Just received my Bebook!

Hodapp87 · 01-16-2009, 06:41 PM

So, after awhile of looking around online (with much of what I read being here) but never actually seeing a real epaper display, ignoring all the advice that sounded like "just buy an iTouch" or "just buy a cheap laptop" or "just print it" or "buy an old Palm" (I've tried all but the first suggestion, they're all mediocre in some important way)... I finally decided that I wanted the Hanlin V3 or something nearly identical (like a Bebook).
I received a Bebook a couple days ago. I'm loving it so far. The display is miles ahead of any other display I've ever seen (for static content at least). The interface is pretty easy to use. While documents load slowly sometimes and I still need to figure out why some color images in one PDF look worse than bad, generally everything is fast enough. I see a little bit of ghosting on the display (particularly at the sides or bottom) but not enough to be problematic.
I haven't had much of a chance to test battery life yet. I got it Wednesday, charged it for 12 hours, read for maybe an hour, and used it for about 2 or 3 hours total of normal reading on Thursday, and the battery icon is still showing a full charge.
I thank all of you for providing a lot of information that helped me buy what I'm pretty sure is the best product for me, and I look forward to reading about other people's experiences and experiments with this product.

Elsi · 01-17-2009, 12:20 AM

Welcome to MobileRead. I have a Kindle and a Sony PRS-505 and am totally sold on the dedicated hand-held device for recreational reading. The new e-Ink screens (such as on the two devices that I have and the BeBook that you bought) are easy on the eyes.

PDF files are a problem. They will continue to be a problem since for the most part they have a fixed format associated with a particular output (typically printed paper) size. Feedbooks will generate custom-sized PDF files, but in most cases you're dealing with a PDF file that the originator intended to be printed on A4 (US-letter) paper. And it doesn't render very well on the small screens of most book readers.

Hodapp87 · 01-17-2009, 03:21 PM

The majority of what I've been reading so far is PDFs (maybe a couple DjVu files too). Perhaps it's just the types of PDFs I've been reading, or perhaps my standards are really low, but I haven't had that many issues. Some aren't comfortably readable until I hit the zoom button to get rid of the margins or do the same and rotate, and then it's a minor inconvenience that I often end up with the page split into 3 sections with the last one just having a page number on it.
Only a couple PDFs have been completely unreadable, and they're usually the very flashy ones with small text over a background.
I have yet to actually read (as opposed to just glance at) any files that are either made for this screen size or are able to automatically format for it. I definitely need to look around for what my options are here, whether it's finding things in a good format to begin with or finding a good format I can convert to.
Do many of you use Plucker? That always formatted well on my Palm and Project Gutenberg offers a lot of books in Plucker format, complete with illustrations.

rjh · 01-18-2009, 12:25 AM

Yes, I use Plucker but it is a problem to use with the standard BeBook. The default reader doesn't support the Plucker format.

There is alternative firmware around that changes the inbuilt reader to FBReader, which does support Plucker, but to get it to work you have to zip the plucker file up and rename it .fb2 so it is a little cludgy. But it works fine, and I how I use my Bebook usually.

There is also the OpenInkPot firmware which has FBReader built in.

My preference is to use plucker as it integrates into web browsing really well (see plucker-e-book-workflow), but for true books I'm tending to use other formats more.

wallcraft · 01-18-2009, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjh

There is also the OpenInkPot firmware which has FBReader built in.

This supports Plucker, and you can keep the standard BeBook firmware and reboot into OIP whenever you want. The only downside to this is the time it takes to boot into OpenInkPot and to reboot into BeBook when you exit OIP.

01-16-2009, 06:41 PM	#1
Hodapp87 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Bebook	Just received my Bebook! So, after awhile of looking around online (with much of what I read being here) but never actually seeing a real epaper display, ignoring all the advice that sounded like "just buy an iTouch" or "just buy a cheap laptop" or "just print it" or "buy an old Palm" (I've tried all but the first suggestion, they're all mediocre in some important way)... I finally decided that I wanted the Hanlin V3 or something nearly identical (like a Bebook). I received a Bebook a couple days ago. I'm loving it so far. The display is miles ahead of any other display I've ever seen (for static content at least). The interface is pretty easy to use. While documents load slowly sometimes and I still need to figure out why some color images in one PDF look worse than bad, generally everything is fast enough. I see a little bit of ghosting on the display (particularly at the sides or bottom) but not enough to be problematic. I haven't had much of a chance to test battery life yet. I got it Wednesday, charged it for 12 hours, read for maybe an hour, and used it for about 2 or 3 hours total of normal reading on Thursday, and the battery icon is still showing a full charge. I thank all of you for providing a lot of information that helped me buy what I'm pretty sure is the best product for me, and I look forward to reading about other people's experiences and experiments with this product.

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01-17-2009, 12:20 AM	#2
Elsi Wizard Posts: 2,366 Karma: 12000 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Texas, USA Device: Kindle; Sony PRS 505; Blackberry 8700C	Welcome to MobileRead. I have a Kindle and a Sony PRS-505 and am totally sold on the dedicated hand-held device for recreational reading. The new e-Ink screens (such as on the two devices that I have and the BeBook that you bought) are easy on the eyes. PDF files are a problem. They will continue to be a problem since for the most part they have a fixed format associated with a particular output (typically printed paper) size. Feedbooks will generate custom-sized PDF files, but in most cases you're dealing with a PDF file that the originator intended to be printed on A4 (US-letter) paper. And it doesn't render very well on the small screens of most book readers.

01-17-2009, 03:21 PM	#3
Hodapp87 Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Bebook	The majority of what I've been reading so far is PDFs (maybe a couple DjVu files too). Perhaps it's just the types of PDFs I've been reading, or perhaps my standards are really low, but I haven't had that many issues. Some aren't comfortably readable until I hit the zoom button to get rid of the margins or do the same and rotate, and then it's a minor inconvenience that I often end up with the page split into 3 sections with the last one just having a page number on it. Only a couple PDFs have been completely unreadable, and they're usually the very flashy ones with small text over a background. I have yet to actually read (as opposed to just glance at) any files that are either made for this screen size or are able to automatically format for it. I definitely need to look around for what my options are here, whether it's finding things in a good format to begin with or finding a good format I can convert to. Do many of you use Plucker? That always formatted well on my Palm and Project Gutenberg offers a lot of books in Plucker format, complete with illustrations.

01-18-2009, 12:25 AM	#4
rjh Connoisseur Posts: 50 Karma: 116 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: New Zealand Device: TungstenT3 Nokia770 BeBook	Yes, I use Plucker but it is a problem to use with the standard BeBook. The default reader doesn't support the Plucker format. There is alternative firmware around that changes the inbuilt reader to FBReader, which does support Plucker, but to get it to work you have to zip the plucker file up and rename it .fb2 so it is a little cludgy. But it works fine, and I how I use my Bebook usually. There is also the OpenInkPot firmware which has FBReader built in. My preference is to use plucker as it integrates into web browsing really well (see plucker-e-book-workflow), but for true books I'm tending to use other formats more.

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