Ebook Reading Capabilities

[acantoni]

Greetings all
I signed just today in the forums and though i understand the device is mostly game-oriented (i guess) i was curious about how can it be used to read ebooks (simple .txt format).

Most important the battery length considering you're using minimal power, the screen brightness (it is possible to change through some keyboard shortcuts?) and how relaxing is for the eye

Thank you so much for your kind answers

Fabio

 

[jellmoo]

Granted I have no real knowledge of this, I would think that Pandora wouldn't be ideal for e-book reading. The screen size alone would be enough to cause me concern, but on top of that, I do not believe that the display is ideal either. I think the glare would probably produce significant eyestrain.

Still, I'm sure it will be possible to read e-books on the device. And who knows, maybe it will actually perform better than I think. I just don't see it dipping into the Kindle's marketshare anytime soon.

 

[Karel Jansens]

Using FBreader, I get between 5 and 7 hours reading time on my Nokia N800, which has a 1500 mAh battery and a previous generation processor. I'd assume that the Pandora with its 4000 mAh battery should get more than double (maybe triple, due to alleged better power management of the 3530?) that figure.

The screen size is indeed small, but the N800 has an even (slightly) smaller screen. The big advantage is that magnificent 800x480 resolution, which equals to a more than 200 dpi printed resolution. I have my font size set at 19 points and it really is like reading a printed book, with about half a standard paperback page per screen. The glare is no problem, especially not with a screen protector applied; only in full sunlight the N800 bums out.

 

[TaG]

The screen size is indeed small, but the N800 has an even (slightly) smaller screen. The big advantage is that magnificent 800x480 resolution, which equals to a more than 200 dpi printed resolution. I have my font size set at 19 points and it really is like reading a printed book, with about half a standard paperback page per screen. The glare is no problem, especially not with a screen protector applied; only in full sunlight the N800 bums out.

Thanks for info Karel. Have you read anything for a fair amount of time?I know everybody is different, but how long would you say you can read off the N800 before you ought to give your eyes a good rest? (assuming you take tea/coffee-breaks for brief breaks)

 

[fiveseven]

Will the Pandora be able to display pdf files adequately? I've played around with various viewers on the gp2x for reading books, but found them all frustratingly hard to use.

 

[ljones]

From memory, aren't some ebooks propietary and/or protected by DRM ( yuk!) so they wouldn't work?

ljones

 

[sebt3]

Will the Pandora be able to display pdf files adequately? I've played around with various viewers on the gp2x for reading books, but found them all frustratingly hard to use.

Every PDF file that can be opened with Xpdf should be readable at some time. It's just a matter of porting it
With much luck, okular could even be ported to the pandora.

PS: for those who don't know it, kde developpers got a n810 each. And thez started to port KDE to the n810 plateform. when it's done we whould be able to get it into our lovely pandora. So okular is just a matter of time

 

[cbox]

I think a comic book reader would be an ideal app for the Pandora, hope someone ports one of those.

 

[Karel Jansens]

Thanks for info Karel. Have you read anything for a fair amount of time?I know everybody is different, but how long would you say you can read off the N800 before you ought to give your eyes a good rest? (assuming you take tea/coffee-breaks for brief breaks)

All of my books are on my N800 these days (I'm a Golden Age SciFi nut, going through the "Tom Corbett" series at the mo), so I can confirm that I read ebooks on my tablet the same way I used to read them in print. Two, three hours don't seem to tire my eyes in the least (in the dark or in bed, I do dim the screen brightness down to its lowest setting). I wear glasses but, being near-sighted, I tend to take them off for reading; I don't know if that makes a difference. I have never tried e-ink screens, so I can't compare.

From memory, aren't some ebooks propietary and/or protected by DRM ( yuk!) so they wouldn't work?

ljones

Yes, and no.

That's why G*d invented ConvertLIT and other marvels. Seriously for the moment, I believe in fair use: If I own a book in print, I can't see the harm in me "procuring" a digitzed version of the same book so I can read it on my handheld. If someone makes a law that says I can't do that, then that law is wrong and I don't feel bound by it.

Back when I was young and foolish (i.e. three years ago), I bought several ebooks from Peanut Press, to be read with their "Ereader" program. Although their DRM is rather reasonable, the problem still remains that their reader software is closed source and not available for ARM Linux. I don't buy from them anymore.

I think a comic book reader would be an ideal app for the Pandora, hope someone ports one of those.

Nah. I tried comic reading on the N800; the screen is just too small. If a reader were to display only one box at a time, it would be doable, provided the navigation was completely intuitive and absolutely smooth. It still wouldn't beat the real thing, comics are hard on a screen.

