Color jetBook Color Hand-On Review

[PF4Mobile]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

That is standard business for any product,
Intel, Samsung; making of cpu's and LCD screens, as well as cars and other manufacturing, they charge extra to get production ramped up.
As production goes on, they find ways to run more economical, and parts decrease in price, so the device can be sold cheaper.
It has hardly anything to do with business schemes, it's what nearly every company does to get a business started (save perhaps for sony and Nintendo, who make a loss on their product, only to make marginal profits at the end of it's life cycle.

That is why I never buy in the first months/year after a product is launched on the market.
The fact that the big guys do this doesn't make the fact more honest.

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by LuBiB

Whao, whao, whao....i agree that the backlit devices make it seem like the picture quality is better (since it lights up like a Light Bright) but there is absolutely no way backlit screens can be good for your eyes!

I know this because my friend worked in California and now in Arizona studying positive and negative effects on the eye. I spoke with her about the jetBook Color and she said - "As long is it doesn't have a backlight you're all good - if it does, say goodbye to your eyesight."

Has anyone experienced this??

Personally i DESPISE backlit screens bc i feel blind when i look up from them so i'm sure reading fro prolong periods of time has to cause some sort of damage

Backlight is not harmful to the eyes, as long as you don't put it too bright.
With color comic books it's even less harmful.
There's only 2 things that could potentially be harmful on LCD screens:
1- Too bright setting for reading black on white text
2- Flickering LCD's, which nowadays are a non issue anymore. It was even more an issue with CRT screens, but LCD's are largely unaffected by this.

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by PF4Mobile

That is why I never buy in the first months/year after a product is launched on the market.
The fact that the big guys do this doesn't make the fact more honest.

There's nothing dishonest about!
A device just costs more at startup time, and they need to cover the costs.
For big companies who KNOW they will make a successful product, they can start selling it at a loss, but any other company works like this (selling the product with a certain percentage of profit).
It would be dishonest to themselves, if they sell the product at a loss, and never get out of the costs of manufacturing.

Now, if you ask me about street prices, I'd say, at this day and age, $399 is a very favorable price for a device like this.
At the end of their cycle, devices like this could be sold for 299 or even lower, $200, but at this point in time, it's not feasible to sell the device at that price, or business would go under.

I'm glad that many chinese companies (not saying this is one) still are OFF the stock market, or all the profit they will be making, goes to the investors pockets!

[PF4Mobile]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

There's nothing dishonest about!
A device just costs more at startup time, and they need to cover the costs.
For big companies who KNOW they will make a successful product, they can start selling it at a loss, but any other company works like this (selling the product with a certain percentage of profit).
It would be dishonest to themselves, if they sell the product at a loss, and never get out of the costs of manufacturing.

Now, if you ask me about street prices, I'd say, at this day and age, $399 is a very favorable price for a device like this.
At the end of their cycle, devices like this could be sold for 299 or even lower, $200, but at this point in time, it's not feasible to sell the device at that price, or business would go under.

I'm glad that many chinese companies (not saying this is one) still are OFF the stock market, or all the profit they will be making, goes to the investors pockets!

In other words you are saying that it is fair to buy a worse product for more money Like it happen to the M90 users?

[LeftyRight]

LuBiB :- As soon as my update comes in, prepare for another lengthy post

I'm looking forward to reading it LuBiB.

PF4Mobile :- That is why I never buy in the first months after a product is launched on the market.

I agree totally.

I've been burnt before buying the latest technology so now I always wait for the bugs to be ironed out.

cheers

LeftyRight

[Beryll Snyder]

Originally Posted by PF4Mobile

That is why I never buy in the first months/year after a product is launched on the market.
The fact that the big guys do this doesn't make the fact more honest.

I thought you bought a M92? How long has that been on the market? 6 weeks?

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by PF4Mobile

In other words you are saying that it is fair to buy a worse product for more money Like it happen to the M90 users?

I don't know what's not fair about that... A company decides how much they are going to sell an item for, and you either agree and buy, or disagree and not buy.
Same goes for computers, cars, and other commodities!

If Chevrolet would have started selling their corvettes for $500 new price,they might not have existed today!

You pay for being an early adopter. You know you pay for paving the way for the market following you, thousands of people behind you buying perhaps a second gen, cheaper and better, that would not have been able to buy it at that price, if it wheren't for the early adopters that invested their hard earned cash to support a company stamping out a new design on the market!

