A different question, do you regret your Pocket Pro Purchase?

rahlquist · 11-23-2009, 11:28 AM

Ok I have seen and read a lot of good and bad things and opinions on various ebooks. The pocket pro seems to be one of the more favored ones on the market. Any of you who have jumped and bought one, do you wish for any tangible reason you had waited for another product?

My wife who had till recently a RocketEbook is in the market again and like the Pocket Pro. I just want to see if anyone has had serious second thoughts.

Thanks!

p.s. no offense RobertB, not trying to start a bash thread just trying to spend wisely.

polly · 11-23-2009, 12:11 PM

No regrets here, but I got one from the second shipment, so my paint is staying on. The rubberized paint is great if you, or she, is obsessive about thumb prints. With this reader there are none.

I find that my arthritic thumbs really like the scroll wheel for turning pages. While it's true that I could get more text on the screen with the 6" Sony 505, my thumbs were not happy.

The folder system works well for organization with a bit of help from Calibre. I miss being able to organize with tags, like I could on the Sony, but it's not a deal breaker for me. The screen is every bit as good as people say it is and the pages turn quickly.

I am likely to get a six inch reader in the spring, after the new models come out at CES and more in depth reports are available on the Nook, but that's because I'm a wee bit obsessive about new technology.

Customer service is prompt and personal and this reader comes with everything you need, right out of the box, which is more than most manufacturers (Sony) can say. If your wife likes it and wants the more portable size, I'd go for it. They just started offering a really nice gift pack for the holidays.

MaggieScratch · 11-23-2009, 12:13 PM

No. I am really happy with it, after the initial bumps with the paint problems. While it's not perfect, it's worked out really well for my purposes. My purposes might be different from other people's purposes, but there you go.

diokdin · 11-23-2009, 12:24 PM

Whenever I get problems with my EZ Reader Pocket Pro, I feel a twinge of regret. But when I find the solution to the problem. I love it again. And there was this one time when my EZ PPro died(I just had it for about 3 days), the screen is just empty. Won't turn on even if I plug it on the PC or charge it to the wall. I was ready to ship it back but someone suggested that I reset it at the back (read this too on it's manual) and viola, it's working again.

There are minor problems but there is also either a workaround or a solution to it (so far that I find here). I find lots of people here in the forum who helps and is very patient to people who are not so good at tech stuff like me.

I don't mind that it doesn't have an extra stuff like wifi/3g or touchscreen. All I need is a reader, a simple reader that works. And, so far, my EZ PPro works.

But I wish the LIT format will be much faster though. It's slow when I open it and sometimes it freeze. Have to press the back button for 10 seconds. It just hard to read in a LIT format. DOC format too, font size too small. But you can convert them. You can convert DOC by resizing the font or saving it into RTF. And LIT to any other format, though I wish I don't have to do this. I want my LIT files to read as it is. A minor detail, but it works for now. You might not like it if you have a lot of LIT or DOC files you want to convert when the device said it supports it. Hopefully, this will work properly after an update. Anything to say about regarding this RobertB?

theducks · 11-23-2009, 12:59 PM

There have been issues

,
Like Paint that could not be predicted.
Then there is The Battery charge issue, that only seems to hit a tiny portion of the users here on Mobilread, which falls into the Norm of failures .
There is the USB 2 not playing nice with certain (fairly common) USB chipsets that really needs engineering testing to figure out what is happening under the hood.

Bottom line.
I does the job I wanted done. Display books on a sharp, easy to read display without a lot of frills (WiFi, Back lighted Color display, touchscreen) , or being locked to a proprietory content source.

Chiron · 11-23-2009, 02:11 PM

Im happy as never have

No problems here, fast response and no "freezes" (i was one of the first buyers with "paint problems" but my second unit is great and without paint problems, 3 weeks so far with it)

ThomasMcKean · 11-23-2009, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rahlquist

Ok I have seen and read a lot of good and bad things and opinions on various ebooks. The pocket pro seems to be one of the more favored ones on the market. Any of you who have jumped and bought one, do you wish for any tangible reason you had waited for another product?

