Cheap Kindle Project

[esecallum]

While I was in bed it occurred to me that a lcd phote frame used for displaying pictures costing about $20 for a 5 inch frame could be easily adapted to be a book reader like the Amazon Kindle book reader which costs a whopping $500.For that much you could buy a laptop or a desktop pc.

I see no reason why a picture LCD photoframe could not display text if it can display color pictures/jpegs.

Therefore I ask you to either spread the idea about this or make it happen.

Only a very simple basic program either linux or windows would be required to act as an operating system or even run it from a flash drive which would store both the pdf,rtf,txt,ebooks.

The idea is that a cheap disposable lcd picture photo frame could be used as a replacement for the very expensive kindle book reader.

This could finally revolutionise the reading of books due to low cost.


There are many clever,smart and intelligent people on this board who could easily implement this.

[mountain_rage]

Kindle is expensive because it does not utilize an LCD panel, it uses electronic paper or E Ink. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper)The advantage of E paper is the fact that it mimics regular printed material, which makes it more pleasing for readers. As the devices become more popular the prices will drop.

If you want to get yourself an LCD based ebook reader I recommend looking into internet tablets.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16855501026
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3408772&CatId=228

You can find the Nokia 770 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_770_Internet_Tablet) for dirt cheap somtimes, like 150$

[wapazoid]

Another vote for tablets. I use mine to read comics in bed.

[YWD67]

Another vote for tablets. I use mine to read comics in bed.

Can you use the Comic book reader program with it? I have been lookng for something like tablets for awhile.
I use Documents to Go on my Moto "Q" phone to read .txt .pdf, and word file. books. It has a 2G SanDisk memory card and it can hold a couple of thousand eBooks.
The Documents to Go program makes the books very readable on the phone screen.

Been trying to find a text to speech program for it, but none exist for it at this time.
I have a few Audio books but your average 128kps MP3 book is about 700 to 800MB so I can not put but a few books on the memory card.

[wapazoid]

I haven't had any trouble using CDisplay on my tablet pc. Sure, it's an older reader, but works perfectly.

[mountain_rage]

Can you use the Comic book reader program with it? I have been lookng for something like tablets for awhile.
I use Documents to Go on my Moto "Q" phone to read .txt .pdf, and word file. books. It has a 2G SanDisk memory card and it can hold a couple of thousand eBooks.
The Documents to Go program makes the books very readable on the phone screen.


The Nokia tablets run Maemo which has a very thriving community of homebrew software and games. If you are looking at getting one look through the software list.

www.maemo.org

Almost bought a 770 when I saw it for 150$, but I already have a Palm TX and I'm not sure how much I really need it.

[thelastfreeman]

Has the op tried this method as an alternative to kindle? I'd like to be able to read my pirated books without a heavy laptop on my chest.

[wapazoid]

The R2H UM from Asus is pretty light, but pricey.