Upgrade From Isilo 4.36 To Isilo 5.05
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.
How I Started On Mobile eBooks
Four years ago, I was an active member of a girl forum. Most of the topics were mostly women’s talk, one thread caught my attention. It was Harry Potter’s comparison between the movie & the book. They’ve said, book version was far better than the movie. I want to disagree but I haven’t read any book of Harry Potter series. I want to have a copy but I cant afford it at that time. Then I searched for an alternative option, I saw a link on that forum, one of the member share her pdf copy of HP books. I’ve download them and researched on how can I have them read on my mobile phone, I was using Nokia 3650 at that time.
Since I’m into blogging already, I asked almost all of the co-bloggers for help. Sad to say, nobody got the answers. Buying a PDA was neither an option. There must be a solution! hehehe… I saw a thread at the “for sale” section of that forum. She’s selling ebooks as sideline, ebooks at 10php each in different formats. Order a minimum of 10 ebooks @ 10php (promo). Regular price was 50php per ebook. Have to try them first if its possible so I’ve ordered ebooks in pdb format. Why pdb? Because buyers order ebooks for their pc or pda. *.pdf for pc and *.pdb for pda.
After I’ve received the files through email, I saved them on my email’s briefcase, went to my cousin’s internet shop. I don’t have my own PC at that time. He have this bluetooth service on his shop, my suggestion actually. Anyway, he sent the files to my cellphone via bluetooth. Then I searched for a mobile application that reads pdb files. I saw handybook reader, installed it and used it for my purchased ebooks. And that’s how my mobile ebook reading hobby started.
MobiReader, A Free Powerful eBook Reader
Mobipocket Reader for Symbian smartphone is another powerful eBook reader, the best thing of being powerful is its free. LOL! Who doesn’t want a free mobile application nowadays?
Why is it powerful? Take a look at the left part of my screenshots, it is the default introduction of MobiReader. It’s in prc format but it looked like a html format, it seems that you’re browsing from a third party browser of your symbian phone because of the link function. The introduction is way ahead better from other eBook reader introduction, you can’t believe that the application is free. Would you believe that you can open your eBook 1.03, prc format with MobiReader. I’ve tried that, take a look at the right side of the screenshot, it did worked. The trick here is if you have eBook 1.03 files, just transfer them to e:\eBooks — this is the default location of MobiReader and presto! You can read them with MobiReader, it is in the library already.
I’ve tried opening a txt format file with MobiReader, it worked as well. But even if you moved the txt file to designated folder, you cannot see it at the library. Just open the txt file via FExplorer.
I’ve mention from my earlier entries that eBook reader compatibility is one of my criteria on choosing a new symbian phone. No problem about the requirement anymore, MobiReader will surely handle my old collection of prc format eBooks.
Symbian60.1 – Nokia 3600, Nokia 3620, Nokia 3650, Nokia 3660, Nokia 6600, Nokia 7650, Nokia N-Gage, Nokia N-Gage QD, Siemens SX1, Sendo X.
Symbian60.2 – Nokia 3230, Nokia 6260, Nokia 6620, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6670, Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681, Nokia 6682, Nokia 7610, Nokia N70, Nokia N72, Nokia N90, Panasonic X700, Panasonic X800, Samsung SGH-Z600, Samsung SGH-Z720, Samsung SGH-Z730
Series60.3 – Nokia 3250, 5500, E50, E60, E61, E62, E70, N71, N72, N73, N75, N80, N91, N92, N93, N93i, N95
To download other mobipocket version for other symbian phones, click here. I’ll just stick to this great aspects of MobiReader for now, I’ll explore the other great things soon.
Make Your Bible Handy
Having a bible on your bag wherever you go is OK but making it handy is great! For instance, you received a SMS/MMS message indicating a bible verse you didn’t know not unless you’ll take a quick look on your bible. Not everybody has bible at home or you’re far away at home (just in case you have one), no choice but to wait until you get home. Right? That’s the idea of having it handy and this is just one of the many scenarios that you need a bible handy.
I’m using S60Bible v2-0.98 installed at the moment, its a free mobile application to download. There are many versions available even for the latest symbian phones, you can check this link for other versions. I was using the older version 0.95 before when I started making my bible handy. What’s new with this version that I love is the changeable font color, font style and background color. And also the copy verse feature in which you can copy the bible verse to your notes and send it via SMS/MMS to your friends later.
The first screenshot is the default page, I’ve made some color changes on the third screenshot to show you an idea how would it look like. BUT, expect your color configuration to turn back to default which is the first screenshot when you use it on heavy continuos reading, I’ve experienced it myself.
Anyway, the application itself is just a bible reader, you still have to download the bible pdb files. Palm doc or pdb formats are free to download. You can have as many bible versions as you want but remember they are big files approximately 1.7 mb+, I have KJV and Tagalog versions on my symbian phone, saved on “Document” folder of memory card. You can saved the pdb files wherever you want, the application will search for the pdb bible files.
Notes:
To search for pdb bible files, click option > Bible > Update Bible List
To shift to another bible version, click option > Bible > Select Bible
Reading txt file on Notes of your symbian phone?
Someone asked me what mobile ebook application can he used for txt format. According to him he’s lucky enough finding and downloading an eBook on his phone but got confused on how to read the file on his phone. He said, he read the file using “notes” on his phone.
Notes is the default viewer for txt files, I salute him for his eagerness to read that eBook. Imagine, if you use “notes”, special characters can’t be read and you have to search for last page you’ve read if you’ve stop. Big deal indeed especially if the file is an eBook.
I suggested him to use HandyBook by epocware, it supports palm doc (pdb) and txt format files. Upon installation, the application will asked you what language you will be using between Greek, Spanish, Slovenian, French, Polish, Swedish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Czech, Finnish, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Italian, German or English.
In Handybook application, you can choose the font size from small to large. There’s no need to make a folder for txt files because it will detect all your txt and pdb files on your phone. In fact, this is another alternative if you don’t want to convert your txt files that are previously SMS. And just for the record, txt files is the smallest in size of all eBook formats. Although you cannot change the font color and background color, its nice to have this application to read your txt files easily.
Related Topic:
Look Ma, My SMS is now an eBook!