My wife who had till recently a RocketEbook is in the market again and like the Pocket Pro. I just want to see if anyone has had serious second thoughts.

How much yew wanna bet a bunch of readers here checked to see if I was the one who started this thread?

My "dissatisfaction" with the pocket pro is common knowledge. I do feel it has some great potential as a reader. But the software needs work. I am still not understanding why new features are being added before the bugs in the old features are fixed.

How many people have said they want to read LIT files? How many comments have there been about bookmarks not working? Why can we not delete files directly from the device?

All of these problems (and the others) could be easily fixed. I know eventually this reader will reach its potential. Like everyone else here, I am eagerly awaiting firmware updates. I just wish the programmers would start working more than just every other weekend and start getting more serious about the firmware.

Solicitous · 11-23-2009, 06:00 PM

The only regret I have is not buying mine sooner. Part of me does wish to an extent I purchased a blue one, but I'll do that at some point in the near future for the wife. But in terms of the actual device itself....happy as I can ever be.

ThomasMcKean · 11-23-2009, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Solicitous

The only regret I have is not buying mine sooner. Part of me does wish to an extent I purchased a blue one, but I'll do that at some point in the near future for the wife. But in terms of the actual device itself....happy as I can ever be.

Yes. I also kinda wish I had bought the blue one.

snowcandy · 11-23-2009, 07:18 PM

I wish I have gotten the maroon one instead of the white, and that it was just a little bigger so that I can view my manga at a better distance. But I can't imagine living without my little PP. (:

So no, I don't regret purchasing my PP.

Robertb · 11-23-2009, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rahlquist

Ok I have seen and read a lot of good and bad things and opinions on various ebooks. The pocket pro seems to be one of the more favored ones on the market. Any of you who have jumped and bought one, do you wish for any tangible reason you had waited for another product?

My wife who had till recently a RocketEbook is in the market again and like the Pocket Pro. I just want to see if anyone has had serious second thoughts.

Thanks!

p.s. no offense RobertB, not trying to start a bash thread just trying to spend wisely.

Dear rahlquist:

I think it is good to ask and I am happy that you did.

Yes, we surely did have some problems pop up at the beginning. BUT... they were dealt with and all seem to have been left behind. Yes, we are still working with the factory to find out why every format does not work perfectly... and we hope to improve that. But, let us face it, we have more formats than anyone else and the EPUB and PDF DRM are excellent.

I think the key thing is that people realize it is a darned great device. It is light and fast and comfortable in the hand and (this is important) the battery can be replaced by the end user.

Did you know that the six colors were picked out by MobileRead Forum members?

If I can vote here, I can tell you I love my personal Pocket PRO and I am buying one for my wife (A Christmas Carol Gift Pack) for Christmas.

aegeus · 11-24-2009, 06:32 AM

This is my first device so I can't compare it to another brand. However, I can say I was expecting a better device for this amount of money; and it's mostly because of the software.

I do appreciate the efforts the producer company is putting on this device, especially it's a big plus for customer satisfaction for Robert to be here as the live representative. A customer always likes to be heard by the producer, and here it is.

However the software has a long way to go; and I can't understand how small issues can not be get rid of like bookmark problem, like .lit support or like more font sizes in every format; I believe these should not be big problems for a big company who tries to sell this device to whole world.

Everything is in the details; take for example the unwanted flash animation on the Astak website or the lack of release history for the firmware updates.

What I understand from the forum messages so far is that Astak in fact knows what we want from this device and they are trying to do so; however there's something going in "the factory" and they don't comply with whatever Astak tells them and apply their own agenda. I don't know whose fault is this but it is obvious that the "the factory" does not respond as it should. So we will still have these problems as long as the cooperation problem between Astak and "the factory" continues. May be Astak should employ it's own software programmers for the firmware instead of fighting with "the factory", I don't know.

The result is that I don't regret buying this device; but there's still too many things to do for sure.

Sweetpea · 11-24-2009, 07:03 AM

Absolutely no regret! Though, when I got mine and three days later the battery was empty again, I wondered whether I had gotten a faulty device. But then I found out it was a firmware problem that would be solved soon.

