[Logseman]

I wrote a report in Spanish and German, and I think it won't harm to bring it here in the language of Milton.

Personal opinion:

I'll start describing my views on the Pocketbook itself, and later on I'll come to other aspects which do not strictly belong to the device, such as customer support and the PC companion program.

Let me be clear. The Pocketbook is a real pleasure of a reading device. A short loading time (11 seconds) and quick, easy handling do the trick. The folder system is totally flexible, since the user can create as many folders as desired, which will be recognised by the PB flawlessly. Searching inside folders is supported as well.

The books themselves load in short times, and turning pages ist almost unperceptible... though this is not trye of PDF files, which take more time and are harder to read (even if the Reflow mode helps a lot). It can be left aside though, as issues with PDF files, which are not optimized for reading in eReaders, are common among all of them.

Astoundingly great contrast, almost as good as real paper. Readability guaranteed even without great light sources, though of course it's impossible to use it at night. However there are small lamps and LEDs which fit the device very well.

In the task of reading itself, the ease of use of dictionaries, which aside of being easy to summon and use can be installed simply by dragging files to a folder. The same applies to fonts: the font collection can be expanded endlessly if the user simply drags files to the specific folder. Bookmarks are available, as well as the possibility to put a book in Favorites, and write notes (except for PDF).

Aside of the normal function of saving the position of the last page read on a file, the Pocketbook features the ability of saving the last 2 files which have been opened and showing them in the main menu. That amounts for an even easier handling: opening the device and coming back to read the last book that one was reading takes less than 20 seconds. I call that comfortable.

Each and every key and button is configurable, including the on/off button. You can have a welcome logo and, most curiously, a logo for when the device is off. Such an idea is a nice and original quirk that has no influence on the battery life (as displaying a static image doesn't consume battery in e-Ink screens). The battery itself, it must be noted, is very easy to substitute when the moment has come.

All this doesn't mean that the device is flawless. The RSS reader is, at the moment, very unusable, and it has no support for Spanish signs itself. It's unusable for a Spaniard at the moment. Aside of that, the key lock mode, though easily accessible (just press the on/off button) doesn't make up for a real standby feature. And in such a device which features no touchscreen or physical keyboard, a note function is hard to use and completely unnecessary

Anyways, in spite of this flaws, which come in secondary appliances, the Pocketbook is a magnificient reading device. Aside of that, one can have faith in further improvements due to the open-source nature of the software, which allows for improvements with more ease.

Around the Pocketbook 360

After I have given my impressions about the device itself, I'd like to state my ideas about the side-parts, the environment of the device. I'll focus on three parts: the companion PC program, the support and service and the open-source concept.

I'll start with the bad news. The companion program, Pocketnews, is simply trash. It's clear that no effort was given into it (you can't minimise it, FCOL!) and that the management and acquisition of books has been entrusted to other sources, such as Calibre.
Theoretically the software allows the ability to download books from the main source, pocketbook.com.ua... which, being a company from Ukraine, has its page in Ukranian. I don't want to be rude, but Ukranian is not a language well-represented in Spain (though there is a surprisingly growing amount of Ukranians here, but that's something else). Efforts should be put on improving that, in my opinion.

I must say that the customer support and technical troubleshooting has been fantastic. Any doubt was cleared, sometimes before I even had to ask it. However, such service has been given in the context of this forum. In Spain we're usually more "traditional" and the customer support and troubleshooting is preferredly done in brick and mortar shops, though they may not know anything at all about the device anyway.

Last but not least, I'd like to give my take on the double-edged sword of open-source concepts. If I recall correctly, the Pocketbook was "designed" in a specialised forum, and experienced users gave their feedback. The strong firmware, the reading-oriented design and small details like the two last books showing on the main menu are proof of the advantages of such a design concept. However, things in Spain are different. The market is still small, and many potential customers have the means, but little experience in internet at all, let aside in e-books. Many potentially buyers of the Pocketbook will have it as their first EReader ever. These buyers, for example, could assume that e-Books are a one-sided concept, and compare a Reader with 5'' with one of 9'', not seeing that they are meant for different concepts and are therefore compatible.

Why such a digression? Becaue the Pocketbook contains no help for the uninitiated. No help function inside the device, and the instruction booklets both in paper and online are poor. It must be stressed that Spaniards, like myself, are mainly beginning to see the concept of eBooks. Strong efforts should be done in this area if it is to succeed. I personally am quite enthusiastic with my PB360, enough as to shoot up a Spanish translation of the firmware when I saw it wasn't present. However, there are not many customers like me in Spain, I can say.

My view is that the Pocketbook is a very strong eBook reader, whose main ability is allowing the reader to enjoy his books flawlessly. It has certain software shortcomins, which will be fixed hopefully through open-source and the strong competition out there. Personally, from the readers that I've had in hand, which are the Sonys PRS-700 and -300 and the Cybook Gen3, the Pocketbook 360 has been the best experience for me.