 

[azmodean]

Another option if you don't mind trying something new is "rapid serial visual presentation", which is a process where words are displayed one at a time on the screen, but it flips through them rapidly (5 words/second is a reasonable starting point until you get used to it, then you can go even faster. I usually read at around 10 words/second on the gp2x) The beauteous thing about rsvp on a small screen is that you can set it to let a single word take up most of the screen, which does wonders for reducing eyestrain.

I wrote an app (rsvp4gp2x) for the gp2x that I will be porting to the pandora as soon as possible. I currently have most of the necessary infrastructure needed for pdf support in place as well, but have some nagging gp2x-specific bugs that are keeping me from releasing a new version with pdf support.

 

[TaG]

Thanks Karel, that's useful.

At this rate, with all these uses, the only to remove a Pandora from my person will be surgically.

 

[acantoni]

Indeed thanks for the reply and comments

Didnt imagine to receive such an amount of replys in such a short time, it seems i'm not the only one interested in using pandora as a reading device while traveling

 

[Prometheus]

it seems i'm not the only one interested in using pandora as a reading device while traveling

Indeed you're not! I've been readying numerous texts from Project Gutenberg (as well as audiobooks of some of them, from LibriVox) in preparation for the Pandora's release, myself. Yet another handy use for the machine, methinks.

 

[ashdjones]

Another option if you don't mind trying something new is "rapid serial visual presentation", which is a process where words are displayed one at a time on the screen, but it flips through them rapidly (5 words/second is a reasonable starting point until you get used to it, then you can go even faster. I usually read at around 10 words/second on the gp2x) The beauteous thing about rsvp on a small screen is that you can set it to let a single word take up most of the screen, which does wonders for reducing eyestrain.

I wrote an app (rsvp4gp2x) for the gp2x that I will be porting to the pandora as soon as possible. I currently have most of the necessary infrastructure needed for pdf support in place as well, but have some nagging gp2x-specific bugs that are keeping me from releasing a new version with pdf support.

That's fascinating. A gave it a go on my laptop and I have to say I was amazed it works.

 

[LordFu]

I use FBreader on my N800, too, and it works fine. For me, gray text on a black background with the backlight very low or off is best. I use an 18 point bold sans font, and find it very readable.

For pdf, Evince is a good viewer. I use it for pdf books and comics.

I read comics in other formats with Comix. It has a great set of display options and supports rar and zip files.

I have pretty good eyesite, so your milage may vary.

 

[Esn]

I still use my GP32 FLU for reading free ebooks from the Gutenberg Project. Since it's front-lit, it's actually not hard on the eyes. The Pandora has a bigger and higher-resolution screen, but it's backlit like a computer monitor, so I imagine it would produce more of an eyestrain.

Well, we shall see. I, too, hope to use the Pandora for reading ebooks, but if it doesn't work out then I still have my GP32 to fall back on...

 

[paulobecker]

I've read quite a few books using my GP2X, all in .txt format, white font on black background. Never had eye strain problems or anything like that. I'm sure the Pandora will be even better, with a larger screen and probably a near-perfect .pdf viewer. I'd really like it if said .pdf viewer had the option to invert colors though. Black fonts on white background give me the headaches

 

[Alpha2]

I've always hated PDF, such a slow plodding format in web browsers, give me RTF because TXT will give you paragraph formating but wont retain simple things like italics or bold for the purposes of emphasis. These are essential to the total experience of reading.

I used to use my nintendo DS because the reader would atleast allow me to turn it side ways to actually feel like a book but the last version of the R4 software I downloaded messed that up. Now I'm hoping I can get back into it with the Pandora assumming it's possible to change the type orientation.

 

[atomicthumbs]

GP2X Vtex worked quite well for me, and I've read several dozen ebooks on it.

The Pandora would be much better due to the larger screen, multitasking, battery, formats, and other things.

 

[Karel Jansens]

I've always hated PDF, such a slow plodding format in web browsers, give me RTF because TXT will give you paragraph formating but wont retain simple things like italics or bold for the purposes of emphasis. These are essential to the total experience of reading.

I used to use my nintendo DS because the reader would atleast allow me to turn it side ways to actually feel like a book but the last version of the R4 software I downloaded messed that up. Now I'm hoping I can get back into it with the Pandora assumming it's possible to change the type orientation.

My biggest problem is footnotes. Especially in Terry Pratchett novels they do matter, as does their placement in the text. I have yet to encounter an ebook file format that doesn't at least occasionally choke on them.