Time is running against PB

Zarathustra · 02-15-2011, 08:48 AM

I now own the PB 903 since nearly 2 months. May be it is a good time to make a conclusion.

Personal Background: I am now living in Taiwan and when I bought the PB 903, I thought, may be it is a good occasion to clean up my appartment in Germany and sort out old books and take my whole work electronically with me. Well, the latter was certainly a good idea, amazing how much stuff were gathered - but let us see what came out or how functional the PB 903 really is.

Electronic Background:
Electronics:
- one fast, rather heavy laptop for the real work
- one slow, light weight netbook for occasional work
- the PB 903 for manuscripts and private books

Literature:
- Travel guides on how to survive in Taiwan and how to learn chinese
- Private literature (novels) from amazon and other sources (eng. & german)
- Articles from work to read
- Manuscripts, I am working on

Ok, what is the result:

Novels
------

Software to transform encoded books can be found and they work.

+ reading quality is really nice
= well, to be honst, a real book is more fun - and certainly more sexy to attract girls in a cafe then a "I am a nerd" PB. And there are sexy girls in Taipei - which are much easier to find than nice european style hanging around cafes. But (fortunetely they exit). But to be honst - it is a draw
- what certainly does not work is the size of the PB - it is too large in the bus and to unsexy in a cafe

Summary: If you need a device to read books, may be a smaller version is more appropriate.

Internet
--------
I rarely use the PB to access the internet - but sometimes in an urgent case I use it - like recently when I tried to withdraw money and didnot know which cash dispenser accepts my EC card.

= well, to be honest. The PB is not the device you want to use for surfing. But on the other hand, I always have the netbook somewhere with me on my travels. And so far I had only two occasions, when I was really happy to access the internet, because my netbook was somewhere else.
- One case was during my search for a EC card money dispenser. But this PB does not accept chinese characters, which was required to access the internet via an access code. (fortunetly my MP3 player does show chinese characters and has Wifi)

Summary: As an emergency device usefull - but be prepared for strange characters.

Articles from work
-----------------
What I already mentioned in an earlier post.

+ The hardware I really do like. It is just the perfect size, resolution, readability I wanted to have.
= No jabref possible. I could survive and write a workaround, but:
-- (Two minus) You can not arbitrarily zoom in. This is [vularity removed - MODERATOR] stupid that you cannot use the pen to do a reasonable zoom (and the bug previously mentioned is so far not handled by PB). This makes it painful to work on scientific articles (but not unuseable)
----- I do not know how many minus I should give. This [vulgarity removed - MODERATOR] stupid non existing, essentially promised annotations is a complete desaster which simply disqualifies the PB for reasonable working.

Summary:
DISQUALIFIED: No annotations = no working. Do not even think of buying it

Working on manuscripts.
I did, I gave it up for the same reasons of annotations.

TOTAL SUMMARY
-----------------

The PB 903 is worth the quality of the software, which is zero !!

If you need a device for reading novels etc. - use a smaller device

If you need a device for working - buy an iPad.

The pain is, the PB 903 is in principal a beautiful device. I could cry when I see the potential. I make a bet - if PB is not able to supply a reasonable software for annotations they will have the same fate as iRex - in approx. 24 months. The next 12 months they will still sell - but surviving against iPad will become tough. I would even not be surprised to see amazon to bring out a reasonable device with annotations. Then, we will see another 12 months of decline, PB will tell how fine they are doing - and as suddenly as iRex they will close their webpage.

Although the first is speculation, i can say that they lost me as a customer, and some friends of mine as potential customers - which although first impressed when I demonstrated the device - I could convinve not to do the same mistake as I did.

Oh yes. Other than planned my netbook did a nice revival as a working device but will soon be replaced by an iPad.

rogue_librarian · 02-15-2011, 11:41 AM

Too much whining, didn't read.

SkyDream · 02-15-2011, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogue_librarian

Too much whining, didn't read.

but still true...

v1k1ng1001 · 02-16-2011, 01:21 AM

I'm glad I didn't buy the touchscreen PB. The 602 is good for what it is.

