Pandigital E-Reader is off the market, for now

[Guiltyr1]

http://goodereader.com/blog/electron...arket-for-now/

The Pandigital Android driven e-reader, is officially off the market for a period of a few months!

Pandigital is certainly going through some growing pains, we reported last month that users were having a tone of problems with WI-FI, internet connectivity and all sorts of UI errors. The company did a recall of the items, although you had to hunt around for the particular details.

Pandigital then said, a firmware fix would be issued, and it was for a while, but it did little to address the on-going problems.

Yesterday, June 24 2010, Pandigital announced a halt on sales of their Novel E-Reader. They will try and fix some of the on-going firmware problems. The company did mention that in August at the latest the device will again be available. Rumor has it, Pandigital is scraping the current device, and going with a new version that is black, has more RAM, and more functionally, this model is currently being reviewed by the FCC.

The Pandigital Novel Costs only $199 and features a 7-inch TFT LCD color multi-touchscreen display. It measures 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches and weighs 454g (16oz). The Operating system runs Google Android and has an ARM 11 Mobile Processor. The Resolution of the device is 800 x 600 and allows great renders of your full color book shelf. Finally, the unit features WI-FI, a mini USB port, 1 GB of internal memory, which is expandable to 32 GB. It reads many popular E-Book formats such as PDF, EPUB, HTML and TXT.
The Google Android operating system allows this e-reader to surf the internet with a dedicated web browser, check email, listen to music and have access to many different applications available for download.

This device not only allows the user to connect up to the Barnes and Noble E-Book store, which currently has over a million E-Books. It also has the ability to use B&N Lendme technology, which allows users to share electronic books with each other for 14 days. The User Interface is both intuitive and customisable. It has great responsive touch screen technology.

Although the Pandigital first cut its teeth doing digital photo frames, its transition to quasi tablet driven e-reader should be a case study for other people trying to get involved into this increasing competitive niche. They tried to rush out a device too quickly to get market share, only to alienate existing customers and turn future customers off with their inability to provide firmware updates, and depending on KOHL to handle the recall of the device.

I knew that junk was recalled, even though some argued that it was just a temporary firmware glitch.

BTW, Good eReader needs to hire a "good" editor. Whoever wrote that article produced a lot of typos and demonstated poor writing skills. It is embarrassing to see sites that are dedicated to readers and reading that appear to be run by illiterate people.

[Guiltyr1]

I am glad I didn’t write the article. It was only a cut and paste. If I were to write an article, I would be sure to do a reread before posting...

I would love a reader that is "customisable"

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I knew that junk was recalled, even though some argued that it was just a temporary firmware glitch.

BTW, Good eReader needs to hire a "good" editor. Whoever wrote that article produced a lot of typos and demonstated poor writing skills. It is embarrassing to see sites that are dedicated to readers and reading that appear to be run by illiterate people.

They also took my work without giving credit.

[Guiltyr1]

Hey Nate, I saw that you did some additional reviews online. Is the product really that bad? This was the dream reader; the do all, etc... But, I guess it can't be as good as I though... I still have one on hold and might pick it up to try it for a little. I have a difficult time believing it is that bad..

[SimonSays]

hmm Just got a flyer from my local Bed, Bath & Beyond where they are advertising the Pandigital Novel 7" Color Multimedia eReader for 149.99 (pay 169.99 and get 20$ mail in rebate) Hadn't heard of it until I saw the flyer. Thought the deal was great for the size, wi-fi and other features it has, especially compared to my Sony pocket reader that cost more. However, after reading several threads here about this Pandigital novel reader, I guess it looks better in the ad picture Too bad- I really wish this stupid sony pocket edition had wifi access to download ebooks

[JerseyBiker]

Originally Posted by SimonSays

hmm Just got a flyer from my local Bed, Bath & Beyond where they are advertising the Pandigital Novel 7" Color Multimedia eReader for 149.99 (pay 169.99 and get 20$ mail in rebate) Hadn't heard of it until I saw the flyer.

Same here. I never heard of it until I saw it advertised in the Bed Bath & Beyond flyer I received today. I did a search to see if anyone here had them. It looked pretty good in the flyer. The ad in the flyer says it has 512k of ram and not 1meg as was stated in the original post.

~eddie

[kaduncan]

got it today and works great.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Guiltyr1

Hey Nate, I saw that you did some additional reviews online. Is the product really that bad? This was the dream reader; the do all, etc... But, I guess it can't be as good as I though... I still have one on hold and might pick it up to try it for a little. I have a difficult time believing it is that bad..

I keep having trouble, but apparently I'm in the minority.

[roebeet]

I just bought one, and it is not looking too good so far. Constant crashing (07/05/10 firmware, I just checked). Nice hardware, but the software obviously needs some major work. Still playing around with it.

I read that's there's already alternative firmware for it, so I might just go that route.

[kaduncan]

Being running all day with it and no problems yet. Even tried pushing with web browsing and it ran great. So far, all I've had to deal with is being patient with it and not expect it to run as fast as my iPad. For book reading with barnes and noble, it has been real sweet. Easily connected with my account and with a couple of minutes, had all of my books downloaded and reading.

[roebeet]

Originally Posted by kaduncan

Being running all day with it and no problems yet. Even tried pushing with web browsing and it ran great. So far, all I've had to deal with is being patient with it and not expect it to run as fast as my iPad. For book reading with barnes and noble, it has been real sweet. Easily connected with my account and with a couple of minutes, had all of my books downloaded and reading.

In "Settings > Support", can you report back your firmware version? (the S10 number, which is basically the firmware date). Mine is 10_07_05, which is actually newer than what's on their web site.

Thanks!

EDIT: No longer needed. I already hacked the device via this helpful thread:

http://www.slatedroid.com/vbulletin/...ndigital-Novel

and started adding other Android apps. So far, the only apps crashing for me are the PD built-in ones. :-)

[lotrfan]

Originally Posted by roebeet

EDIT: No longer needed. I already hacked the device via this helpful thread:

http://www.slatedroid.com/vbulletin/...ndigital-Novel

and started adding other Android apps. So far, the only apps crashing for me are the PD built-in ones. :-)

So after the hack you still have access to the built in apps or do you lose those. I ask because I bought the unit yesterday and so far I haven't had any mayor problems with it and would hate to lose the Barns and Noble app. So far I like the unit as is.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by lotrfan

So after the hack you still have access to the built in apps or do you lose those. I ask because I bought the unit yesterday and so far I haven't had any mayor problems with it and would hate to lose the Barns and Noble app. So far I like the unit as is.

If you follow my instructions you'll still have the original apps.

[lotrfan]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

If you follow my instructions you'll still have the original apps.

Great.

Thanks.