10:54 PM by kacir in E-Book Devices | PocketBook

EDIT: There is Part II of the review available in the thread.

I was looking for an e-ink device to upgrade my aging Sony PRS-500 reader for quite some time.

Ever since I have seen first proposals for Pocket Book 360° design on The-ebook.org forum I was planning to get one eventually.

So I did get one. Finally. I purchased an original Ukrainian package from our member Forgosigan.

Originally I wanted to purchase black unit, because I thought the screen would appear lighter when surrounded by a black bezel, and I am used to black reader from my PRS-500 anyway. Forkosigan persuaded me to buy "ivory" colored unit. He said that the text appears blacker on a screen with light bezel. Besides, he did not have any black units left ;-)
I have purchased light colored one and I am happy.
The color of the unit is not bright white, it is light "PC case" beige with pearly - silvery, almost metallic surface. There is grey plastic border around the screen. The resulting combination is very pleasing, and indeed, the letters look *almost* "like lacquered chopsticks on a clean tablecloth" :-)

I LOVE the detachable lid. It protects the screen very well without adding bulk to the device. I like the user replaceable battery. You should update the manual, however, there are no markings at the back of the device indicating that this is the door to the battery compartment and reset button. It is also not apparent how to open the door once you start looking for the Reset button. (I did not need it yet, despite my furious tests).
There is only one thing I do not like in hardware. It is audible click when you press the button. I can still read without disturbing my sleeping partner, but I would have prefered a little bit quieter click.

With a few books in internal memory the device boots in under 21 seconds. It also takes less than 21 seconds to boot the machine with an SD card with over a thousand files on it freshly inserted. I am very impressed. Everything is configurable. You can configure the device to take you after the boot directly to the book you were reading when you switch it off, and I used that option when timing "cold boot".

When you insert SD card with 10 folders on it and you have another 15 folders with books already in main memory you are presented with a library that combines those top folders, so in a main library you see all 25 folders plus whatever books you have on the root of the card or in the root of the main memory "disk". You do not see folders with names starting with dot (which is standard Unix and Linux behaviour). There is an icon indicating whether the file resides on a card or in memory.
There is another icon present next to file name. No icon means the book was not opened, an "open book" icon means you are reading the books and reader remembers your position, a "checkbox" icon means the book was finished. The states are saved in a file accessible from main memory when you connect the reader to PC, the "not yet opened", "being read" and "finished" flag can also be reset from the menu described below.
You can manage files directly from PocketBook user interface. Just press and hold the OK button to get menu.
you can do following actions
- Open book
- view information and metadata
- mark as Read (or finished)
- File
. - rename
. - Move to folder
. - copy to SD card (or main memory, depending on where the book is)
. - Move to SD card
. - Delete
. - Mark group
- set view for files as
. - list
. - thumbnails
. - details
. - set screen orientation (any angle 0, 90, 180, 270, or gyro sensor)
- Sort
. - by title
. - by author
. - by series
. - by creation time
- Show names as
. - book titles
. - file names
- find book
I havent, yet, discovered how to create a folder.

There are basically three kinds of book files you can read on PB. Files with rigid layout, such as pdf and djvu files, files that are reflowable, such as fb2, fb2.zip, txt, rtf, html, chm, doc, epub and tcr and comics. In this review I will not talk about pdf files, that will take another long post. I said that pdf files have rigid structure, but according to the manual you *can* reflow, zoom or read in column mode pdf files.
Reflowable files are opened in an application FBreader. FBreader is very configurable. It discards most of the formatting information from rtf, doc and displays text fully justified, in an user selected font.
In FBreader you can configure
- font (face, size)
- encoding (there are quite a lot of options missing, but you can use UTF-8, so I do not see a problem. Encoding options are: auto, Win-1251, Win-1252, Win-1255, KOI8-R, KOI8-U, IBM866, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-5, UTF-8)
- line spacing (from 70 to 200%)
- page margins in three steps, starting with no margin
- hyphenations
- line breaks (auto, new line, empty line, line with indent), so PB can display "raw, plain vanilla" Project Gutenberg text file surprisingly well

