FoxIt (from PDF fame) readies ebook reader. $100 less than an Amazon Kindle. | Hacker News Reader

FoxIt (from PDF fame) readies ebook reader. $100 less than an Amazon Kindle.

linuxdevices.com

16 pointsrglullis14 comments

I love Foxit, but I think that comparing this reader to the Kindle isn't a fair matchup.

Specifically, the Kindle includes an EV-DO wireless transmitter. Basically, anywhere will Sprint cell coverage you can connect to online resources (as well as buying books that way) with no monthly charges. From the specs listed for the eSlick, it doesn't even have WiFi. The eSlick seems to use a USB sync.

I'm not saying it's a bad device. Just that EV-DO transmitters are expensive and that paying for free EV-DO usage in perpetuity (even if it's not that much data) costs money too. Wireless companies charge in the $10-30/mo range for data access. Even if Amazon got a sweetheart deal for a tiny fraction of that, it's going to cost money.

All that said, I still think I'd rather a more open device as this one seems to be.

Amazon did release the Kindle's source code awhile ago - They had to since its Linux-based and has to comply to the GPL. That seems pretty open to me, even if its not by choice (Though you could argue they chose to use Linux knowing what GPL entails)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&...

This is an interesting device in a category where I'm interested in seeing devices bloom. However, the phrase

ships with an MP3 player

worries me. The gratuitous MP3 player is the designer's badge of failure. I never, ever use it -- I have iPods and iPhones for that! -- and it just clutters up the interface and the documentation and dilutes the designers' focus on the task at hand. (Note, for example, that this thing is going to ship without Linux or Mac support for creating PDFs. What's up with that? Perhaps Foxit could have cut the MP3 feature and used its budget to hire a Unix person?)

All ebook readers have mp3 players including the kindle.

Hm, I had forgotten that. I guess it's just a matter of time before every pair of socks ships with an MP3 player.

Can I purchase and download books from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any other source with a 1M+ library of books? If the answer is no, then it's just a toy for hackers.

I for one am not so interested in buying DRMed PDFs anyway. But I guess I am a hacker in that sense.

Not enough companies make "just" toys for hackers.

  Format support is limited to PDF and TXT files, but the
  device ships with Foxit's PC-based PDF Creator software, 
  which is said to convert any printable document with formats
  including TXT, PPT, DOC, XLS, and HTML to PDF document format.

Not really useful. It doesn't support Kindle books and I buy all my books at Amazon.

Also found this:

http://thekindle.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/free-books-for-the...

I'd like a device with an e-ink display which I can put on my refrigerator to display my Google calendar. It could check the web for updates a few times a day. I'd want the batteries to last a year.

You know you can get refrigerators with integrated MP3 players, right?

And I want a pony

Foxit has been my choice of PDF reader when I am working on Windows. It is fast and does the job. I am pretty sure they can pull of good reading experience but the questions is how will the documents get there in the first place?

The strength of the kindle partly comes from the tight integration into Amazon.

This is interesting if you've got alot of documents on your pc but I don't see it being much more useful after the fact.

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