PocketBook 360° - new 5" ebook reader - Page 6

SaraD · 04-08-2009, 02:42 AM

On a serious note, I do see your point, but the difference between the 5" and 6" is not enough (IMO) to matter all that much as long as it doesn't extend like a Kindle 2 keyboard. Likely it would have to drop to a 4" for ultra portability, which starts another issue entirely. I'm just getting tired of devices (mp3, e-book, cell phone, whatever) that make the bezels so small that you have virtually no place left to hold the device except the very edges where I'm afraid of dropping it for lack of grip. Or there is only one spot, usually the bottom and only convenient for holding it for portrait viewing which takes away choices for how to hold onto it.

On a more humerous note, I'm quite surprised that I like it as much as I do since big bezel reminds me of '80s styling for electronics though the sleek black & chrome finish helps a lot.

YGG- · 04-08-2009, 03:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

[...] One of the reasons I sold my iLiad was because I found it too large to carry around with me everywhere I go, which is what I do with my CyBook. Portability is a primary concern for a, well, portable, device.

Definitely so for me : I have my CyBook with me all the time.

YGG- · 04-08-2009, 04:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Read me first: I've received word from the manufacturer that my source for this info was wrong. The device exists, but it does not belong to Pocketbook. We are now getting reports that due to a contract dispute, it will be sold by Bookeen.

Not so: due to prior contract w/ Bookeen...

Roger108 · 03-09-2010, 06:33 PM

The Pocketbook 360° eReader - Lean, Light, Beautiful and Blazing Fast
By Roger Pelizzari

Ebook readers have been arriving in ever greater tidal waves over the past few years, some loaded with features, others barely able to perform as ebook readers.
This January when I began my search, I was looking for one feature, the ability to read books easily, without eye strain. I have no desire to divide my mind with music or the internet while reading.

So when my ivory colored Pocketbook 360° appeared before my eyes—lean, light, and beautiful—I had a feeling that it would be a perfect fit. In fact, being the size of a CD case, and weighing a mere 5.3 ounces (half that of the Kindle or Nook), it fit perfectly in my pocket.

The 360° is the latest model from PocketBook Global, the Ukraine-Taiwan company with offices in Long Island and Kansas City. It gets its name from its built-in accelerometer which allows for automatic orientation of pages in portrait or landscape mode. The text reflow looks like magic the first time you see it and is a real boon for lefties.

The device comes well packaged and opens easily. The detachable hard shell protective cover has a beautiful swirling design and attaches to the back for safe keeping, adding no bulk to the size, unlike most eBook covers. It connects via USB and is instantly recognized on Intel Macs and PCs. You simply drag your files onto the icon.

The 360° reads more formats than any reader out there, including FB2, FB2.zip, TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML, PRC, CHM, DJVU, DOC, EPUB, TCR, JPG, BMP, PNG, and TIFF. There is also native support of Adobe Digital Editions, which means you can read DRM protected EPUBs and PDFs as well as free library books. It also supports a wide range of languages, Latin and Cyrillic based and also Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic and Hebrew.

EASY ON THE EYES
Sporting a 5" E-Ink Vizplex 600x800 166dpi, with 16 grayscale levels, the screen looks sharp, has great contrast and is glare free, perfect for reading books without eye strain. You can take it outdoors and read easily in direct sunlight.

With the included FBReader, you can choose one of several fonts or add your own, size them from tiny to elephantine, change the margins and line spacing, and zoom in several levels.

SPEEDY NAVIGATION
Speed is the word for Pocketbook 360°. Just 10 seconds after booting, you’ll see the menus. Books open in 5 seconds. Flipping pages is as fast or faster than any eBook reader I’ve heard of. The refresh between pages is about half a second, twice as fast as the Kindle or Nook, and hardly noticeable. And that’s with DRM and non-DRM ePUBs and PDFs.

Pocketbook’s next version of firmware will add the ability to turn a page with just the flick of your wrist. A turn to the right goes back, a turn to the left moves forward. The 360°s motion sensor will act as a trigger for the page turns.

The feature is already available using a custom version of FBReader from:
http://code.google.com/p/fbreader-po...76_fbreader180

SEARCHING
Simplicity here is a plus. With its large wing-shaped forward/back buttons that give a nice audible click and a very responsive directional joypad, the 360° really flies. No need for a heavy physical keyboard or the glare from a touch screen.

The pop-up virtual keyboard works with dictionaries, applications, working with files and creating notes. It’s also a turbo speed searcher. Just a tap of the joypad and a couple clicks and your word is found and highlighted. The 360° always finds your last place in a book, never loses bookmarks, easily jumps to a specific page.