There are further settings that affect the FBreader under settings icon on the main menu. Among many, many interesting things you can set Apperance - theme, interface font, boot logo, text rendering (Not antialiased, Antialiased, embolded)

Let us get back to the FBreader.
There is a very thin status bar at the bottom of the screen when you read the book, It contains following info:
[page #] / [number of pages], name of the book in a very tiny font, percentage of the book you have read so far, a graphical progress bar, time and battery indicator. When you open the book, or when you change screen orientation or font or size of font there are just three dots displayed instead of page number and progress bar - this is indication that the device is repaginating the book.

You can use custom fonts. Just copy ttf font into Fonts directory on the main memory when you connect reader to the PC. If you provide device with just one variant of the font, the bold and italic text is simulated, just like on Sony reader. When you load all for variants of the font - normal, bold, itallics and bold itallics the device uses that and you get real italics. (Just have a look at the shape of the 'a' letter to see if you have real italics. See? 'a' versus 'a'. I strongly recommend font Droid that was developed specifically for small displays on Android operating system and released under Apache licence. I very much like the way fonts are displayed, rendered, antialiased, and hinted on PocketBook

I have only one question concerning FBreader for our resident PocketBook resellers. How do I configure FBreader to use left justification instead of full justification? I think have seen description of how to modify a FBreader config file (easily accesible in main memory when you connect the reader) somewhere on the-ebook.org forum, but I can not find it right now.
Another question is, what happens when user deletes system files from main memory? (Do not worry dear readers, there are only some configuration files, files with state of the books and such things in the user mountable main memory, so you can not delete some important system file.) How can this be corrected? Can this be remedied by using "factory default option" oe perhaps by formatting internal memory from Settings or by reflashing firmware? I am NOT going to try, but sooner or later somebody WILL delete some files.

To be continued ...

Now let us see some unpacking photos, shot with a mobile phone camera under very adverse lighting conditions. During weekend I will try to borrow a better camera and make better shots, might be even a video.

06:03 PM by pilotbob in E-Book General | News and Commentary

Amazon has released the oft requested Kindle for PC software. This software lets you buy and read Kindle books on your PC. If you have a Kindle the Whispersync will automatically keep your last read page synced on the device and the PC.

From the Kindle blog:

With it you can read more than 360,000 Kindle books on your computer. There is no Kindle required but if you have one, you'll be able to access your library of Kindle books, notes, marks, and more.

Stay tuned, as more apps are on the way, including Kindle for Mac, and Kindle for Blackberry.

To download the software visit
www.amazon.com/KindleforPC

To discuss this news please visit:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61798

07:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Welcome to another digest entry of MobileRead, where we transform the profound into the bite-sized.

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• Spring Design sues Barnes & Noble over the Nook
• AddALL E-Book Search with new features
• Foxit eSlick to suport ePub in Firmware 2.0

E-Book General - Deals, Freebies, and Resources

• Free one day only--gryphonwood press books at Smashwords [Offer Expired]

11:26 AM by RichyRich in E-Book General | News and Commentary

In its continuing effort to be the electronic reader of choice, Foxit is expanding eSlick’s support for more reading formats. eSlick customers will now be able to view documents in ePub and eReader (PDB) in additional to previously supported PDF and Text formats. The support for ePub and eReader enable customers to read books downloaded from any website which supports these reading formats.

via http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Foxit-....html?x=0&.v=1

and http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/06/f...ndle-to-shame/

09:41 AM by Elsi in E-Book General | News and Commentary

AddALL, the E-Book search site, has added several new features:

1. many new sites added including:
- 18 USA ebook stores (amazon, b&n, sony ...)
- 7 UK ebookstores (Whsmith, Borders, Waterstones...)
- 2 Aus ebookstores (Dymocks, Harpercollins AU)
- 5 free ebook sites (gutenberg, feedbooks, MobileRead ..)

