[LMB] Cybook tips was re: The worth of Ebook readers OT:

[Martin Bonham]

A couple more 'tips' for Cybook users.

I find my cybook experience considerably improved with a few minor
(non-destructive) modifications, as illustrated here.
http://www.bonham.net.nz/SF/temp/200803210004%20(Small).JPG

(1) Navigation Button Spacer
I have the the standard Bookeen padded brown leather cover.
I like this protective case, and normally leave my Cybook in it all the time.

However, when the reader is inside the cover, I find the main navigation 
control difficult to use as it is now too deeply down the cover cutout.
As suggested over at MobileRead.com, I made a spacer out of a piece of thin 
cardboard (a small square with a central cutout - a squared off donut),
and wrapped it in some black tape. 
This effectively lifts the buttons up to be level with the top of the cover 
cutout, and means I can push them with my thumb or a finger rather than having 
to resort to a finger nail.

(2) Cotton tie on the rubber plug.
I find that when the Reader is in its case, I can't remove the hinged rubber 
plug that covers the USB and headphone sockets.  The case covers the fingernail 
slot in the plug that allows it to be removed.
I have solved this with a tiny bit of black cotton tried around the rubber
plug, with ends an inch or so long, so I can pull out the plug without
needing to remove the reader from its cover.

(3) Lanyard
There are two connected holes in the lower left corner of the Reader,
from bottom to side. These are presumably to allow a lanyard to be attached
to the reader. And I have done just that. And it works well.
(There is a cut out in that corner of the cover)
I have attached a go around your neck type loop lanyard that came with a
Transcend brand USB jetflash drive. I don't hang the reader around my neck, but 
the lanyard is great for wrapping around my hand or wrist while holding the 
reader, so I don't worry as much about dropping it when using it one handed.

(4) I find that one or two large rubber bands around the free edge of the 
cover's front flap are also useful. Both to assist the magnets keep the cover 
closed, or while it is open, and to grip your fingers when holding the open 
reader (helping give a more stable tripod-like one handed grip), and also to 
hold appointment cards or small pieces of paper. 
(I donate plasma regularly, and when lying down with one arm immobilised by the 
needle in a superficial antecubital fossa vein, I find the other arm needs to 
be able to copy with an eBook Reader or paperback,  and the several bits of 
card I am given while immobilised - if not reading an eBook, the cards tuck 
into a paper book as bookmarks).

[ob: Bujold - Doing other things while giving blood would be considerably 
easier if I was a Quaddie, (would you donate from a lower limb elbow ?),  but 
in 'current' high tech quaddie society it would seem that there is little need 
for blood donors, as products can be manufactured in vitro].



Martin.



ps:  Can one believe eInk Sales Figures ?
PVI are the manufacturer of the 6 inch eInk screen used by the Amazon Kindle, 
Sony, Bookeen and other readers.
It seems that so far far, the rate limiting step in the sales of eInk EBook 
readers has been the manufacture of the screens - the retailers have been 
selling out as soon as they can get readers in stock from the various reader 
manufacturer's assembly plants.
If you believe reports of PVIs sales figures for the screens - they are 
supposedly currently shipping 60,000 to 80,000 units per month, and are 
planning to increase production to 120,000 per month by the end of the year - 
that would be 4000 per day, or  almost one every 20 seconds.
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23464
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=177235

-- 
Martin Bonham, Auckland, (Aotearoa) New Zealand.
Home of Middle Earth, Whale Rider, and now also King Kong and Narnia.