Should I buy a PocketPC for ebooks?

[pootp]

Hi folks,

I'm in the market for a device for the sole purpose of reading ebooks. I'm considering purchasing a cheap/used laptop (minimum 400mhz) or a PocketPC device (Ipaq 2210). I have several books in PDF and CHM format which I read on my desktop, but would rather read when sitting in an easy chair or on the bus.

Would a PocketPC be ideal for reading books in PDF and CHM format? How about ebooks in general? Some of the books I have contain diagrams and code samples and I'm predicting this would cause me to scroll horizontally quite often.

Is there any software that would turn turn my display mode to 'landscape'? Otherwise, is there any other hardware that I can use? My budget is fairly low and TabletPC is out of the question.

Thanks for your help.

[pootp]

Hi folks,

I'm in the market for a device for the sole purpose of reading ebooks. I'm considering purchasing a cheap/used laptop (minimum 400mhz) or a PocketPC device (Ipaq 2210). I have several books in PDF and CHM format which I read on my desktop, but would rather read when sitting in an easy chair or on the bus.

Would a PocketPC be ideal for reading books in PDF and CHM format? How about ebooks in general? Some of the books I have contain diagrams and code samples and I'm predicting this would cause me to scroll horizontally quite often.

Is there any software that would turn turn my display mode to 'landscape'? Otherwise, is there any other hardware that I can use? My budget is fairly low and TabletPC is out of the question.

Thanks for your help.

[Kati Compton]

I would definitely recommend a PDA over a laptop for eBook reading. It lets you hold the device in a much more comfortable way that is more "natural" for reading. And battery time is much longer with most PDAs than with most laptops.

[Janak Parekh]

The only problem though, Kati, is PDF viewing -- Adobe's Reader for Pocket PCs and Palms leaves a lot to be desired.

pootp, ebooks aren't the same thing as reference materials (that might be in PDF). You can certainly use a Pocket PC to read them, though, and if you do, consider getting something like RepliGo, which is a super-lightweight PDF-like tool that also happens to have landscape mode built in. That said, if you have really detailed diagrams, do realize that a 320x240 display isn't going to be top-notch for the application.

As for "real" ebooks, I wholeheartedly recommend PDAs over laptops for the purpose. It's no fun trying to curl up and read with a laptop. The only alternative to a PDA for ebooks is a Tablet PC, and there are notable advantages and disadvantages to that approach.

--janak

[JustinGTP]

But then again, a cheap, used laptop battery power is about 1-1.5 hours. 400mHz laptops are getting on in the age department and therefore their batteries arent as high tech. I would recommend the PDA route aswell.

-Justin.

[dMores]

pda: instant on, instant off.
laptop: 20h boot time

[mr_Ray]

I don't think that there's any way to even view CHMs on a PPC is there?

Unless I've managed to miss it when I looked, there is no such beast, which I guess would pre-answer the question.

If you had mainly HTML and text books, I'd go PPC, though.

[seidler]

Originally Posted by mr_Ray

I don't think that there's any way to even view CHMs on a PPC is there?

Try this to convert CHM to HTML.

Stefan

[Talyn]

Or simply open a DOS window and use the following command:

hh.exe -decompile folder chm

where folder is the destination folder for the decompiled html files to be stored, and chm is the CHM file you want to decompile.

You can then take the source html files and do anything you want to them, such as whipping up an OPF to make an ebook (MS Reader and MobiPocket are both OEB-based).

Personally, I would highly recommend staying away from PDF though; it's an extremely poor format for an ebook and is notoriously slow in it's current state.

[shawnc]

I love my PPC for ebook reading but would 2nd what Janak said about viewing PDF files. Haven't tried Repligo, but using the Adobe program for the PPC really is not a good solution.

But for ebooks, PPC all the way.

[keelinlee]

I've heard that Mobipocket is working on 2 new plug-ins (PDF and CHM).

This may be usefull if you wish to use this software. Moreover, it would be great if it was possible to use CHM indexes in Mobi-converted version.

I already use the plug-in for Word, Excel and Outlook. It works well.

And the Reader has the portrait/landscape function.