2. new Amazon and Sony free ebooks monitoring features.

3. Amazon, B&N and Sony bestseller price comparison pages.

With this update, AddALL now searches across more than 30 sites. In addition, they provide an easy-to-use search plug-in for both the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers.

You can find discussions about AddALL, including some search tips, in these earlier threads in the forum: New ebook price comparison site: AddAll Ebooks and AddAll Ebook price comparison

10:55 AM by dmikov in E-Book General | News and Commentary

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/02/s...over-the-nook/

Called it first Their ploy was so transparent.

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59761

What a horrible horrible business practices. They don't even have a leg to stand on, just hoping for a settlement.

06:41 PM by Steve Jordan in E-Book Devices | Astak EZReader

One nice perk that’s resulted from my recent 15 minutes of fame at the hands of the New York Times has been the attention of a few of the movers and shakers in the e-book field… including Astak, resellers of a number of eInk-screened e-book readers on the market. (That’s “Astak,” not Aztek, as I kept finding myself saying at first!) Astak’s Bob Barry contacted me, and I discovered that he and I clearly had a lot in common when it came to the positive aspects of e-books, especially from an environmental standpoint; right away our e-mails started to take on the tone of lifelong comrades in the Global Battle for Environmental Sensibility. So when Bob asked if I would do a review of a new 5” EZReader Pocket PRO (a rebranded Hanlin V5 reader) that they would send to me, I felt honored, and duly jumped at the chance.

This would be the first of the dedicated devices that I would try, having read on a PDA for quite some time, and being happy with the format, LCD screen and multiple-format flexibility for reading. But the 5” Pocket PRO was supposed to solve many of the issues related to dedicated readers, namely reading more formats, being a bit more compact, and providing a better high-contrast eInk display.

The reader was ready to go right out of the box, though Astak recommends letting it get a full overnight charge first. It comes packaged with a leather cover, a set of earbuds, and a carrying lariat that attaches to the bottom of the book. An included USB cable will attach the device to your computer, or connect the wall plug to the end of it for a wall-charge (charging it off your PC is possible, but it’s faster on the wall). A printed manual is also included, but the device has the manual duplicated electronically, in English and Chinese.

The first thing I discovered was that the screen was an excellent eInk display: Bob had informed me that the smaller size allowed for more pixels per inch, resulting in a screen of higher contrast. Text was clearly crisp and sharp, and the 8 levels of grayscale displayed graphics such as book covers well (depending on the cover, of course… some color book covers just look like muddy messes when converted to grays). Everyone I showed it to was impressed by the screen quality right off.

The reader’s controls were easy enough to operate. I liked the 3 choices of page-changing controls, and usually found myself using the 9 and 0 buttons on the front menu board for page changing. The rest of the menu board is used to select menu items based on the number displayed next to them, and the round Return and Menu buttons on the front were easy to get used to. The Pocket PRO is not a touchscreen device, so the screen stays free of fingerprints. If you insert an SD memory card into the top slot, the Pocket PRO will open to that first, and you use the menu buttons to switch between SD and on-board memory, then to select your files. The USB cable connects the Pocket PRO to your computer, where it is recognized as a new drive, and allows you to move files onto it, create folders, and arrange everything from your desktop. Most other e-book applications on your computer will also recognize the reader as a new drive, and allow you to load documents onto it from apps like Adobe Digital Editions, MobiPocket, eReader and Calibre.

I did encounter an occasional problem with the unit seemingly “locking up” during operation, usually when a book was being open, and often within the first few pages (the cover, TOC or setup/copyright info). Embarrassingly, I showed the device to two people, and it managed to lock up on the cover of two different books as soon as they tried it! (Not the best way to demo something… sorry, Bob!) In both cases, turning the Astak off, then back on, allowed the book to be read beyond the point of lockup. There is also a reset button on the back of the unit, but I only used it once. Based on the instructions, this lockup is a known issue, but obviously not considered serious. I know it didn’t bother me much, it just meant an occasional extra minute spent rebooting the reader.

