[misappear]

Hi,

I saw a listing for the Sony Reader, which will apparently let you load j-pegs.  Does anyone have one of these, and if so, what's your opinion? I'm looking for something to look at comics and pulps on screen.  I would think it would need a zoom feature.  Kindle doesn't let you load your own j-pegs, or at least that's my impression from looking at the write-ups on the product

Any input wouold be helpful.

--Dave

[Yoc]

Someone call me when the screen is larger, in colour and you can zoom in on jpgs.
'I'll have my credit card ready.'   

-Yoc

[John C]

I don't know anything about the Sony or Amazon gadgets, unfortunately but I can tell you what I use, in case it helps any.  I got one of the laptops from the One Laptop Per Child group during their "Give One, Get One" promotion.

Personally, I think it's a dismal failure for their intended purposes.  However, I also don't think that it helps farming communities for the kids to be able to read blogs when they should be harvesting crops, so I might be biased.  That said, it's ideal for me, including reading comics.  Rugged, runs silent, has a reflective grayscale mode (like a pocket calculator) and a tablet mode (no touchscreen, though) with a rotatable screen image.  Plus WiFi.

Underneath, there's a full-fledged computer running Linux, so you have access to any Linux software that'll fit on the couple of gigabytes of drive.  I've been using Comix to read books, and I'm sure there's SOME imaging application that'll zoom in on any image you want.

I'm not trying to make a sale or anything, but I do know there are some unloved boxes floating around auction and sale sites, and I believe the group is planning to reprise the "Give One Get One" program this fall.  If you happen to want the Fisher-Price equivalent of the MacBook Air, this might be a good route to investigate--I might actually pick up another one for myself, in fact.  Their program also seems to have spawned a bunch of other lightweight, low-power laptops which could also be worth looking at, like the Eee and so forth.

They might be "heavier" than what you want, and they're certainly not "out of the box" solutions, but will certainly do the job, and at very similar prices to the dedicated machines.  (On the other hand, I think the Kindle is the only device that comes with non-subscription 3G service, which might be compelling if it's...well, hackable for other uses.)

[FlyingSquid]

I have a Sony Reader and I have a few comics on it, but it's not really designed for them. The screen is small, so you have to zoom in on most comics and putting them on as jpegs is impractical because the file system is very primitve and slow, so I convert them to PDFs.

Don't get me wrong, I love the reader. I have a whole library of books on it... It's just not very handy for reading Batman on a cross-country flight.

[misappear]

Muchas gracias.  This is the general consensus that I'm getting from people all over.  I'm fairly convinced the only thing that will properly show a 7 by 10 image of a comic or a pulp is a comic or a pulp.

--Dave

[FlyingSquid]

I suppose it also depends on the comic. Not counting the golden age stuff, I mostly read underground comics which tend to be much more text-heavy. I've only loaded two comics onto the reader- Strangers in Paradise and American Splendor collections. Your mileage may vary.

[ligelowbee]

I read comics on my sony reader, but mostly I use it for books.

Calibre comes with a comic2lrf program for transforming cbz's and such to sony lrf files.  It will scale and sharpen the images for cleaner viewing.  I find the "-w" option, which optimizes the images for landscape viewing, works best.

I love my reader, but it's really not that great for images, pdfs, or comics.  Maybe if it had better zooming and panning options, but it currently doesn't.

If you read a lot of public domain/pulp novels I'd recommend a reader. If you just want something for comics I'd try the Iliad, or wait until the low cost netbooks come out later this year.

I also hear that Mary Lou Jepsen and Company, the screen designers for the OLPC XO, are going to be coming out with some nifty stuff late this year to mid next.  You can read about her progress at PixelQi.  Daylight readable, colour, high contrast, low power.  Sweet deal, can't wait.

Cheers,
Lee

[misappear]

I looked up the Iliad reader thing.  At $1239.00 I would think it should do just about everything, no? 

There will come a time, I can feel it in my aging bones, that the technology in the Iliad reader will cost consumers $49.00.  Hopefully sooner than later. 

I paid $835.00 for my first VCR.  (Sweet machine, tho)

--Dave