If you want a Ebook-Reader just as good at a lower price you're gonna suffer - here are my experiences...

(NOTE: for the cover scroll down!)

There are a few things to look out for if you want a E-Reader to read manga - my main requirements are:

• 6" or larger screen
• 16 or more values of grey (5bit)
• clear matte screen (especially no touch layer above e-ink layer as in early sony / iriver cover story)
• reasonably fast processor
• firmware optimized enough to actually switch pages fast (so crappy processor with superb firmware is okay too, even though you're not gonna find it)
• firmware generally doesn't suck - beeing able to configure various reading-parameters (*good* reflow mode), UI parameters (annoying bars eating away your precious screen-space), beeing able to rotate ebooks, rendering of complicated PDFs not fucked up, etc.
• reasonably rugged build

Those were at least my requirements - if you're mainly reading "text based" ebooks you can probably live with missing options to remove annoying bars, page-turn speed for text is also better than for pictures on most readers, etc. - but if you want to read manga/comics those are a real must, especially on cramped 6" of space!

So my journey begun - i've first tried the Icarus Go E600 ... which sucked really really hard - the firmware was a mess, it was chinese cheapo-software which was illegaly based on stolen GPL ("opensource"/Free Software) programs (dissect the firmware yourself, it's on their website! It's a simple msdos-partition in a file, just mount it (on linux) and look in there - grep around for xpdf or freetype or X11/XFree86) and still sucked. There were annoyings bars you couldn't remove, the device was super slow turning pages, the build quality was that of the cheapest plastic-box you can imagine, it was just horrible - back to dealer!

My next try and current "keep" was the Acer LumiRead L600. It has a bunch of super pointless features (such as WiFi - okay, that can have uses - or a camera that can scan barcodes of books so you can buy the ebook right away) but the build quality is okay, the UI is okay~ish (still has bars that cannot be disabled and can't rotate ebooks (but CAN rotate the internet browser)). The page-turn speed is okay~ish, and well ... the display is okay overall, so for the price it's kind of okay. Plus they run linux and give you (at least partially) the sourcecode, so you could start hacking yourself (and i WILL be hacking this!). The LumiRead source can be grabbed at http://www.linpus.com/linpus_acer_source.html and it'll listen on the standard telnet port with a shell for you - just log in as root and explore the system!

Nichijou, the manga/anime from which sakamoto came

So, with that reader as a keep i've decided to build a nice cover/case for it as i didn't have one yet and wanted to protect the device. Fortuneatly i had recently gotten a freebie document carrying case made of rough, sturdy fabric - so we've ripped it apart and started sewing. The document-case consisted of two layers of that fabric and one very stiff border that was wrapped around the borders of the f

Sakamoto

abric layers. The final carrying case also has this layout. The inside was wrapped with the fluffy side of a old shirt to protect the reader even better.

But the greatest thing about that case is - it features the best character taken directly from the manga/anime you see here, nichijou. The character in question is the cat "sakamoto", which was painted on the cover using simple textile/fabric-colors and masking tape, but see for yourself!

First seen on alafista.com that the preorder was open for these coin banks on Strapya. I couldn't resist getting one because the instant I saw this, I knew this is (and ever will be) the most awesome coin bank ever produced by mankind. You can still get it here :3 and it will make a great gift for children and adults alike.

Edit: They are again available at Strapya or at Play-Asia too!

They come in four versions.

It meows when you press the button, followed by rather loud machine noise until the cat comes out and grabs your coin, finished by another meow when it sinks back. Not many coin banks need batteries and I didn't expect it would make sounds but it's a nice surprise. xD The quality is satisfying but it may be too fragile to carry around since the top cover opens when you turn it upside down (don't want to stress the joint too much). I couldn't make the coins come out the wrong way with shaking it though (major plus!). And it's bigger than I thought.

Sturdy box is sturdy. I'm very pleased with the package.

Yes, this is how a cat in a box should work!

Unboxed the box! In my opinion, the orange (tangerine?) box looks best.

Tiny speakers. The nya~ sound is adorable.

In action. But there's no coin to grab. Neko will come out anyway |D

Now placed at our kitchen, no one can resist pushing that button xD

This is one of the awaited chrismas present tutorials, a gift we've made for a good friend who happens to like everything thats cat-ish, especially - of course - if it has its origins in otaku-culture, like this:

Nyamo and Miyuki (figure)

We decided to give a Nyamo (the small catish thingy) a try and make it. As a base we used the well known Poring Plushie pattern, attached ears and tail, cut the right face and swoosh, there it was. But step for step for now...

First take a sheet of Cloth thats quadratic if you fold it in half, so 25x50cm for example, add the markings as shown.

Folded cloth with markings

Sew along the markings, fold the cloth over and add the markings once again, this time on the folded side, like this:

After sewing fold over again, mark again, go

After cutting off the excess fabric it should look like this:

Cut off the excess edges

Then we want to cut off a round piece so we can attach a circle which works as a base later:

Mark the bottom cutout

You need to measure the base with a flexible measure to know how large your circle has to be (notice saber lily in the background watching the action!)

Pin the bottom to the bottom cutout

We decided that the tail will be simple sewed from a large piece (27x12cm) of cloth with a double round shape (4cm in heigt) at the end so the end (when sewed together and turned inside out) will look nice and round.

The tail ... mockup

See the markings for the round cutout at the end:

Pin up the tail for sewing

Fill and close the tail now so its ready for attaching.

Tail sewed, mockup (aahhh, don't look at that shape)

Attach the tail, you'll notice you filled it too much .

Fastening the tail to the corpus

Then the most important part, the Neko-Mimi.... i thought i'd not scan the Shapes and provide them as a pattern cause its so dead-simple, everyone can make it. So you also have a bit more of your own.

Yay, Neko Mimi

They consist of 3 parts each, two "main ear" parts and the "inner pink" which will be hand-sewed onto the sewed-together-and-already-turned-inside-out-main-ears

This is how the pink gets on the Nekomimi

Don't make the same mistake as i did...

But sew it on there nicely

XFin

Yay, the ought to look nice

The face, as always is one of the biggest problem, cause it will determin how cute and nice the plushies look will be when finished, so some experimenting needs to be done, first the eyes, with standard-sparkle....

Cut out eyes, glue the sparkle on the eye-black

No Hitler-beard for Nyamo...

Not bad already, the mouth wasn't quite it... also the eyes are not too nice. If you've seen lucky star all that nyamo does is yawning, so a more sleepy face needs to be found...

Better ... not quite

Yay, but too ... awake and lively

Its not nyamos face in that state, but THAT IS IT!

Better, smiling knee

And sleepy eyes on Nyamo

Only the whiskers are missing

And fin, with whiskers!

And yay, with whiskers

Now, i hope this is a nice idea for everyone who loves making things themselves, and loves lucky star. If you have a dear otaku/nerd whose birthday is coming up, or who you want to give this for chrismas (well, planning early ... a bit) or any other occasion, i think nyamo is a nice idea . I hope you enjoyed this tut, and maybe also enjoyed making a Nyamo yourself.

Hope to read you soon again, up for more plushies, tinkering and general nerdism .