Using OLPC XO as an ebook reader for O’Reilly’s Safari Books

Safari Books Online Logo

It’s been written that the XO-1’s hidden feature is an ebook reader given its high-contrast, high-resolution screen.  Volunteer Tom Robinson has tweaked the XO’s browser so it can read O’Reilly’s Safari Books Online.

Last week I was thinking about how cool it would be if Amazon’s Kindle supported O’Reilly’s Safari Books Online service, and I decided to dust off the XO to see if it could be used as an ebook reader for Safari Books. With a little help, it can.

In ebook mode you can scroll in all four directions, page up/down, and jump to the top or bottom of a page, but you cannot click the next/previous buttons within Safari Books. However, GreaseMonkey and a simple userscript can solve that.

via tlrobinson.net

1 thought on “Using OLPC XO as an ebook reader for O’Reilly’s Safari Books

  1. Not sure if you were viewing the “regular” Safari or the mobile, but m.safaribooksonline.com might be a better experience from an XO.

    You should also check out the mobile version of bookworm.oreilly.com, which also works quite well on the Kindle browser.

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