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eBook Palm Reader Choices
Taking in novels on an ebook palm reader is truly an enjoyable experience. The first few times you try it, it only takes a minute to forget you’re not turning paper pages. Plus, like most Palm PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) owners, you probably keep the device handy. Soon, you’re reading anywhere, even in bed—using the PDA’s backlit screen as your reading light.
And for many models, that tiny expansion slot (think “disk drive”) can hold at least 50 titles at a time. Try getting that many paperbacks into your shirt pocket or purse and you’ve got a world record. (Okay, for a typical purse, that’s merely getting started. )
No ebook palm reader Format Wars!
Remember the VHS vs. Betamax War for VCR supremacy? No? How about Cable vs. Satellite TV, or Playstation2 vs. XBox? Basically, you have to put your money on one choice or the other.
Guess what? You can have multiple ebook readers on your Palm PDA. You aren’t locked into any one format. And as other formats enter the scene, you can read those as well. All you have to do is install that format’s reader and go.
The .DOC Format (supported by: AportisDOC, MobiPocket Reader, PalmReader, etc.)
The .DOC format began its existence as a word processing format popularized by the AportisDOC program. It quickly grew to be a dominant ebook “standard” on Palm handhelds. Most ebook palm reader programs will support this format, in addition to its primary format. Don’t let the file extension fool you. This .DOC is not the same as Microsoft Word’s .doc format.
The .PDB Format (supported by: PalmReader)
I’m a little squeamish on this one because just about every data file or database on a Palm will be in .PDB format. In fact, PDB stands for “Palm Database”. If you see an ebook with this file extension, your best bet is that it’s meant to be read on Palm PDA. But don’t worry: each ebook palm reader discussed below have versions that run on Windows PCs, as well as other PDA platforms such as the PocketPC.
The PalmReader, from PalmDigitalMedia.com, began life as the Peanut Reader, the sole reading software of the wildly popular ebook publisher, PeanutPress.com. Of course, in business, “When you’re good, you’re acquired”, and Palm Computing did just that to with the PeanutPress. Secure PalmReader books require the customer’s name and credit card number as passwords, but the reader can handle non-secure content as well.
The Mobipocket ebook palm reader also started out as the primary reader of an independent ebook publisher, Mobipocket.com. Along with the PalmReader, the Mobipocket Reader allow for screen rotation, extensive bookmaking and annotations, and on-the-spot definition of words with an available dictionary.
The .PDF Format (Acrobat Reader, Adobe Reader for Palm OS)
This is the ebook-specific version of the Adobe Acrobat format (confusingly enough, using the same file extension). Originally, this format was created to perfectly copy the look of the printed page across all computer platforms and printers. This is great for preserving every detail of documents and records created before the computer age, but terrible for an ebook palm reader—just like web pages, ebooks are supposed to adapt to different screen sizes.
So, Adobe created this second format. Their Adobe Reader (formally, Acrobat Reader) re-flows their generic .PDF files into .PDFs that can be easily read as a Palm ebook. This requires two programs (both freely available):
Adobe Reader—which resides on your PC and does the conversion work (such as resizing pictures, if desired), and
Adobe Reader for Palm OS—which resides on the PDA and displays the ebook.
If you already have files in .PDF format, this is the quickest way to read them on a Palm. True to form, versions of the Adobe Reader also exist for many other computer and PDA platforms.
Enjoy any ebook palm reader format!
You don’t have to make compromises when it comes to file formats on an ebook palm reader. The individual software programs don’t fight each other, allowing you to focus on what titles you want to read.