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Old 03-08-2012, 11:09 AM   #1
Dulin's Books
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Am I never to be satisfied with the JetBook Color?

I think my initial impression of the JBC has left a negative impression that it wont be able to over come. I am getting the feeling that I wont be happy with it no matter what improvements they bring. Some examples from this update

1 I have figured out how to just highlight. open menu, select text selection mode for the stylus. then highlight click menu with the stylus and then exit that without doing anything. great but its so many steps and the worst part is I dont get ot choose what color the highlight is. If I have color highlighting I wnat to use several different colors for things that go to different ideas.

where is the stylus menu where i can choose line thickness eraser and color etc by just clicking icons?

2 now we have some text books. Much better than the other references included. But i was going through the pre-algebra texts and it talks about learning how to use a graphing calculator. there is a graphing calculator on board but can i access it from the text here? no

with pocketbook I can open a menu and select from the last 10 things either other books or programs like the graphing calculator! then quickly jump back to the textbook where i left off. cant do that here.

3. I can zoom in and write with the pen and then zoom out. but about every 2 seconds it "saves" with an icon on the screen. and the zoom is limited to 150%. and everythign is throught he menu. click menu, click zoom, click 150, click menu , click stylus mode, click draawing, draw/save/draw/save, clcik menu, click stylus mode, click stylus off, exit menu, use buttons to pan around, start over. at normal reading mode i can easily still read the writing and probably could have written it without zoming

With my Onyx M90 i can selection zoom a chart for instance (did this last night) which brings it up to like 400% full screen. then scribble all over it with no saving delay. then click an icon on the bottom of the display to switch to panning mode , slide around to another part of the page, click the icon back to scribble , write some more and then zoom back to fit display/hide margins etc. the text i wrote is so small it looks like dots and straight lines when in normal reading mode


thats a big wall of text i know but the point being I feel like every update is just going to leave me feeling like "here's one more thing they havent done yet"

edit- why can i turn on wifi and configure it with my router etc but there isnt anything that can be done after that? shoudl have waited to turn on the wifi menu until we could do something besides turn it on and off
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Old 03-08-2012, 11:28 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by Dulin's Books View Post

thats a big wall of text i know but the point being I feel like every update is just going to leave me feeling like "here's one more thing they havent done yet"
It would certainly help if Ectaco would come up with a feature list(planned features) and a timeline.
This would probably rake in some more customers, people who have been watching from the sideline.
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Old 03-08-2012, 11:34 AM   #3
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Well here I go again.

"Dublin's Books";

Are you making the comparison to "your" M90 or one of those that you are selling
on your web site? Just wondering?

Luck;
Ken
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Old 03-08-2012, 12:19 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Maltby View Post
Well here I go again.

"Dublin's Books";

Are you making the comparison to "your" M90 or one of those that you are selling
on your web site? Just wondering?

Luck;
Ken
Hello Ken,

the report from Dublin's Books was very good regarding the inefficient menu structure and contained good ideas to make it better. So I cannot see why it's necessary to blame him about the comparison to another model.

Daniel
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Old 03-08-2012, 12:25 PM   #5
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You'll notice also that I have sold Ectaco products in the past. I am currently weighing whether to try to sell the JBC to schools in my area. The sales person at Ectaco is waiting on a reply from me whether or not I want to sell the JBC.

My retail sales business is winding down. I officially stopped retail sales at the beginning of the year. the last quarter of last year saw a drop in traffic that made it impossible for me to keep going. The site will probably go dark this week or next.

Anybody thats read any of my posts over the last couple of years would know that i have much more integrity than that Ken. I am talking about this on a personal level. I mean exactly what I said comparing point for point. The only reason I ever sell a product is because I personally like it and its features. The JBC as i have mentioned before is still missing things that were there when i tried out the Hanvon at CES.

I am a huge eink fan and have been for a dozen years now. I really want the tech to do well and love to see it succeed. I was ecstatic when i first got to see color eink at the shows. When i saw the features available on the Hanvon(and on Plastic Logic's reader which while not color was perfect for academic and professional uses) I knew it would be a good educational and professional tool even though it was using Windows CE.

What Ectaco has brought to the market with the JBC is much less than that and Im concerned after seeing what they brought in this update that by the time they get around to putting everything in there, that should be, it will be much too late.

As it stands I doubt I'll be able to sell any to the schools because I dont believe in it right now. I posted this hoping someone will be able to "talk me down" , give me a "look on the bright side" speech

edit- there is no "B" in my last name btw. the title of the thread should probably be "Am I never to be satisfied?"

What would be killer is if PocketBook, Onyx and Ectaco got together , added all the things each other does well;

PocketBooks task switching, column reading, format support, dictionary and fonts, library management and device customization

Onyx's note taking, highlighting, device design, selection zoom, font selection, pen usage(when not taking notes etc) scribble export and Office compatibility

Ectaco's learning solutions(especially language teaching), color display and excellent power management and a few other things i am forgetting right now

that would be a fantastic device

Last edited by Dulin's Books; 03-08-2012 at 12:37 PM.
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Old 03-08-2012, 12:28 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Maltby View Post
Well here I go again.

"Dublin's Books";

Are you making the comparison to "your" M90 or one of those that you are selling
on your web site? Just wondering?

Luck;
Ken
The word is Dulin, as in Charlie Dulin (his name.) There's no B.
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Old 03-08-2012, 12:31 PM   #7
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Hello Ken,

the report from Dublin's Books was very good regarding the inefficient menu structure and contained good ideas to make it better. So I cannot see why it's necessary to blame him about the comparison to another model.

