Fbreader?

[mali]

I usually read at night and reading a real book under low artificial lighting is more eye-straining than reading off an LCD.

 

[skeezix]

Eink is not bad but not 'there' yet...

And I read in the dark with a sleeping baby

jeffphone

 

[Rathum]

+1 for reading in the dark.

Pandora will replace the PSP (oh God) as my primary ebook reader. I've used a Kindle quite a bit, but having a reader that fits in your pocket is pretty cool (among other advantages).

 

[Pushwall]

I think I'll look into this tomorrow..

Thanks Jeff! That would be awesome!!

Just built battlejewels for pandora, woowoo

I still play this now and again on my Tapwave Zodiac. This is even more awesomeness!!! B)

 

[WizardStan]

Pandora will be a very powerful multi-purpose device, but with that small LCD screen... yes, it is a small screen if you compare with ebook readers' screens and it will emit light, so it won't be very comfortable if you want to read for an extended period of time. Yes, an ebook reader will sucks in everything but reading, so let's use the best device for each task.

Saying "it's better on X" is not a reason to not do it on Y. If the cost of Y plus the cost to get it working on Y is less than the cost of X, then it might be better to get it working on Y.
Since most people here are going to get a Pandora (eventually) anyway, the cost of Y is 0. The cost to get Fbreader is a few hours of one interested person's time, which is effectively 0 as well (reward - cost >= 0 for the individual, otherwise they wouldn't do it I would hope), so total cost for average Joe to get a decent ebook reader on Pandora is basically 0.
If they need to buy a dedicated ebook reader instead, that cost goes way up, unless there are other benefits that balance the cost, other things that an ebook reader can do that the Pandora can't. The easy readability of e-ink (for most) is one of those benefits, but I don't think that alone warrants such a purchase. I had considered getting a Kindel for it's 24/7 access to Wikipedia, but someone was working on a Wikipedia offline viewer for the Pandora, so the costs suddenly balanced there as well.
Long story short: people will already have a Pandora. Ebook reader might be better suited to it, but the Pandora is not terrible at it, so there is no loss in getting such a thing on the Pandora as well.

 

[Awakening]

I don't read a lot these days, a book every now and then. Getting an ebook reader is totally out of question for me. Some of my friends are into audio books and I might listen to some on my Pandora instead of reading. I do have some plans to read on my Pandora, I'm thinking of looking into Google Books.

 

[Timstertoo]

I read books in the Epub format on my Nokia E90. The screen is wide enough to have a comfortable letter size. I believe the Pandora screen will be probably about as wide, maybe a bit wider.

I was going to buy an ebook reader last december but I decided to pass. I read a lot in bed and my better half gets grumpy if I have the light on. I'm a bit of a vampire so she's in bed well before I am. Without a backlight an ebook device will be pointless for me.

I used to read PDF's on my E90 but the black letters on white screen combined with the fact that I could only zoom in so far before I had to scroll from left to right to read a line made it inpractical to me. With the white screen and black letters I get eyestrain and it's like having a flashlight in bed.

Good thing about Mobipocket reader for the E90 is that I can make the lettertype bigger to suit me without having to scroll from left to right. But more imporantly, I can easily change the colours. So now I have a maroon background with silver letters. It shines hardly at all, can't even use it as a guiding light to get to my bedroom through the dark anymore I've read several books on it now and I can read for hours without getting eyestrain. So if FBReader allows me to change the colours and supports Epub it'll make the Pandora my reading device of choice.

 

[Karel Jansens]

+1 for reading in the dark.

Pandora will replace the PSP (oh God) as my primary ebook reader. I've used a Kindle quite a bit, but having a reader that fits in your pocket is pretty cool (among other advantages).

If your previous device was a PSP, then the Panda will blow your top off. I went from a Sony Ericsson P910i (not too different an experience from a PSP, if I crunched my numbers correctly) to a Nokia N800 (actually a 770 first, but it has the same display) and the difference was truly stunning.

The combination of small screen and high pixel density makes for an almost print quality of text. If you don't go crazy with the backlight, eyestrain will be a non-issue. Take it froma letter junkie.

 

[mduffor]

Count me down as someone wanting FBReader on the Pandora. I currently use it on my Nokia N810, and it's great. FBReader + Project Gutenberg = classical goodness!!!

Cheers,
Michael

 

[skeezix]

Seeing as docs for FBReader are sparse (and the code doesn't log much .. like very first thing, when it can't find its UI plugin, it doesn't tell you it couldn't find it, not where it looked.. silliness!), anyone know how to use it?

I've got it compiled and fixed a few little issues, so it actually _runs_ , I think.

I specify a book name on the command line, and it shows it. With a giant font. It seems to take the full screen, but seems to show no controls beyond a scrollbar. Any quick tips while I'm here looking at it?

Time to install it into my linux desktop and see how it should look

jeff

Ah, it should have a button bar up top, but it does not. *Sigh* I like an easy port, but this is an out of control codebase .. time to dig a little

edit 2: I bet it needs a pile of icons, and is out-clevering itself trying to dynamicly pull from network, filesystem etc, so no obvious place its looking for them, and it'd kill these guys to actually make it print out what its doing .. so now to figure out where the heck its looking for artwork and such, and stash it there. Bastards

edit 3: alright, so it at least sticks gunk in /usr/share/FBReader and /usr/share/pixmaps/FBReader, but copying those from a desktop doesn't make the toolbar show up, and I'm rapidly losing interest At least we know its possible to build, with a little bit of pain, and I'm sure one of you guys can figure out the issue if I give over the stuff, when the time comes

 

[WoD]

Eink is not bad but not 'there' yet...

And I read in the dark with a sleeping baby

jeffphone

Likewise E-Ink proponents clearly have no sex life.

Besides, E-Ink has a lower contrast ratio than yellow-on-blue LCD screens.

FBReader is brilliant, although I'm not seeing how it would paginate well on the Pandora. The N810 has a perfectly positioned rocker switch, and the N900 a not-quite-so perfectly positioned one. The Pandora could work with L1/R1 when standing up (or just either or, as you don't generally need to turn back a page), but I might have to plug in a mouse to use it super comfortably when lying down in bed.

Pandora FBReader, rotated 90 degrees Lovely! Will stand up on its own accord. I just hope the screen brightness on the Pandora goes right down.

Find the source for a version already ported to a mobile device, but not overly adjusted to said devices UI methodology. IE N810 perhaps.

 

[eridium]

Has anyone done any more work on this?

Just wondering.

 

[mali]

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/54430-epub-reader-must-be-possible-surely/
http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/54557-console-attack%3B-fix-or-figure-out-fbreader-here-are-the-bins/

 

[eridium]

Thanks mali! Very helpful!