MENUS
The main menu offers quick access to your two recently read titles, plus icons to take you to eBooks, News (via a Windows-only RSS feed downloader), favorites, photos, dictionary, notes, apps, calendar or settings. Applications included are a clock, a calculator, a dictionary, and games (solitaire, chess, Sudoku, SeaBattle).

While in a book, tapping the center of the joypad brings up a quick menu. When reading EPUBS, the lower right hand icon brings up a settings menu for choosing almost any font size. Though not available with PDFs or DRM files, you can still use the up arrow to chose from five levels of zoom.

The 360°’s speed covers folder support too with hierarchical and directory structure. You have 3 ways to view content—with icons, thumbnails, or in a list. Flags next to the icons signal whether a book is not yet read, being read, or finished. Comparing to the big boys, the Kindle still lacks folder support and the Nook has a more complicated, split screen personality.

SLEEP, SHUT DOWN, AND BATTERY LIFE
The Pocketbook 360° has a sleep mode, key lock mode and automatic shut off, but with such fast boots, I just turn it off manually when I’m done.

The battery is rated 8,000 page turns, so if you use it 4 hours a day without sleeping or locking the keys, you’ll enjoy 2-3 weeks of reading. Even with the accelerometer activated, long shut-off settings, and an SDcard inserted, you’ll still get over a week of use. And best of all, the battery is user-replaceable, so you won’t ever need to send it in for a pricey replacement, as with the latest Kindles and all Sony models.

WHAT I’D STILL LIKE TO SEE
Naturally, there’s always room for improvement. Luckily, all three of my suggestions are scheduled to be fixed in future versions of firmware. Pocketbook software engineers regularly read forum suggestions and respond to them.

1. An option for starting at the first or last entry when entering a new module—Books, Pictures, etc.

2. A more elegant way to eject the 360° from a Mac. Right now you have to pull the plug to stop the 360°’s icon from reappearing. One user has already posted a fix that works fine using a free program called Hidden Cleaner
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=206

3. Macs with PPC processors will recognize the 360°, but only with OS X 10.5 Leopard or higher.

FLEXIBLE FIRMWARE
The 360°’s firmware is another feature that distinguishes it from the crowd. It’s completely user configurable. You can change the functions of the all buttons, and even modify the Fbreaders’ config file through the main menu.

Thanks to PocketBook’s developer kit many applications are also available. Already loaded are several games (chess, cards, sudoku, seabattle) as well as applications (a clock, calculator.) Also available are a language learning program and a terminal emulator for those who can work with Linux.

PRICE TAG
The PocketBook 360° sells for $239.99 at the Pocketbook website, http://www.PocketbookReader.com, and for $20 extra you get an AC adapter and MicroSD card. So that puts it at the same price as the Kindle and the Nook.
But then, Pocketbook’s 2 year warranty, gives the 360° a clear advantage in value.

SUMMARY
The Pocketbook 360° is one of the simplest, fastest, and most beautiful eBook readers out there. If you want to focus on reading, this may just be the one.
If you need 3G and/or Wifi, consider the upcoming Pocketbook 302, but if you just want to read books, you’ll appreciate the total ease of use of the 360°.
• Small, light, easy to hold.
• Very fast page turns.
• User-replaceable battery.
• ADE connectivity to buy books or borrow from your library
• Sturdy protective cover.
• Large page turn buttons with left-handed compatibility.
• Excellent customer service replies within hours rather than weeks!
• Two year warranty – twice the standard length

SPECS
CPU: Samsung S3C2440 A L-40 400MHz Processor
Operating System: Linux 2.6 Kernel
Display: 5" E-Ink Vizplex 600x800 166dpi B&W Screen
Lithium-Polymer battery rated at 1000 mAh, 8,000 page turns per charge
64Mb for Operating System, 512Mb for content, 466Mb accessible
Micro SD/SDHC Slot for additional storage up to 2Gb
Accelerometer built in
Size without cover: 4.6" x 5.5" x 0.39", Weight: 5.3oz
Size with cover: 4.6" x 5.5" x 0.47", Weight: 6.1oz
Image formats supported: JPG, BMP, PNG, TIFF
Book formats supported: FB2, FB2.zip, TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML, PRC, CHM, DJVU, DOC, EPUB, TCR and DRM Adobe Digital Editions

What’s Included: PocketBook 360 with integrated cover, USB cable for connecting to computer/charging, user manual

astra · 03-10-2010, 07:53 AM

Ugly. Almost like a calculator from 80x. Bulky. Probably wide than 6" Sony.

luqmaninbmore · 03-10-2010, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astra

Ugly. Almost like a calculator from 80x. Bulky. Probably wide than 6" Sony.

