Reading on a Palm - keeping books on SD card

mogui · 05-27-2007, 11:13 PM

Up until recently, until I bought my Sony Reader, my main eReader was an old TRGpro running the Palm OS. It has a 32M Compact Flash card which I mainly use for backup. For reading I used SmartDoc, Plucker and Mobipocket. All of them work well.

Within the last year my TRGpro had developed a problem of intermittent screen blackouts. To ensure my continued ability to read, I asked my daughter in the US to buy a refurbished Palm M125 for me. It was only US$29.00. Along with the M125 I got a 1G SD card.

The TRGpro has a bit of software that makes the distinction between main memory and flash storage rather seamless. I could have books stored on the CF card that were visible to my reader applications.

Suddenly, with my new device, books that are on the SD card are not seen by the applications residing in main memory. Ideally, I would like to carry the eReader software and the books together on the SD card. Does this work? It works with some software and not with others.

The Mobipocket software appears to find all of my ebooks, but does not put their name in the catalog. The catalog shows only a vertical list of book icons. I could use it, in theory, were I willing to open each book to find out what it is before reading, but that is obviously inconvenient. Mobi also annoys me by rendering icons in greyscale. I prefer clear black and white. Too bad. Mobipocket gets the boot.

SmartDoc is a good reader. I used it a lot on my TRGpro. In the M125, running off of the SD card, it will only show those books I have copied to main memory. I have "Filez" on the M125, a piece of file management software that lets me see what is in main memory and on the SD card, and copy from one to the other. I could live with those limitations with SmartDoc. By the way, SmartDoc has now become Quickword, which I have not tried.

I really like Plucker for its desktop app's ability to convert PDFs and HTML pages to Palm-readable format. When I use Plucker to convert and install to my SD card, Plucker, running from the SD card, finds the book on the SD card and catalogs it. When Plucker is run from main memory, it also finds the book on the SD card. Plucker gets a home on my SD card.

I discovered the free reader called Palm Reader. It finds all my books on the SD card as well as those in main memory, though it appears it will only show me 12 books at a time in the library. It politely puts an SD card icon beside the names of the ebooks on my card. It is easy to use and has one feature I really like. It will show the screen in reverse video, so I can use the backlight at night for high readability. On my Palm, this program shows up in the application menu as eReader. This one is a keeper.

RWood · 05-27-2007, 11:40 PM

Before I got the Sony Reader I too used a Palm; but my Palm was in a cell phone by Samsung, the i500. Now this did start me out on mobile reading with its 13 line screen with about 32 characters per line. Always in black on white, I used both eReader and Mobi. Each had advantages over the other so I kept both. This allowed me to read one book in each and switch back and forth as the spirit moved me. (One was an ISO 9000 standards manual that is still there.) Nothing has been added in over 6 months.

I still keep some pulp fiction on the phone I have been working on one old BlackMask file for a couple of months now. After settling in with the Sony e-ink screen it is hard to go back to the coarse LCD screen. Thankfully you have a far better screen on your Palm. My Godson has the same model and likes it better than my Sony.

I did most of my book prep in ABC Amber Text Converter for the Palm so I still have the original source files. I still ship files over to him in PDB format although of late he has asked what other formats I can supply them in.

Congratulations of finding a pair of reader programs that you like. eReader is fast, light, and very responsive.

mogui · 05-29-2007, 09:36 AM

I was spoiled by my old TRGpro Palm device. It came with backup software, so I could protect my programs and databases without much effort. I know hot-synching gives the same result, but I like a backup solution right there on the handheld. With my TRGpro I was able to store about three backups before the 32M CF card got full.

Now my brand-new refurbished Palm M125 has an SD card but doesn't come with any backup software. I used "filez" to make copies of my memo and address databases on the SD card, but what I really wanted was the assurance that, should my batteries run dry and my Palm's RAM bleed itself into oblivion, I could restore everything quickly and easily.

I remembered "Backup Buddy". It is well known, but I have never used it. Looking on their website, I discovered that BB VFS is needed to support SD cards. There was no free version listed, but they offered to let me use the BBVFS free for thirty days. No Thanks! I went looking for backup solutions.