Naturally, there are things I'd like to see in the firmware: mobipocket that remembers the font and font-size used, bookmarks that will stay if you close the book (even when you use spaces in the file/directory names), epub with a status bar (instead of those annoying page numbers), etc, but none of those are even serious enough to even start regretting it.

vgiridar · 11-24-2009, 09:56 AM

I was looking for a reader to

Read when I want to wherever I am waiting besides reading at home
Unsure if I can become an ereader as I was new to this
Wanted good PDF support as I need to read tech manuals frequently

I was sure I did NOT want wireless as I privacy is dear to me. When I am reading "Angels and Demons", I do not want a pop-up recommending "Lost Symbol" based on my reading preferences.

Most of the problems I have faced probably got nothing to do with the device.

PDF zoom failing on one page getting restored next page - so you can't read that page
Images in PDF not showing up except in Extra small.
CHM file support seems a little inconsistent - sometimes good sometimes not but generally taking a long time to respond.
DOC files with no changes would not show up very well

Many files do in edevices poorly simply because they were not intended to be in them. My guess - these devices are perfect and seamless if the file is most or all text. Hence reading literature classics in PRC or EPUB is kind of dream come true if you read a lot of these - cost, variety, convenience.

Some of the files can be reformatted to show up better in the 5" screen as others have tried successfully.

Since I was new to this, I did not want to spend more than minimum and with SD card, case and AC adapter this looked least pricey of all devices.

The content for these devices need to be ironed out and we need to explore methods to get content to these devices as effectivlely to display consistently. I hope that in future people would always take into consideration that what may be read in paper may also be read in eink of various sizes. Currently there are some sacrifices to be made if you plan reading work related documents.

rahlquist · 11-24-2009, 02:24 PM

Thanks everyone who replied. You all appear to have the same points of failure as well as the same demands. My wife is they type who expects something to "just work" out of box and not have a huge workaround learning curve. She can do anything she sets her mind too (even learned how to program some so we could communicate about it better since I am a programmer). but when it comes to a leisure device she thinks it should work for her not her work for it.

Overall it sounds as if the device handles all but PDF and LIT very well, that the paint issues have been addressed, and that the battery issues are "getting there" if not already fixed. Sounds to me to be a small programing group with a big task list.

Thomas: Given your experience, and the devices available today (meaning not backordered like the nook) if you needed to buy another reader would it be this one?

Robertb: Of course you can chime in, and I appreciate your candor in this thread as well as others I have read. It's refreshing to see a company unafraid to publicly speak to their customers. Thank you.

diokdin: Out of most of the comments you sound to be a user most like my wife and you convinced me that this should be great for her.

Thanks to everyone else too!

11-23-2009, 11:28 AM	#1
rahlquist Enthusiast Posts: 38 Karma: 60 Join Date: Sep 2005 Device: Nook Color (ICS)	A different question, do you regret your Pocket Pro Purchase? Ok I have seen and read a lot of good and bad things and opinions on various ebooks. The pocket pro seems to be one of the more favored ones on the market. Any of you who have jumped and bought one, do you wish for any tangible reason you had waited for another product? My wife who had till recently a RocketEbook is in the market again and like the Pocket Pro. I just want to see if anyone has had serious second thoughts. Thanks! p.s. no offense RobertB, not trying to start a bash thread just trying to spend wisely.

11-23-2009, 12:59 PM	#5
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,778 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Regrets - No. Smooth - No. There have been issues , Like Paint that could not be predicted. Then there is The Battery charge issue, that only seems to hit a tiny portion of the users here on Mobilread, which falls into the Norm of failures . There is the USB 2 not playing nice with certain (fairly common) USB chipsets that really needs engineering testing to figure out what is happening under the hood. Bottom line. I does the job I wanted done. Display books on a sharp, easy to read display without a lot of frills (WiFi, Back lighted Color display, touchscreen) , or being locked to a proprietory content source.