Have you actually seen one in person? It looks quite nice (I have the black version) and is much, much more portable than a six inch Sony, let alone a Kindle. It also has a built in cover, which reduces bulk further. The ergonomics are quite nice, especially when combined with the accelerometer. While it does include a calculator program (you can install your own apps), I don't think it looks at all like a calculator. No one who has seen a PB360 in person would say that it is bulky.

Luqman

astra · 03-10-2010, 10:18 AM

No. I haven't seen it myself. Just my impression after seeing the images.
If not the calculator, then definitely fiat 500 retro

Sweetpea · 03-10-2010, 10:22 AM

Yes, I have seen it in person. And I still think it's ugly.

but they had some awesome (and I mean AWESOME!) covers at the pocketbook stand at the CeBIT. I forgot to make pictures, but they were really something I'd not buy because I'd only stare at the cover, instead of reading my book

sir Henry · 03-11-2010, 08:21 AM

It's customers support for Pocket Book in UK:
http://www.greenreader.co.uk/

Roger108 · 04-18-2010, 12:35 PM

Beautiful, yes. Ugly, no.
It's the thinest, lightest and fastest reader on the market.

Kris777 · 04-18-2010, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astra

No. I haven't seen it myself. Just my impression after seeing the images.
If not the calculator, then definitely fiat 500 retro

I tested this unit on CES show in Las Vegas this year and I would say it looks like 2010 Mini Cooper 50 Camden Edition...

astra · 04-18-2010, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kris777

I tested this unit on CES show in Las Vegas this year and I would say it looks like 2010 Mini Cooper 50 Camden Edition...

best-ereaders · 04-29-2010, 03:46 AM

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Pocketbook’s CEO Oleg Naumenko and ask him some questions on the future of Pocketbook and the eReader market. He revealed some very interesting details on Pocketbooks upcoming devices and plans.

read the full interview

tvpupsik · 04-29-2010, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roger108

The 360° is the latest model from PocketBook Global, the Ukraine-Taiwan company with offices in Long Island and Kansas City. It gets its name from its built-in accelerometer which allows for automatic orientation of pages in portrait or landscape mode. The text reflow looks like magic the first time you see it and is a real boon for lefties.

.....

PRICE TAG
The PocketBook 360° sells for $239.99 at the Pocketbook website, http://www.PocketbookReader.com, and for $20 extra you get an AC adapter and MicroSD card. So that puts it at the same price as the Kindle and the Nook.
But then, Pocketbook’s 2 year warranty, gives the 360° a clear advantage in value.

Roger108 - thank you for the great review!

I'd like to let everyone know that E-READERS PLUS LLC, a St. Louis based company became a PocketBook distributor on the Midwest.
Welcome to our site - http://pocketbook.reader-ebook.org/

