Slightly Off Topic: Any ebook worthy of reading VMWare PDFs on?

[MattG]

So we are faced with the issue of printing out the multitude of PDF documents for our day to day SysAdmin duties including VMWare's numerous volumes. It would be great if there was a good ebook that could display all of the PDF data in these files in a usable format. I know Amazon's Kindle doesn't do PDFs yet and Sony has an ebook that does.

Are there any ebook platforms out there that could handle these type of docs, with full search capability, that could become a SysAdmin fav?

I would want the display to have a high resolution, as I can read smaller text without issue.

Do any display the graphics in PDFs?

Thanks,

-MattG

[azn2kew]

You can use your PDA device or blackberry to read PDF for free but the new iPhone 3G is pretty good for it has big screen and you can zoom in and out so its good alternative instead of paying Sony E-book device for $300 which I was planning to buy but wait to get myself an iPhone 3G that does it. You have to find a 3rd party PDF plugins for your PDA devices though.

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Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[jffowler]

I've searched this answer quite a bit myself. If you already have a smart phone w/ a compatible OS (I use Windows Mobile) and you're mainly concerned about the text in the PDF, then the best answer is using a free product called Mobi Reader. While you can use Acrobat Reader directly on a Windows Mobile devices, most docs can't be ready well on a small screen. Mobi reader has a sync piece to it that will convert your PDFs to a mobi compatible file on your mobile device. It's very quick and easy. You just connect the phone, run the app, and tell it all the PDFs you want copied/converted over to your device. The graphics can show as well but aren't great. Reformatting the text for the small screen is the best part.

Then you can read PDFs while on the excercise bike or waiting in line at the grocery store. 😃 Hope this helps.

(click Software)

- Josh

[Texiwill]

Hello,

I use my Nokia n810 for these things.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[MattG]

Looks like Foxit is getting into the ebook devices market with eSlick:

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/ebook/

The price is right and it is geared towards PDFs. The FAQ says that it will add search in the future.

If Kindle could just offer builtin PDF compat along with handling the graphics that are displayed technical PDFs along with searching of content I would be happy.

Any other eBook devices out that are showing promise for us tech heads who would like travel with tech guides without lugging around a tree?

-MattG

[Ken_Cline]

Here's one that might be worth looking at. It says it supports .pdf, but doesn't make it clear as to whether it supports embedded graphics.

Ken Cline

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware Communities User Moderator

Blogging at: http://KensVirtualReality.wordpress.com/

[MattG]

http://www.squidoo.com/ECTACO_jetBook_e-Book_Reader

Looks like it does support search which is good. Acutally looks like this may be the same underlying device as the eSlick?

Another feautre that would be useful is highlighting. This would most likely involve a touch screen.....Hey wait a minute.....

If the Apple iPod Touch tablet rumor is true I will be able to "justify" it's pruchase as a business expense:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=3636

I hope this rumor comes true.

-MattG

[Texiwill]

Hello,

I changed where I store the PDFs... Check out new tools for virtualization blog post.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs -- Top Virtualization Security Links -- Virtualization Security Round Table Podcast

[MattG]

The new Kindle DX: http://tinyurl.com/cnlo96 includes native support for PDF which is great. However the info doesn't state whether it can explicitly search PDFs.

Hopefully, Apple's rumored Touch MediaPad will a) not require a mobile service contract and b) handle tech PDFs well (with seqarching of course)

-MattG

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[MattG]

Anyone using the Kindle DX to read their VMware or other technical PDFs on the road? If so how is the experience. It appears that the Kindle DX supports PDF searching.

Any other devices worth looking into?

-MattG

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[MattG]

The iPad is the obvious answer of the day to my original question. However, the iPad alone is pretty poor on the PDF front. Goodreader has been the front runner for displaying PDFs on the iPad...until now.

There is a new sheriff in town: iAnnotatePDF. I downloaded this and Goodreader when I purchased my iPad. The original iA app was filled with promise, the biggest being that I could store all of my docs on the iPad and annotate them and sync them bakc to my PC complete with annotations. The problem was that the text wasnt as crisp as viewing a PDF from the Safari browser or Goodreader. Furthermore, the app was failrly buggy.

I've got good news. iA released a rewritten version of the app today and it addresses the bugs and the text is as crisp now as the others. It also sync with iTunes and allows you to search the Internet and download PDFs to be stored in the app.

iPad now appears to have it's first killer app.

-MattG

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