New Models - European prices unveiled

[paola]

thanks Sil - that fully answers my 5th question!
I see you are waiting for the PB903: can I abuse your patience and ask whether you have any info on my other questions, too?
many thanks!
paola

[Sil_liS]

Well, the 5th question was the only one that I could really answer.
For the rest:
1) notes on the margins of a pdf
I didn't see any information on it, but I'm not sure that I would want it. I think that for reading a pdf, the best thing would be to remove all margins. As for writing, I don't think that I would be able to write as small as to fit that space. I mean I haven't seen anyone demonstrate small writing. The demonstration on note-taking on the 302 can be found here at 1:35.
2)discounts for academics
I have never seen it discussed, so PocketGoods is probably the only one who can answer that.
3)on language
I remember reading a post where someone asked about what happens if the reader comes in cyrillic, and I remember that the answer was that you can easily change the language, since "language" will always be in english so anybody can find it. I just can't find that post.
4)on browsing
You can see a demonstration of browsing with the 302 here, again at 1:35. So we know that they can do it with the older model on wifi. I'm not sure what the limits with 3G are.

[paola]

Sil,
thanks a million!
paola

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by paolamanzini

Hi Guys,

I have a question that has been asked before but got no asnwer, plus a couple more:

2) on discounts: are there discounts for academics (I mean faculty, not students)?

4) on browsing: this might have been asked before, but I did not see the reply: does the PB903 come with a browser, or can you only connect to specific sites for ebook downloading?

The statement from Mtraveller on discounts was that they required a Valid student ID and were available when buying direct. I see no reason why staff IDs would not be equally valid. You could PM Mtraveller to ask.

The Wireless Pocketbooks are supposed to come with open browsers over the WiFi. Not sure if the 3G would be restricted to Bookland and other partner sites but there has been talk of "bring-your-own SIM Card" configurations for some countries so the answer is likely to vary by country depending on the 3G provider or lack there-of.

I suspect there will be some grief on both ends on the 3G front because of the complexity of the process for providing "free" 3G service for gadgets in different markets.

[paola]

fjtorres,
many thanks - the 3G indeed I could do without, but it is the stylus that intrigues me - though probably as stated in a previous message (and also based on the lack of reponse on various questions on this from the usually very helpful pocketbook guys) I won't be able to take tiny handwritten notes on pdf documents.

On this, though - what are the advantages of a touch screen on a "standard one"? too silly a question?

[Dulin's Books]

Writing in the margins. I have-with other similar devices- zoomed in, written in my normal hand, then zoomed out so that i now have small writing in the margin or in between lines.

However I have not yet been able to test this on the new devices because i dont have any of them in hand yet.


Menu Language change is just a a couple clicks away. All of the devices come with about 20 menu languages built in.

[paola]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

Writing in the margins. I have-with other similar devices- zoomed in, written in my normal hand, then zoomed out so that i now have small writing in the margin or in between lines.

However I have not yet been able to test this on the new devices because i dont have any of them in hand yet.

Many thanks Dulin's books, this sounds good and now I becoming more and more hopeful!

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by paolamanzini

On this, though - what are the advantages of a touch screen on a "standard one"? too silly a question?

Well, with electronic devices you don't *have* to write on the margins only, y'know.

Sometimes we take the paper metaphor too far; there really is no need to clutter the screen with always-visible notes with electronic media. On PocketPCs and Tablet PCs, for example, annotation and note-taking can be done via pop-ups that stay unobtrusively out of the way, leaving just a highlight or small icon that expands into a full note with a click/tap as well as the faux paper-n-ink approach.

Until we see some demo videos we won't know what approach Pocketbook is taking but hopefully they'll take full advantage of the virtual nature of electronic documents to give us newer/better ways to work with than just imitation paper. PDF is bad enough that way all by itself.

As for the advantages of touch-based input versus a cursor based virtual keyboard; well, speed. The standard Pockebook virtual keyboard is reasonably fast but still falls short of the speed you can hunt-and-peck a virtual keyboard on a touch screen. For pure ebook reading this isn't particularly relevant but for electronic document work it might be worth it if you intend to do a *lot* of document annotation.

The other thing you need to consider when it comes to electronic paper annotation is how you're you're going to get the annotations out. What format? What can you do with it? Some document formats, like docx, OneNote, ppt, etc, are *designed* to carry annotations (in text or ink) within the standard document format. Pdf as a rule doesn't. So you may find yourself with anotations that must be exported separately from the annotated document.

Just a word of caution.

[paola]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

As for the advantages of touch-based input versus a cursor based virtual keyboard; well, speed.

many thanks for your thoughts - this would already do for me. For the moment, I am thinking of annotations in the same way as I use them on actual paper: to remark something that I might want to get back to again, but really with no intention of exporting it elsewhere. But there you see, I have a bias which comes from my utter unfamiliarity with e-book readers, and I am simply reasoning on the basis that by parting with €400 I want to end up with something that is at least as convenient to work with as good old (heavy!) paper, but without the weight. I guess I must just start using one to discover all they can do, but from browsing these pages I am already hooked

[Sil_liS]

I have been thinking that maybe I would like a wall charger, but I'm not sure if it is necessary. From what I understood, the power consumption while connecting to internet via wifi makes it kind of important to have the means to charge the device. And if I'm traveling and decide to go online while not in the vicinity of a computer, I would need a charger.

So I would like to know if you think that buying one would be practical, and what type of charger is used by PoketBook. From what I can see on the website, PocketGoods only sells chargers with some models, and not separately.

Thanks!

[fjtorres]

Current Pocketbook readers can charge off any USB source or power brick.
(I generally charge my PB360 off my XBOX; when I'm not reading I'm gaming.)
They also let you read while charging.

[Sil_liS]

Thanks!

[Sil_liS]

There is a video with the premium covers. I wonder what the one that comes in the box looks like.

[paola]

as there are three of them, I doubt any of them come as standard...

[Sil_liS]

1. The 12h in which the device has to charge in the beginning, are they going to be the "don't touch the device" kind, or the "play with while charging" kind?

2. I understood that the g-sensor must be calibrated. Is this something that I will have to look for in the menu, or something that will come up automatically the first time that I turn it on?

3. When they said here at 1:30 that they preloaded the device with 20 dictionaries and 1000 books, were they talking about just the device that they were showing, or all the new devices?

4. What are the applications that are already installed, and what are the ones that I will have to install myself?

5. Can the things that are preloaded be removed?

6. I understood that the library can be organized when connected to a PC. Must this connection be via USB or can it also be via Bluetooth?

7. If the device has an SD card in, will I be able to see from the computer both the card and the internal memory, or do I have to take out the card to see the internal memory?

8. Are there significant differences in performance between using a microSD card and a microSDHC card?

9. There are some differences between the 903 specifications shown on pocketgoods.de and those shown on pocketbook.ua. Should I just consider that the Ukrainian site is correct?

pocketgoods.de pocketbook.ua
size 263x192x11,5 mm 263х190,3х11 mm
weight 581 g 584 g
screen 166 dpi 150 dpi
(I already asked about this and it is 150 dpi)
card up to 64 GB -

OK, about the last one I am just confused, since Wikipedia said that microSD goes up to 16 GB and microSDHC goes up to 32 GB.