03-09-2010, 06:33 PM	#79
Roger108 Member Posts: 21 Karma: 116 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Pocketbook 360	PocketBook 360 Review The Pocketbook 360° eReader - Lean, Light, Beautiful and Blazing Fast By Roger Pelizzari Ebook readers have been arriving in ever greater tidal waves over the past few years, some loaded with features, others barely able to perform as ebook readers. This January when I began my search, I was looking for one feature, the ability to read books easily, without eye strain. I have no desire to divide my mind with music or the internet while reading. So when my ivory colored Pocketbook 360° appeared before my eyes—lean, light, and beautiful—I had a feeling that it would be a perfect fit. In fact, being the size of a CD case, and weighing a mere 5.3 ounces (half that of the Kindle or Nook), it fit perfectly in my pocket. The 360° is the latest model from PocketBook Global, the Ukraine-Taiwan company with offices in Long Island and Kansas City. It gets its name from its built-in accelerometer which allows for automatic orientation of pages in portrait or landscape mode. The text reflow looks like magic the first time you see it and is a real boon for lefties. The device comes well packaged and opens easily. The detachable hard shell protective cover has a beautiful swirling design and attaches to the back for safe keeping, adding no bulk to the size, unlike most eBook covers. It connects via USB and is instantly recognized on Intel Macs and PCs. You simply drag your files onto the icon. The 360° reads more formats than any reader out there, including FB2, FB2.zip, TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML, PRC, CHM, DJVU, DOC, EPUB, TCR, JPG, BMP, PNG, and TIFF. There is also native support of Adobe Digital Editions, which means you can read DRM protected EPUBs and PDFs as well as free library books. It also supports a wide range of languages, Latin and Cyrillic based and also Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic and Hebrew. EASY ON THE EYES Sporting a 5" E-Ink Vizplex 600x800 166dpi, with 16 grayscale levels, the screen looks sharp, has great contrast and is glare free, perfect for reading books without eye strain. You can take it outdoors and read easily in direct sunlight. With the included FBReader, you can choose one of several fonts or add your own, size them from tiny to elephantine, change the margins and line spacing, and zoom in several levels. SPEEDY NAVIGATION Speed is the word for Pocketbook 360°. Just 10 seconds after booting, you’ll see the menus. Books open in 5 seconds. Flipping pages is as fast or faster than any eBook reader I’ve heard of. The refresh between pages is about half a second, twice as fast as the Kindle or Nook, and hardly noticeable. And that’s with DRM and non-DRM ePUBs and PDFs. Pocketbook’s next version of firmware will add the ability to turn a page with just the flick of your wrist. A turn to the right goes back, a turn to the left moves forward. The 360°s motion sensor will act as a trigger for the page turns. The feature is already available using a custom version of FBReader from: http://code.google.com/p/fbreader-po...76_fbreader180 SEARCHING Simplicity here is a plus. With its large wing-shaped forward/back buttons that give a nice audible click and a very responsive directional joypad, the 360° really flies. No need for a heavy physical keyboard or the glare from a touch screen. The pop-up virtual keyboard works with dictionaries, applications, working with files and creating notes. It’s also a turbo speed searcher. Just a tap of the joypad and a couple clicks and your word is found and highlighted. The 360° always finds your last place in a book, never loses bookmarks, easily jumps to a specific page. MENUS The main menu offers quick access to your two recently read titles, plus icons to take you to eBooks, News (via a Windows-only RSS feed downloader), favorites, photos, dictionary, notes, apps, calendar or settings. Applications included are a clock, a calculator, a dictionary, and games (solitaire, chess, Sudoku, SeaBattle). While in a book, tapping the center of the joypad brings up a quick menu. When reading EPUBS, the lower right hand icon brings up a settings menu for choosing almost any font size. Though not available with PDFs or DRM files, you can still use the up arrow to chose from five levels of zoom. The 360°’s speed covers folder support too with hierarchical and directory structure. You have 3 ways to view content—with icons, thumbnails, or in a list. Flags next to the icons signal whether a book is not yet read, being read, or finished. Comparing to the big boys, the Kindle still lacks folder support and the Nook has a more complicated, split screen personality. SLEEP, SHUT DOWN, AND BATTERY LIFE The Pocketbook 360° has a sleep mode, key lock mode and automatic shut off, but with such fast boots, I just turn it off manually when I’m done. The battery is rated 8,000 page turns, so if you use it 4 hours a day without sleeping or locking the keys, you’ll enjoy 2-3 weeks of reading. Even with the accelerometer activated, long shut-off settings, and an SDcard inserted, you’ll still get over a week of use. And best of all, the battery is user-replaceable, so you won’t ever need to send it in for a pricey replacement, as with the latest Kindles and all Sony models. WHAT I’D STILL LIKE TO SEE Naturally, there’s always room for improvement. Luckily, all three of my suggestions are scheduled to be fixed in future versions of firmware. Pocketbook software engineers regularly read forum suggestions and respond to them. 1. An option for starting at the first or last entry when entering a new module—Books, Pictures, etc. 2. A more elegant way to eject the 360° from a Mac. Right now you have to pull the plug to stop the 360°’s icon from reappearing. One user has already posted a fix that works fine using a free program called Hidden Cleaner https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=206 3. Macs with PPC processors will recognize the 360°, but only with OS X 10.5 Leopard or higher. FLEXIBLE FIRMWARE The 360°’s firmware is another feature that distinguishes it from the crowd. It’s completely user configurable. You can change the functions of the all buttons, and even modify the Fbreaders’ config file through the main menu. Thanks to PocketBook’s developer kit many applications are also available. Already loaded are several games (chess, cards, sudoku, seabattle) as well as applications (a clock, calculator.) Also available are a language learning program and a terminal emulator for those who can work with Linux. PRICE TAG The PocketBook 360° sells for $239.99 at the Pocketbook website, http://www.PocketbookReader.com, and for $20 extra you get an AC adapter and MicroSD card. So that puts it at the same price as the Kindle and the Nook. But then, Pocketbook’s 2 year warranty, gives the 360° a clear advantage in value. SUMMARY The Pocketbook 360° is one of the simplest, fastest, and most beautiful eBook readers out there. If you want to focus on reading, this may just be the one. If you need 3G and/or Wifi, consider the upcoming Pocketbook 302, but if you just want to read books, you’ll appreciate the total ease of use of the 360°. • Small, light, easy to hold. • Very fast page turns. • User-replaceable battery. • ADE connectivity to buy books or borrow from your library • Sturdy protective cover. • Large page turn buttons with left-handed compatibility. • Excellent customer service replies within hours rather than weeks! • Two year warranty – twice the standard length SPECS CPU: Samsung S3C2440 A L-40 400MHz Processor Operating System: Linux 2.6 Kernel Display: 5" E-Ink Vizplex 600x800 166dpi B&W Screen Lithium-Polymer battery rated at 1000 mAh, 8,000 page turns per charge 64Mb for Operating System, 512Mb for content, 466Mb accessible Micro SD/SDHC Slot for additional storage up to 2Gb Accelerometer built in Size without cover: 4.6" x 5.5" x 0.39", Weight: 5.3oz Size with cover: 4.6" x 5.5" x 0.47", Weight: 6.1oz Image formats supported: JPG, BMP, PNG, TIFF Book formats supported: FB2, FB2.zip, TXT, PDF, RTF, HTML, PRC, CHM, DJVU, DOC, EPUB, TCR and DRM Adobe Digital Editions What’s Included: PocketBook 360 with integrated cover, USB cable for connecting to computer/charging, user manual Attached Thumbnails Last edited by Roger108; 03-21-2010 at 12:59 PM.

