E-book reading handheld hardware device recommendations
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Can anyone recommend a good handheld device for reading e-books? I'm looking for something that can read e-books of type PDF, CHM, DOC, TXT, etc. I'd like to try to keep the cost down to $100 - $150 but I'd also consider sending more on a PDA with Pocket PC or similar if anyone can offer positive feedback on the these devices. I've seen information on some specialized e-book reading devices from different vendors but many only read proprietary formats or don't read CHM files natively. Also, can you offer any insight to conversion utilities that would allow conversion of CHM files to something more generic like PDF. Also, I have purchased some PDF e-books that "locked" and require a password to read. I read on the net that these aren't supported on Pocket PC. Anyone have experience with this and/or a remedy? Thanks for your time and information, Josh Blair
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Can anyone recommend a good handheld device for reading e-books? I'm looking for something that can read e-books of type PDF, CHM, DOC, TXT, etc. I'd like to try to keep the cost down to $100 - $150 but I'd also consider sending more on a PDA with Pocket PC or similar if anyone can offer positive feedback on the these devices. I've seen information on some specialized e-book reading devices from different vendors but many only read proprietary formats or don't read CHM files natively. Also, can you offer any insight to conversion utilities that would allow conversion of CHM files to something more generic like PDF. Also, I have purchased some PDF e-books that "locked" and require a password to read. I read on the net that these aren't supported on Pocket PC. Anyone have experience with this and/or a remedy? Thanks for your time and information, Josh Blair
Josh Blair wrote:
Also, can you offer any insight to conversion utilities that would allow conversion of CHM files to something more generic like PDF.
I don't know of many ways outside of coding it yourself to automate it, but for a one-by-one basis Acrobat and some other packages sell printer drivers that print to PDF. All you need to do is open up the CHM and go to File/Print and select that driver. Jeremy Falcon
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Josh Blair wrote:
Also, can you offer any insight to conversion utilities that would allow conversion of CHM files to something more generic like PDF.
I don't know of many ways outside of coding it yourself to automate it, but for a one-by-one basis Acrobat and some other packages sell printer drivers that print to PDF. All you need to do is open up the CHM and go to File/Print and select that driver. Jeremy Falcon
Jeremy, thanks for the tip. That seems to work relatively well. Josh Blair
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Jeremy, thanks for the tip. That seems to work relatively well. Josh Blair
You can try the free version at www.pdf955.com I've been using it for a year...So far so good Mauricio -Insanity is just a matter of opinion-
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Can anyone recommend a good handheld device for reading e-books? I'm looking for something that can read e-books of type PDF, CHM, DOC, TXT, etc. I'd like to try to keep the cost down to $100 - $150 but I'd also consider sending more on a PDA with Pocket PC or similar if anyone can offer positive feedback on the these devices. I've seen information on some specialized e-book reading devices from different vendors but many only read proprietary formats or don't read CHM files natively. Also, can you offer any insight to conversion utilities that would allow conversion of CHM files to something more generic like PDF. Also, I have purchased some PDF e-books that "locked" and require a password to read. I read on the net that these aren't supported on Pocket PC. Anyone have experience with this and/or a remedy? Thanks for your time and information, Josh Blair
If you just devices that will read ebooks, you can get them a lot cheaper than $100. Before I came to Microsoft and we got such sweet deals on the PPC 6700 phones, my wife and I purchased Handsprings off eBay for something like $30. They were/are absolutely perfect for reading books. Tom Archer (blog) Program Manager MSDN Online (Windows Vista and Visual C++) MICROSOFT
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If you just devices that will read ebooks, you can get them a lot cheaper than $100. Before I came to Microsoft and we got such sweet deals on the PPC 6700 phones, my wife and I purchased Handsprings off eBay for something like $30. They were/are absolutely perfect for reading books. Tom Archer (blog) Program Manager MSDN Online (Windows Vista and Visual C++) MICROSOFT
Tom, thanks for the recommendation. Is there a particular Handspring model that I need to look for or are they all pretty much capable of reading e-books? Thanks again, Josh Blair
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Tom, thanks for the recommendation. Is there a particular Handspring model that I need to look for or are they all pretty much capable of reading e-books? Thanks again, Josh Blair
They're probably all capable, but I'll email you the exact model tomorrow. I read entire books on mine so they work pretty good. Feel free to drop me an email if I forget tom.archer@microsoft.com Tom Archer (blog) Program Manager MSDN Online (Windows Vista and Visual C++) MICROSOFT