PocketBook 360 Questions

[Vienna01]

Not an artist!

[Yar-PocketBooker]

I'll tell a little secret - I love both 301 and 360 PBs: 301 is ideal for my home reading or in plane\ Amtrak train.
But when I commute in NYC subway/bus or just want to read outside in the park/Starbucks, I always take my mighty mouse (c) PB360 with me - it fits ideally in any of my pockets and the snapping lid leaves no worries about the screen fragility.
Plus, it is SO comfortable in reading with both hands (very important for packed subway trains, where you sometimes hang with one hand on the rail, and stand on 2/3 of one of your feet). Plus, I simply ADORE big ear-like buttons.

P. S. All above does not mean that I don't love my PB302 - we're on that stage of romance when we study each other and like more and more with each day)))

[Logseman]

How does it feel to have a Harem?

[Ea]

Variety is the spice of life

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Ea

Variety is the spice of life

I thought that was cumin.

BOb

[Vienna01]

Originally Posted by Vienna01

I awoke finally: I didn't realize my Sony had a 6" screen until I started looking at second reader purchase. I have a neighbor who has a Sony 300. Yes, I didn't have to look much farther than my own street to help me decide 301 vs 360. I'll let you all know how it works out.

I think I will have to have to put a mask on my avatar so that my embarrassment won't show.

My avatar wore a mask for several days. He went and got a much better picture that even looks somewhat like me. That is my new smiling avatar.

I have decided to buy the Pocketbook 301. The deciding factor was how PDFs will look. They are a bit better on the 6" Screen [of course much better on a 9" Screen but not now]. Also I rarely will use the reader away from my home. Compact size isn't a requirement for me. I'm sure I would not be unhappy having a 360 model. Info from several forum members helped me feel good about buying a Pocketbook brand ebook reader. I will feel badly though if the price is reduced by $75 or so after I buy mine.

Thanks to everyone,
Smiling Vienna01
[that's Vienna Virginia not Austria]

[valerian]

Hi, can anyone tell me which device permits the purchase of the most and best choice of books and how to download if not via wireless - ie ?computer? Thanks.

[valerian]

Originally Posted by Hitchcockfan

Hi,

I'm trying to decide among the PocketBook 360, B&N Nook and Sony PRS-600. It wasn't until just recently that I was even aware of the PocketBook 360 (I'm new to the forums). It's a very appealing e-reader despite having a 5-inch screen. However, I keep coming back to the fact that for the same price (or about the same), I can get a 6-inch e-reader with probably more functionality.

I came up with some questions to help me make a decision about the 360. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
1. How did you justify the purchase of the PocketBook 360 over other models with larger screens and more functions?

2. Does anyone find the 5-inch screen to be too small? When I've seen comparisons between the 360 and an e-reader with a 6-inch screen, there doesn't appear to be a major difference in the amount of text on the page.

3. What are your thoughts on the software? I like that the 360 supports RSS Feeds, but does this function work well on the reader?

4. Is there a development community for the 360 (additional Linux applications)?

Thank you everyone for your time!

Hi, am having trouble working out which e-reader company provides the greatest range and number of books for sale. I can't find any info on where you get books for the 360 - can U help?

[Logseman]

valerian, the only widespread format that the PB360 doesn't take is Mobi with DRM, so you wil not be able to read books bought from Amazon. The rest of major stores tend to offer books in encrypted ePub format, which is read by your PB.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by valerian

Hi, am having trouble working out which e-reader company provides the greatest range and number of books for sale. I can't find any info on where you get books for the 360 - can U help?

The PB360 isn't tied to any bookstore.

You can buy books from any or all the ebook vendors that support Adobe DRM. Just decide which book you want, find out who has the best price, and buy it.

Doesn't matter which store, if it uses Adobe DRM it'll work.
(Library ebooks in ePub also work.)

[mtravellerh]

Nice choice of books on kobo. Sony's store is quite big, too. B&N's up there, too.

[Anders Eriksson]

Originally Posted by Marcy

Possibly, but that's way more work than I'm willing to put in. I keep all my books in Calibre and if Calibre can't do it and keep my backup I'm not doing it. Each link would have to be manually added and if anything ever happened to the data on the book it would have to be done all over again. It's not optimal, but I just have everything sorted into author folders. I really miss the series feature, especially for series like 1632 written by multiple authors, but nothing is perfect.

-Marcy

You can do it with Favorites!

I have just experimented a little bit with the Favorites.

step 1. Go into the Favorites from the "main menu"

step 2. Long press on the OK and select "Add category"

step 3. Name the new category, this will correspond to sony's collections
repeat step 2 and 3 for more categories you want

step 4. exit the Favorites and go to some book you want add to some category/categories

step 5. long press on the OK, press down 1 time to highlight "Add to favorites" then press OK, then you will see your list of categories you have added, select one you want

repeat step 5. if the same book should also be added to some other category

NOTE: you can also do the step 5 on a folder and not only on a book.

