Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - GURPS PDFs: What e-Book/e-reader?

Kage2020 · 05-22-2011, 11:01 AM

I'm another one that was put off by the iPad by the producing company, though I'm incredibly jealous about the excellent battery life the products exhibit. Everything else, though? Not my cup of tea.

Incidentally, and FWIW, I have:

HP TX2100 US laptap/tablet. A tad on the heavy side to be used as a true e-reader (to say the least), but then again it's not really designed as an e-reader. Extremely useful for producing visuals since you can use it as a small "GM screen" and then simply rotate the screen to show the group around the table... whatever it was that you wanted to show them. I don't mind reading GURPS PDF on it, though.
ASUS eePC. Useful for carrying around, though it has largely been superseded by my tablet. Not as useful around the gaming table.
Kindle 3. Lovely for reading novels and for taking a bunch of them around, but I wouldn't want to use it for reading PDF because of the slow page turn, the small screen size, etc. Not useful around the gaming table, or at least as far as I can assess.
Pandigital Novel. The 7" screen puts it at the outer limit of readability when it comes to a full page GURPS book, but it's certainly do-able. It represents my emergency backup. Could be useful as a prop, I suppose, but I would have to root it for it to be useful.
Samsung Fascinate. If I've got nothing else and I just want to bone up on some of the GURPS rules, I'll pull this out (though I only have Campaigns and Characters on it).
Notion Ink Adam. Perfect for reading PDF and--bonus--I can use it outside on a sunny day. Unfortunately the software isn't that hot, so you basically have to root it and/or flash it to another ROM (which I have done), but once there it's a great tablet. (Honeycomb coming to it soon.) This has basically replaced my netbook in most circumstances. Shame that the battery life sucks, but it also has my full electronic GURPS collection (along with Earthdawn and Shadowrun for my "Shadowrun Apocalypse" setting). The 10" screen means that books are readable without zooming into it, but every now and again my old eyes have trouble with that so the zoom function is rather helpful.

In general, though, I think that the Android is a perfectly acceptable alternative to the iPad/i-gadgets, though is still lacking on power management/battery life. For all of my Android devices (other than the non-rooted PD Novel), RepliGo reader allows rapid navigation around the book, quick-zoom possibilities, annotation and notes, etc.

Just my 2p.

05-22-2011, 11:01 AM	#67
Kage2020 Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Virginia, US	Re: GURPS PDFs: What e-Book/e-reader? I'm another one that was put off by the iPad by the producing company, though I'm incredibly jealous about the excellent battery life the products exhibit. Everything else, though? Not my cup of tea. Incidentally, and FWIW, I have: HP TX2100 US laptap/tablet. A tad on the heavy side to be used as a true e-reader (to say the least), but then again it's not really designed as an e-reader. Extremely useful for producing visuals since you can use it as a small "GM screen" and then simply rotate the screen to show the group around the table... whatever it was that you wanted to show them. I don't mind reading GURPS PDF on it, though. ASUS eePC. Useful for carrying around, though it has largely been superseded by my tablet. Not as useful around the gaming table. Kindle 3. Lovely for reading novels and for taking a bunch of them around, but I wouldn't want to use it for reading PDF because of the slow page turn, the small screen size, etc. Not useful around the gaming table, or at least as far as I can assess. Pandigital Novel. The 7" screen puts it at the outer limit of readability when it comes to a full page GURPS book, but it's certainly do-able. It represents my emergency backup. Could be useful as a prop, I suppose, but I would have to root it for it to be useful. Samsung Fascinate. If I've got nothing else and I just want to bone up on some of the GURPS rules, I'll pull this out (though I only have Campaigns and Characters on it). Notion Ink Adam. Perfect for reading PDF and--bonus--I can use it outside on a sunny day. Unfortunately the software isn't that hot, so you basically have to root it and/or flash it to another ROM (which I have done), but once there it's a great tablet. (Honeycomb coming to it soon.) This has basically replaced my netbook in most circumstances. Shame that the battery life sucks, but it also has my full electronic GURPS collection (along with Earthdawn and Shadowrun for my "Shadowrun Apocalypse" setting). The 10" screen means that books are readable without zooming into it, but every now and again my old eyes have trouble with that so the zoom function is rather helpful. In general, though, I think that the Android is a perfectly acceptable alternative to the iPad/i-gadgets, though is still lacking on power management/battery life. For all of my Android devices (other than the non-rooted PD Novel), RepliGo reader allows rapid navigation around the book, quick-zoom possibilities, annotation and notes, etc. Just my 2p.