Thanks to Jason for pointing us (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12487) (via TeleRead (http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=6889)) to this video (http://billaut.typepad.com/jm/2007/07/connaissez-vo-6.html) where the founders of Bookeen, Laurent Picard and Michael Dahan, demonstrate the Cybook Gen 3 e-book reader, which is the first device to feature E Ink's latest Vizplex technology. Check out how fast it refreshes the screen - clearly an improvement to the Sony Reader!

As a side note, TeleRead also reports that the initial software of the Cybook Gen3 will not be able to display Adobe PDF formats. Not that we are too unhappy about it, as long as Mobipocket is fully supported!

As a side note, TeleRead also reports that the initial software of the Cybook Gen3 will not be able to display Adobe PDF formats. Not that we are too unhappy about it, as long as Mobipocket is fully supported!

That's what they say in the video, but the video is from June, and they're still giving an end of July release date in it. Now that the release is September, the list of supported format for the initial software might be different ?

PDF has been an issue for the Sony. Wish Sony had left out PDF and fixed up a few of the other bugs. Like the new for more fonts (Iltaics, bold, bold-itlaics) to do it right instead of the playing around with the normal font to do the attributes.

When I eventually got to the video segment with the page flipping, I have to say I was suitably impressed. I've only ever played with the Sony Reader in Borders, and the Bookeen did seem a noticeably more rapid refresh.

I have to say that I'm wavering in the direction of the Bookeen for my first e-book device. But this talk of excessive line spacing on Mobipocket books has me slightly concerned. No doubt I'll have to wait for some real reviews, especially from the good folks here...

When I eventually got to the video segment with the page flipping, I have to say I was suitably impressed. I've only ever played with the Sony Reader in Borders, and the Bookeen did seem a noticeably more rapid refresh.

I have to say that I'm wavering in the direction of the Bookeen for my first e-book device. But this talk of excessive line spacing on Mobipocket books has me slightly concerned. No doubt I'll have to wait for some real reviews, especially from the good folks here...
What you can do is go to http://www.mobipocket.com and find the contact info and contact them and ask if most Mobi formatted books do contain the extra line-space between paragraphs and you'll have your answer without having to wait till September sometime. And since you are in the USA, if you deicde to go for a Sony, you can try to take advantage of the credit card offer and get one for oh $290 less then the Gen3.

... if you're doing research or office work. Most of the academic papers out there are in pdf, latex, or Word. More and more business documents are in pdf. If there were an ereader that could read tex or Word documents then no worries (is there one?). But until there is, I can't see much usefulness for a reader without pdf.

It seems to me that to get the ebook/ereader market really going, you _need_ to cater to the needs of the average business/lab/office worker in their day-to-day job. Either that or drop the ereader prices to a par with other toys like Nintendo DS', etc.

The SonyThe Sony Reader can read DOC and RTF. DOC cgets converte to RTF via word when you send a DOC file to the Reader via Connect. The only issue is, the links don't work, so no ToC and graphics do not display, but everything else works.

The Cybook Gen3 will support RTF. I have no idea if it will support inline links and/or graphics. But at least it will read the text.

It seems to me that to get the ebook/ereader market really going, you _need_ to cater to the needs of the average business/lab/office worker in their day-to-day job. Either that or drop the ereader prices to a par with other toys like Nintendo DS', etc.

Agreed. I deal with attorneys every day who LOVE paper. Until there's a realistic alternative to reviewing documents on screen, they're quite happy to blow THOUSANDS of dollars on blowbacks of documents. And in this age of electronic discovery, I dread to think how many trees are getting destroyed by my firm alone.

The legal industry needs something like this and SOON.

Devices like the CyBook and the Sony Reader are being sold first and foremost as fiction readers - let's not forget that. There are without doubt other markets for devices with other form-factors and capabilities, but most people who read for pleasure read fiction. These devices are intended to be a substitute for the paperback book.

Agreed. I deal with attorneys every day who LOVE paper. Until there's a realistic alternative to reviewing documents on screen, they're quite happy to blow THOUSANDS of dollars on blowbacks of documents. And in this age of electronic discovery, I dread to think how many trees are getting destroyed by my firm alone.

The legal industry needs something like this and SOON.

I think it's part of the strategy where one lawyer throws a small forest worth of documents on the desk and yells to the defendant "this is the proof we've collected".

I can imagine that has a bit more impact than then throwing an Ereader on the the desk. Even when it got a 4GB SD.
Next thing we know they'll be throwing with HDDs

Devices like the CyBook and the Sony Reader are being sold first and foremost as fiction readers - let's not forget that. There are without doubt other markets for devices with other form-factors and capabilities, but most people who read for pleasure read fiction. These devices are intended to be a substitute for the paperback book.

