jetBook-Lite review by By Jerry P. Danzig

[Kris777]

I just found this review on Amazon website:

FINALLY -- An Affordable Ebook Reader!!!

Yahoo -- I have been waiting for an ebook reader with excellent readability and ergonomics for $150, and here it is: the Ectaco Jetbook Lite.

No, the JBL doesn't have wireless capability, and no, it doesn't play mp3s. I have a little device called an mp3 player that does that!

What the JBL does do is serve up a variety of ebook formats, including the mobi format the New York Public Library supports, along with eReader DRM, FictionBook, plain text, PDF, EPUB, and others.

The JBL doesn't use e-ink technology. Instead it sports a VERY readable LCD screen with the added advantage over e-ink screens of fast page turning: as fast as you can turn a paper page, in fact.

The JBL screen delivers high-contrast black text against a white background, comparable to the Nook unit and better than the Kindles, from the photos I've seen.

I have been reading "The Mysterious Island" on the JBL for several hours with NO eye fatigue. Though the light in my dark first-floor apartment is not the best, the background picks it up beautifully.

There are two page-turning controls, one on the left side of the unit, the other on the front under the screen. Both are eminently suitable for convenient use in your left hand, leaving your right hand free to hold onto a subway pole or strap.

The JBL sports several built-in dictionaries, making it easy to look up words in English or translate them from other languages. The unit also comes with a number of classics onboard, including Shakespeare, Dickens, Joyce, the Bible, and more.

You can also plug in an SD card, expanding the memory to hold a prodigious number of ebooks -- enough for even the longest vacation abroad or the most protracted cruise!

The JBL also "plays well" with Windows XP. My computer recognized it right away (well, after pausing for the obligatory restart), and it's easy to copy files using My Computer.

I had a little trouble finding some Mobi books I copied using the Mobipocket reader on my computer; I found them using the unit's file manager routine, in a second folder it had created for the purpose. I subsequently used My Computer to move these files into the unit's primary book folder, which makes resuming reading much faster and easier when you turn the unit on.

The JBL is rated to run for more than 20 hours on four AA batteries. I have been using high-capacity NiMH rechargeables, and the power meter is still reading full after several hours of reading. This sure beats the Franklin eBookman I used to have -- and the JBL doesn't lose its memory when you change the batteries!

You may not see it in the photos, but the unit has a backside bulge on the left to accommodate the battery chamber. This actually makes the reader comfortable to hold in your left hand, and it serves as a handy stand when you switch to landscape format while you're eating at the table.

Finally the JBL fits nicely into my back jeans pocket.

What can I say? If you don't care about wireless capability... if you already have an mp3 player... and if you have better things to do with your money than spend more than two hundred clams on an ebook reader... check out the Ectaco Jetbook Lite.

It holds and displays an entire library of ebooks with first-class readability and ergonomics, and that's what really matters!

[Dennisvjames]

Fits in a front pocket too. Or perfectly in an inside jacket pocket.

[nealcormier]

Just to anyone, anyone at all who makes the mistake of buying and attempting to use an ECTACO Jetbook Lite, DO NOT!

Here are just a few reasons why not:

1. The number of their defective units must be very large. Not only have I read reviews that said this, two of my friends have claimed it, as well as the fact that I MYSELF purchased a defective unit.

2. I STILL cannot read ANY books from B & N, bn.com, the site ECTACO claims to support now.

3. My unit will not read ePubs of any kind.

4. The technical support guy (there's only one guy) is AWFUL, doesn't completely understand English and he is absurdly RUDE! He continues to spout lies about how the product will work in the future, with future firmware, and then when it doesn't lies to me and claims something else to blow me off!

5. The company advertises that the product reads ePubs. It does not, it only reads those from eReader and Fictionwise.

6. Again, mine won't read any ePub OR Mobi books that are purchased.

7. Good luck loading files from USB--it takes a Herculean iron will to get past its hurdles into reading your books. I had to troubleshoot--FOR HOURS if not days!

This is just the tip of the iceberg on this product, and maybe by chance you'll buy once that works.

I recently bought a Nook by B&N for the SAME price $149, and it works FINE.

[Kralik]

Originally Posted by nealcormier

5. The company advertises that the product reads ePubs. It does not, it only reads those from eReader and Fictionwise.

6. Again, mine won't read any ePub OR Mobi books that are purchased.

Unfortunately, this is a problem with DRM that plagues the entire industry. If you don't free your ebooks from DRM, don't expect them to work in the long run.

