BeBook - competiton on the German Market

[K-Thom]

Hi!

Just found out that justread.de, in addition to their iLiad and Cybook, now also offers the BeBook. I had the chance to take a look at this device on the German multimedia fair IFA this fall and decided to buy the Cybook because I found the design to be more "attractive".

But what really is quite remarkable with the BeBook is the list of formats:

pdf, mobi, prc, epub, lit, txt, fb2, doc, html, rtf, djvu, wol, ppt, mbp, chm, bmp, jpg, png, gif, tif, rar, zip, mp3

Now, Bookeen: Simple question - when will we see this range of formats supported on the Cybook??? Especially epub, doc, rar, zip?

Till now I think of the Cybook as the right purchase. Don't make me rethink my investment and give us a new firmware.

Please?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

But what really is quite remarkable with the BeBook is the list of formats:

pdf, mobi, prc, epub, lit, txt, fb2, doc, html, rtf, djvu, wol, ppt, mbp, chm, bmp, jpg, png, gif, tif, rar, zip, mp3

The BeBook supports a lot of formats, but it doesn't support any of them terribly well. To use an expression we have in English, it is a "jack of all trades, but master of none".

Personally, I prefer a device like the Gen3 which supports MobiPocket format really, really well, rather than one which supports more formats, but all of them fairly poorly.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Personally, I prefer a device like the Gen3 which supports MobiPocket format really, really well, rather than one which supports more formats, but all of them fairly poorly.

Unfortunately Gen3 does not handle the MobiPocket format really realy well. The justification is done badly. No support for some form of page number. Bad algorithm for computing the thing that is shown in the progress bar. You cannot click on external links in a MobiPocket book. You cannot look up a word in a dictionary by inputing letters as you can on the Bebook and most other devices supporting MobiPockt (like mobile phones). And you cannot display all the meta information stored in the book. Ans so on.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

Unfortunately Gen3 does not handle the MobiPocket format really realy well. The justification is done badly. No support for some form of page number. Bad algorithm for computing the thing that is shown in the progress bar. You cannot click on external links in a MobiPocket book. You cannot look up a word in a dictionary by inputing letters as you can on the Bebook and most other devices supporting MobiPockt (like mobile phones). And you cannot display all the meta information stored in the book. Ans so on.

Nevertheless, IMHO it does the basic job of displaying the page of a book better than any other Mobi implementation that I've seen, and certainly much better than the BeBook. One of my friends has recently bought a BeBook, so I've had a chance to directly compare the two. There really is no comparison between them - the book display on the Gen3 is unquestionably better.

I really must disagree with your assertion that "the justification is done badly". In the overwhelming majority of lines in a book, the justification is done just fine. What you are referring to, I imagine, is that fact that it no longer attempts not to fully justify lines with a very small number of words on them as it used to. One might argue that this is the correct behaviour when full justification has been requested.

At least one can switch between left and full justification on the Gen3 - something which the BeBook cannot do.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Nevertheless, IMHO it does the basic job of displaying the page of a book better than any other Mobi implementation that I've seen, and certainly much better than the BeBook. One of my friends has recently bought a BeBook, so I've had a chance to directly compare the two. There really is no comparison between them - the book display on the Gen3 is unquestionably better.

That it do something better then some other reader does not mean that it do it really really well. I also think that for now the Gen3 MobiPocket reader is better than the one on the Bebook.

I really must disagree with your assertion that "the justification is done badly". In the overwhelming majority of lines in a book, the justification is done just fine. What you are referring to, I imagine, is that fact that it no longer attempts not to fully justify lines with a very small number of words on them as it used to. One might argue that this is the correct behaviour when full justification has been requested.

I am referring to the fact that big white spaces between words disturbs my reading since I see them and think about them. I was interested in typography some years ago and I really notice bad typography. The solution they had before did not result in bad typography that disturbed my reading.

[tribble]

If you are mainly interested in reading mobi books, the CyBook ios great. Thats what i am using for reading. The BeBook has quite an impressive powermanagement and can display lots of formats, but the font rendering of the CyBook is much superior.

So it depends on whyt you really want to do with the device.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by tribble

The BeBook has quite an impressive powermanagement

This should really be pointed out when comparing to the Gen 3. Twice this week I have run out of power on my Gen 3 and that mean you cannot read at all and I have to always have a paper book with me also. I always keep my Gen 3 on since the boot time is very long especially if you just want to read a couple of minutes.

[brudigia]

Originally Posted by tompe

This should really be pointed out when comparing to the Gen 3. Twice this week I have run out of power on my Gen 3 and that mean you cannot read at all and I have to always have a paper book with me also. I always keep my Gen 3 on since the boot time is very long especially if you just want to read a couple of minutes.