Daniel
I guess I must be old fashioned and a little cynical, but I would take what
a Chevy dealer might have to say about a Ford, with a large portion of
salt. So you don't see any conflict? You don't think his opinion might be
swayed a little against products that he isn't selling?

Luck;
Ken
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Old 03-08-2012, 12:45 PM   #8
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ha! thanks Nate i put that in my edit and man i am really typing allot today. sorry for that folks.

tl/dr or whatever that saying is- i want to sell the jetbook color but im unconvinced right now and worry i might never be. somebody give me the bright side
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Old 03-08-2012, 01:13 PM   #9
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I follow Dulin's comments and advices since two years, his comments represent for me one of the more authoritative voices I could find about the new ereaders.

I haven't had the luck to know Ken before.

Thank you Charlie (I'm sorry you'll have to stop selling devices!!)

As school teacher and edu researcher on Digital literacy, I do not see how could I find the JBC good for school use, in its current state.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dulin's Books View Post
What would be killer is if PocketBook, Onyx and Ectaco got together , added all the things each other does well;
My idea is that the dualbook concept is unmatched for edu settings, at least until we're going to deal with e-ink screens. Some of you may find something interesting here: http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/arch...room-disruptor

Last edited by lorenzoens; 03-08-2012 at 01:28 PM.
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Old 03-08-2012, 01:17 PM   #10
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would any mod help me out and change the thread title to "Am I never to be satisfied with the JetBook Color? " ? thanks!
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Old 03-08-2012, 01:44 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Maltby View Post
I guess I must be old fashioned and a little cynical, but I would take what
a Chevy dealer might have to say about a Ford, with a large portion of
salt. So you don't see any conflict? You don't think his opinion might be
swayed a little against products that he isn't selling?

Luck;
Ken
I have to agree with you here.
Though he brings up some valid points, that it takes too many clicks before you can actually do something!

Ectaco should get their menu structure more efficient; like have a highlight mode and a pen input mode. When turning on highlight mode,the device needs to remain in this mode (although I wonder what I'd do with many highlights).

There's currently little use for highlighting text,other than have TTS read it (or translate from dictionary if that function has been enabled).

But in any case, it does not mean that over time the process can't be improved upon, as these issues are mainly softwarematic, and can be rewritten to function better!

They just need to have some hands on the device, and hear some complaints; then can improve the FW as necessary.
As far as the zoom on PDF, it's better than my sony reader, who offered zero zoom; and when zooming in a PDF it turned to reflow and increased font size; which works for text based PDF's, but images got all messed up.
And this is Sony I'm talking about, one of the three major e-reader brands of the beginning!

Last edited by ProDigit; 03-08-2012 at 01:47 PM.
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Old 03-08-2012, 02:02 PM   #12
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ugh sony. they didnt even have persistent zoom for their devices until the latest generation(one before t1 actually). so irritating.
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Old 03-08-2012, 03:09 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Maltby View Post
I guess I must be old fashioned and a little cynical, but I would take what
a Chevy dealer might have to say about a Ford, with a large portion of
salt. So you don't see any conflict? You don't think his opinion might be
swayed a little against products that he isn't selling?

Luck;
Ken
Hello Ken,

even if there might be a conflict I cannot read it from his posts in this thread. They all provide good constructive critics and describe the reader I was dreaming of when ordering the JBC.
Hope someone from ectaco reads this thread and the Ideas from Dulin (sorry for adding the B in the post before) will get implemented.
At the moment I would not advise any friend to spend such a lot of money for that unfinished reader even when I like it for reading A4 PDFs. I would advise them to wait for the final software and to review it again.
The hardware of the JBC is really good. Hope ectaco also makes the software same powerful.

Daniel
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Old 03-08-2012, 03:23 PM   #14
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I would ask you 'why not invest'?
Even with current software, the reader provides an excellent pdf reader!

If all you need is see PDF pages full screen, and flip them; you got more than enough on the JBC, even more if colors are important to you.
I don't see why people need to wait when they can already do what they expected to be doing from this device!

The kinks in the software are mainly from the side software. The things that are extra, and no man needs, but every one wants!

If given a choice, would you prefer the JBC to be a color e-ink device that only can read PDF's and does well at that, or do you prefer a whole bunch of extra's with it, that may not work 100% optimal yet?

Is like asking: "Do you like a Sony radio, where you can listen to the radio with, and have a basic 3 band EQ; power and volume knob; or do you want a Panasonic radio that has the same, but allows you to play back MP3, and has custom 7 band eq instead of 3band, and has a loudness knob; but some MP3's can not playback due to bitrate limitations for the same price?"

All I'm saying is, only looking to the JBC as a PDF reader, it has many options that the smaller e-ink readers (5,6,7" devices) don't have; not to mention all the other software that comes with it.

Last edited by ProDigit; 03-08-2012 at 03:26 PM.
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Old 03-08-2012, 04:10 PM   #15
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I would ask you 'why not invest'?
Even with current software, the reader provides an excellent pdf reader!
As I said the hardware is really good for A4 PDF reading. But the software at the moment does not provide a real benefit compared to paper. (besides the weight)
For 450EUR I can print over 20.000 pages.

I have to be an enthusiast to buy it or it has to provide a real benefit to advise it to a "normal" user.
The highlighting and scribbling functions and fast switching between many open books are such functions. These are far from perfect in the current release, but that can easily be optimized by some motivated programmers and a good concept for the menu structure and usage concept. In this thread we collected lot of ideas for that. The Hardware is here not the limiting factor.

Daniel
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