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Old 08-27-2008, 04:55 PM   #13
delphidb96
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Posts: 2,999
Karma: 300001
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Citrus Heights, California
Device: TWO Kindle 2s, one each Bookeen Cybook Gen3, Sony PRS-500, Axim X51V
Quote:
Originally Posted by alia View Post
That is too bad. I've actually had quite pleasant interactions with Bookeen (although I usually just go through BooksOnBoard support since that is generally faster, and I like them). Also, Derek, I am curious (and I'm not trying to be sarcastic or anything, I genuinely am curious) - if you thought the Cybook was a lemon, why did you sell it to people through NAEB?
Well, *I'd* certainly go through BoB support if it weren't for the *fact* that the particular Cybook in question was purchased by this customer through NAEB. BoB ain't gonna lift a finger for her or me.

As for why I consider this particular unit a "lemon"? Or why I think I've managed to get my hands upon a *lot* of "lemons"?

Well, this particular unit is a "lemon" because it arrived EOM-July and the Build 708 update was run - and promptly died - on a *new* device. No attempt by the customer, or myself, has managed to revive it. That pretty much marks *this* unit as a "lemon".

As for Cybooks in general... I don't believe they're "lemons". I *do* believe that most users are not putting the level of use to them that I am. I *use* my Cybooks/EB-100s (one of them at any time) every single day. For 8-10 hours per day, up to 18 hours on weekends. In that time, I've had several failures. I think the level of use I put on an ebook reader is such that I get a year's worth of use from a Cybook every couple of months. And that appears to be the rate of failure. 2-3 months at my rate of use/reading pretty much starts to wear a reader down. (Yes, at typical reading rate, I can go through an average-length novel in one day.)

Do I believe this makes each 'worn-out' reader a "lemon"? No. But it does appear to show that many current models may well be worn out by this time next year. Something I hadn't considered when we started selling Cybooks and something that, as a user who's bought three Netronix-based devices (Cybook Gen3 (2) and EB-100 (1)), spending nearly $1,200 for them, has me concerned. I had been planning on amortizing the devices over several *years* of use. Now I may well have to accept the need to spend another thousand befor the year is out.

For people who read 1-3 hours per day, this 'wearing out' time will probably extend to a couple of year. And at that rate, who's to say the models available won't be fully supportive of 64-level color, 1/10-1/30 of a second screen refresh rate, touchscreen, and epub/mobi/ereader/lit/html/pdf ebook formats, yes? So I can't really say that Cybooks in general are "lemons". That would be grossly unfair and inaccurate.

Derek
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