[7tronics]

Though the Pandigital Novel is almost twice the cost ($150 now at Bed, Bath, and Beyond after $20 rebate), with the one simple hack it is FAR more functional than TB.

I almost went with the B&N Nook, still had hope a week ago for Augen, until I read how Pandigital handled similar release of buggy initial firmware in their Novel product. Each of the past month worth of updates have been posted to the Pandigital site with both a loader program directly usable from Windows and a downloadable image installable from SD card posted. To top this off, Pandigital CEO even went to the length of being interviewed online and pretty much apologizing while a mass firmware update was underway for the already distributed Novels.

After update to the latest firmware, all of the major bugs noted have been resolved in a package that is readily accessible to all owners. New units in the field have copies of the process to handle the simple bugs and how to update to a new image taped to the commercial packing box to inform the customer of these options.

As I said, I had high hopes for the Augen TB, but the company response of Pandigital and the ready access to fixes led me to choose a higher price product which so far is far more usable both for the intended eBook reading and as a general purpose media device and even primitive web browser!

Oh, yes, the B&N book catalog integration is MUCH better than Augen TB integration with their preferred ebook service provider. Is the Pandigital Novel the "color Nook" ?

Best, Mark