11-24-2009, 09:56 AM	#14
vgiridar Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 12 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: EZReader	I was looking for a reader to Read when I want to wherever I am waiting besides reading at home Unsure if I can become an ereader as I was new to this Wanted good PDF support as I need to read tech manuals frequently I was sure I did NOT want wireless as I privacy is dear to me. When I am reading "Angels and Demons", I do not want a pop-up recommending "Lost Symbol" based on my reading preferences. Most of the problems I have faced probably got nothing to do with the device. PDF zoom failing on one page getting restored next page - so you can't read that page Images in PDF not showing up except in Extra small. CHM file support seems a little inconsistent - sometimes good sometimes not but generally taking a long time to respond. DOC files with no changes would not show up very well Many files do in edevices poorly simply because they were not intended to be in them. My guess - these devices are perfect and seamless if the file is most or all text. Hence reading literature classics in PRC or EPUB is kind of dream come true if you read a lot of these - cost, variety, convenience. Some of the files can be reformatted to show up better in the 5" screen as others have tried successfully. Since I was new to this, I did not want to spend more than minimum and with SD card, case and AC adapter this looked least pricey of all devices. The content for these devices need to be ironed out and we need to explore methods to get content to these devices as effectivlely to display consistently. I hope that in future people would always take into consideration that what may be read in paper may also be read in eink of various sizes. Currently there are some sacrifices to be made if you plan reading work related documents.

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11-23-2009, 12:11 PM	#2
polly Evangelist Posts: 454 Karma: 270240 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: Sony PRS 650, PocketBook 360, Astak PocketPro (RIP), Tungsten T3	No regrets here, but I got one from the second shipment, so my paint is staying on. The rubberized paint is great if you, or she, is obsessive about thumb prints. With this reader there are none. I find that my arthritic thumbs really like the scroll wheel for turning pages. While it's true that I could get more text on the screen with the 6" Sony 505, my thumbs were not happy. The folder system works well for organization with a bit of help from Calibre. I miss being able to organize with tags, like I could on the Sony, but it's not a deal breaker for me. The screen is every bit as good as people say it is and the pages turn quickly. I am likely to get a six inch reader in the spring, after the new models come out at CES and more in depth reports are available on the Nook, but that's because I'm a wee bit obsessive about new technology. Customer service is prompt and personal and this reader comes with everything you need, right out of the box, which is more than most manufacturers (Sony) can say. If your wife likes it and wants the more portable size, I'd go for it. They just started offering a really nice gift pack for the holidays.

11-23-2009, 12:13 PM	#3
MaggieScratch Has got to the black veil Posts: 542 Karma: 2144168 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Southeastern Pennsylvania Device: Kobo Aura One, Kindle Paperwhite 2	No. I am really happy with it, after the initial bumps with the paint problems. While it's not perfect, it's worked out really well for my purposes. My purposes might be different from other people's purposes, but there you go.

11-23-2009, 12:24 PM	#4
diokdin Groupie Posts: 187 Karma: 46 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: TN, US Device: iPhone 4, Astak EZ Pocket Pro, Kindle 3 3G	Whenever I get problems with my EZ Reader Pocket Pro, I feel a twinge of regret. But when I find the solution to the problem. I love it again. And there was this one time when my EZ PPro died(I just had it for about 3 days), the screen is just empty. Won't turn on even if I plug it on the PC or charge it to the wall. I was ready to ship it back but someone suggested that I reset it at the back (read this too on it's manual) and viola, it's working again. There are minor problems but there is also either a workaround or a solution to it (so far that I find here). I find lots of people here in the forum who helps and is very patient to people who are not so good at tech stuff like me. I don't mind that it doesn't have an extra stuff like wifi/3g or touchscreen. All I need is a reader, a simple reader that works. And, so far, my EZ PPro works. But I wish the LIT format will be much faster though. It's slow when I open it and sometimes it freeze. Have to press the back button for 10 seconds. It just hard to read in a LIT format. DOC format too, font size too small. But you can convert them. You can convert DOC by resizing the font or saving it into RTF. And LIT to any other format, though I wish I don't have to do this. I want my LIT files to read as it is. A minor detail, but it works for now. You might not like it if you have a lot of LIT or DOC files you want to convert when the device said it supports it. Hopefully, this will work properly after an update. Anything to say about regarding this RobertB?

