Review?

[HarryT]

When I used to visit the US 10 years ago, my multiband (British) GSM phone would only work in big US cities - go anywhere rural and there was no coverage. Today I can go practically anywhere in the US and it works fine. There seems to have been a massive expansion in GSM coverage in that time period.

[delphidb96]

Waitaminit!!! You have to wait *TEN YEARS*!!! How come you all are so behind the times!!! C'mon, buttonhole your politicians and *demand* they get with the Global War on Terror, right now!!!



Just kidding.

Derek

Originally Posted by astra_lestat

I know at least one college in the UK were they monitor the Internet usage by the staff. They even have a list which has all college staff on it and how much they are using the Internet to browse for non college related content. If a tutor gets into top 50, it is not a good sign...

So, I guess they are going to adopt the same draconian rules as in the USA. (as the saying goes: whatever happens in the USA will be adopted here in 10 years)

[MikeF74]

Ok, now he's just taunting us!

http://delphidb96.blogspot.com/2007/...mporarily.html

[delphidb96]

MikeF,

I wouldn't do that, would I?

Nope, it's just that I like photography as much as I like reading.

I think I'll just go back and hammer out a few more Cybook observations if you all aren't gonna appreciate me!



Derek

Originally Posted by MikeF74

Ok, now he's just taunting us!

http://delphidb96.blogspot.com/2007/...mporarily.html

[MikeF74]

Michael from Bookeen just posted to the French discussion.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...1&postcount=47

From what I could gather, through an iffy Google translation, is that they too are anxiously awaiting Derek's review. It also seems like he wants to hand out a few devices for either an open beta, or for community review. Or maybe it is a hands on meet and greet with photos allowed. Its hard to get at exactly what he is saying using a computer translation.

Anybody conversant in French who can help out?

[delphidb96]

I've created a 'sample' mobi file using BookDesigner of my (uncompleted) 2006 NaNoWriMo entry (I finished 50K words.) and the preliminary cover for it. I've also created a Sony LRF version of it for my PRS-500 and as soon as my new camera body arrives (hopefully today), I'll be taking pictures of the two devices. (Yes, I got the lights, the light-tent, the display racks and the backdrops, so I'm good to go once the camera arrives!)

Anyway, here are the two sample files I'll be using.

[LOL2005]

Bookeen is proposing to all people interested in the Cybook Gen3 to meet them and test the reader before the official launch.

Nice :-)

[JSWolf]

Not so nice. They have no presence in Boston.

[High 5]

Originally Posted by LOL2005

Bookeen is proposing to all people interested in the Cybook Gen3 to meet them and test the reader before the official launch.:

Sigh...Yep and I am having a party this evening and guess what...You are all invited!
I'd be hapier with them posting a nice long .avi of a Cybook III in all kinds of action.

[rahlquist]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

I don't have everything I need to get consistently reproducible lighting for the review photos.

Just one silly suggestion, since getting everything to turn out identical appears to be an issue. Why not use a point of reference? Like say a sheet of paper with a good reference # as a backdrop for each device. #96 brightness paper is something we can probably all get our hands on and if its in every shot we can arguable take the pictures and decide for ourselves how well each compares?

Rather than spending a few grand on equipment a pennies worth of paper may be adequate?

[delphidb96]

Great! Without a stable light source - window light won't cut it because it varies throughout the day - the quantity affects how big an aperture my camera uses, which means differences in depth of field - as well as the fact that my *ON-CAMERA* flash causes horrendous glare in all but the most awkward positions. Thanks, but no thanks. I've spent $200 for my lighting and I'm happy with it. As for the new camera body, well, I had saved my pennies to get one anyway. I'll be able to use it for other pictures.

Derek

Originally Posted by rahlquist

Just one silly suggestion, since getting everything to turn out identical appears to be an issue. Why not use a point of reference? Like say a sheet of paper with a good reference # as a backdrop for each device. #96 brightness paper is something we can probably all get our hands on and if its in every shot we can arguable take the pictures and decide for ourselves how well each compares?

Rather than spending a few grand on equipment a pennies worth of paper may be adequate?

[rahlquist]

Well I did say it was a silly suggestion Derek! Seriously though the point of reference wasnt that bad of an idea sheesh!

[delphidb96]

And I thank you from the bottom of my wallet.

