[ILUG] E-Book Reader BeBook?

[Andrew Court]

I have a sony PRS-505 and am very happy with it. Battery life is very
strong(I can get about a month out of it), and with the exception of one or
two annoying flaws - such as not being able to read while it charges, It
perfectly suits my needs. I have not played with any DRM-locked files, but
then I dont think I have any. There is no option for searching for text, but
I have not needed that option, and the eInk is very soft on the eyes.

I think some people need to get over the idea of it being a an electronic
device or gadget. Its a book. I have heard complaints that it has no
backlight, and no wifi. Neither does a regular book. If you want to check
your email, get an eee or OLPC. This is for reading on, nothing else.

I would be interested on seeing how it compares to the bebook though.



On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 12:04 AM, Glenn Strong <Glenn.Strong at cs.tcd.ie>wrote:

> angryearthling wrote:
> > Frank Murphy wrote:
> >> http://mybebook.com/
> >>
> >> Any opinions, am looking at this,
> > only thing i can't see in its spec that i would want is the ability to
> > search text files or pdfs using popup keyboard or even text entry using
> > limited buttons on front.  it's the main benefit of having an etext is
> > to be able to search them.
>
> I have a BeBook and I'm very happy with it. Reading from the eInk
> display is very different (and, IMO, much nicer) than reading from an
> LCD. Having the battery last for a week between charges is nice, too, if
> you're travelling.
>
> I ditched the stock firmware and use OpenInkpot (http://openinkpot.org).
> I lost the ability to read DRM-locked books (don't care) and the PDF
> reader is a bit less usable (do care, but believe it will improve). I
> gained display flexibility, and some features (like in-document search).
>
> PDF viewing in general could do with some work on most of these devices.
> PDF is really better suited to something that is targeting paper. If I
> need to read a PDF on the BeBook I use calibre to convert it to
> something like ePub before copying it over, which works pretty well for
> mostly text-based PDF's.
>
> --
> Glenn Strong                           http://www.cs.tcd.ie/Glenn.Strong
> School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College, Dublin
> T: +353 1 896 3629
> --
> Irish Linux Users' Group mailing list
> About this list : http://mail.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug
> Who we are : http://www.linux.ie/
> Where we are : http://www.linux.ie/map/
>