The Pocket PRO advertises that it can read multiple e-book formats, and I tried all of them. The good news is Yes, it can open and display them all; but some formats don’t display well unless they are optimized for the Astak’s screen size. Letter-sized Word docs, for instance, display at such a small font that they are for all intents and purposes illegible. Although you have some font resizing control, it generally only allows you 3-4 font size settings with most formats. Different formats also render differently, varying in font type, line spacing, paragraph indents, etc, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to see some examples of formats displayed by the Pocket PRO, so you know what to expect before you buy.

One thing I noticed in most formats was a slight problem displaying italics (when using Times for a font, at any rate): Individual characters would sometimes seem “cut off” on the right side. It took me a bit, but eventually I realized was that in some formats, each italic character was essentially being generated as a black image on a solid white rectangle… imagine a letter on a playing card. Sometimes, those cards overlapped each other, the card to the right overlapping the card to its left, resulting in instances like the letter “o” being partially obscured by the letter “f” of “of.” This (and the font sizing limitations) is an issue caused by the rendering engines licensed to the Pocket PRO, not with the hardware or firmware. PDF and ePub files seem to be the exception in this case, but there may have been other combinations of formats and fonts that solve this font overlap problem, too.

Here’s the best news: The Pocket PRO lourves ePub! I tried a few ePub files (including novels of my own), and found the widest range of font choices available, and IMO the best-rendered layouts of any format. I also experienced no “lockup” with any ePub file, as I had with every other file format at least once (the other exception: PDF. Nice job, Adobe). Next in display quality would be PRC (MobiPocket) files, I’d say, but as it’s a very subjective thing, again, try to see them for yourself.

Unfortunately, a lot of e-books come with DRM, and the DRM support on the Pocket PRO is limited. Because Adobe’s rendering engine is on-board, for example, MobiPocket is required by license not to open DRM’d Mobi files. Essentially, you can use Adobe Digital Editions on your computer to open a DRM’d ePub or PDF file, then send it to the Pocket PRO. But the encrypted PRC file I sent from Mobipocket Reader and the encrypted PDB from eReader would not open. I don’t believe you can open encrypted files with any other formats, as far as I could tell. A DRM-laden file loaded onto the device won’t hurt it… but it will either not display in the menus at all, or it will display, but when you try to open it, you’ll get a window that advises you the file cannot be opened because of the DRM file type. Again, this is a restriction created by the format licensees, not by Astak or their firmware, and it’s a pretty common problem across all devices. So, if you have access to a lot of DRM’d PDF and ePub e-books, or non-DRM’d e-books (or can break the DRM on those you have—but you wouldn’t do that!), the Pocket PRO might be perfect for you.

I quickly got used to eInk’s “1-second flash” changing pages, and never considered it a distraction. One thing I didn’t love was that, upon turning on the Pocket PRO, I had to work my way through a menu to find the book I was reading—and with one of the books that was five pages into the menu, scrolling to the fifth menu page, then selecting the book, and waiting for it to load, took 45 seconds, what I’d consider a tedious wait. It would be nice if the device just opened to the book being read as soon as you turned it on, and saved you the trouble of that menu-diving. Using folders to group your books can also be a big help, so you’re not scrolling through so many pages to get to the desired books. Fortunately, it opens the e-book where you left off, even if you hadn’t set a bookmark (sometimes it would open a few pages back from where you left off, probably at the beginning of the “page,” so you might find yourself doing a minute of re-reading to catch up).

I checked out the on-board MP3 player, which sounded great (though, these days, you have to search to find a bad player!). The MP3 controls are basic, just designed for you to start it playing, set things like your volume, then move on to reading a book while the music plays. The reader includes earbuds that are okay, but screaming for those little foam covers to make them more comfortable. I just plugged in my personal earbuds, and life was good!

