ebooks | (no subject)

E-ink readers!

Man I love the idea of them, being able to take a gazillion books with me while I am on the bus or train. The portability is a plus, and the fact that I don't have to go to the library and borrow stacks of books and have to remember to return them...

Of course the e-readers are best for novels, which means a 5 or 6 inch screen is best. THe latest Sony T1 that my brother was given for christmas means he doesn't have to worry about PDFs that are printed in 2 columns, and I WISH I could get my hands on it , but my brother is seeeelfish.

My sony PRS-600 hadnt been used for months though, because I do so much internet surfing, I fail. When I got it back out to read, I was shocked! The screen had faded so much, I could see images from three pages ago, I couldn't read on the second smallest font size. Ghosting was bad, especially in the centre of the screen. I was heart-broken.

Morosely, I went online to search for a new e-reader, because Sony readers are, unfortunately, not repaired or sold in Singapore. There aren't much that use the Pearl screen, that I'm willing to pay for. I wouldn't mind a PRS 650, but it's difficult to get, I don't want to touch Kindles with a ten-foot pole, and I don't even know where to start getting a Hanlin.

I wanted a reader that could also read Chinese natively - I wanted to get back into reading Chinese texts, improve my language, without having to convert them into giant PDFs. Jin Yong's novels are wonderful because I already jknow the storylines and just need to read them over and over, but it's so time-consuming to convert them into PDFs, and I don't want to brick my Sony by flashing it for Chinese.

So the ones I REALLY want is the greenbook, hanlins, irivers and the hanvons. Hanvon, unfortunately doesn't seem to have as good a reputation as Hanlin, and greenbook is, while cheapest of the lot, has apparently crappy software (but excellent hardware). The irivers still all use the old e-ink screens, and while they are awesome for reading comics, I don't have any mangas TO read and I don't really need a keyboard.

Other than the greenbook, they're all expensive, about $400 if I can get them here in Singapore.

Meanwhile, I just kept reading on my sony, turning the font size up to Large (the middle sized font) morosely.

Which was when I realised, about one and a half YA books later (250page-novels), the fonts were getting clearer. The ghosting was still there, but it wasn't as bad as it had started out. I finished the second book today, and then started on a third, and realised that it was getting good enough I can actually turn the size back down to the second smallest size, and still read it, with only the occasional back-and-forth to turn the page's words darker.

It seems that dis-use lets the screen degrade, but use, consistent and long use, actually makes it improve.

How strange! Does anyone have any insight on this? Or is this just me?

Also, would anyone like to add any tips on how to flash a Sony PRS 600 with a Chinese hack? With step-by-step instructions. I've read Mobilereads but I got intimidated, because my language ability in Chinese is pretty poor, and if I destroy my sony I won't have another reader till I can get my hands on a Hanlin.

AND. Would anyone know where to GET a Hanlin in Singapore? I know the iRiver and this weird little thing called KeyReader can be found in Funan ITmall, and the Greenbook is potentially bought from iKnow. But I really would like to get my hands on the Hanlins, I've heard excellent things about it, and how its language support is extensive. Though I'd like a Pearl screen on the hanlin too.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The easiest way to get a Hanlin in Singapore, or any other ereader in a place where they're not directly marketed, is to find one online and ask for someone in a country where it's available to buy it & send it to you. (Is possibly cheaper that way, too.)

I have a Pocket EZReader, which is made by Jinke, who make the hardware that's also used for the Hanlins. (Same hardware; slightly different firmware.) It doesn't support nearly the filetypes it claims to--while it opens .doc, .txt and .html files, they're not what I'd call readable. It splits words in the middle, sometimes with hyphens ("ye-ars" is not a split I ever needed to see) and sometimes without, which is almost tolerable except when it happens at the end of a screen. However, for epub it's excellent, and for mobi it's tolerable (the italics tend to lose the tops of some letters for some reason), and it's great to be able to throw both of those on the same reader. And it does seem to read Chinese natively. (At least, I think that's the language the other user manual included is in.)

I alternate between the PEZ and a Sony 505, which has the older screen and a noticeably slower processor :( but supports .rtf, which means adding fanfic from non-AO3 sites is a matter of copy-paste-save, rather than reformat-and-convert.

The ghosting fading with use makes sense--after disuse, the little bubbles that make up the e-ink may settle after a long time with no charge applied to them, and it could take a while for the black and white beads to re-separate when it's being used. (I haven't heard of this particular issue before, but it does seem reasonable--all the little black & white beads being mixed up after a long time at rest, and the first time you apply a charge to them, the black beads go to the top and the white ones go to the bottom--except that they're so mixed that some of the white beads are still trapped between the black ones, and vice versa.)

Can't give advice on flashing, unfortunately. I haven't flashed either of my readers.

I'm poking about the website jinke and it's possible to buy it direct from jinke, apparently, the only problem is that I don't know why they don't accept credit cards - they only accept wire transfers? *dithers* I'm going to wait around though. I think ther'es a seller who does sell in Malaysia, but I want one with a pearl screen. I think.

I think I believe your explanation about the e-ink! It does make sense.The first thing to go though, was a complete screen refresh - it used to be that I could clear my screen completely by shutting it down fully, rather than letting it go into standby, and now the ghosting is pretty bad, even when I shut it down. But now the reading wise is getting better. I think I need to use it more, longer, to get it back to at least a reasonable amount of readability. Meanwhile, I'm on the lookout for new pearl screens, or at least, eink upgrades. So far I'm keen on mirasol screens, or even triton, if they look like they will deliver 16 grades of grey and a non-reflective.

Basically, I'm hoping technology would get better within this year or so, enough that it is worth upgrading.

I have no advice to give, I'm afraid but I did find this discussion of use/disuse and screen effects useful. Thanks!

heh! you're welcome.

And now my screen has gone bad again. arhg. It's like being NOT used overnight was no good for it.

I'll have to flick through a book on it again. And now I'm staring so so wistfully at the PRS 350 my mother has. God I love sonys and their beautiful screens.

How's your Prs 600 doing? Mine has te same problem after about half a year of leaving it unused. It's so faded tat I can hardly see the fonts.

It's faded again.

I'm charging it overnight, and will flick through a book - but I think you do have to use it to get the ink back to use. D:

tried flicking through 2 books already but still the same faded screen.. perhaps mine is dead for good..
think u r right that e-ink screens need to be kept in use to work.. also noticed that my wife's kindle touch is not as crisp as when new. or perhaps this is an issue with touch screens.

anyway, good luck with your prs-600!