Quote:
Originally Posted by curtw
Thanks. I guess I need to study up on the e-book conversion tool for the Mac, to see if I would be able to generate books in the right format.
It's a shame about the Cybook, because the feature list (dictionaries, fonts, PDF landscape mode etc.) make it so appealing. If Sony would just add Mobi support, the decision would be easy.
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What is a shame is that you're hearing, uncontested, the whole ebooks-must-be-heavy-with-tons-of-bling mode of thinking.
Yes, I bought a Sony PRS-500 before I received my Cybook. In fact, I'd owned the PRS500 for about a month and a half without anything to compare it to. So when I got the Cybook, the sheer LIGHTNESS of it made me think 'cheap' also. Then one day, about two weeks after purchase - and please remember that I received no softcover and still do not have one - I dropped my Cybook about four feet to my tile floor. While it was running.
Now a CHEAP and FLIMSY product would have been a goner right then and there - shattered into a hundred pieces. I'm happy to say that I picked it up, dreading to turn it over and look at the screen, and flipped it to find the screen still on, no cracks or missing chunks in the case and the Cybook obediently turned to the next page when I paged forward. When I turned it off and back on, the Cybook acted as nothing had happened.
It's been three months now and the only thing I've noticed is that a single column of pixels went dead, indicating that that particular contact broke. That's it! And you have to understand I have an 'engineering sample', not a production version. (Which boils down to having a glossy finish instead of matte.) So I don't buy the argument the Cybook is cheap and flimsy.
What most die-hard PRS users don't understand is that heavier is not always better.
And the Cybook has much better font-sizing and font-family capabilities. Combined with the control layout, I just plain LIKE the Cybook better. Plus, I get to read Mobipocket ebooks, straight from the e-stores.
Oh sure, I want more ebook formats supported, I want a better ebook navigation (folders, sub-folders, sorting by Author, etc.) system. I want better support for the multiple-html-file ebooks and for PDF files. There are things I'd like to see improved. And I really want to see Bookeen release an SDK for the Cybook. But I still think this is a better ebook reader.
Derek