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Nokia N900 tablet and phone is now pre-orderable in U.S.: Promising e-book reader?
November 19, 2009 | 10:55 am
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By Paul Biba
The successor to Nokia’s line of internet tablets is now available on pre-order through Nokia’s Web site and through Amazon and others.
List price is $649, but Amazon is selling it for $560 after a $50 rebate.
The Linux-based N900 is able or soon should be able to run such e-book software as FBReader, which can read nonDRMed ePub. I checked the Maemo download site last night and found no e-reading software out yet, but it should only be a matter of time.
Specs: The Meomo 5 operating system (Linux), 3.5 inch touchscreen display, QWERTY slide-out keyboard, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camers, 32 GB of internal memory and Mozilla-powered browser.
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Comments:
I seem to recall people waiting on Maemo to provide some e-book readers for quite some time now, for the last 2 Nokia products. Interested parties might be better served looking elsewhere for e-book apps, I don’t think it’s high on Maemo’s priority list.
Guys, have you noticed that e-reader with a Qualcomm Mirasol display? It’s a prototype, but there’s a couple of videos, and the embedded display is functional. It’s Mirasol Time??? You may want to erase this, I’m ok with that.
PS.: it’s not the video with 95% scientist blah-blah and 5% actual footage of the screen playing video. It seems to be a Chinese Bebook with the screen embedded in it, and there are pictures of a gaming usb add-on!
Even more promising is the Firefox for Maemo – then you’ll be able to use the epub reader add-on to read.
I work on Firefox for Maemo. The current ePub reading plugin for desktop Firefox will need to be ported to the Maemo version — most of the code should work fine, but the actual user interface bits will need to be adjusted for the UI hooks that we have in the new browser.
The PDF reader on the N900 is pretty nice, although it doesn’t do reflow.
Just because the hardware would make this an interesting device for reading ebooks doesn’t mean that it can be recommended for this. Currently Nokia seems to position this phone towards the geek crowd. Those view the N900 mainly as a remarkably portable Linux computer that happens to be a phone. I’ve already seen far too many reviews that only talk about terminal windows, SSH, libraries and root access. Someone might write the ultimate ereader application for this machine but don’t be too surprised if you’re supposed to change the default font size and color by modifying a setup file with an editor
The N900 is a perfect companion for ebook reading. I am currently using FBReader and works like a charm.
For ages i used my palm treo 680 and palm TX to read ebooks while on the go, and was reluctant to see the N900 as an ebook reader, since i didnt know any application for ebooks on it. I found FBReader, installed it (its in devel at the time of this comment) and i have been happy ever since.
The screen on the N900 is incredibly sharp and reading on it is a pleasure.
Can you send some snapshot of fbreader ? I wonder how is it good. Is there any support for reflow ?
Yes, it reflows the text perfectly, as you can see on the screenshots i took of both the portrait and horizontal modes. Added some shots of the preferences and menu.
The screenshots are here:
http://www.manifesto42.com/N900/
Hope this helps.
It is really very good. I should overview buying a kindle
Thanks for snapshots, they helped very much.
No problem. If you need to see more or ask any specific question, please feel free to do so.
Keep in mind that, although very good for book reading, the N900 screen is only 3″5, which can be a bit small for some people. And obviously, the main purpose of the Nokia N900 is not to be an e-book reader, so before you make a decision when looking for just a reader, do try out regular e-book readers.
If you want an amazing mini computer, do give the N900 a go. Its really wonderful. 
Thanks for your concern,
And I wonder about other formats like pdf and chm, are they as successful as these snapshots? You know, many documents are in that format and it is a must having reflow function.
Quite honestly, i havent tried those formats yet. With FBReader, i mean, otherwise the device opens pdfs perfectly, with zooming, etc., as if we were on a desktop.
Will try a few formats and will leave a comment here.
For reference, the ebook you see on the screenshots is in .pdb format, from my previous palm devices.