02-15-2011, 08:48 AM	#1
Zarathustra Member Posts: 17 Karma: 38 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Germany / Taiwan Device: PB 903	Time is running against PB I now own the PB 903 since nearly 2 months. May be it is a good time to make a conclusion. Personal Background: I am now living in Taiwan and when I bought the PB 903, I thought, may be it is a good occasion to clean up my appartment in Germany and sort out old books and take my whole work electronically with me. Well, the latter was certainly a good idea, amazing how much stuff were gathered - but let us see what came out or how functional the PB 903 really is. Electronic Background: Electronics: - one fast, rather heavy laptop for the real work - one slow, light weight netbook for occasional work - the PB 903 for manuscripts and private books Literature: - Travel guides on how to survive in Taiwan and how to learn chinese - Private literature (novels) from amazon and other sources (eng. & german) - Articles from work to read - Manuscripts, I am working on Ok, what is the result: Novels ------ Software to transform encoded books can be found and they work. + reading quality is really nice = well, to be honst, a real book is more fun - and certainly more sexy to attract girls in a cafe then a "I am a nerd" PB. And there are sexy girls in Taipei - which are much easier to find than nice european style hanging around cafes. But (fortunetely they exit). But to be honst - it is a draw - what certainly does not work is the size of the PB - it is too large in the bus and to unsexy in a cafe Summary: If you need a device to read books, may be a smaller version is more appropriate. Internet -------- I rarely use the PB to access the internet - but sometimes in an urgent case I use it - like recently when I tried to withdraw money and didnot know which cash dispenser accepts my EC card. = well, to be honest. The PB is not the device you want to use for surfing. But on the other hand, I always have the netbook somewhere with me on my travels. And so far I had only two occasions, when I was really happy to access the internet, because my netbook was somewhere else. - One case was during my search for a EC card money dispenser. But this PB does not accept chinese characters, which was required to access the internet via an access code. (fortunetly my MP3 player does show chinese characters and has Wifi) Summary: As an emergency device usefull - but be prepared for strange characters. Articles from work ----------------- What I already mentioned in an earlier post. + The hardware I really do like. It is just the perfect size, resolution, readability I wanted to have. = No jabref possible. I could survive and write a workaround, but: -- (Two minus) You can not arbitrarily zoom in. This is [vularity removed - MODERATOR] stupid that you cannot use the pen to do a reasonable zoom (and the bug previously mentioned is so far not handled by PB). This makes it painful to work on scientific articles (but not unuseable) ----- I do not know how many minus I should give. This [vulgarity removed - MODERATOR] stupid non existing, essentially promised annotations is a complete desaster which simply disqualifies the PB for reasonable working. Summary: DISQUALIFIED: No annotations = no working. Do not even think of buying it Working on manuscripts. I did, I gave it up for the same reasons of annotations. TOTAL SUMMARY ----------------- The PB 903 is worth the quality of the software, which is zero !! If you need a device for reading novels etc. - use a smaller device If you need a device for working - buy an iPad. The pain is, the PB 903 is in principal a beautiful device. I could cry when I see the potential. I make a bet - if PB is not able to supply a reasonable software for annotations they will have the same fate as iRex - in approx. 24 months. The next 12 months they will still sell - but surviving against iPad will become tough. I would even not be surprised to see amazon to bring out a reasonable device with annotations. Then, we will see another 12 months of decline, PB will tell how fine they are doing - and as suddenly as iRex they will close their webpage. Although the first is speculation, i can say that they lost me as a customer, and some friends of mine as potential customers - which although first impressed when I demonstrated the device - I could convinve not to do the same mistake as I did. Oh yes. Other than planned my netbook did a nice revival as a working device but will soon be replaced by an iPad. Last edited by Dr. Drib; 02-15-2011 at 06:00 PM.

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02-15-2011, 11:41 AM	#2
rogue_librarian Guru Posts: 973 Karma: 4269175 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Europe Device: Pocketbook Basic 613	Too much whining, didn't read.

02-16-2011, 01:21 AM	#4
v1k1ng1001 Addict Posts: 378 Karma: 1624276 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: South, South Texas Device: Pocketbook 620	I'm glad I didn't buy the touchscreen PB. The 602 is good for what it is.