Tech From an E-booker’s Viewpoint

In the midst of all the new e-book devices hitting the market, don’t forget the tried and true reader.  Right now Ebookwise has their reader on sale.  You can save $10 on the device and also receive free shipping (Fedex ground).  Faster shipping is available and is also discounted.  I really like their reader, especially since it has backlighting and a dictionary.  I have found their customer service to be excellent and there is a user forum with a great bunch of folks. Another plus is the library software available.  The software costs $14.95 and is really worth the price.   While there are free methods for converting text for the reader, the software makes it so much easier.  Just think, if you already have a few SMC cards from back in the day or don’t need more than 10 books on your reader at any given time, you can buy four EBW1150 for the price of one Kindle.  That’s a family pack!  The only drawback is one that is common to all other devices and that is DRM and the availability of books.  Still, there are a lot of multi-format books available at Fictionwise and free e-books that are already formatted for the device.  And of course you can brew your own.

Here’s the sale and shipping summary from their site:

Reader with 64mb SMC 129.95

Reader with internal memory only 99.95

Reader with 128mb SMC 169.95

Last Ship Dates for Christmas Delivery

USA Ground: order no later than Noon EST December 14

USA 2-Day: order no later than Noon EST December 20

CANADA Ground: order no later than Noon EST December 10

CANADA Air: order no later than Noon EST December 19

I really like the Eee, but I felt really frustrated by the lack of webcam support.  It’s a shame that Pidgin does not support video because I was really psyched to use the webcam. Why? The webcam on the Eee is excellent.  I have owned a few webcams and never have I had one that worked as well. I would always look to dark and had to practically sit under a flood light to be seen.  Yes I am dark skinned, but come on. I tested the Eee webcam in just regular light and immediately I could actually see myself.  I had read that there is now an update (beta) for Skype that supports the Eee webcam.  I read the instructions on installation and it just seemed too intricate.  So I instead I installed Windows XP Professional.  I chose the Professional version because that was all I had on had that included SP2.  Installation went smoothly and without any incident. Since I had an external CD/DVD drive I simply followed the instructions included in the user guide.  I was concerned that Windows would run slowly, but it doesn’t.  I then installed Yahoo Messenger.  Before I knew it I was broadcasting my video to my daughter.  The only other programs I installed were Open Office and Google Talk.  Anything thing else I will run from either a SD card or flash drive.  I feel bad in a way because I gave up so quickly on Linux.  I may decide to go back to it, but I doubt it.