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Originally Posted by Marcy
I picked up the Augen today and will be returning it tomorrow. It had some good features, but for me the bad outweighed the good.
My observations:
The unit is very heavy. I can't be positive but it feels much heavier than the PRS-900. With the included cover it is downright unwieldy to hold. I took the cover off and that improved things somewhat, but it is really hard to hold in one hand. I read while nursing my son and was unable to work it with The Book.
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Calibre recognized the reader instantly and as "The Book." I transferred a selection of my books without problem. The Book recognizes hierarchical folders without a problem, so all my series and tagged books sorted perfectly.
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Probably the biggest drawback for this reader for me is that it is hard to read in the dark, the main reason I wanted it. The controls don't light up and are a bit complicated so it's hard to turn pages and use the menus. A touchscreen would really have improved this. The joystick is easier to use by feel but is way down at the bottom right of this unwieldy device, making one-handed reading in the dark nigh impossible.
Another drawback is the reader doesn't use the table of contents. To jump around in a book you need to use a GoTo selection and enter the page number. And this is also impossible in the dark, because you can't see the number keys.
The wifi worked fine and recognized/connected to my home network instantly. The browser is slow but usable. It is much better than the browser
on the Kindle 1.
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Battery life sucks. I went from 4 bars (full) to 2 in less than an hour of reading much of it at the lowest brightness. And the reader only charges when plugged into a wall socket; it doesn't USB charge.
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-Marcy
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Hi Marcy,
I am not using the cover while sitting in a chair, and the weight didn't stay a distraction. I do wish it had a hole to put a strap through though - but they probably didn't think anyone would strip it down. Reading with the cover on I flipped everything to the back- which made it feel really thick. I think reading naked sideways with the joystick for a page turner might work while nursing- you might try before returning it.
I read for a couple hours - on a low brightness, in my bedroom with no lights on, and just before I shut it off it went down 1 bar. Maybe the Wifi is really draining it? I adapted pretty quickly to not seeing the keys - mostly I think because I only looked at two different books during that time, so I never typed at all. I found that I could always get to the menu using the home button- top right- so that was not a problem, and that after a couple tries, I got the menu and back buttons by the joystick to click every time even though I could not see them. For about 3/4 of the time you need to click enter, just pushing the joystick does it - a couple of times I had to guess where the enter key was- and I am sure I will get used to that quickly.
I actually changed the language to Chinese and back in the dark to see if I could, and did it in one try- just had to remember how many down was settings. The number keys are the top most ones- from 1 to 0 across- so that could work as go to in the dark- maybe.
Calibre- which I had not used before- has a ton of settings to use when converting. I believe you could set up a functioning table of contents with it from a quick glance at the options. Anyone?
I agree it is unwieldy at the moment- but I think that may stop being noticeable, just like the weight has. I liked being able to do page turning in the dark with the joystick. (my husband thinks I am overly infatuated with the joystick
)
My SD card hierarchy was recognized- but I still haven't been able to set one up in music.
Oh- text to speech was amazingly better than I expected. No expression of course, but a pleasant female voice.
I think it may be the lowest common denominator of ebook readers, once a couple bugs are settled. It is cheap enough for a gift to a child - and they are going to be a generation raised with eBooks.
I will be reviewing it for the digital magazine I work for in a couple weeks, so the more user opinions I can get, the better. So - everyone - please explore and complain verbally. I need to finish my Aluratek review for them first
- it is now overdue.
Taking the Book to bed- for a short read
Rebecca