One of my most wanted gadget is a portable or hand-held e-book reader like Amazon’s Kindle. Unfortunately, its $359.99’s price tag isn’t cheap and I surely think twice before I spend my four hundred bucks for a gadget like that. The good news is, Foxit, the company behind the famous Foxit Reader software, has started accepting pre-order for their newest product called eSlick Reader. Priced at just $259.99, this cheap handy device offers a maximum resolution of 800×600 with a 4 shades of grey, a built-in 128MB of storage with SD media card slot (up to 4GB supported) for additional space, USB connection, and Linux-based OS. It also comes with a built-in MP3 player, a document editing tool that can zoom your PDF document up to 400%, and of course, its own Foxit Reader software. Moreover, eSlick Reader is thick (1cm) and lightweight (180gr) as well.

The device’s low-power display screen itself utilized the revolutionary electronic-paper display technology by E Ink Corporation which looks like a real paper. You’ll see a crisp and easy to read text, whether you’re under the bright sunlight with your friend or sitting alone in your bed room. Furthermore, unlike LCD screen, the eSlick Reader’s screen does not have the angle-of-view issue, so you can conveniently read the document from any view.

I just found out that we can save books from Google Books library as PDF using a free program called Google Book Downloader (download link below). This small utility allows you to keep any book with full view status on your own hard disk. All you have to do is run the app, paste the book code of the book that you want to download, and then press the “Check” button. The program will then check all available pages. Once you press the “Download Entire Book” button, those pages will be downloaded. Finally, if you press the “Save Entire Book As…” button, those downloaded pages will be saved to your hard disk. Pretty useful, isn’t it?

Note that Google Book Download requires Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 SP1 (get it here) to be installed.

You can download Google Book Downloader here or visit its official homepage here.

Despite its ridiculous name, NUUT is a nice handheld e-Book reader developed by a Korea-based manufacturer. It boasts a 600×800 E-Ink Vizplex display (168dpi) and powered by a 250MHz ARM processor, a 32MB ROM, and a 512MB RAM. The book can also be stored separately on a SD card, thanks to the provided SD media card slot. Moreover, it is equipped with USB 2.0 interface and basic DAP (Digital Audio Player) functionalities.

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This unique and highly-anticipated book was not released in book stores due to legal problems with Nintendo. As a result, the “e-book” edition is available here, exclusively, for free as a downloadable PDF e-book.

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Here are the free downloadable EBooks that they offer. Click on the title link for direct download.

1. A Programmer’s Introduction to PHP 4.0
   

   No matter what language you are familiar with, this book will benefit you. Beginning with a rapid introduction to PHP’s syntax and basic functionality, you will swiftly understand PHP. The book then steers you toward advanced issues, like PHP’s role in database manipulation, sessions, and user interactivity.

2. Writing Perl Modules for CPAN
   

   Writing Perl Modules for CPAN offers Perl developers a comprehensive guide to using and contributing to the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Starting with a general overview of CPAN’s history, network topology, and navigational mechanisms, the book quickly brings you up to speed regarding how to search out and install available modules. However, in the true open source spirit, author and experienced Perl developer Sam Tregar teaches you how to not only use, but also contribute to CPAN via an in-depth discussion of module creation, submission, and maintenance.

3. Programming VB .NET: A Guide For Experienced Programmers
   

   In Programming VB .NET: A Guide for Experienced Programmers, authors Gary Cornell and Jonathan Morrison carefully explain the exciting new features of Visual Basic .NET. Since VB .NET is, for all practical purposes, a whole new language even for the most experienced Visual Basic programmers, developers need to think differently about many familiar topics. Cornell and Morrison are there to help you with careful discussions of each topic.

4. COM and .NET Interoperability
   

   COM and .NET Interoperability provides a complete overview of the process of building .NET applications that interact (interoperate) with existing COM code. Before digging into that critical topic, author Andrew Troelsen offers a concise overview of the COM architecture and provides examples using various COM frameworks (C++, ATL, and VB 6.0) as well as the core .NET managed languages (C# and VB .NET).

5. Dissecting a C# Application: Inside SharpDevelop
   

   Learn advanced .NET programming techniques by getting an insider’s look at a complete application!

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