Then you can navigate via the "Favorites" from the "main menu" to your different categories

I have not looked in the file structure on the device, but also from icon in favorites "an arrow" a bit like windows shortcuts, it seems like there are only links and not copies of the book.

If this was documented how it works on the device I can not see why it should be impossible for the Calibre developers to support also this generation as they have done for Sony's collections.

[jessc]

I'm looking to get my first ereader and am almost certain I want the PB 360. But before I buy I have a few questions I'm sure people here can answer, if you don't mind:

1. How many books (approximately, obviously) can the internal memory hold?

2. If I get an SDHC card for additional memory, does it slow down boot time at all? If so, does it get significantly slower as the size of the card gets bigger?

3. Would I be foolish not to get the wall charger? Or is that an unnecessary additional expense (I'm on a student budget) and the USB charger generally sufficient for most purposes? I know you can't tell me about *my* usage, just trying to get an idea of general usage...

4. Does anyone use the wrist lash that comes with the "comfort" model? Is it something that is particularly good to have, or more on the unnecessary side? Could I use a wrist lash from my digital camera, or is it somehow proprietary on the Pocketbook?

5. I've seen some discussion about the availability of En-En dictionaries like Oxford, Webster (newer than 1913), etc., but haven't seen anything that gave me a clear idea if they are really available and where/how to get them if so. Did I miss that, or is it still an open question?

Thank you, I really appreciate all the information in these forums! I'd never even heard of the PB 360 until I started reading here, and now I'm wondering how I've lived without one so long.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by jessc

1. How many books (approximately, obviously) can the internal memory hold?

300
Depends on how many dictionaries, fonts, backgrounds, and other stuff you put on the reader. They all occupy the same memory

Originally Posted by jessc

2. If I get an SDHC card for additional memory, does it slow down boot time at all? If so, does it get significantly slower as the size of the card gets bigger?

No.
Boot takes about 12 seconds regardless of number of books on card and/or memory.
There are certain cards that make your reader boot twice.

Originally Posted by jessc

3. Would I be foolish not to get the wall charger? Or is that an unnecessary additional expense (I'm on a student budget) and the USB charger generally sufficient for most purposes? I know you can't tell me about *my* usage, just trying to get an idea of general usage...

Wall charger that comes with PocketBook 360 is in fact a generic USB charger

Originally Posted by jessc

4. Does anyone use the wrist lash that comes with the "comfort" model? Is it something that is particularly good to have, or more on the unnecessary side? Could I use a wrist lash from my digital camera, or is it somehow proprietary on the Pocketbook?

You can use just any generic wrist leash that was attached to the $2 USB memory stick or whatever gadget as long as you do not mind that your wrist leash does not have text PocketBook on it (you can always get creative with a permanent marker or make an embroidery ;-) ).
Or, you can have mine. Except, I suspect, that the post from here would cost much, MUCH more then a generic wrist leash is worth.
There are two points for attachment for wrist leash, so you could make an elastic strip, similar to one that cameras have to hold the reader on your hand

Originally Posted by jessc

5. I've seen some discussion about the availability of En-En dictionaries like Oxford, Webster (newer than 1913), etc., but haven't seen anything that gave me a clear idea if they are really available and where/how to get them if so. Did I miss that, or is it still an open question?

There are some dictionaries available.
Mostly Russian stuff.
They (the pocketBook company) have promised that they plan direct support for Lingovo commercialy available dictionaries in the next firmware. But do not hold your breath. A corrected version of 15.1 firmware is long overdue at the moment.
For example Czech distributor bundles CZ-EN and EN-CZ dictionary they have converted from freely available stardict dictionary. It is possible to convert stardict dictionary to format for PocketBook. It is just an non trivial undertaking.
There used to be site called bookfast.org with interesting themes, programs for PocketBook, and dictionaries, but now it says the domain has expired. I hope it will be back.
There are some dictionaries available, I do not know what their legal status is outside Russia and Ukraine.

[Kameli]

Originally Posted by kacir

300
Boot takes about 12 seconds regardless of number of books on card and/or memory.
There are certain cards that make your reader boot twice.

Boot time isn't the whole story. It is just the time it takes to get to the main menu. After that it also takes some time to open the book. I just tested and with a novel I am reading it takes 28 seconds to get from the power off to reading book. The opening time varies a lot depending on the format, size etc of book so it could be very annoying.

But from some threads on this forum I figured out there is actually no need to shut down the device. I turned the auto power off off and instead have it auto lock keys and g-sensors so the power usage is almost same as shutdown (e-ink display uses power only when it changes) and a book is ready to read instantly instead of 28 seconds it takes if I turn the power off.