Reply #7: This is going to sound funny... [View All]

[Solon]

But I use the Nintendo DS, usually in conjunction with a shell, like DSOrganize to read E-Books. Advantages of this is that it is a cheap solution, the Game System is only a little over 100 bucks, and is flexible enough to use.

Advantages are that the E-Books are usually DRM free, and you can edit them directly using a touchscreen keyboard. Disadvantages are that you are usually limited to HTML or Text files, and can't use PDF. Though, I'm thinking of writing a plugin to read PDF for DSOrganize. One other disadvantage is that you need to get a third party flash reader/writer for the game systems. The advantage of using these is that they usually use standard SD/Compact Flash carts, upwards of several Gigabytes of memory. Most of the E-Books I get are from the Gutenburg library, which is a free E-Book service, for books whose copyright has LONG expired or never existed, classics like Huckleberry Finn, Arabian Nights, and many others are available.

I also like the fact that the DS Lite is tough, I can fit it in a pocket, and because it folds up, both of its screens are protected. Also it has a variable back-light display, so reading in sunlight, unless the screen is directly in sunlight, isn't that much of a problem. Also its battery life is rather long, up to 20 hours when not using it for anything more than E-Book reading. There is even a DS E-Book reader that is set sideways, so you can see two "pages" on both screens.

Not to mention, and this probably adds to the value, but the system is multi-purpose when used in this manner, its not just an E-Book reader, its a Media Player, Game System, and, with DSLinux, I can network to my computer and browse my much larger collection of E-Books on the computer, or go on the Internet and read books or anything else on there, including E-mail and even some Instant messaging, at no extra charge.