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Which extra-cheap MP3 plays would work well for e-books? Anyone know about that $19.99 model?
April 19, 2009 | 8:52 am
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By David Rothman
BlueTyson popped up on Twitter with a challenge for me to identify extra-cheap MP3 players that in a pinch could double as e-book readers.
I guessed that older iPod Nanos might go for perhaps $65 used if you found them on eBay, and in fact a second-gen Nano is selling for $79.99 as a “Buy Now.” Older TeleRead posts contain tips for using Nanos for e-booking.
But BT, who lives in Australia, said I still wasn’t cheap enough—and suggested a non-Apple player on sale for $38.95 (Australian) or perhaps US$28. Meanwhile I’ve run across some obscure-brand 8G MP3 players going on eBay for just $32.99 in American dollars. Screen size is 1.8 inches, just like the other; and there is a “built-in e-book and phone book,” software that presumably can read TXT files if nothing else.
But wait. On eBay, another seller is offering a US$19.99 model with a 1.8 inch display and 2G of storage and an FM radio and voice recording capability. The seller doesn’t want the photo reproduced—rather silly, given the missed publicity opp here—but otherwise this one looks intriguing. It will be interesting to find out if the “eBook viewer” can handle Gutenberg-style TXT or simply displays images in jpeg format.
If you want a giant 2.8 inch screen, then you can buy a no-so-perfect knockoff of the iPod Touch for $50 and get TXT-reading capability, an FM receiver and recording capability.
Do you have other possibilities in mind—especially those you’ve tried out yourself? Remember, I have not tested any of the nonApple cheapies mentioned here. Also, what generic buying tips would you have for people looking for extra-cheap, beyond paying attention to the pesky little detail of formats?
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Comments:
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.
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
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?
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.
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!
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
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.
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?
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.