Several looked good and were free: Inner Backup — or here, Backup V1.0 which is said to be OK but very slow, and NV Backup which is well reviewed, but will not work on older devices like mine.
I found two that were free, did backups, but had no restore functionality. They are Smart Backup and Power Guard. One is suggested to use "filez".

I found reference to a free Backup Buddy VFS on the Freeware Palm site. I couldn't download it from there, but I found it here. It did my first backup seamlessly. I am hoping for a happy restore when I need it too.

Robert Marquard · 05-29-2007, 10:13 AM

Try using the current Mobipocket beta for Palm.

mogui · 05-29-2007, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robert Marquard

Try using the current Mobipocket beta for Palm.

Thanks for the tip Robert. I downloaded Mobipocket Reader V5.3 Build 573 -- a beta version from here. It runs from main memory on my M125 as well as from my 1G SD card.

This version displays the same oddity in the library listing as did the older version. All I see is a list of book icons, but with a difference. At the end of the listing there is a normal list of ten doc eBooks that I can also see in eReader.

This Mobi reader is still very slow. The icons are still in greyscale. My M125 has no contrast adjustment, so the greyscale icons are not friendly to my old eyes.

mogui · 08-11-2007, 10:46 PM

Earlier I had downloaded a beta of Mobipocket v5.3. It had not solved the problem of eBook names not appearing in the library (directory) list on my Palm M125. Today I downloaded and installed the files for the final version of v5.3. They have solved the problem! All of my ebooks appear in the library listing.

Read more about the Mobipocket reader here.

pruss · 08-12-2007, 11:32 PM

You can always have a cheap do it yourself backup by installing Filez, and just copying all databases from RAM to SD card. Restoring will not be perfect, but you should be able to recover most of your data.

mogui · 08-13-2007, 01:02 AM

I do use "filez" for deleting and moving. I let my device go without a battery too long when changing the battery and I found that the free Backup Buddy restored some of my executables in a broken way. The only backup method that works for me in a trouble-free manner is synching with my desktop. That is not a good solution for travel unless I get one of the new Asus 701s

05-27-2007, 11:13 PM	#1
mogui eNigma Posts: 503 Karma: 1335 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: The Philippines Device: HTC G1 Android FBReader	Reading on a Palm - keeping books on SD card Up until recently, until I bought my Sony Reader, my main eReader was an old TRGpro running the Palm OS. It has a 32M Compact Flash card which I mainly use for backup. For reading I used SmartDoc, Plucker and Mobipocket. All of them work well. Within the last year my TRGpro had developed a problem of intermittent screen blackouts. To ensure my continued ability to read, I asked my daughter in the US to buy a refurbished Palm M125 for me. It was only US$29.00. Along with the M125 I got a 1G SD card. The TRGpro has a bit of software that makes the distinction between main memory and flash storage rather seamless. I could have books stored on the CF card that were visible to my reader applications. Suddenly, with my new device, books that are on the SD card are not seen by the applications residing in main memory. Ideally, I would like to carry the eReader software and the books together on the SD card. Does this work? It works with some software and not with others. The Mobipocket software appears to find all of my ebooks, but does not put their name in the catalog. The catalog shows only a vertical list of book icons. I could use it, in theory, were I willing to open each book to find out what it is before reading, but that is obviously inconvenient. Mobi also annoys me by rendering icons in greyscale. I prefer clear black and white. Too bad. Mobipocket gets the boot. SmartDoc is a good reader. I used it a lot on my TRGpro. In the M125, running off of the SD card, it will only show those books I have copied to main memory. I have "Filez" on the M125, a piece of file management software that lets me see what is in main memory and on the SD card, and copy from one to the other. I could live with those limitations with SmartDoc. By the way, SmartDoc has now become Quickword, which I have not tried. I really like Plucker for its desktop app's ability to convert PDFs and HTML pages to Palm-readable format. When I use Plucker to convert and install to my SD card, Plucker, running from the SD card, finds the book on the SD card and catalogs it. When Plucker is run from main memory, it also finds the book on the SD card. Plucker gets a home on my SD card. I discovered the free reader called Palm Reader. It finds all my books on the SD card as well as those in main memory, though it appears it will only show me 12 books at a time in the library. It politely puts an SD card icon beside the names of the ebooks on my card. It is easy to use and has one feature I really like. It will show the screen in reverse video, so I can use the backlight at night for high readability. On my Palm, this program shows up in the application menu as eReader. This one is a keeper. Last edited by mogui; 05-27-2007 at 11:16 PM.

