PDA

View Full Version : Newton as an eBook reader?




mrgreen4242
Aug 2, 2005, 06:35 PM
I've been wanting a good ebook reader lately, as well as something I can do a little wireless browsing, email, and basic PIM tasks with. What I REALLY want is a Zaurus, one of the clamshell ones. :drool: But, I simply can't afford to plop down $500+ for a PDA, and if I could I wouldn't buy one, I'd just get an old iBook!

Anyways, the current (well, last gen cheap-o) Palms and PocketPCs in my opinion have far to small of screens to be useful as an ebook reader, which made me think of the Newton... the 2000/2100 had a fairly high res screen, of much better size than current PDAs, and I've seen them sell for under $50 on eBay.

Does anyone regularly use the Newton for ebook reading? Is there decent software out there for PDF viewing and easy 'page turning', etc? What about WiFi access via PCMCIA card? And syncing with OS X?

Can anyone recommend other low cost (used/refurb/etc) PDAs with large screens that are good for reading on?

Thanks for any tips!



shadowmoses
Aug 3, 2005, 03:52 AM
Why not have a look at a PSP you can read ebooks, view videos and pics and it is only $250...

It also has a better screen than the majority of PDA's and the new firmware update enables Wi-Fi internet browsing...

ShadOW ;)

mrgreen4242
Aug 3, 2005, 10:03 AM
Why not have a look at a PSP you can read ebooks, view videos and pics and it is only $250...

It also has a better screen than the majority of PDA's and the new firmware update enables Wi-Fi internet browsing...

ShadOW ;)

Bah. $250 is ridiculous for something like that. Plus, I'm a Nintendo fanboy, so the DS is the only option for portable gaming for me. (I'm holding out on the DS for a price drop, built-in or at least add-on web capabilities, or both :)). Plus, without a touchscreen the PSP is fairly useless as a information manager.

I also recall reading that the PSP didn't support any kind of document reader and that eBooks had to be stored as a series of iage files? Maybe that's wrong, but if not it would be a terrible way to have to store a book!