2 formats as input file

Of course, you can do the same thing yourself with PowerPoint or Adobe acrobat with a bit of experimentation in choosing font size and margins.

By: ERIC VAN

ERIC VAN — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:30:15 +0000

I wish someone would turn or hack a cheap $20 or $30 5 inch or 4 inch lcd digital photo frame into a ebook reader for text and rtf files.

Ideally it should have 4gb storage from a sdd card with a long battery life or the option to turn the backlight off.

A lcd displays don’t consume much power this could extend the battery life.

Ebook readers like the amazon kindle and sony ereader cost as much as a laptop at present.what a rip off.I mean $250 to $400 for a ebookreader.
I don’t want to pay that much on principle.

Even a mini netbook is unsuitable for ebook reading due to the short battery life.
A low power low cost photoframe would be ideal.

I am surprised that no one has done this hack.The focus seems to be turning photo frame into video displays for which they are not really designed due to their poor frame rate.

They would are more suited to be ebook readers.

Anyone up for this challenge?

By: Blue Tyson

Blue Tyson — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:53:35 +0000

Nice work David. The point was more the MP3 player that would occasionally read, as opposed to say, Palm M500 which works great with Plucker (and has eReader on the CD that came with it, etc.)

Versions earlier than that are likely to be only a handful of dollars in the USA? M100/M125 etc, if you don’t need lots of books? Or even a Palm V, if wanting a more bookish as opposed to music device.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:34:03 +0000

Thanks, Chris, Joseph and Rafal. I just was not sure if the 71 had the resources to handle software capable of reading the current eReader format. Looks as if people are safe, then, huh?

Thanks,
David

By: Chris Meadows

Chris Meadows — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:53:48 +0000

Peanut Press was an independent company that originally came out with an e-book reading app for the Palm. Then it was bought by Palm and became Palm Digital Media. Then Palm sold it to someone else, and it became eReader. Now it’s owned by Fictionwise, who is owned by Barnes and Noble.

At one point I had a teeny tiny little cheapie mp3 player which worked for a few months and then quit. It was about the size of a cigarette lighter, and it proudly proclaimed that it was “e-book compatible” on the package.

It was, in a way. It could be loaded with text (.TXT) files, from which it displayed about three lines of text amounting to about forty characters of text at a time on its postage-stamp-sized screen. Now, I’m no stranger to reading on small (Palm or iPhone-sized) screens—but that was just a little too small!

By: Rafal

Rafal — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:39:16 +0000

Yes, there’s an eReader application for Palm: http://www.ereader.com/ereader/software/product/15003_pro_palm.htm

AFAIK eReader (or Peanut Press) was originally a Palm/PalmOne company.

By: Joseph Gray

Joseph Gray — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:50:06 +0000

I tried reading on my full-sized iPod. It was totally unusable for me. Beyond the limitations of the iPod Note format, the screen is just too small. There is also no way to increase the font size without hacking firmware.

On a related note, I just saw an interesting photo frame that is supposed to read text files.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=7XLBC&cpc=SCH

I know someone who has one. He was going to test how long the battery lasts and show me an example of the text display.

I tried to find out what OS it runs, on the off chance that it could be hacked to add other ebook formats. I haven’t found anything yet.

The device is not palm sized, but it would fit into a jacket pocket. Running a video, the screen was very acceptable. The device with battery seemed to weight less than two pounds. The controls are a D-pad, an Escape button on top and a Select button underneath.

The one thing that bugs me about this is — if this device can be sold for $50 (admittedly not the original price), why can’t a similarly sized ebook reader be sold for $100?

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:01:08 +0000

You’re right, Rafal, thanks. What’s more, I suspect you can read eReader-format books with it–just a hunch. Anyone want to confirm that? Thanks. David

By: Rafal

Rafal — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:25:05 +0000

You can always get an old PalmOS device.

I still have my Zire 71. You can buy them used for like 20 bucks a piece now.