Yes, I will be using a 'point-of-reference' to set the white-balance on my camera for the photos.

Derek

Originally Posted by rahlquist

Well I did say it was a silly suggestion Derek! Seriously though the point of reference wasnt that bad of an idea sheesh!

[delphidb96]

I've now had the Cybook Gen3 for just one week. And I'm beginning to like it. Notice I said 'beginning'. I've owned a Sony PRS-500 for over a month now and for the first few days the Cybook was here, I didn't really care for it.

Don't get me wrong, the new Visplex eInk display is, to my eye, much sharper and noticeably more contrasty than the older eInk display found on the PRS-500. But Sony's device seemed somehow... more polished... more finished.

And it finally 'clicked' in my mind what the problem was with the Cybook. It's too danged LIGHT! That's right, my PRS-500 is heavier than the Cybook and even more so when I put the PRS-500 into it's softcover case. And, subconsciously, I felt the Cybook was 'flimsier' than the PRS-500 as a result.

So what happened to change my mind? I dropped the Cybook. I was attempting to pull it out of the cargo pocket in my trousers when I bumped my arm and let go. It promptly fell three feet to the hard, linoleum floor in the kitchen. The Cybook was on at the time - I'm tending to just leave it on during the day - and my first thought was "Ohmygod! I broke it!". Then I flipped it over so I could see the screen and there was my ebook, right at the page I left it. Still, I couldn't help wondering if maybe it had frozen there upon impact. Crossing my fingers, I paged forward. It changed to the next page! I called up the contextual menu and returned to the Library, and it did as I commanded! Finally, taking a deep, deep breath, I turned it off and then, after waiting a minute, turned it back on...

Hooray! It came right back up! This happened two days ago and I've been using it ever since.

Now I wouldn't recommend anyone go around dropping a $300+ ebook reader, but I'm now completely satisfied with the hardware.

As for the software, I like what I can do, but I must point out that I can't really do as much as I want to because I don't have the most recent firmware updates. Those come this next week. Considering what will be added by then, I don't believe it would be fair to Bookeen for me to make serious criticisms of what is, essentially, 'beta' software.

Still, there are some things I'd like to see in upcoming updates.

1. ability to use the SD card - this has been promised soon.
2. ability to open pdb files - should be working soon.
3. ability to 'Go To' a specific page - or First and Last - promised soon.
4. softcover - we'll have it when it's ready, but I worry about scratching the display - and as clumsy as I am, dropping it again.
5. some sort of user's manual.
6. a better way to group ebooks, say into folders. I believe work is being done on this.
7. support for FBReader ebook files. Again, I believe this is being worked on.
8. support for PDF. (Okay, maybe not. I find it's not all that difficult for me to use Adobe Acrobat Pro to extract everything and re-format into Mobipocket.)
9. battery-level indicator inside the ebooks!!! This is a must-have!
10. removable/modifyable headers and footers. Coming, just not in my beta release.
11. toolkit CD which contains the latest version of BookDesigner and an instruction guide for using it to port over to Mobipocket. This is, IMO, another must-have! Many people are going to buy these who don't already know about BD or where to get it and they aren't going to be all that interested in going through forum support groups to find copies. I'm sure there will be other goodies which can be tossed onto the CD as well.
12. let's just leave it at that, because I'm sure the list will change, shrink or maybe grow, after the next firmware update.

Still, I'm finding that I like the Cybook.

I have mastered BookDesigner to the point where I can make a pretty good conversion of text, html and rtf ebooks into the Mobipocket format. And I've found that the Mobipocket format versions of Baen's Webscriptions ebooks work great on the Cybook. I haven't yet purchased an ebook in Mobipocket format from either Mobipocket or Fictionwise. I'm about to do so. I'll tell you how it went, later.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Great! Without a stable light source - window light won't cut it because it varies throughout the day - the quantity affects how big an aperture my camera uses, which means differences in depth of field - as well as the fact that my *ON-CAMERA* flash causes horrendous glare in all but the most awkward positions. Thanks, but no thanks. I've spent $200 for my lighting and I'm happy with it. As for the new camera body, well, I had saved my pennies to get one anyway. I'll be able to use it for other pictures.

Derek

I recently purchased a Fuji SD700 (I think that's the model). I'll just take a few photos of my Sony with natural light and see what happens.

Watch I find out I don't need fancy lighting.