Ectaco 5" jetBook eBook Reader for only $50!

[ProDigit]

Hi,
I just bought a NEW Ectaco 5" jetBook eBook Reader on newegg for $50!
It's a no-frills, 20hrs no wifi, USB/SDHC 5" ebook reader; which I think is a spectacular buy! (they're 129 almost everywhere else!)

I think this price is amazing for the device!

Good for those bus rides, waiting for the larger jetBook Color which is going to be released soon!


If this post was posted in the wrong thread, please forgive me.
I just wanted to share the good news, for those who have the money to skip 3 MC Donalds meals this week, for a device like this!

[MmavisO]

Here's the link:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16858723001

[GA Russell]

Hope you enjoy it ProDigit! I've never regretted getting my jetBook Lite.

[ProDigit]

GA Russel, it's actually one of your posts that made me decide to buy it; that, and the fact that the reader operates 20 hours (is it really 20 hours?) on battery, and was at a $100 discount compared to other stores!

[alg2468]

That's a great price for the Ectaco. I've noticed that Ectaco and Aluratek make very similar looking readers (but with different firmware). The Ectaco Jetbook is the same as the Aluratek Libre Pro; the Jetbook Lite is the same as the Libre and Jetbook but without Audio and runs on 4"" batteries. And the new Ectaco Jetbook is identical to the Aluratek Libre Air. They are all made by the Chinese company JINPO.

Pricewise, however, the Libre does cost considerably less.

I have the Aluratek Libre Pro and was looking to buy the Jetbook as an additional reader,but would like to ask those who own the jetbook, about where could I buy books for the Jetbook? Specifically, the Libre Pro is compataibile with books from Kobo, Sony, Borders, and library books with Overdrive, but not with Barnes and Noble due to their DRM. But I know Ectaco uses Barnes and Noble's DRM, but can the Jetbook accept books from Overdrive and from the Kobo, Sony, and Borders online bookstores? Thanks everyone.

[ProDigit]

Definitely not Sony.
It does not support lrf files.
Otherwise, I'm waiting for it to arrive today or tomorrow!

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by alg2468

I have the Aluratek Libre Pro and was looking to buy the Jetbook as an additional reader,but would like to ask those who own the jetbook, about where could I buy books for the Jetbook? Specifically, the Libre Pro is compataibile with books from Kobo, Sony, Borders, and library books with Overdrive, but not with Barnes and Noble due to their DRM. But I know Ectaco uses Barnes and Noble's DRM, but can the Jetbook accept books from Overdrive and from the Kobo, Sony, and Borders online bookstores? Thanks everyone.

The Jetbook/Jetbook Lite can read the usual DRMed epubs from the sources you mention.

[X read X]

$50?!?! I Remember when i got mine it was like $170!

They have to be overstocked or something.

[carpetmojo]

Yeah, that's all very good - but the 350 is such an fantastic piece of engineering !

I find myself entering a calm zone upon picking mine up.

Zen and the art of 350ness.

[ProDigit]

I think they have to compete with the new Kindle fire that's priced 79 (with ads).
That's what's getting all the prices down, and since this device does not have a real e-ink screen, it seems like they want to lower prices even more to make them attractive.
I doubt the price will last forever, but probably pre-holidays, so they can raise the prices for the holidays, and drop to $50 again in january.

The Jetbook Color is a very promising candidate, that will most likely blow all other e-readers out of the water!

[alg2468]

I fully agree with Prodigit - $79 Amazon Kindle is making the smaller manufacturers lower their price considerably to still be competitive. I called Ectaco and they said the reader supports any bookstore using Adobe Digital, including Kobo, Sony, etc. And Aluratek has great bargains at their Outlet Store at their website - the Aluratek Libre Pro is now 39.99; the 7" Color Libre is 49.99; and there are big discounts on their other products like internet radios, speakers, Mp3/Mp4/Mp5 players at the site. But I have to wonder with all of these discounts how secondary (but just as good) manufacturers like Aluratek and Ectaco can stay in business and be profitable. Incidentally, I have yet to hear about the Sony readers discounting their hefty prices on their readers.

[ProDigit]

Seems like I got a hold of one of their last batches!
The item now is out of stock, and may not be restocked, according to Newegg!

[ProDigit]

Well, it finally arrived, 2 days after the mailman delivered it in a wrong address!

First of all, it's so tiny!
The screen text is pretty refined too, although I think the resolution of my Sony PRS-505 is a bit better, though not by much!
Text can be displayed at a pixelsize so small you can barely read it (say font 4 or 5pt).
The contrast is way less than an e-ink, and the images are washed out, and the device is rather difficult to read, especially when reading in a reasonable dark environment where the prs-505 would easily do.

The jetbook is for dailight activities.

It does not have an internal speaker to playback sound, but has a headphones included.

The zoom level for pictures is pretty limited (upto 2x zoom) which may be too small for hi-res pictures). Even their demo picture, a flyer of the jetbook with it's specs, the letters are too small to comfortably read at 200% zoom.

The usermanual tells me the device is not compatible with SDHC cards, but it read my Apacer class 4, 4GB SDHC card just fine! It was formatted in FAT32.

In the settings, most settings are optimized in a way I would optimize the reader. There are 2 font sizes in the reader; arial and verdana. Arial being the standard and best looking of the 2.
The screen has a considerably faster refresh rate than an e-ink screen. Animated graphics playback much better and faster.

Stock internal memory is only a 90MB, with 36MB free.
I think I will delete most books, and store them on the SD card.

Mine came standard with firmware software version 0.35m, and patch 18. Any updates from there?

The nice thing is that this device has an internal file manager.

When plugged in the power (AC), the reader's led operates in reverse order. When it's doing nothing, the LED is on. When it's loading a book or doing some disk reads, the led blinks off. When unplugging the opposite happens (which is what you'd expect from devices like this.

On the left side there's a slider bar, to flip pages. I find the bar quite unhandy. My fingers slide over it, and do not have sufficient grip to move it. The spring system is a bit too tight.
I prefer a flip bar over buttons, and buttons over a slide bar. It would be the only negative practical design flaw of the device, next to the hatch that covers the SD and power plug. Many readers have no hatch over their power plug, and that's how I would want it, but it's fairly easy to remove the piece of plastic from the cardslot and usb connection!


I have the black version. Glad, because I don't like red.
Aside from the headphones and AC adapter, the package also included a user manual (also found on the jetbook in digital format), usb plug, and neoprene pouch with hardened cover (for the screen).

The books included, some of them are full books, from the

[ProDigit]

correction, it accepts following cards SDHC cards:

8GB Adata Turbo class 6 SDHC
2GB Sandisk SD card
4GB Sandisk SDHC card
4GB Apacer Class 4 SDHC
16GB Transcend Class 10 SDHC

It's pretty safe to say it accepts most 16GB, probably even 32GB SDHC cards formatted in FAT32.

[ChupaLibro]

Nice price. I considered the Jetbook when I first started looking for an eReader, before deciding on the Nook. This would be a greater starter one, though.