I paid for the netbook craze! I had the very second model of the second batch of netbooks from Asus; all the while nowadays you can get a netbook that is twice as fast, lasts twice as long on batteries, and costs less than the purchase price of my old netbook!
I knew this was going to happen...

Yet you pay if you want to be one of those that introduces new gadgets to your friends and receives fame for it!

Your reward is fame, being an early adopter and having what no one else yet has, and the satisfaction that your dollars help fund a (potential) mass market!
It's much like people investing their fortune to get the first cure for aids virus injected.

It's only natural that when you buy things later, you'll always get them better.
Very few times in history did an item degrade in quality over time.
(like antique furniture, a car's building materials, handcrafted musical instruments are being replaced by more cheaper, less durable industrial designs)....

But most of the time,and the general rule is, that items and designs only tend to get better and improved over time, and building materials decrease in price where possible (eg: replace car bumpers from steel-chrome to plastic).

[PF4Mobile]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

I don't know what's not fair about that... A company decides how much they are going to sell an item for, and you either agree and buy, or disagree and not buy.
Same goes for computers, cars, and other commodities!

If Chevrolet would have started selling their corvettes for $500 new price,they might not have existed today!

You pay for being an early adopter. You know you pay for paving the way for the market following you, thousands of people behind you buying perhaps a second gen, cheaper and better, that would not have been able to buy it at that price, if it wheren't for the early adopters that invested their hard earned cash to support a company stamping out a new design on the market!

I paid for the netbook craze! I had the very second model of the second batch of netbooks from Asus; all the while nowadays you can get a netbook that is twice as fast, lasts twice as long on batteries, and costs less than the purchase price of my old netbook!
I knew this was going to happen...

Yet you pay if you want to be one of those that introduces new gadgets to your friends and receives fame for it!

Your reward is fame, being an early adopter and having what no one else yet has, and the satisfaction that your dollars help fund a (potential) mass market!
It's much like people investing their fortune to get the first cure for aids virus injected.

It's only natural that when you buy things later, you'll always get them better.
Very few times in history did an item degrade in quality over time.
(like antique furniture, a car's building materials, handcrafted musical instruments are being replaced by more cheaper, less durable industrial designs)....

Early adopter huh?
Tell that to the M90 users :-)

Coming back to the thread we are on... would you say that paying 500$ for having color on an eink device that does not have the functions of an equivalent B&W device is early adoption?

It's like buying Corvette that goes up to 200km/h but sorry, no seats for passengers.

[Beryll Snyder]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

I paid for the netbook craze! I had the very second model of the second batch of netbooks from Asus; all the while nowadays you can get a netbook that is twice as fast, lasts twice as long on batteries, and costs less than the purchase price of my old netbook!
I knew this was going to happen...

Happened to me too: so never again Asus.
But there is difference between being an "early adopter" of IPad, IPhone, Kindle, or Pocketbook, Onyx, Ectaco.
And most products improve over time, but there are different time frames ...

[nayagan]

This is after using adobe digital editions to connect to the device. Some pdfs work great. Some don't. Is there any way of fixing it?

I've tried Calibre but when it converts... it just doesn't come out as polished as the original.

If someone is interested I've uploaded one of the pdfs so that one can play around with it and see if there's a simple solution to the problem that I'm missing. Thanks.

Other than this little quirk, I'm loving the device. Reading journal articles as pdf is not a problem. I'm happy that works... If it didn't that would have defeated the point of the device for me.

Originally Posted by Beryll Snyder

Happened to me too: so never again Asus.
But there is difference between being an "early adopter" of IPad, IPhone, Kindle, or Pocketbook, Onyx, Ectaco.
And most products improve over time, but there are different time frames ...

[enjayes]

I have'nt seen any body else confirming the problems I have with text search nor that they do NOT have problems with text search. I would have thought a find/search a bare minimum requirement for serious reading, especially academic reading.
But the good news is Ectaco replied within a day; however fully charge, reset and try did not work. When informed Ectaco replied again within a day ( a different person, product manager this time) and I quote: Thanks for your enquiry.

I checked the “Text Search” feature and it looks as though it works on every format except PDF right now.

I’ve contact my tech team about this and they will let me know on its implementation.

I remember seeing something about this and reflow for the March 1st update so I will let you know about it assoon as I hear from them.

