Sometimes, to mobile ebook newbies, choosing the appropriate mobile ebook reader is confusing. Mobile eBook readers compatibility usually depends on mobile platform so make sure that you know your smartphone’s OS version. Then you can choose and test the best ebook reader for your mobile.
Just like my “Free eBooks Download” post, wherein ebook sources were listed, here’s another one stop list of mobile ebook readers plus their download links. Please do check articles I made in the past.
Warning: Again, make sure that you know your smartphones mobile application compatibility. I am not liable to any damages it will cost you, you can read on the info before downloading the reader. However, feel free to comment here for assistance. Just in case, I didn’t have any past articles about a certain eBook reader, rest assured that it will be posted soon. Most of the mobile applications are free unless stated.
In alphabetical order:
Best eBook 1.03 (by SmartphoneWare) – formerly eBook 1.03 for Aportis PRC and Palm PDB. Info | Download trial 15 days
HandyBook (by EpocWare) – for Palm PDB, TXT Info | Download
Java eBook Creators – I don’t consider them as readers but converted java ebook format is stand alone reader for every eBook. For all java supported phones.
The image above is a sreenshot of Bob Ong’s ebook in PDF format. Bob Ong is a Filipino author publishing books in tagalog. He had already lots of books published from 2001 to present.
ABNKKBSNPLAko?!
Bakit Baliktad Magbasa Ng Libro Ang Mga Pilipino?
Ang Paboritong Libro Ni Hudas
Ang Kagilagilalas Na Pakikipagsapalaran Ni Zsazsa Zaturnnah
Alamat Ng Gubat
Stainless Longganisa
Kikomachine Komix Blg. 1-5
Penumbra Novellas: Takod, Parman, Craving
Macarthur
Tikman Ang Langit
Girl Trouble
Kulas
Peksman (Mamatay Ka Man) Nagsisinungaling Ako (at iba pang Kuwentong Kasinungalingan na di pa dapat paniwalaan)
Trese: Murder On Balete Drive
ROLES (a Not Quite Unreal novel)
2 reasons why I made this post:
First reason, piracy. See the image above? The real book was photocopied or scanned and created in PDF format. The book costs not much compared to other similar genre and it was available for download from forums. If I really like the book, I’m sure I will have another collection just like Pugad Baboy (a local political humor books).
Second reason: This is to show an example of a kind of ebook that is impossible to be converted. I received a download link via SMS for this PDF years ago from a ebookworm and asked me a favor to convert it so he can read it on his mobile. Technically, its impossible.
I was checking for my mobile applications installed on my phone and saw Isilo 4.36. I checked for the latest Isilo version before I make an article about it. The latest version now is 5.05 released in January 5, 2009, there are many version from 4.36 prior to 5.05. Hey, the application is long been installed on my phone and haven’t used it yet. I updated my version hoping there’s a major change, I’m using now 30-day trial version. I shouldn’t have done that, I didn’t see any major changes at all. Well, at least I test and blog about Isilo. For those who have a license for a prior version, you can purchase the upgrade to version 5.x from the online store, they’re having a promo for upgrade until March 31, 2009 for $6.99 which normally costs $9.99.
If you do not register iSilo™ by the end of the 30-day trial period, iSilo™ converts to free mode, which allows you to continue using iSilo™ without needing to purchase a license but with limited features. In free version, hyperlinks, images, color, tables, mixed font size, bookmarks are not available.
Isilo reads Palm PDB and TXT formats. It works on wide variety of smartphones and other device. You could check on this link to find if your device is compatible.
Features:
High text compression in iSilo™ format documents result in a 50% to 60% decrease in size, which is about 20% better than the Palm Doc format, allowing you to store more and larger documents on your handheld.
Hyperlinks make it much easier to navigate through a document.
Images add visual richness to documents, especially photo-quality color pictures.
Tables allow the display of tabular data.
Formatted text gives style to text for controlled emphasis.
From the sound of the title, it should be simple and easy but based on my experience, preparing the source file eats time more than the converting process itself. Ever wonder why most of the ebook conversion company charges a big sum of money for their services? This could be one of the reason. It took me 2-6 hours on correcting source files to have a perfect output.
Let’s make MS Word DOC as an example. From the MS Word software, our eyes could deceive us. We could also believe that everything is perfect already because we already saw how would it look when printed. For all we know, there are wrong tags like header, footer, index on a paragraph. Errors like these will make the words become noticeable because of their font size and style (bold or larger fonts).
Sometimes, ebook conversion on other format could be as easy as 1-2-3, we could convert the same file and have the same output we see on MS Word print preview. Its different on converting to mobipocket PRC format, every formatting such as font style, size, alignment, index, header, footer, page breaks, line breaks, among others will be reflected. Converting to a mobipocket format should be done with a perfect source file, one needs a keen eye on details and with a lot of patience. Otherwise, you will never have a perfect PRC format output.
Quick tips on editing an MS Word eBook:
Use page breaks after each chapters
Use line breaks for spaces instead of using “enter” key
Omit any blank page unless needed
Be careful on using header, footer, index on paragraphs
Sometimes, even if you edit the source file there are times that there’s still unexpected error that you could see only on output file (converted PRC format) using Mobipocket reader. That’s the time you will search again for that words to make correction. To easily find that, press Ctrl-F and type in the words to be searched.
Converting mobile ebook can be so complicated to others if we have to convert a certain source file to a specific format. Let’s say we have pdf format ebook and we want to convert it to SmartphoneWare’s ebook that supports Aportis PRC. FYI, ebook coversion to this format is possible using a mobile application “eBook Maker”. So if you are using eBook 1.03 make sure that you also installed eBook Maker on yur mobile phone. This is an old application and never been updated since 2003 but it still works on compatible smartphones. This was the first ebook reader I used in 2004.
Above is just an example on when we are needing to convert PDF to TXT format. PDFZilla has a PDF to TXT conversion tool that supports batch conversion easily. The best part is Zilla PDF to TXT Converter is a freeware. You can download the file directly from PDFZilla Download here.
How to use it? Just click the plus sign (+) to add files, assign the output folder and press “Start Converting Now”. Its easy. You could also upgrade and purchase the product to convert PDF to other formats.
I was checking for my mobile applications installed on my phone and saw Isilo 4.36. I checked for the latest Isilo version before I make an article about it. The latest version now is 5.05 released in January 5, 2009, there are many version from 4.36 prior to 5.05. Hey, the application is long been installed on my phone and haven’t used it yet. I updated my version hoping there’s a major change, I’m using now 30-day trial version. I shouldn’t have done that, I didn’t see any major changes at all. Well, at least I test and blog about Isilo. For those who have a license for a prior version, you can purchase the upgrade to version 5.x from the online store, they’re having a promo for upgrade until March 31, 2009 for $6.99 which normally costs $9.99.
Let’s make MS Word DOC as an example. From the MS Word software, our eyes could deceive us. We could also believe that everything is perfect already because we already saw how would it look when printed. For all we know, there are wrong tags like header, footer, index on a paragraph. Errors like these will make the words become noticeable because of their font size and style (bold or larger fonts).
