[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by James Bryant

I hope this is the correct place in this forum to make these points. If not would someone please point me to the right place.

I have had my Cybook for a month and am very pleased with it but:-

[A] Hyperlinks to Chapters are described in the Electronic Manual, but do not work with any of the HTML ebooks I have installed.

They work - if one's ebook is made from a monolithic HTML file with links to various points within that file. However, you are correct that any HTML ebook comprised of multiple HTML files will not function properly. I believe Bookeen is working on fixing this.

[B] The USB socket is recessed - I have had to butcher a mini-USB connector because none of the twenty plus that I tried would push in far enough to make data contact. Only about 60% made power contact. Cutting away plastic on the connector solved the problem, though. I suspect, but have no suitable plug to try it with, that the same problem may occur with some audio connectors. In both cases cutting away the case of the Cybook to a depth of 4 mm below the joystick and a little to either side would solve the problem.

Yep. Just one of those things which makes it necessary to not lose the USB cable that comes with the Cybook. I did lose mine and had to whittle away a notch in the upper edge of one of my other USB cables. But this is a design "feature" from the hardware manufacturer and not a Bookeen decision, I believe.

[C] The Library can hold a maximum of 20 items per page. It would be helpful if the library had either a GOTO or fast forward/fast back function. When I got my Cybook I loaded my SD card with all the HTML and TXT book files I had had converted to .RB or .IMP in my older ebooks and was delighted that I could get them all on one 2 GByte card. But 4217 books take 211 library pages, and the only way to step through the library is with five keystrokes and a pause per page.

Which is why I left it at 5 books per page as then it only requires one keypress per page. However, with over 4,000 ebooks on the SD card, you'd be looking at almost 900 pages of book titles!

Bookeen needs to make a folder/sub-folder system. I think we may see one in this next firmware update, or that's the rumor I've heard. Even though I work for Not Another E-Book, I'm as in the dark as you are.

It was too much. I have reduced the count to 1000 books per card, and even this is very boring - particularly as sometimes, for no reason that I have ever discovered, the book comes on with the library reset to page 1. If I was reading a book on page 29 (as I am at present) it is a long time before I can be reading it again.

I have noticed that the closer I get to the 40% or lower power level, the greater the likelyhood of it doing this. But that's just on my machine. And I've found that it's also more likely to happen when I just turn off the Cybook rather than exiting to the Library and then turning off the unit.

[D] Even better would be to organise the Library by folders and sub-folders (as my books are already organised) and display them line by line as text rather than labelled icons, and only display the contents of a selected folder.

[E] My REB1100 turns on at the page of the book that I was reading when it was turned off. Even if I do not have to step through the library it is a full half minute from turning on the Cybook3 to starting to read. This is bearable, but should not have to be necessary.

Sigh. That's how the Sony operates - one comes right back to the page one left off at. And if the Sony had the font and size features of the Cybook, I'd have used it.

[F] Library thumbnails are prepared when you go for the first time to the page containing them. This means that if you enter a lot of new books the first time you step to one of them there can be very tedious waits while thumbnails are prepared on the intervening pages. It is not possible to navigate while this happens. Such work should be a background task during reading so that unless you need to navigate immediately new material has been entered you do not need to wait.

A possibility. Maybe you should pass this suggestion along to Bookeen.

[G] If the battery state and the time were displayed while reading, and updated on each page turn it would be convenient. Would it cost much power?

I think this is a room-on-the-display issue rather than power consumption. But I don't know the internals of the Boo Reader so I might be wrong.

[H] The "position in book" bar under the reading page (can't remember the correct name) has a bug when the book has more than 2000 pages or so and goes offscreen to the left instead of to the right somewhere around the middle of the book (not exactly in the middle).

Okay, if this is the case, it may be part of the same assumptions that either Mobipocket or Bookeen is making that causes the Cybook to flake out about where you left off on a 3,000+ page book.

[I] It would be nice if the Cybook could read unencrypted .RB and .IMP books, as there are a lot of them around.

IIRC, there's a dearth of information on the .RB and .IMP format.

[J] The left-hand side controls are easily operated by mistake. A simple plastic cover supplied with the Cybook would be nice.

I've noticed the same problem. However, I believe the case is a 'generic' one offered by the manufacturer of the device.

James - who is actually very pleased with his Cybook, but does not let that blind him to things that could, and should, be improved.