Well, certainly the Gen 3 is not the best on power management, but running out of power twice in a week seems to me a little bit extreme. Ok, the thing does not run the promised 7500 pages, not event close, but it still is ok. There was a thread in this forum where, if I remember well, somebody measured the power consumption with this firmware and I believe the result was 4-5 days on continuosly. Doing nothing, but still good.
I usually charge it every two weeks and the power gauge goes down at most at 70%. And I read a lot. I think your machine might have some problems. Or you read really a lot.
That the power management could be better (such as saving the state and turning on at the same point) is another issue. It would be nice, but I do not know if we'll ever have it.

With respect to the comparison with Bebook, I would really like to have more formats. Let's hope.

[wallcraft]

See my review EZ Reader: Initial Impression, where I agree that the Hanlin only has good support for FB2, RTF (no images) and MOBI. I did not try TXT, but it apparently also invokes CRengine (the library at the heart of CoolReader) like FB2 and RTF. I have not seen a Cybook, but I'm sure its MOBI support is better than the Hanlin's. The Hanlin's FB2 support may be on par with the Cybook's MOBI though. CRengine also apparently supports HTML, and EPUB - but these formats are not currently using CRengine on the Hanlins.

If you have a large library of ebooks, the Hanlin's folder (directory) support is a big plus.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by brudigia

Well, certainly the Gen 3 is not the best on power management, but running out of power twice in a week seems to me a little bit extreme. Ok, the thing does not run the promised 7500 pages, not event close, but it still is ok. There was a thread in this forum where, if I remember well, somebody measured the power consumption with this firmware and I believe the result was 4-5 days on continuosly.

I did these measurement for the older firmware (wasn't it less than 4-5 days?) and have not repeated them for the latest firmware (the one you get in a replaced unit). It seems to be only 3-4 days when the unit is on the whole time so no problem to run out of battery twice in a week. I have read some paper books so I did not check the Cybook every day. But I read books in parallell so I cannot turn it off.

[HarryT]

It sounds as though the BeBook would fit in a lot better with your "reading style" than the CyBook, given the superior power management abilities of the BeBook. Have you actually seen one, though? I think you would be disappointed with the way that books are displayed, compared to the Gen3. As Tribble says, it doesn't do the basic job of rendering fonts at all well compared with the Gen3.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It sounds as though the BeBook would fit in a lot better with your "reading style" than the CyBook, given the superior power management abilities of the BeBook.

Yes, it would. And I would buy one if I needed a new reader. Faster navigation also fit my reading style (reading more than one book at the same time) much better.

[brudigia]

Originally Posted by tompe

I did these measurement for the older firmware (wasn't it less than 4-5 days?) and have not repeated them for the latest firmware (the one you get in a replaced unit). It seems to be only 3-4 days when the unit is on the whole time so no problem to run out of battery twice in a week. I have read some paper books so I did not check the Cybook every day. But I read books in parallell so I cannot turn it off.

I found the thread. You calculated around 4 days. I would say, though, that not switching it off is not what the majority would do.
For normal use (turn it on, read, switch it off, turn it on etc) with the latest firmware, you should not get less than a couple of weeks. More than good for me, then it depends on the reading habits.

[carandol]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It sounds as though the BeBook would fit in a lot better with your "reading style" than the CyBook, given the superior power management abilities of the BeBook. Have you actually seen one, though? I think you would be disappointed with the way that books are displayed, compared to the Gen3. As Tribble says, it doesn't do the basic job of rendering fonts at all well compared with the Gen3.

Have you seen the Bebook with the latest firmware from 5th December? Mobipocket is looking a lot better than it did a couple of weeks ago, when I got my Bebook. I haven't seen a Cybook, so I can't compare, but it's a lot better than mobi support on my iLiad.

[sianon]

I have both the CyBook and the BeBook. I have to say that with the latest update, the mobipocket reader is now very good and once my BeBook returns from repair (I have run the new update on my daughter's BeBook), I will be returning to use that as my primary device as I find it more comfortable to hold. I prefer to be able to hold the device in my left and, the Cybook has no page turn button on the left.
I also believe the power management is superior on the BeBook which can be left turned on indefinitely with the screen locked, meaning that it is always ready for instant use.
I have a number of books in RTF format which without further conversion cannot be used on the Cybook but which are very nicely formatted on the BeBook.
I have not had the opportunity to play with the new update to see if there has been any improvement to the Lit reader.
Overall after several weeks of using both readers, my clear preference is for the BeBook which is constantly being improved through updated software.

Karen