Reading ePub on the XO with FBReader

par Hadrien

The Age of Reason on the XO

The XO-1 from the OLPC project has a great potential as an e-book reading device: it is the first device with a dual-mode display and you can turn the screen to use it like a tablet. It can work either like a normal LCD screen, or like an epaper device that you can read in the sunlight, featuring the 1st generation of the technology that Pixel Qi is working on. Unfortunately, the “Read” activity was limited to document formats mostly (like PDF) rather than real e-book formats.

Sayamindu Dasgupta is currently working on a port of FBReader to solve this problem, with full integration into Sugar. The second test version was recently released, and now that the circle/square/cross/tick buttons are mapped to change pages and the size of the font, reading ePub files on the XO is a very nice experience overall. E-books might be the real killer app for the XO, and the XO-2 with its book-like dual display seems to be heading in that direction too.

XO-2