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kkingdon · 12-12-2007, 04:50 PM

My Cybook also arrived this morning (California). I took it to work with me and it immediately attracted the attention of everyone who walked by my cubicle. (I had it out and turned on.) They were most impressed by the screen contrast and readability. They assumed it was backlit. I showed the page flipping and they thought it was a little on the slow side, but not too bad.

It took me just a couple of minutes to correlate the blinking led to my button presses. Once I noticed that the light turned on when a press registered and turned off when the press action completed, I was able to reduce the number of weak, non-working page-flip presses.

I received the black leather cover. It has cut-outs for all of the buttons and the LED. The rubber cover over the USB and headphone connectors is difficult to remove when the unit is in the case. like the feel of the case. The exterior is smooth leather over padding. The interior is rougher-grained, but by no means "raw". There is a pen-holder in the spine and 3 pockets on the inside cover. Two pockets appear to be sized for SD cards. The third pocket is twice as wide and half-again as deep. I probably won't use them for anything.

I installed the Liberation fonts. I'll have to experiment until I decide what font family/font-size I prefer.

I tried mobipocket files from mobileread, from feedbooks, and from Fictionwise. None seemed to have proper TOC or other meta-data links that show up in the context menu like the included sample mobipocket files have. In many, the author info seemed to be missing in the library view also. (When I look at these same mobipocket files in the desktop reader, the metadata is missing there as well, so I assume this is a deficiency in the creation of the file rather than in the Cybook's reader software.)

Compared to my previous e-reader, my Palm TX, the display is sooo much better. It's bigger and definitely easier on the eyes.

I tried the page flipping with and without the "negative" flash enabled. Without the flash, I could definitely see ghosting left over from the library view. (A useful improvement would be a "mixed" mode that flashed only when turning to/from a page containing pictures/graphics.) I'll probably stick with the flash mode even though it seems a tad slower.

I also tried some scripture files that came with embedded javascript navigation aids that placed dropdown book/chapter/verse navigation widgets at the top of the page in the desktop and Palm mobipocket readers. These didn't show up at all in the Cybook reader. There were also links in the scripture files at the beginning of each file, book, and chapter for the next level down in the hierarchy. These did show up in the Cybook, but without a proper TOC marker, I had to set a bookmark at the initial table of contents so I could easily skip past the front matter and jump right to the top of the navigation link hierarchy. This is workable, but not as easy as navigation in my Palm's mobipocket reader.

Overall, my first impression is good. I look forward to spending some real quality time reading, especially as the TV script writers are on strike here.

12-12-2007, 04:50 PM	#2
kkingdon Enthusiast Posts: 36 Karma: 232 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Hayward, CA, US Device: Cybook Gen3, Kindle Paperwhite	My Cybook also arrived this morning (California). I took it to work with me and it immediately attracted the attention of everyone who walked by my cubicle. (I had it out and turned on.) They were most impressed by the screen contrast and readability. They assumed it was backlit. I showed the page flipping and they thought it was a little on the slow side, but not too bad. It took me just a couple of minutes to correlate the blinking led to my button presses. Once I noticed that the light turned on when a press registered and turned off when the press action completed, I was able to reduce the number of weak, non-working page-flip presses. I received the black leather cover. It has cut-outs for all of the buttons and the LED. The rubber cover over the USB and headphone connectors is difficult to remove when the unit is in the case. like the feel of the case. The exterior is smooth leather over padding. The interior is rougher-grained, but by no means "raw". There is a pen-holder in the spine and 3 pockets on the inside cover. Two pockets appear to be sized for SD cards. The third pocket is twice as wide and half-again as deep. I probably won't use them for anything. I installed the Liberation fonts. I'll have to experiment until I decide what font family/font-size I prefer. I tried mobipocket files from mobileread, from feedbooks, and from Fictionwise. None seemed to have proper TOC or other meta-data links that show up in the context menu like the included sample mobipocket files have. In many, the author info seemed to be missing in the library view also. (When I look at these same mobipocket files in the desktop reader, the metadata is missing there as well, so I assume this is a deficiency in the creation of the file rather than in the Cybook's reader software.) Compared to my previous e-reader, my Palm TX, the display is sooo much better. It's bigger and definitely easier on the eyes. I tried the page flipping with and without the "negative" flash enabled. Without the flash, I could definitely see ghosting left over from the library view. (A useful improvement would be a "mixed" mode that flashed only when turning to/from a page containing pictures/graphics.) I'll probably stick with the flash mode even though it seems a tad slower. I also tried some scripture files that came with embedded javascript navigation aids that placed dropdown book/chapter/verse navigation widgets at the top of the page in the desktop and Palm mobipocket readers. These didn't show up at all in the Cybook reader. There were also links in the scripture files at the beginning of each file, book, and chapter for the next level down in the hierarchy. These did show up in the Cybook, but without a proper TOC marker, I had to set a bookmark at the initial table of contents so I could easily skip past the front matter and jump right to the top of the navigation link hierarchy. This is workable, but not as easy as navigation in my Palm's mobipocket reader. Overall, my first impression is good. I look forward to spending some real quality time reading, especially as the TV script writers are on strike here.