JB reads non-DRM'ed ePUBs just fine, which is what they advertise.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by nealcormier

I recently bought a Nook by B&N for the SAME price $149, and it works FINE.

Let's compare apples with apples. I bought my JBL two weeks before Christmas for $117 including shipping, and the JBL is nowadays often on sale for $99.99.

[jblitereader]

Originally Posted by nealcormier

1. The number of their defective units must be very large. Not only have I read reviews that said this, two of my friends have claimed it, as well as the fact that I MYSELF purchased a defective unit.

Defective how? You need to be more specific than this.

I work as a techie on the side and often times non-tech savy people think a normal function of the computer is a defect.

Case in point. One time a woman wanted me to build her a computer. She specified exactly what she needed to do and I had to figure out what parts to get based on her budget. I built her a computer to work perfectly with what she wanted to do. She even assured me that she wasn't going to use it for anything else. Couple weeks later, I got a call from her complaining to me that the computer was broken. Why? Because her son tried to play one of those 3-D games and he couldn't. Not once did she mention to me about her son playing any game. She gave me a budget of under $200 to work with (this included my fee). Personally, I thought it was a bargain on her part to have someone like me to build her a brand new computer with pre-installed OS and all necessary softwares for under $200.

2. I STILL cannot read ANY books from B & N, bn.com, the site ECTACO claims to support now.

Perhaps you should... do google searches ahead of time before you got this ebook reader? It says right there in their specs that this ebook reader doesn't deal too well with DRM's. If you know how, it takes about 10 seconds to strip the ebook of it's DRM.

3. My unit will not read ePubs of any kind.

Do you even know what DRM is?

4. The technical support guy (there's only one guy) is AWFUL, doesn't completely understand English and he is absurdly RUDE! He continues to spout lies about how the product will work in the future, with future firmware, and then when it doesn't lies to me and claims something else to blow me off!

He was probably operating under the assumption that you knew what DRM was.

6. Again, mine won't read any ePub OR Mobi books that are purchased.

Takes 10 seconds to strip those ebooks of their DRM's.

7. Good luck loading files from USB--it takes a Herculean iron will to get past its hurdles into reading your books. I had to troubleshoot--FOR HOURS if not days!

You need to be more specific. Again, speaking as a techie, too often times I see people blabbering and complaining because they know not what they are doing.

I kid you not, one time I had a guy that tried to do photo editing using microsoft word. And another time, I got a guy that followed the instructions of a virus that got on his computer. It was one of those viruses that tell you they are harmless and all you have to do is follow the instructions to get rid of them. He followed the instructions...

I recently bought a Nook by B&N for the SAME price $149, and it works FINE.

Actually, I highly recommend the nook and kindle to people who don't know anything about technology. Those devices are so easy to use even a caveman could do it.

[Kralik]

A little harsh there, livingenzyme?

I think the DRM and formats issue is actually a BIG problem in the ebook industry. "Normal" non-techie people shouldn't have to deal with it.

[jblitereader]

Originally Posted by Kralik

A little harsh there, livingenzyme?

I think the DRM and formats issue is actually a BIG problem in the ebook industry. "Normal" non-techie people shouldn't have to deal with it.

If I sounded harsh, I apologize.

I'm really beginning to recommend to people the nook and the kindle. It's not that I think they are better than the jbl. It's that most people don't know how to use the jbl appropriately. Most of the time, people have to be spoon fed how to do things and then they need someone to hold their hands while they actually do them. That's exactly what the kindle and nook offer. If you go outside of the mainstream just a little bit, you'd have to actually do some honest-to-god research.

[docfrancov]

Livingenzyme I think your comments are very true. I researched a lot before buying my Libre Pro. I agree, it is not for non techie people. But you don't really need a PhD to use it either!

[GhostHawk]

I don't think he was harsh. I think the original poster was a bit harsh towards Ectaco.

It really does help to know what your doing.
Reading and researching a lot before you buy will result in a happier you.

However I do think that if you expect to get the majority of your books from a store, and are not technically inclined, then perhaps the Jetbook is not the right choice for you.

Keep up the good posts LE

[Kralik]

Originally Posted by GhostHawk

I don't think he was harsh. I think the original poster was a bit harsh towards Ectaco.

It's all in the body language... no, wait!