04-29-2010, 03:46 AM	#88
best-ereaders Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: Kindle DX	Exclusive interview with Pocketbook CEO, Oleg Naumenko We had the pleasure of sitting down with Pocketbook’s CEO Oleg Naumenko and ask him some questions on the future of Pocketbook and the eReader market. He revealed some very interesting details on Pocketbooks upcoming devices and plans. read the full interview

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04-08-2009, 02:42 AM	#76
SaraD Groupie Posts: 161 Karma: 2670 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Mead, WA, USA Device: Sony 650, Basic Kindle 7th generation	On a serious note, I do see your point, but the difference between the 5" and 6" is not enough (IMO) to matter all that much as long as it doesn't extend like a Kindle 2 keyboard. Likely it would have to drop to a 4" for ultra portability, which starts another issue entirely. I'm just getting tired of devices (mp3, e-book, cell phone, whatever) that make the bezels so small that you have virtually no place left to hold the device except the very edges where I'm afraid of dropping it for lack of grip. Or there is only one spot, usually the bottom and only convenient for holding it for portrait viewing which takes away choices for how to hold onto it. On a more humerous note, I'm quite surprised that I like it as much as I do since big bezel reminds me of '80s styling for electronics though the sleek black & chrome finish helps a lot.

03-10-2010, 07:53 AM	#80
astra The Introvert Posts: 8,307 Karma: 1000077497 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: United Kingdom Device: Sony Reader PRS-650 & 505 & 500	Ugly. Almost like a calculator from 80x. Bulky. Probably wide than 6" Sony.

03-10-2010, 10:18 AM	#82
astra The Introvert Posts: 8,307 Karma: 1000077497 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: United Kingdom Device: Sony Reader PRS-650 & 505 & 500	No. I haven't seen it myself. Just my impression after seeing the images. If not the calculator, then definitely fiat 500 retro

03-10-2010, 10:22 AM	#83
Sweetpea Grand Sorcerer Posts: 9,707 Karma: 32763414 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Krewerd Device: Pocketbook Inkpad 4 Color; Samsung Galaxy Tab S6	Yes, I have seen it in person. And I still think it's ugly. but they had some awesome (and I mean AWESOME!) covers at the pocketbook stand at the CeBIT. I forgot to make pictures, but they were really something I'd not buy because I'd only stare at the cover, instead of reading my book

03-11-2010, 08:21 AM	#84
sir Henry Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: PocketBook-301	It's customers support for Pocket Book in UK: http://www.greenreader.co.uk/

04-18-2010, 12:35 PM	#85
Roger108 Member Posts: 21 Karma: 116 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Pocketbook 360	Beautiful, yes. Ugly, no. It's the thinest, lightest and fastest reader on the market.

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