Color jetBook Color Hand-On Review

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by XMasterrrr

I have some questions guys

first of all is it 9.7" for display only or with the outer frame?

is Ectaco reliable on updates? or it just screw everything?

what do you think about buying 10.1 Samsung Galaxy Tab vs Jetbook color?

and is Jetbook color the most reliable e-ink approximately 10" dispaly?

Thanks

The Galaxy Tab is a backlit tablet and a multimedia entertainment gadget.

The jetBook Color is the first color e-Ink ereader for reading, (textbooks,
magazines, cookbooks, manuals, ect...) not for viewing movies, playing games,
or surfing the net.

Luck;
Ken

[ProDigit]

Is Ectaco reliable on updates? or it just screw everything?

They're a bit off on timing, but their updates are pretty rock solid. I can count on one hand how many times the jetbook froze or errored on me for the past two months. But I can't begin to count how many hands I need to count how many times most other readers I have had froze.
If anything, ectaco has a solid firmware, but not many fw upgrades.

[DeReader]

I want to add a picture to this thread with a display comparison of three large format E-Readers: The iRex DR1000, Kindle DX and the Jetbook Color.

The first generation E-Ink screen of the iRex DR1000 has definitely a much weaker contrast in comparison to the DX or the JBC. The black on the JBC is very dark, but also the screen is more grey than the DR1000 or the DX.

I find reading on the JBC easier than on the DR1000, DX b/w pearl screen ist best, but it lacks color. So the "grey" background is the price you have to pay for the color ability.

The rest is said already, I think, JBC firmware must be improved, PDF-scaling and cropping should be included like in the iRex devices from the beginning.

[Trajan]

Great contribution DeReader!

Any news about the web browser improvements on the JBC? How's the recent update regarding web browsing?

[por]

Originally Posted by Trajan

Great contribution DeReader!

Any news about the web browser improvements on the JBC? How's the recent update regarding web browsing?

There is no recent update.. a guy from the Ectaco PR office made everyone think there was going to be an update soon, by saying the update is coming in 2 day. It later became clear he meant 200 days. I guess something got stuck behind the "zero" key of his keyboard, quite unfortunate...

[Valentinka]

Originally Posted by DeReader

I find reading on the JBC easier than on the DR1000, DX b/w pearl screen ist best, but it lacks color. So the "grey" background is the price you have to pay for the color ability.

But the problem is that JBC doesn't display colors corectly either. So basically you pay the "grey" background price for displaying fake colors. JBC's colors have nothing to do with the REAL colors what artists use on their arts. I bet a lot of artists are really upset after observing how JBC displays their arts. They would probably prefere their arts to be displayed in B/W instead.

[Kumabjorn]

I doubt the JBC is used as some art appreciation device.

[Valentinka]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I doubt the JBC is used as some art appreciation device.

Then another question comes out: Why would somebody need eInk device with fake colors (JBC) and would be willing to pay the price of grey screen for it (not to mention $$$)?

So far I heard only one answer (to this question) from some of JBC's users - they enjoy to read comics on their JBC and don't care about fake colors (in other words, they enjoy JBC's version of the colors in their comics) and are happy to pay "grey screen price" for it together with $500. I believe that these users represent a very small share of eInk readers market. Most of eInk screen users would prefere comfortable reading in most of light conditions in B/W - the experience that much cheaper devices (Kindle DXG and Sony T1 (for example) successfully deliver to their customers. And if somebody is really interested in COLORS, then iPad, for example, is always ready to serve their needs.

[Kumabjorn]

I have no idea, only JBC owners can answer that. I've only seen Youtube clips of the device and those have been on illustrated school books, that has looked fine to me considering their purpose. JBS is, I believe, the first device with a color e-ink screen. Look back at any first generation product and it almost always look a bit embarrasing, then try to remember how excited you were when you first saw that device. I guess it is the same for the JBC.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Valentinka

Then another question comes out: Why would somebody need eInk device with fake colors (JBC) and would be willing to pay the price of grey screen for it (not to mention $$$)?

So far I heard only one answer (to this question) from some of JBC's users - they enjoy to read comics on their JBC and don't care about fake colors (in other words, they enjoy JBC's version of the colors in their comics) and are happy to pay "grey screen price" for it together with $500. I believe that these users represent a very small share of eInk readers market. Most of eInk screen users would prefere comfortable reading in most of light conditions in B/W - the experience that much cheaper devices (Kindle DXG and Sony T1 (for example) successfully deliver to their customers. And if somebody is really interested in COLORS, then iPad, for example, is always ready to serve their needs.

A second reason might be some text books. Charts in text books are often color coded. The actual faithful color is not important but it is important to be able to distinguish colors on a pie chart or lines on a graph. This use of color is fairly common. I can't say about other uses as I don't own one of these so I can't comment about how far off the colors are.

Dale

[ProDigit]

Or for comic books. The conversion of certain colors of light blue, red and dark green look exactly the same on a B&w device. Reading color comic books is MUCH better on a JBC than on a B&W device, even if certain colors are harder to distinguish between each other, on a B&W screen they are even more hard to distinguish!

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Or for comic books. The conversion of certain colors of light blue, red and dark green look exactly the same on a B&w device. Reading color comic books is MUCH better on a JBC than on a B&W device, even if certain colors are harder to distinguish between each other, on a B&W screen they are even more hard to distinguish!

That, of course, was the first purpose already mentioned by Valentinka. You need to read her posts a little more carefully.

Dale

[ProDigit]

I'm sorry,
this thread has 40 pages, almost 600 post, spread over many months time.
I'm not going to remember each one of them,and I'm not going to re-read the whole thread every time someone posts. and there's bound to be some repetition in a 600 post thread.

[xexijreil]

Originally Posted by Valentinka

Then another question comes out: Why would somebody need eInk device with fake colors (JBC) and would be willing to pay the price of grey screen for it (not to mention $$$)?

So far I heard only one answer (to this question) from some of JBC's users - they enjoy to read comics on their JBC and don't care about fake colors (in other words, they enjoy JBC's version of the colors in their comics) and are happy to pay "grey screen price" for it together with $500. I believe that these users represent a very small share of eInk readers market. Most of eInk screen users would prefere comfortable reading in most of light conditions in B/W - the experience that much cheaper devices (Kindle DXG and Sony T1 (for example) successfully deliver to their customers. And if somebody is really interested in COLORS, then iPad, for example, is always ready to serve their needs.

This device is aimed at students, and for me, as a student, the fact that you can carry your JBC instead of tons of paper to university classes deserves what it's worth. As DaleDe said I need color for graphs and schemes. Ipad? I don't like to be swindled, and I don't want to screw my sight.

Cheers

[Binh.nt]

Now that there are 600posts here.
I intended to have a JBC or M92.
Anyone please help to confirm if we can read .doc and .xls files in JBC? And we can edit as well?
M92 background color is more easy to read than JBC ?
Thanks.