Reading on the eee pc
By Paul Biba
I received the following email from Rafael Ortega and thought it was interesting enough to reprint in full. Here we go:
It’s been suggested before that netbooks could be useful as e-readers while serving the many purposes of a portable computer of nowadays. I’m pursuing a degree in LIS at a south american university included in the THES universities ranking over the last few years, and I took a snapshot of an experiment of mine, wich consists in taking pictures to study materials with a Fujifilm A850 8.1 megapixel camera, applying OCR, converting to html and capturing with Firefox extension Scrapbook, for later annotation, highlighting, and link insertion.
The fact that the netbook I read this OCRed texts from is an Asus eeepc 701 with an embarrassing 7 inch screen (KDE enabled, CPU clocked to -LOL- 900Mhz), keeps me from revealing more details on this crearly unorthodox approach to reading. Yet I found reading from the screen not as uncomfortable as one would expect. Firefox extension Stylish allows for a change in background and fonts colour, and SmothWheel provides a way of fine tuning scrolling behaviour. I made some slight modifications to Scrapbook source code in order to assign more shortcut keys to numbers; some of those shortcuts turn selected text into Google searches (100 hits per page as default), Google “define” command, and Google translation from French to English. I also added a bit of code to allow me to insert hyperlinks to elements on the same document, thus providing me a way of creating cross references between different parts of a given text.
The fact that Scrapbook encloses highlighted text between tags with a certain class attribute, means that such content (as well as everything else inserted with the extension -links and comments-, wich bear their class attribute), could be displayed separately, exported or indexed by a information retrieval and storage system. I discarded Google Desktop search tool as it didn’t index more than a few pages of each document, but probably htdig (wich comes with stock Xandros Linux distro) will do better at indexing.
I’m thinking on migrating my rough and ready “system” as soon as I can get my hands on a web tablet with transflective screen (Pixel-Qi, Qualcomm Mirasol, you name it), and I may carry around the thing with a USB flexible rubber keyboard wrapped around that I would unroll and plug in. Exccentric, isn’t there a bit of method in my madness?
Shiyali
September 14th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
The comments about adjusting the settings of the netbook are valuable. Many who are “convinced” they cannot read for extended periods on home computers, laptops, netbooks, etc, could find they can be much more comfortable reading with a few manual adjustments to their screens’ brightness, contrast, colors, font types and sizes, and even sharpness (if they have a “Cleartype” setting of some sort on their device). Perhaps reading apps should include some instruction, or even access the computer’s screen settings, in order to make this easier for customers…
September 14th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I’ve been using an EEE PC 701 as my main ebook reader since I got it in December ‘07. It’s not the best solution, but it works for most things.
The main problem with reading on a netbook is the keyboard gets in the way when I try to curl up. I’m thinking something like the Asus t91 or the AI Touchbook would solve that problem. I’m on pre-order for a Touchbook and waiting to see how those turn out.
I’m “Test Driving” a Sony Reader for Smart Bitches Trashy Books and really like it. I can very easily see moving to a Sony Reader for my reading, if I can get over the price tag.
I need a netbook with a 9 inch screen, instead of the 7 inch. My 701’s been a good machine, but the screen is just too small for internet and computer use. Wether I go with a more expensive tablet style netbook sized computer or switch to a Sony Reader and a cheaper 9 inch regular netbook I haven’t decided yet. Part of that decision will be made by the dropping price of Sony 505s and part of it will be when I get an email saying my Touchbook is about to ship.
September 14th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
I like your “roll your own” approach, Shiyali. I’ve recently experimented with my P1610. Normally I read in full-on tablet mode, (portait orientation, single-page) but I recently discovered that I didn’t mind reading in open notebook mode, i.e. landscape, with two pages side by side. It’s not necessarily ideal when you’re on the run, but works reasonably well at home or when stationary.
Your idea about the rubber keyboard is interesting – they are inexpensive and easy to find. I doubt if anybody would want to spend any amount of time using it for input, but it might work in the short term. As an added bonus, it would also protect your device quite nicely !
September 14th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Netbooks like eeePC 701 are unbeatable as ebook reader, expecially for comics (cbz/.cbr) and complex pdfs that are both not well supported on the ebook readers actually on the market.
I use a 701 as manga and comics reader since 6 months and it feels great, any ebook reader can beat it. No conversions, no pain: just rotate the screen, start up CDisplay, load your comics and happy reading.
I wrote a succesfull and complete tutorial about this:
http://eldino.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/it-io-il-mio-asus-eeepc-701-4g-nero-netbook-episodio-5-come-trasformare-leeepc-in-un-ebook-reader-la-guida-completa/
Check the video! You can traslate the text to italian using google traslate.
Small netbooks are great ebook readers! Don’t understimate them! The only pain is battery: mine dies after 2 hours.