I talked my mom into getting my dad an ebook reader for Christmas like this one:
http://www.gemstar-ebook.com/ebcontent/devices/default.asp
Now she’s mad at me because apparently my dad can’t download any other books to it than what this place sells through their website. My dad doesn’t like to read fiction – he’s kind of snobbish about it – and the website that has “thousands” of titles apparently doesn’t offer that much nonfiction that my dad wants to read.
Since this thing can read in many different formats, there has to be a way to download documents to it without going through the website, right? Any ideas?
Errr…I tried going to the eBook Bookstore and got a message saying that it was closed as of July 18, 2003. But when I read the OP again, I noticed that you said “an ebook reader for Christmas **like ** this one”, so your father probably isn’t looking at that particular bookstore.
What formats **can ** the ebook read? I get all my ebooks for my PDA through eReader.com, and they offer a eBook Studio to create your own eBooks using your own text. Is there a similar program available at your father’s ebook website? The books offered through eReader is a proprietary format (.pdb) made primarily for Palm OS and Pocket PC, so I’m guessing your father’s eBook reader will not be able to use eReader.com texts. A PDA can also read .pdf files, which can also be easily created. If the eBook your mother bought can read .pdfs, then you’re in luck.
It might be worth it to exchange the eBook for a PDA- the screen will be smaller (not that big of a problem for me as portability is a big factor), but you can do so much more with it.
See, this is why it’s so hard to solve my dad’s computer problems when I’m two hundred miles away. I know, when I found it and read the specs, that the reader my dad has does read .pdf, .doc, .txt and other common documents. This was a few months ago, so I barely remember it.
I told her to hook the reader up to the usb port and see if her computer recognizes it. No, it doesn’t. But, however, the computer can see it well enough to download books to it from that website. Hmmm. I’m thinking it’s user error.
I will try to talk to my mother about this again and find the correct website and bookstore. Thanks for trying to help!