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I spent some time playing with the latest version of the Cybook last night and had a pretty long talk with Michael too.
First of all: the delay from July to October is due to PVI mostly, they couldn't produce the device on time (Vizplex etc..).
The Screen: Better contrast than on the Sony Reader, speed is MUCH better. I've seen less ghosting too, but you really need to use a device for a few months before saying anything really relevant about ghosting issues.
The UI: You've all seen the video, overall it's really nice too. For those of you looking for answers about the header/footer: you can turn them on/off, display the current page number, a progress bar and the battery status (both % and an icon).
Suspended mode: First of all, it's booting much faster than an iLiad or a Sony (around 14s). While reading a book, there's 2 different status for the device, if you're turning pages pretty fast, the device stays completely on (and you can browse through your book really fast). If you're actually reading and not turning pages, the device use a sleep mode while waiting for the next input. You don't have a button to make everything disappear on the screen like the Sony, but if you're not doing anything on the device, the battery use should be much lower (a full week at least). It's not like the Sony suspended mode where you can keep it in this mode for a full month, but at least you can turn it completely off (without a user hack) and the booting time is good. They'll be constantly working on improving this "sleep mode". I just hope that you can put it on hold...
Supported files: PDF support will be ready for the launch, zipped files full of images won't (it'll be added later on).
Library Mode/Folder support: The library display is pretty nice. If you don't have a cover of your book, it'll create a snapshot in real time of the first page of your book. Library mode might evolve in the future to something different, they're open to any recommendations from the community. I explained to Michael how important folder support is, and although the firmware that he had was lacking folder support, he fully understood why this is important.
Images: Looked very good. Displaying a jpeg files is much faster than on the Sony (on the Sony, LRF or PDF is a much better choice). I asked if they had any manga: a single Naruto page was available and it looked fantastic. I hope that with their filters (real-time, no pre-processing), even manga with tiny characters will look good. No support for zipped files full of images though, but it'll be available after the launch (best way to keep a nice collection of manga/comics).
Dictionnary: You don't get a free dictionnary, you need to add a Mobipocket one. Lookup mode will not necessarily be limited to Mobipocket, they might add support for any format.
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