Slash Gear reviews the Sharper Image Literati

[PhishStyx]

Well, this looks bad. Bleah.

http://www.slashgear.com/sharper-ima...-bad-06106163/

[igorsk]

Slash Gear didn't review the device, they just reposted Nate's conclusions. Why don't you just link to the original?

[PhishStyx]

My apologies, didn't realize there was a link there.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Isn't Sharper Image dead? Or did they just evolve to a non-B&M entity?

[Dulin's Books]

they were bought by a company who has shed the B+M stores and concentrating on branded products. Sold at the Bed Bath and Beyond, Kohls etc

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

they were bought by a company who has shed the B+M stores and concentrating on branded products. Sold at the Bed Bath and Beyond, Kohls etc

Just to add, most companies that go out of business through bankruptcy have a shadow after life. The courts supervise the sale of all assets of the company to pay off creditors. The name of a company often can be sold... and is. Thus as a brand the name will often exist long after the company is gone.

--
Bill

[SensualPoet]

The Literati may be terrible ... but isn’t the point of the Literati that it is an 800x 600 colour screen? So, what’s the colour like? How’s the battery length since, I presume, this is not e-ink? Does it have landscape mode for comics or using the SD card a viewer for camera pics?

Unfortunately, the reviewer didn't address these issues. Literati isn't trying to compete with an e-ink reader directly -- it brings these other aspects (colour). It would be nice to know how well those features work that make it different. We will have to wait for another review, unfortunately.

[MrHatandClogs]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

The Literati may be terrible ... but isn’t the point of the Literati that it is an 800x 600 colour screen? So, what’s the colour like? How’s the battery length since, I presume, this is not e-ink? Does it have landscape mode for comics or using the SD card a viewer for camera pics?

Unfortunately, the reviewer didn't address these issues. Literati isn't trying to compete with an e-ink reader directly -- it brings these other aspects (colour). It would be nice to know how well those features work that make it different. We will have to wait for another review, unfortunately.

The color/screen is beautiful. Very crisp, and non-pixelated. The battery is okay. If you turn off the wifi, you can read for a solid 5 to 6 hours. Wifi on, only about 2-3 hours. No not e-ink, it's an LCD screen. Yes it has landscape mode, you can only use it in the "Documents"(.pdf) viewer. Comics/etc. look beautiful in the landscape mode, but unfortunately the scrolling in the .pdf viewer is insanely slow. Seriously it takes like at least one full second to move over one frame. Yea...it's ridiculous. It makes reading .pdfs useless unless it's readable in full page view. I've talked with the Literati tech support, and they've said they are addressing the sluggishness of the .pdf viewer and are hoping to have it fixed by the next update.

Overall I really like the literati. It has it's cons, and out of the box isn't super easy to figure out(mainly because it still had the old firmware version, and for it to be functional it needs to be updated to the most recent. But, I'm told the ones in stores now are already updated). Reading books is great and a breeze. It has an awesome night reading mode, which inverts the black and white(black bg/white text), that is great for reading in the dark. The subscriptions to newspapers and magazines are awesome, and are a great way to utilize the color screen. (Though, there isn't much of a selection yet, but they are slowly adding new titles.) I have a subscription to "The New York Times", I just sync it every morning and there's the days issues. It's fantastic.

Imo, the Literati is the ebook reader for people who are simply trying to read books, newspapers, and magazines. It doesn't have a web browser/email, and is simplified for just reading. If they can get the .pdf reader running more smoothly, then it will also be ideal for comics as well.

Like I said, if you want an ebook reader simply because you want to read with the ability to read stuff with color, and don't care about all the extras, then the Literati is for you.