05-29-2007, 09:36 AM	#3
mogui eNigma Posts: 503 Karma: 1335 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: The Philippines Device: HTC G1 Android FBReader	Keeping the Palm backed-up I was spoiled by my old TRGpro Palm device. It came with backup software, so I could protect my programs and databases without much effort. I know hot-synching gives the same result, but I like a backup solution right there on the handheld. With my TRGpro I was able to store about three backups before the 32M CF card got full. Now my brand-new refurbished Palm M125 has an SD card but doesn't come with any backup software. I used "filez" to make copies of my memo and address databases on the SD card, but what I really wanted was the assurance that, should my batteries run dry and my Palm's RAM bleed itself into oblivion, I could restore everything quickly and easily. I remembered "Backup Buddy". It is well known, but I have never used it. Looking on their website, I discovered that BB VFS is needed to support SD cards. There was no free version listed, but they offered to let me use the BBVFS free for thirty days. No Thanks! I went looking for backup solutions. Several looked good and were free: Inner Backup — or here, Backup V1.0 which is said to be OK but very slow, and NV Backup which is well reviewed, but will not work on older devices like mine. I found two that were free, did backups, but had no restore functionality. They are Smart Backup and Power Guard. One is suggested to use "filez". I found reference to a free Backup Buddy VFS on the Freeware Palm site. I couldn't download it from there, but I found it here. It did my first backup seamlessly. I am hoping for a happy restore when I need it too.

08-11-2007, 10:46 PM	#6
mogui eNigma Posts: 503 Karma: 1335 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: The Philippines Device: HTC G1 Android FBReader	Update on Mobipocket Earlier I had downloaded a beta of Mobipocket v5.3. It had not solved the problem of eBook names not appearing in the library (directory) list on my Palm M125. Today I downloaded and installed the files for the final version of v5.3. They have solved the problem! All of my ebooks appear in the library listing. Read more about the Mobipocket reader here.

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05-27-2007, 11:40 PM	#2
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	Before I got the Sony Reader I too used a Palm; but my Palm was in a cell phone by Samsung, the i500. Now this did start me out on mobile reading with its 13 line screen with about 32 characters per line. Always in black on white, I used both eReader and Mobi. Each had advantages over the other so I kept both. This allowed me to read one book in each and switch back and forth as the spirit moved me. (One was an ISO 9000 standards manual that is still there.) Nothing has been added in over 6 months. I still keep some pulp fiction on the phone I have been working on one old BlackMask file for a couple of months now. After settling in with the Sony e-ink screen it is hard to go back to the coarse LCD screen. Thankfully you have a far better screen on your Palm. My Godson has the same model and likes it better than my Sony. I did most of my book prep in ABC Amber Text Converter for the Palm so I still have the original source files. I still ship files over to him in PDB format although of late he has asked what other formats I can supply them in. Congratulations of finding a pair of reader programs that you like. eReader is fast, light, and very responsive.

05-29-2007, 10:13 AM	#4
Robert Marquard Delphi-Guy Posts: 285 Karma: 1151 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Berlin, Germany Device: iLiad, Palm T3	Try using the current Mobipocket beta for Palm.

08-12-2007, 11:32 PM	#7
pruss Evangelist Posts: 461 Karma: 819417 Join Date: Nov 2004	You can always have a cheap do it yourself backup by installing Filez, and just copying all databases from RAM to SD card. Restoring will not be perfect, but you should be able to recover most of your data.

08-13-2007, 01:02 AM	#8
mogui eNigma Posts: 503 Karma: 1335 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: The Philippines Device: HTC G1 Android FBReader	I do use "filez" for deleting and moving. I let my device go without a battery too long when changing the battery and I found that the free Backup Buddy restored some of my executables in a broken way. The only backup method that works for me in a trouble-free manner is synching with my desktop. That is not a good solution for travel unless I get one of the new Asus 701s

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