I also tried the text-to-speech function on the PDF manual. I sure am glad I’m not dependent on it to read to me, because I thought it was pretty bad! There were no natural cadence breaks or pauses, no inflection, and irregular breaks between words… I’d rather listen to a first-generation Cylon than one of these! Even looking at the text as it was being read, I had trouble following along with it. This is actually considered state-of-the-art for device TTS… which means somebody has a lot of work cut out for them to improve this!

Turning the device off means pressing the on-off button… and holding it. If you just click it, the book goes into an energy-saver mode, requiring a second click to get back out of it. After 5 seconds or so of holding the button down, the device fully shuts down.

One thing I can’t address is battery life, as I am not one of those people who reads every day for a quarter of the day, as some people claim to do! For me, it’s about 2-3 hours per day, during my commute to work, and a few minutes here or there. I will say that with those kind of reading habits, I used the Pocket PRO for 3 weeks without running down the charge, and that was just reading, no MP3s playing or TTS droning at me. Since I figure most people can get to a wall plug to top it off at some point in 2-3 weeks’ time, I wouldn’t think anyone would have a problem with this power usage.

So, here’s the operative question: Will this old PDA reading dude switch to the spiffy new eInk device? In this case, I’m afraid not. Although it did a great job with ePub files, its slow on-off and menu functions felt glacial next to my PDA. Also, I’ve never had problems reading my PDA’s LCD screen, so although the eInk screen looked fantastic, it wasn’t enough to make me switch. But if I was planning to switch to an eInk reader, I’d pick this one up. The 5-inch size was great for reading, the screen is excellent (and everyone I showed it to agreed, bar none), it’s lightweight and jacket-pocketable (I carried it around in the pocket of my cargo pants for days), and its basic design is well-executed and utilitarian-attractive. It’s a nice machine, worth the price of admission for a basic dedicated reader.

05:50 PM by BearMountainBooks in E-Book General | Deals, Freebies, and Resources

I ran across a mention of this deal, and I have read some short stories by Terry Irvin, one of the authors that is part of the publicity deal. His book, www.smashwords.com/books/view/5172 - Flank Hawk, is going to be on sale on Smashwords.com--to the tune of "free" for one day only--all day tomorrow (halloween - Oct 31)!

Do I plan on downloading it? Absolutely!

There's a nice list of books by www.gryphonwood.blogspot.com/ that will be available tomorrow. Check out the link to get the coupons that will allow you to download the books from Smashwords!!!! (There are generally several formats, including .mobi, which allows you to read on Kindle.)

Just a note: If you read and like any of the books, it helps the author tremendously if you leave a thoughtful review. It's a good way to "give back" on these promo deals. Even if you didn't love the book but write a thoughtful review, it's a nice boost.

I've got my fingers ready to "click!!!!"

Maria
(This post is a copy of the one up on my blog!)

07:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

Welcome to another digest entry of MobileRead, where we transform the profound into the bite-sized.

E-Book General - News and Commentary

• Bridgestone announces flexible touchscreen color e-reader
• italica e-Reader joins the family

11:24 AM by zelda_pinwheel in E-Book General | News and Commentary

italica unveiled their new e-book reader at the Frankfurt Book Fair this month. From the photos, we'd say it's using hardware from Netronix similar to the Cybook, Starebook, Ganaxa, Cool-er etc. but with a personalised firmware.

There's not much information available on their site yet however the technical specs reveal that it will support both .epub and .prc formats among others (no mention of drm) and mentions support of various languages including English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Russian, Italian and Swedish. The photo of the home screen shows an icon labelled dictionary ; it will be very interesting to find out whether the dictionary can be used while reading epub files as well as mobipocket, and whether the dictionary support can use any commercial dictionary of the user's choice. Other icons include "Favorites", "Library" and "File Explorer" which (let's speculate...) seem to suggest a folder-based browsing system, possibly with tags as well.

The price is not disclosed on the site however the home page mentions a promotion running through December 1st, 2009 for 20€ off all orders. We're not sure this is anything revolutionary but it could shape up to be a very nice device with a very respectable feature-set. What do you think? Interested?

Please join the ongoing discussion in this thread.