360 Pocketbook 360 first thoughts

Hrafn · 02-17-2011, 03:44 AM

Received my Pocketbook 360 within the last 48 hours, and these are my initial reactions:

Hardware:
Like the weight, size and display (particularly with Droid fonts).

Dislike the curved right-hand side: makes the 360 just slightly too wide to hold comfortably, and doesn't appear to serve any real purpose.

Really don't like the buttons. The 360 is small enough to use one-handed, meaning that it would be ideal to be able to turn the page with that hand. However, (i) there are no suitable buttons on the side edges that could be given that task & (ii) the buttons that are there are set sufficiently far back from the sides and require a sufficiently firm push that the holding fingers/thumb are unable to get sufficient leverage to operate them. Yes, I could play around to get wrist-flipping to work satisfactorily, but really, it's less trouble just to bring in a second hand to turn the page. All in all, not a deal-breaker, but certainly a missed opportunity -- and renders the 'page buttons' largely superfluous.

Firmware/software
Two minor peeves:

1) 360 fails to sync with Windows in 'PC Link' USB Mode and resets instead of asking about half the time in 'Ask when connected'.

2) When returning from settings menu in FBReader, it occasionally 'loses' the page setting (takes you to a semi-random page & fails to display the page number).

Two brownie points:
1) Really like the adjustable fonts.

2) Really like the implementation of FBReader (already my favourite e-Reader under Windows, and the PB implementation gives an even cleaner read).

Manual:
Amateurish and inadequate. What sort of manual doesn't even indicate where the on-off button is on the diagram? Or fully document the standard menu settings? And that's without even going into issues like where the battery cover is (and how you remove it) to access the 'Button "Reset"' it mentions, or its failure to document any of the special key-combinations, or how to set up themes (incidentally, could somebody put more prominently in the stickied-thread that it's only the .pbt file that you need for them -- the archive that I downloaded for one also contained a .gz.tar) and fonts. If it wasn't for this forum, I'd probably be all at sea.

Summary:
However, at the end of the day, this appears to be close to exactly the e-Reader that I wanted -- a small and lightweight one that does just one thing, displays text eBooks, and does it well. No touchscreen, WiFi or other wireless connections, audio-player, etc to complicate things, add weight and/or suck the batteries flat. (If it didn't have the photo-viewer, games and so on to add clutter, I'd be even happier -- but I can live with them.)

rogue_librarian · 02-17-2011, 06:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hrafn

... the buttons that are there are set sufficiently far back from the sides and require a sufficiently firm push that the holding fingers/thumb are unable to get sufficient leverage to operate them.

I use the 4-way-button for that purpose all the time. Hooray for configuration options

Quote:

Yes, I could play around to get wrist-flipping to work satisfactorily ...

That, too, is an option and really not all that hard.

Quote:

2) Really like the implementation of FBReader (already my favourite e-Reader under Windows, and the PB implementation gives an even cleaner read).

I'd love to see Coolreader ported, but for now FBReader is an excellent choice, yes. Not going to trade mine for all the tea in china.

Hrafn · 02-17-2011, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogue_librarian

I use the 4-way-button for that purpose all the time. Hooray for configuration options

I tried the 4-way-button as well. I can't depress its buttons one-handed while holding the 360 by both sides (3 fingers left side, thumb button side, which is the way I normally hold it). I suppose I could if I held it with fingers behind the buttons (which would allow greater leverage on them, with the thumb in front), but that's less comfortable for reading.

fjtorres · 02-17-2011, 07:10 AM

Try nesting the 360 over your little finger; three fingers behind, thumb wrapping over to the 4-way ring. It is light enough it shouldn't be uncomfortable. The curved shape is designed to follow the curve of your hand as the thumb curls over.

The way I have my controls set up is with forward and back on the right and left sides of the ring; long-presses to move 10-pages at a time. Up and down are for next chapter and last; long presses the end and the beginning.
The wing buttons I have set for the utility functions: TOC, Dict, notes...

Play with it until you find a way that works for you.

02-17-2011, 03:44 AM	#1
Hrafn Fanatic Posts: 520 Karma: 846170 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: New Zealand Device: Onyx Boox Poke 5, Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e 10.5	Pocketbook 360 first thoughts Received my Pocketbook 360 within the last 48 hours, and these are my initial reactions: Hardware: Like the weight, size and display (particularly with Droid fonts). Dislike the curved right-hand side: makes the 360 just slightly too wide to hold comfortably, and doesn't appear to serve any real purpose. Really don't like the buttons. The 360 is small enough to use one-handed, meaning that it would be ideal to be able to turn the page with that hand. However, (i) there are no suitable buttons on the side edges that could be given that task & (ii) the buttons that are there are set sufficiently far back from the sides and require a sufficiently firm push that the holding fingers/thumb are unable to get sufficient leverage to operate them. Yes, I could play around to get wrist-flipping to work satisfactorily, but really, it's less trouble just to bring in a second hand to turn the page. All in all, not a deal-breaker, but certainly a missed opportunity -- and renders the 'page buttons' largely superfluous. Firmware/software Two minor peeves: 1) 360 fails to sync with Windows in 'PC Link' USB Mode and resets instead of asking about half the time in 'Ask when connected'. 2) When returning from settings menu in FBReader, it occasionally 'loses' the page setting (takes you to a semi-random page & fails to display the page number). Two brownie points: 1) Really like the adjustable fonts. 2) Really like the implementation of FBReader (already my favourite e-Reader under Windows, and the PB implementation gives an even cleaner read). Manual: Amateurish and inadequate. What sort of manual doesn't even indicate where the on-off button is on the diagram? Or fully document the standard menu settings? And that's without even going into issues like where the battery cover is (and how you remove it) to access the '*Button "Reset"' it mentions, or its failure to document any of the special key-combinations, or how to set up themes (incidentally, could somebody put more prominently in the stickied-thread that it's only the .pbt file that you need for them -- the archive that I downloaded for one also contained a .gz.tar) and fonts. If it wasn't for this forum, I'd probably be all at sea. Summary:* However, at the end of the day, this appears to be close to exactly the e-Reader that I wanted -- a small and lightweight one that does just one thing, displays text eBooks, and does it well. No touchscreen, WiFi or other wireless connections, audio-player, etc to complicate things, add weight and/or suck the batteries flat. (If it didn't have the photo-viewer, games and so on to add clutter, I'd be even happier -- but I can live with them.)

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02-17-2011, 07:10 AM	#4
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	Try nesting the 360 over your little finger; three fingers behind, thumb wrapping over to the 4-way ring. It is light enough it shouldn't be uncomfortable. The curved shape is designed to follow the curve of your hand as the thumb curls over. The way I have my controls set up is with forward and back on the right and left sides of the ring; long-presses to move 10-pages at a time. Up and down are for next chapter and last; long presses the end and the beginning. The wing buttons I have set for the utility functions: TOC, Dict, notes... Play with it until you find a way that works for you.

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