[treetotree]

Neal I to was disapointed by the JBL. It is great hardware and has a wondrful display, but there site did say it would read B&N books. It does not. I have looked on the net to find out how to take the DRM off. What I could find was as clear as mud to me. I down loaded a book from Fictionwise in PDB, and got it into the JBL. It will not open It asks me for an " unlock name ", no where in the minimal manual can I find a reference to an unlock name. I think I will buy a Kindle, when I save enough money again, hopefuly Sept..Until than I can read Smashword books on it. I was trying to save money and feel I got burned. I thought I would be able to get an ereader sooner by buying a less expesive one. My folly will end up costing me more to get one I can use without being an IT expert. By more I mean the cost of a Kindle or Nook ( leaning toward Kindle because to the raves I read about the customer service.) plus the money I spent on the JBL

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by treetotree

Neal I to was disapointed by the JBL. It is great hardware and has a wondrful display, but there site did say it would read B&N books. It does not. I have looked on the net to find out how to take the DRM off. What I could find was as clear as mud to me. I down loaded a book from Fictionwise in PDB, and got it into the JBL. It will not open It asks me for an " unlock name ", no where in the minimal manual can I find a reference to an unlock name. I think I will buy a Kindle, when I save enough money again, hopefuly Sept..Until than I can read Smashword books on it. I was trying to save money and feel I got burned. I thought I would be able to get an ereader sooner by buying a less expesive one. My folly will end up costing me more to get one I can use without being an IT expert. By more I mean the cost of a Kindle or Nook ( leaning toward Kindle because to the raves I read about the customer service.) plus the money I spent on the JBL

For the Fictionwise purchases you can find the simple directions for unlocking
your ebooks by reading what it says on your bookshelf/the page that lists all
your purchases and provides the download links for them.

If you can't find an easy way to remove DRM infections, then you haven't
become proficient with search engines like Google. If that is proving difficult
for you, then you probably should restrict yourself to something like Kindle or
Nook. I should warn you though, the eReader DRM that you are having
trouble using is one of the easiest to use, and one that doesn't restrict you
to certain specific devices that are required to be registered to a site online.

Removing the DRM for the eReader DRM that Fictionwise uses,
(and for a time B&N) as well as a few others, requires that you enter
the same info as is required to unlock the file for reading on your device.

The following is an example of how a publisher may offer ebooks in different
formats and using different DRM scams:

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/d...92&view=ebform

(Random House claims that the .pdb eReader format is their largest seller.)

Luck;
Ken

[Number_6]

Originally Posted by treetotree

Neal I to[sic] was disapointed[sic] by the JBL. It is great hardware and has a wondrful[sic] display, but there[sic] site did say it would read B&N books. It does not. I have looked on the net to find out how to take the DRM off. What I could find was as clear as mud to me. I down loaded a book from Fictionwise in PDB, and got it into the JBL. It will not open It asks me for an " unlock name ", no where in the minimal manual can I find a reference to an unlock name. I think I will buy a Kindle, when I save enough money again, hopefuly[sic] Sept..Until than I can read Smashword books on it. I was trying to save money and feel I got burned. I thought I would be able to get an ereader sooner by buying a less expesive[sic] one. My folly will end up costing me more to get one I can use without being an IT expert. By more I mean the cost of a Kindle or Nook ( leaning toward Kindle because to the raves I read about the customer service.) plus the money I spent on the JBL

I'd have to agree with Ken on this one. If you can't find a way to remove the DRM then a Kindle of Nook may be more your speed. It took me all of 10 minutes to google, download, install and remove drm from my first book. If you're a Windows user do a google search for "Inept Suite-1.0". This collection is pretty much idiot proof to install and even has a nice little window to perform the DRM removal.

To me, the Kindle is overpriced junk sold to mindless consumers, just like any Apple product you can name. But, I blame Bill Gates for the dumbing down of computer users. Almost nobody knows how to use a command line interface anymore! I guess it would be the public education system (and texting) to blame for the dumbing down of Americans when it comes to proper spelling!

[DJHARKAVY]

Originally Posted by treetotree

I down loaded a book from Fictionwise in PDB, and got it into the JBL. It will not open It asks me for an " unlock name ", no where in the minimal manual can I find a reference to an unlock name.

Unlock name is the name on your credit card that you used for purchase.

It is followed by your credit card number in the next screen.

Some of the Barnes and Noble books are epub and others are ereader/pdb. It can read the pdb but not the epub, yet...