Three things:

a) Cell phones are ubiquitous because they address needs in our business and pleasure. Nintendo DS's have a much smaller market because they are purely for pleasure. An ereader designed purely for pleasure won't succeed unless it's very inexpensive;

b) what people read is related to the demographic. Most older adults read non-fiction, much more than fiction, for pleasure. In fact, if they are working they read very little fiction at all; and

c) based on a) and b) most current ereaders are over priced and targeting their markets inappropriately. The future therefore is not promising.

Three things:

a) Cell phones are ubiquitous because they address needs in our business and pleasure. Nintendo DS's have a much smaller market because they are purely for pleasure. An ereader designed purely for pleasure won't succeed unless it's very inexpensive;

Expect flexible A4 e-readers in 2008. These will work with all PDF files and therefore will address needs for both business, education and pleasure (fiction, non-fiction and newspapers).

b) what people read is related to the demographic. Most older adults read non-fiction, much more than fiction, for pleasure. In fact, if they are working they read very little fiction at all; and

Not true. Most adults in the US read non-fiction, that's not the case in Europe at all. In Paris for example, most people use public transport for 20-40mn at least twice a day: they read fiction.

c) based on a) and b) most current ereaders are over priced and targeting their markets inappropriately. The future therefore is not promising.

I agree that they're over-priced for the book market, but for a first gen mobile device they're not. I expect the price for these devices to drop between 99-199$.
They're not targeting their markets very well yes, I guess it'll take some time to target their market the right way. What we need now is information about thoses devices in the newspapers, magazines, TV etc... This technology is UNLIKE any screen we're used to: we need to explain to the mass market how exactly it's better for reading than a normal screen.

Not true. Most adults in the US read non-fiction, that's not the case in Europe at all. In Paris for example, most people use public transport for 20-40mn at least twice a day: they read fiction.


Same in the UK. Get on the London Underground (subway) and half the people on it are reading. Vrtually all either newspapers or fiction.

Not true. Most adults in the US read non-fiction, that's not the case in Europe at all. In Paris for example, most people use public transport for 20-40mn at least twice a day: they read fiction.
Here in the Boston Area on the T (public transport), you'll find a lot of people reading newspapers (the free ones mostly) or books. That is unless they are playing with their cell phones.

Right, more and more people in public transports are just listening to
their mp3 with void eyes or "playing" with their phones.
E-Books will maybe change that fact because it' high tech and people like
to be seen playing with high-tech :)

... if you're doing research or office work. Most of the academic papers out there are in pdf, latex, or Word. More and more business documents are in pdf. If there were an ereader that could read tex or Word documents then no worries (is there one?). But until there is, I can't see much usefulness for a reader without pdf.

It seems to me that to get the ebook/ereader market really going, you _need_ to cater to the needs of the average business/lab/office worker in their day-to-day job. Either that or drop the ereader prices to a par with other toys like Nintendo DS', etc.The main problem right now, at least with the Sony Reader, is that it lacks native A4/Letter Size PDF support. When these documents are rescaled, the font rendering doesn't preserve the document's native weight, and the results are generally too pale to be usable. Unofficial tools like Alex's wonderful RasterFarian correct this, but the translation should happen natively.

By the way, does the same problem occur with the Iliad? At 1024 x 768, I would think that rescaling would cease to be an issue.

Anyway, I was impressed by the Cybook in the video, especially by the fast refresh. I haven't been bothered by the page turning on the Sony, but now I see how much room for improvement there is.

I'll probably get one of these. My hope for the Sony was to be able to read online content offline more than to read books. I have some HTML support solutions in place, but they're all more trouble than they're worth compared to native rendering. And, like everyone else has noted, Mobipocket seems to have more of a future than BBeB.

The iLiad has a better PDF display program avalable for it, plus the higher resolution makes it better then the Sony for PDF display overall. The Cybook won't have PDF support when it is released. if you want e-ink and PDF, the iLiad is your best bet right now. I was look at ebooks earlier today and noticed that MobiPocket books are more expensive for the EXACT SAME CONTENT!

JSWolf,

Exactly *where* did you hear that the Cybook won't have PDF support? Because that's not what we've been hearing.

Yes, the Gen3, which has the 6" screen, won't do an adequate job of displaying the larger-page PDF files, but then the Sony has the same problem when displaying PDFs formatted to a larger page.

But any PDF file which is formatted to fit a 6" 'page' will display just fine. Of course, most PDF formatted ebooks *aren't* formatted to that page size, but it's easy enough to strip out the text and graphics and re-format to Mobi or LRF for the time being.

No, I wouldn't recommend attempting to use a Sony PRS500 or Cybook Gen3 for reading A4 (or larger) pages. But then, just try reading a PDF page formatted to 13" x 19" on an Iliad... Trust me, you won't like it.

Derek

The iLiad has a better PDF display program avalable for it, plus the higher resolution makes it better then the Sony for PDF display overall. The Cybook won't have PDF support when it is released. if you want e-ink and PDF, the iLiad is your best bet right now. I was look at ebooks earlier today and noticed that MobiPocket books are more expensive for the EXACT SAME CONTENT!