MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - 902 Pocketbook 902: first impressions and questions

borbuk · 12-02-2010, 04:29 AM

I have received PB 902 two days ago from Pocketbook.de, and had a little time to play with it. My first impressions are mixed.

On one hand, it has a big screen and it has been able to display any file that I have throw at it quite satisfactorily. I have tried text files in various languages, pdf's with lots of maths (reflow messes them up, but they can be comfortably read without reflow), epub's, djvu files. All of them looked good. The device can be rotated in any of 4 directions with text being rotated automagically. It is wonderful. The only real snag is that I would like to be able to add a little bit of margin to text files, and there appears to be no setting to do so. Yet my overall impression of rendering capabilities is positive.

However, there are numerous shortcomings which spoil that first impression:
1) Ubuntu cannot mount the book reader. Mounting does work on friend's computer with Windows. However, for a book reader that runs linux not supporting linux is quite an oversight.

2) Whoever put together the library that came with PB 902 was extremely sloppy, for the classification into languages is horrible! There is "English" and "Deutsch" all right, but what language is "Norway" or "Sweden"? I do not think many Welsh readers will recognize (and if they do, will be pleased with) that their language is called "Welles" rather than "Cymraeg". Same for all other languages.

3) Instead of 26 text-to-speech languages promised in the advertising, there are only four, "German female", "France Female", "English Female" and "Italian Female" (again "France Female" is not a typo, sigh). Where are the other 22 languages? To select the voice one needs to go to a far away menu. Why it is not selected automatically based on text, I have no clue. On the plus side, the English text-to-voice is one of the best I heard.

4) I bought the leather cover with the device. It is really bulky, rigid, and heavy. To insert the device into the cover, one needs to apply force to the device (though not to the screen, of course!!) far exceeding 1 Newton specified in the manual. The neoprene cover that came with the reader appears to be much more practical.

5) It is not important for me, but I wonder how non-English speakers will navigate past the first screens to change the language in newly-purchased device. The language choice screen must be the first screen users see.

6) Another minor annoyance when reading pdf's is that when the file is zoomed, and one is the top of a page in a pdf file, and presses "up" buttom to go to the previous page, one is taken to the top of the previous page, not to the bottom of the previous page.

Some questions:
1) What is going on with Ubuntu support? If I have to go to friend's computer each time I want to transfer the files, I will return the reader back.

2) Is it possible to transfer the files to the readers over Wifi? Does it support/can be made to support telnet or ssh for example?

12-02-2010, 04:29 AM	#1
borbuk Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 20 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: PocketBook 902	Pocketbook 902: first impressions and questions I have received PB 902 two days ago from Pocketbook.de, and had a little time to play with it. My first impressions are mixed. On one hand, it has a big screen and it has been able to display any file that I have throw at it quite satisfactorily. I have tried text files in various languages, pdf's with lots of maths (reflow messes them up, but they can be comfortably read without reflow), epub's, djvu files. All of them looked good. The device can be rotated in any of 4 directions with text being rotated automagically. It is wonderful. The only real snag is that I would like to be able to add a little bit of margin to text files, and there appears to be no setting to do so. Yet my overall impression of rendering capabilities is positive. However, there are numerous shortcomings which spoil that first impression: 1) Ubuntu cannot mount the book reader. Mounting does work on friend's computer with Windows. However, for a book reader that runs linux not supporting linux is quite an oversight. 2) Whoever put together the library that came with PB 902 was extremely sloppy, for the classification into languages is horrible! There is "English" and "Deutsch" all right, but what language is "Norway" or "Sweden"? I do not think many Welsh readers will recognize (and if they do, will be pleased with) that their language is called "Welles" rather than "Cymraeg". Same for all other languages. 3) Instead of 26 text-to-speech languages promised in the advertising, there are only four, "German female", "France Female", "English Female" and "Italian Female" (again "France Female" is not a typo, sigh). Where are the other 22 languages? To select the voice one needs to go to a far away menu. Why it is not selected automatically based on text, I have no clue. On the plus side, the English text-to-voice is one of the best I heard. 4) I bought the leather cover with the device. It is really bulky, rigid, and heavy. To insert the device into the cover, one needs to apply force to the device (though not to the screen, of course!!) far exceeding 1 Newton specified in the manual. The neoprene cover that came with the reader appears to be much more practical. 5) It is not important for me, but I wonder how non-English speakers will navigate past the first screens to change the language in newly-purchased device. The language choice screen must be the first screen users see. 6) Another minor annoyance when reading pdf's is that when the file is zoomed, and one is the top of a page in a pdf file, and presses "up" buttom to go to the previous page, one is taken to the top of the previous page, not to the bottom of the previous page. Some questions: 1) What is going on with Ubuntu support? If I have to go to friend's computer each time I want to transfer the files, I will return the reader back. 2) Is it possible to transfer the files to the readers over Wifi? Does it support/can be made to support telnet or ssh for example? Last edited by borbuk; 12-02-2010 at 04:53 AM.