I just tried it out at the local Borders (Cambridge, MA). I was mostly curious how well it would work without using their Windows software for conversion, so I stuck a handful of files onto a flash card (RS-MMC--the only empty card I had on hand) and brought it in. Here's what I found:
* The PDF files I tried were fine, but there was a very noticeable delay in turning pages. One file, which was larger and had more complex pages, took 2-3 seconds to flip; the other was more like 1 second. By comparison, the native files bundled with the unit took less than one second.
* Text files were fine. However, it doesn't do any paragraph flowing; if you want to view a text file, you'll want to convert it so that newlines come only at the end of paragraphs.
* The MP3 playback is kind of UI-impaired. There doesn't seem to be anything resembling a playlist; you get a flat list of the files on the device, you pick a file, and it starts playing from that point on. The page buttons move you to the next/previous files; the joystick lets you skip within the file. It keeps playing while you read--I couldn't figure out how to make it stop.
* JPEG viewing is similar: a flat list of files; use the page buttons to move among them. Looked pretty good, for monochrome.
* The big one: it kept dropping the memory card. That is, the files on the card would spontaneously disappear from the list of available files; in one case, it happened while a JPEG was open, and the display showed a sort of blotchy version of the image, as if it had read a thumbnail and then stopped. I don't know why this was happening; all I can think of is that maybe my RS-MMC was too slow, and the device saw it timing out and decided the card was defective. In each case, I removed and reinserted the card, and was able to proceed. I should try it sometime with an actual SD card.
Update: a SanDisk SD card (not labeled as high-speed or anything) did work better; it never got dropped. Also, RTF works, too, and better than PDF, because it can be resized and reflowed.
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I just tried it out at the local Borders (Cambridge, MA). I was mostly curious how well it would work without using their Windows software for conversion, so I stuck a handful of files onto a flash card (RS-MMC--the only empty card I had on hand) and brought it in. Here's what I found:
* The PDF files I tried were fine, but there was a very noticeable delay in turning pages. One file, which was larger and had more complex pages, took 2-3 seconds to flip; the other was more like 1 second. By comparison, the native files bundled with the unit took less than one second.
* Text files were fine. However, it doesn't do any paragraph flowing; if you want to view a text file, you'll want to convert it so that newlines come only at the end of paragraphs.
* The MP3 playback is kind of UI-impaired. There doesn't seem to be anything resembling a playlist; you get a flat list of the files on the device, you pick a file, and it starts playing from that point on. The page buttons move you to the next/previous files; the joystick lets you skip within the file. It keeps playing while you read--I couldn't figure out how to make it stop.
* JPEG viewing is similar: a flat list of files; use the page buttons to move among them. Looked pretty good, for monochrome.
* The big one: it kept dropping the memory card. That is, the files on the card would spontaneously disappear from the list of available files; in one case, it happened while a JPEG was open, and the display showed a sort of blotchy version of the image, as if it had read a thumbnail and then stopped. I don't know why this was happening; all I can think of is that maybe my RS-MMC was too slow, and the device saw it timing out and decided the card was defective. In each case, I removed and reinserted the card, and was able to proceed. I should try it sometime with an actual SD card.
Update: a SanDisk SD card (not labeled as high-speed or anything) did work better; it never got dropped. Also, RTF works, too, and better than PDF, because it can be resized and reflowed.