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PRODUCT SHOOTOUT
More document readers: a user's perspective
By Larry Stedman
After trying just about all the document readers available, I've reached some conclusions about which ones work best. Selecting an ideal reader is a highly personal matter, but it will help you to know which ones I like.
In part one of this series at http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200105/ebook0501001.html, I described the features of my ideal reader and reviewed the free ones. This time around, I'm going to look at the ones you pay for, the shareware and commercial programs. You'll notice I rounded the prices to the nearest dollar. I hate the way vendors use the old retail ploy of shaving off a nickel to make the price seem lower.
AportisDoc Mobile Edition 2.21
AportisDoc Mobile Edition 2.21 (at http://www.aportis.com/tryme/download/AportisDoc/aportisdocmobile.html) has full screen mode, large un-bolded font, bookmarking (not the "grab-it" kind), and text copying, but the latter takes multiple steps.
"Beware! Deleting this reader also trashes all your documents!"
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It reads TealDoc bookmarks, and it's responsive. However, it wastes space with four font icons on the bottom line. It requires 66K. It's a solid product, but a bit pricey at $30. AportisDoc Mobile Edition is pictured in Figure A.
FIGURE A
AportisDoc Mobile Edition has full screen mode, large unbolded font, bookmarking, and text copying.
Beware! Deleting this reader also trashes all your documents! See the workaround I described in part one.
iambic Reader 1.02
iambic Reader 1.02 (at http://www.iambic.com/pilot/reader/features.htm) has "grab-it" bookmarking with advanced controls such as alphabetizing. It has excellent find features and big font. Alas, tapping the text window only scrolls by line. You must use hard buttons to advance by page. There's no text copying either. You can get the text to display full screen via a dialog box. The grab-it text isn't highlighted, and it takes a long time to open the first time (about 15 seconds for a 200K file). However, it gets fast later. It requires 178K and is priced at $20. iambic Reader is pictured in Figure B.
FIGURE B
iambic Reader has "grab-it" bookmarking, excellent Find features, and big font
iSilo 2.58
iSilo 2.58 (at http://www.isilo.com) displays HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) files and has good features: grab-it bookmarks with alphabetizing, large un-bolded font, and slick text copying. "Copy Text" enters the text copy mode. Select the desired text and then tap Copy to return to view mode. An icon is really needed for this.
iSilo has advanced scrolling features. You can scroll with the left or right scroll bar, by dragging text, or via actions for four screen regions--more options than needed for everyday reading.
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