Hope this helps, and if you need anything else just let me know.
end quote
Unfortunately it did not work for an epubfile (converted thru calbre), so it is not only a pdf problem.
The heartening news is that Ectaco responds, but perhaps others from MR could also apprise them of problems - it looks as if they are not aware of some of the problems. The sad news for me is that I still have not had a successful search. The Ectaco forumn however doesn't seem to be particularly active.
Whilst the device had no problem reading caliber converted epub file, caliber itself did not seem to acknowledge jetbook colour, though jetbook as a device is listed in the cailber dropdown box.
I am not normally an early adopter, but do not regret this purchase - as long as the product is improved with feed back, and the improvement can be incorporated into the device.

[andyh2000]

Originally Posted by enjayes

I have'nt seen any body else confirming the problems I have with text search nor that they do NOT have problems with text search. I would have thought a find/search a bare minimum requirement for serious reading, especially academic reading.

Search doesn't work for me either. I must admit I wasn't going to report any problems to Ectaco until after the firmware updates - there is so much missing/broken (annotations, web browser, search, PDF reflow etc.) that it didn't seem worth saying anything until we get the new batch of bugs^h^h^h^h features.

Andrew

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by Beryll Snyder

Happened to me too: so never again Asus.
But there is difference between being an "early adopter" of IPad, IPhone, Kindle, or Pocketbook, Onyx, Ectaco.
And most products improve over time, but there are different time frames ...

That's just a ridiculous statement!
Asus still makes one of the best netbooks on the market!
I bought my first netbook in 2007, almost 5 years ago! I suppose you can also count this as a "different time frame"?
Asus just happens to release 1 new model every 4-6 months, Apple sticks with one,until it bores the socks out of everyone, and until no one feels special or original anymore owning one; that plus an x- amount of years when no one buys their standard overpriced products anymore, and only then do they move on to a new model!

With apple you are guaranteed to pay too much, no matter whether you are an early adopter or not!
Not only are apple products ridiculously high priced,it seems they slave-labor their chinese employees quite much, by starving their wages (read up on foxcon factories).

Why do you think Apple now has a combined worth more than Microsoft and Google combined?

Because they still make their products in China, and because they give low wages, and demand high production even by chinese standards!

Apple is the worst company that ever existed!
Paying an apple, is agreeing with them taking 90% of your money, and slave-driving people in a faraway country, you'll never know of!

I MUCH rather put my money on Asus; heck, even the hated lower quality Acer products! At least they pay their employees a normal wage!

[ProDigit]

Originally Posted by andyh2000

Search doesn't work for me either. I must admit I wasn't going to report any problems to Ectaco until after the firmware updates - there is so much missing/broken (annotations, web browser, search, PDF reflow etc.) that it didn't seem worth saying anything until we get the new batch of bugs^h^h^h^h features.

Andrew

I hope they not only fix issues, but also introduce new options in the device with each fw update.

Any news on how long the battery last so far? (I know many of you just had the device, but perhaps the ones who received them 1 month ago already needed to recharge?

[Beryll Snyder]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

That's just a ridiculous statement!
Asus still makes one of the best netbooks on the market!
I bought my first netbook in 2007, almost 5 years ago! I suppose you can also count this as a "different time frame"?
Asus just happens to release 1 new model every 4-6 months, Apple sticks with one,until it bores the socks out of everyone, and until no one feels special or original anymore owning one; that plus an x- amount of years when no one buys their standard overpriced products anymore, and only then do they move on to a new model!

With apple you are guaranteed to pay too much, no matter whether you are an early adopter or not!
Not only are apple products ridiculously high priced,it seems they slave-labor their chinese employees quite much, by starving their wages (read up on foxcon factories).

Why do you think Apple now has a combined worth more than Microsoft and Google combined?

Because they still make their products in China, and because they give low wages, and demand high production even by chinese standards!

Apple is the worst company that ever existed!
Paying an apple, is agreeing with them taking 90% of your money, and slave-driving people in a faraway country, you'll never know of!

I MUCH rather put my money on Asus; heck, even the hated lower quality Acer products! At least they pay their employees a normal wage!

Well, I was not so happy with a netbook and an ereader as well as buying from their store, so I am not that enthusiastic.

Apart from that,
seems you confuse your projections with reality:
Apple makes a lot of money because they offer superior quality/design and have brought ideas to the market, that are copied everywhere.
That means they can charge more for their products.
Where do you think Asus lets produce their devices?
Foxconn does not work for Apple exclusively.
And most computers are produced in China - so much for "still in China".
So Asus pays higher wages - you have certainly a source to back up that statement, have you?

PS - I do not use or intend to use any Apple products