E-Readers for backpacking?

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justpeachy
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Re: E-Readers for backpacking?

Post by justpeachy » September 11th, 2012, 6:04 am

You can use a program called Calibre to manage your ebook library (I have a -large- one) and convert books between formats (not all books will let you, I think - due to Digital Rights Management).
I'm pretty sure Calibre won't work with any e-books that have DRM, which includes library e-books.

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Martell
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Re: E-Readers for backpacking?

Post by Martell » September 11th, 2012, 6:59 am

One thing with e-ink readers is the screens are pretty delicate. If you bring one on the trail, you can wrap it in some of those extra clothes you mentioned to protect it.

The new Kindle Paperlight has e-ink and a built-in light. The battery is supposed to last for weeks even with the light on.
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Dustin DuBois
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Re: E-Readers for backpacking?

Post by Dustin DuBois » September 11th, 2012, 8:39 am

justpeachy wrote:
You can use a program called Calibre to manage your ebook library (I have a -large- one) and convert books between formats (not all books will let you, I think - due to Digital Rights Management).
I'm pretty sure Calibre won't work with any e-books that have DRM, which includes library e-books.
Yeah, there is that. There are lots of places to get DRM free books, just not likely to be anything popular. Most sources aside from Amazon or B&N should offer eBooks in a format that works on any of the top eBook readers. If they don't, they're shooting themselves in the foot.
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drm
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Re: E-Readers for backpacking?

Post by drm » September 11th, 2012, 4:06 pm

I'm not concerned that an e-Reader provide it's own light. The batteries on my headlamp last an entire season as it is. I like the dark and rarely use it for other than reading.

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Dustin DuBois
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Re: E-Readers for backpacking?

Post by Dustin DuBois » September 11th, 2012, 4:39 pm

drm wrote:I'm not concerned that an e-Reader provide it's own light. The batteries on my headlamp last an entire season as it is. I like the dark and rarely use it for other than reading.
Then one of the cheaper "e-ink"-based devices would be perfect for you (base-model Kindle or Nook). Just gotta protect it with a case or sleeve.
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Helen
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Re: E-Readers for backpacking?

Post by Helen » October 7th, 2012, 9:01 am

Cheryl,

Do you know what percentage of new books the Multnomah Library is ordering? I am a huge fan of our library and am really excited about the prostpect of using the library for ebooks. The library would allow me to check out ebooks while traveling around the US which solves a big problem for me.

The only books I typically purchase are those for gifts and hiking books (I have my own little hiking book library).

Thanks for any insight,

-helen

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Re: E-Readers for backpacking?

Post by justpeachy » October 7th, 2012, 9:22 am

If you have a Multnomah County library card, you have access to several e-book collections. There is Library2Go, which has over 15,000 e-books. The one drawback is that this is a statewide resource, so you're competing with people from libraries all over the state for that pot of 15,000 books. This normally isn't too big of a problem, but around the holidays the hold lists on e-books get pretty long. That said, lots of new books are being added every month. Plus, there is a huge collection of "always available" e-books, many of which are from Project Gutenberg. For the most part these are books that are out of copyright.

Multnomah County also subscribes to something called "ebrary." I'm not very familiar with this resource (I work for a Clackamas County library and we don't have this). At a glance it looks like there are 23,000 e-books on religion, science, history, crafts, pets, travel, and more. It doesn't look like it has novels, so if that's what you're looking for then Library2Go is your best bet.

Information about e-books from Multnomah County: http://multcolib.org/ref/ebooks.html

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CampinCarl
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Re: E-Readers for backpacking?

Post by CampinCarl » April 28th, 2014, 11:02 am

Bump

I'm in the market for a tablet and wanted to hear any feedback from any of the thread contributors.

I am looking at this primarily for the following functions, in order of importance:

-Music Player
-GPS unit for hiking and geocaching
-E-reader
-Secondary camera
-Watch movies
-Other apps/games

This would see a lot of use outside of hiking, but I wanted to consider using it while backpacking, hiking and geocaching.

I would buy a case and screen protector(s) to protect against the elements.

I was also curious about battery life and external battery chargers.

Thanks in advance!

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Re: E-Readers for backpacking?

Post by Lumpy » April 28th, 2014, 11:20 am

About two months ago I bought a Samsung tablet from costco for $139 (there was a rebate at the time, price reflects that). It has all the things you are looking for.
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Koda
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Re: E-Readers for backpacking?

Post by Koda » April 28th, 2014, 1:31 pm

CampinCarl wrote:Bump

I'm in the market for a tablet and wanted to hear any feedback from any of the thread contributors.

I am looking at this primarily for the following functions, in order of importance:

-Music Player
-GPS unit for hiking and geocaching
-E-reader
-Secondary camera
-Watch movies
-Other apps/games

This would see a lot of use outside of hiking, but I wanted to consider using it while backpacking, hiking and geocaching.

I would buy a case and screen protector(s) to protect against the elements.

I was also curious about battery life and external battery chargers.

Thanks in advance!
I have the 7” Samsung Galaxy Tab2 wifi only. I love it except the camera and video is terrible and not worth using. Works great as a GPS with BCN. Pros, cost, Wifi only tablets are much cheaper. Con, aforementioned camera.

Any of the Android or Apple tablets will work for everything with a note about geocaching. Last I checked, all the Geocaching app developers have not figured out that users will need to cache map tiles to geocache in the field (outside of network or cell range).

Note about using it as a GPS. Friend of mind does it with his apple tablet in a waterproof otterbox. However there is no real practical way to carry it anywhere other than the top lid of a backpack and expect it to keep a good line of sight with the sky. When he had it out, his screen size prevailed. When he needed to see what his bearing is, he asked me to look at my phone. This might be different than your needs as we were entirely off trail but regardless there aren’t any accessories to carry a tablet accessible while hiking.
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