11-23-2009, 02:11 PM	#6
Chiron Fantasy & SciFi Reader Posts: 183 Karma: 262 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico Device: Astak EZ Reader Pocket Pro	Im happy as never have No problems here, fast response and no "freezes" (i was one of the first buyers with "paint problems" but my second unit is great and without paint problems, 3 weeks so far with it)

11-23-2009, 06:00 PM	#8
Solicitous Wizard Posts: 1,434 Karma: 1525776 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: TAS, Australia Device: Astak Pocket Pro (Black), 2 x Kindle WiFi (Graphite), iPod Touch 4G	The only regret I have is not buying mine sooner. Part of me does wish to an extent I purchased a blue one, but I'll do that at some point in the near future for the wife. But in terms of the actual device itself....happy as I can ever be.

11-23-2009, 07:18 PM	#10
snowcandy Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: EzReader Pocket Pro, Sony PRS-505, Sony PRS-650, Kindle Voyage	I wish I have gotten the maroon one instead of the white, and that it was just a little bigger so that I can view my manga at a better distance. But I can't imagine living without my little PP. (: So no, I don't regret purchasing my PP.

11-24-2009, 06:32 AM	#12
aegeus Enthusiast Posts: 44 Karma: 30 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: EZReader 5	This is my first device so I can't compare it to another brand. However, I can say I was expecting a better device for this amount of money; and it's mostly because of the software. I do appreciate the efforts the producer company is putting on this device, especially it's a big plus for customer satisfaction for Robert to be here as the live representative. A customer always likes to be heard by the producer, and here it is. However the software has a long way to go; and I can't understand how small issues can not be get rid of like bookmark problem, like .lit support or like more font sizes in every format; I believe these should not be big problems for a big company who tries to sell this device to whole world. Everything is in the details; take for example the unwanted flash animation on the Astak website or the lack of release history for the firmware updates. What I understand from the forum messages so far is that Astak in fact knows what we want from this device and they are trying to do so; however there's something going in "the factory" and they don't comply with whatever Astak tells them and apply their own agenda. I don't know whose fault is this but it is obvious that the "the factory" does not respond as it should. So we will still have these problems as long as the cooperation problem between Astak and "the factory" continues. May be Astak should employ it's own software programmers for the firmware instead of fighting with "the factory", I don't know. The result is that I don't regret buying this device; but there's still too many things to do for sure.

11-24-2009, 07:03 AM	#13
Sweetpea Grand Sorcerer Posts: 9,707 Karma: 32763414 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Krewerd Device: Pocketbook Inkpad 4 Color; Samsung Galaxy Tab S6	Absolutely no regret! Though, when I got mine and three days later the battery was empty again, I wondered whether I had gotten a faulty device. But then I found out it was a firmware problem that would be solved soon. Naturally, there are things I'd like to see in the firmware: mobipocket that remembers the font and font-size used, bookmarks that will stay if you close the book (even when you use spaces in the file/directory names), epub with a status bar (instead of those annoying page numbers), etc, but none of those are even serious enough to even start regretting it.

11-24-2009, 02:24 PM	#15
rahlquist Enthusiast Posts: 38 Karma: 60 Join Date: Sep 2005 Device: Nook Color (ICS)	Thanks everyone who replied. You all appear to have the same points of failure as well as the same demands. My wife is they type who expects something to "just work" out of box and not have a huge workaround learning curve. She can do anything she sets her mind too (even learned how to program some so we could communicate about it better since I am a programmer). but when it comes to a leisure device she thinks it should work for her not her work for it. Overall it sounds as if the device handles all but PDF and LIT very well, that the paint issues have been addressed, and that the battery issues are "getting there" if not already fixed. Sounds to me to be a small programing group with a big task list. Thomas: Given your experience, and the devices available today (meaning not backordered like the nook) if you needed to buy another reader would it be this one? Robertb: Of course you can chime in, and I appreciate your candor in this thread as well as others I have read. It's refreshing to see a company unafraid to publicly speak to their customers. Thank you. diokdin: Out of most of the comments you sound to be a user most like my wife and you convinced me that this should be great for her. Thanks to everyone else too!

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