[Carnyx]

Originally Posted by kacir

One very obvious source is - buying the books from the company that provided the reading device, such as Kindle or Nook or Sony. This is also THE most hassle free way. Especially on Kindle. Difficulty in obtaining books this way varies for different devices.

I knew some devices allowed this kind of thing but wasn't terribly clear on what devices allow this via a 3G connection in the UK. All I know is that the Kindle does, and I *think* the Nook does not. Would be good to have a definitive list but I couldn't find one on the WWW.

This wiki page lists large number of sources for free books. You can prepare and SD card for non-technical user with a thousand books and send it by mail, or upload it for "technical support" to load on an SD card. This can be several years worth of reading. Be careful. Not all devices have an SD card slot. (*)

That's a good idea actually. This was mentioned in a previous reply but I envisaged it being a one-at-a-time process which would be OTT and unbearable for the user; but if it were just grabbing all the free books I could find and putting them on an SD card(s), that's something I could definitely do. Good call on that(and to previous reply).

[*]There are many books available at what is sometimes improperly called "the darknet". I list this here only for the sake of completeness of this list. Mobileread is not a good place to get advice in this direction.
Please note that in many places (or, to be precise jurisdictions) it is *not* illegal to download copyrighted works. Only uploading is illegal almost everywhere. I do not want to start yet another flamewar here, I am listing it just for the sake of completeness ;-) .

Totally understand where you're coming from on that and I'll bear it in mind

There are several types of [hand] disability.
One is, that you have no coordination in hands, but still some strength. In this case touchscreen is not a good choice. You need buttons that are as big and as sturdy as possible.
Other type of disability is that the person does have sufficient coordination, but lacks strength. In this case the touch interface is great, because you only need to touch the screen very, very lightly.

Another good point. I didn't know that. I feel I should have done my homework better before looking at the E-Readers but I'm new to all this I'm afraid. I tried earlier to call the carer to ask some questions but no answer. Will persevere though. You know when I agreed to look I didn;t think it would be a big deal but I've been shocked how much time it's taken and how little clear, conclusive info there is out there.

If I was solving problem for such person, I would probably take PocketBook reading device, void warranty by taking it apart and solder wires for big, comfortable external buttons for operating the device where tiny switches are normally connected on printed circuit board. I would mount the device on the board and then mount nice, big external buttons on the same board. You can even connect another button for "next page" on cable, so the disabled person could take the most comfortable position while turning pages, holding a kind of wired remote control. You could turn pages by moving a head slightly or blowing into a tube, or something.

I do like that idea though I lack the know-how. I would consider it if the basic device turns out to be unusable for her. That said, I can't think of where I'd go to get this done. The bog standard sparkies round here would pull a face and fob me off if I asked for something like that.

External USB keyboard is an interesting solution, because you "only" need to jailbreak the device to install some drivers - you do not leave visible traces of modification. And you do not need to modify device hardware in any way. So when the reader dies [from other case then bricking by botched firmware modification ;-) ] you can still claim the warranty.

I prefert that option - is jailbreaking installing third party software or is there a hardware change to do as well?

Seriously - thanks for taking so much time to research and reply to this. It's humbling to get free first-hand advice like this off people who know what they're talking about.....<< Cue bill of service >>
Thanks Kacir,
David.