BeBook Review - really a great device...

[talaivan]

My impression is that the EU is scarcely comparable to the US in economic coherence. Doesn't each country have its own wireless phone laws mandating various things? If you were introducing a new product and had a limited budget, wouldn't you choose the largest single market so that you didn't have negotiate and modify things over and over? Look at the iPhone -- it's in Europe, but Apple has had to deal with a whole bunch of companies, and each deal has required lots of legal fees, etc. etc. Didn't the Europeans rejected a constitution, which would have helped? And don't England and Denmark still have different currencies? By the way, if you don't want to be subject to the discrimination you seem to feel in Europe, why not move to Las Vegas? Houses are pretty cheap there now, and there's no sales or (state) income tax. And no VAT.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by talaivan

Didn't the Europeans rejected a constitution, which would have helped?

How would the European Constitution have helped? I'm a little puzzled by that comment.

[DDHarriman]

Hi talaivan

You really did choose your example poorly.

Concerning mobile phones we have GSM everywhere, can you say the same?
Apple had problems with their iPhone? I do not think so, as they sell like hot cakes… But if they did it’s just because they are not used to relate to these (European) types of clients… you know… it’s the clients that command a business not the other way around.

One more thing, observations like this: “if you don't want to be subject to the discrimination you seem to feel in Europe (…)”
Have zero substance… really…

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

I figure this aspect was part of my decision to choose BeBook, so why not include it in the review?

Because the rest of us aren't likely to care a whit about that aspect of your decision-making process?

[talaivan]

All I can say is that if it were easier and potentially more lucrative to market things like the Sony Reader in Europe than the US, Sony would have done it. Sony doesn't care in the slightest where it makes money. True, Europe has GSM, but Apple still opted to start the iPhone in the US -- and I don't think the reason was that they are a US company. In any event, I'm not happy with any of the ereaders on the market -- at least none I've seen. The Sony has too small a screen (true of the BeBook also), and the Iliad doesn't hold a charge, so you have to restart it whenever you want to read a book. And the current eInk background is too gray. I hope someone comes up with a reader that has higher contrast, a larger screen, is light, and doesn't cost $800.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by DDHarriman

Concerning mobile phones we have GSM everywhere, can you say the same?

We (US) have both GSM and CDMA networks nation wide depending on the carier. But all the carriers claim to be working toward 4G LTE? I think lts is just generic term not a technology (Long Term Evolution).

But, even with that you can't buy a GSM at Walmart and THEN choose your carrier... the phones are usually locked to a carrier. Supposedly a cell phone cost $400 unless you get a contract and it is then "subsidized" which to me is just crap pretend since cell phone can't need to cost that much. I think if cell phone were sold here competatively like MP3 players or TV there might be alot less choices, but much better prices.

I think eventually this will happen... but carriers don't want it too... because if I could just take the phone I bought at Wallmart for $99 and decided which carrier to use at a whim, they would actually have to provide good prices and service... this is why they lobby so heavily to prevent this from being legislated.

BOb

AM I ???

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

But, even with that you can't buy a GSM at Walmart and THEN choose your carrier... the phones are usually locked to a carrier.

BOb

AM I ???

Its funny you say that.

In most of the world you can get unlocked basic cell phones for $30 to $40 Dollars.

For example the Nokia 1100 is a very basic but usable cellpone. It sells worldwide, but I've seen it for sale in India, unlocked and brand new for Rs 1500 which s about $35.

And there are a dozen phones like that. If you want colour screens, camera,Mp3 Player, etc you can get a brand new phone for about $80-100.

And the Providers have to be competitive there, with the cost of switching to another carrier is pretty low, basic the cost of buying a new Sim, usually $10 and that includes some credit as well.


The $400 phones are there as well, but they are bough by people who want the added features or want the cachet of a high end phone.

In the UK while network locked phones are the norm, there is a wide variety of phones available for prepaid phones. In fact on most carrirs you can if you choose get any of the phones they carry on prepaid, though you won't get a subsidiary on it.

O2 who sells the iPhone here has just made it available on Pay as you go, so you can get one legally, without having to hack it. And I understand they've offered to unlock it for those who want to.

So its more of a hybrid system here, with about 60% of people on contract while 40% use a prepaid sim. And the prepaid users are not the lowest spenders either, so there is much wider variety of services available.
This is important as users are very mobile, as now even Prepaid users can transfer their phone numbers, removing that major barrier to entry.

[redbaron101]

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

....In most of the world you can get unlocked basic cell phones for $30 to $40 Dollars.

not in the UK you can't!! If you hunt around enough you can still get the old generation mobiles (albeit sim free), unlocked for around £30-£40 ($46 - $62 at todays rates)

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by redbaron101

not in the UK you can't!! If you hunt around enough you can still get the old generation mobiles (albeit sim free), unlocked for around £30-£40 ($46 - $62 at todays rates)

True, but we do live in 'Rip off Briton'.

As for buying, i've found brand new Unlocked phones starting at £25 and locked ones starting at £10, but you do have to look out for deals.

For most people they can walk into a mobile store and get a basic phone for £20-30 so its not a big deal.

Those prices were more of an example. While Europe does tend to be a little more expensive, parts of Asia are even cheaper.

It was also more to do with the actual cost of making the phone in response to pilotbob's comments.

[mrdini]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

Mac OS X: The only issue I've had is ejecting the device from my Mac (I have contacted BeBook about this). It's not a big problem, but when I connect the device to my Mac I can transfer files, etc. Then I should unmount/eject the drive before disconnecting. With the BeBook, two drives appear - one for the internal memory and one for the SD-card (if inserted). I eject one of these drives, and before I can eject the other the first one reconnects - a classic infinite loop! In the end, I just pull the (USB) plug - not great, because you always get an error warning saying the device was not ejected properly and data may be lost. Not an issue, because I always check that all files have copied onto the card before doing this, and I always try once (in vain) to eject it anyway. But it is annoying, and should not happen - I am awaiting BeBook's response.

I have the same issue with my V2, & in a way, I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one to see this issue.

I have found a workaround for this - basically, you need to use Disk Utility (in the Applications/Utilities folder). Click on the disk, then "Unmount", NOT "Eject". If you perform an "Unmount", the V3 shouldn't reconnect. At this point, you can unplug the V3 without OS X complaining (even if you haven't ejected it).

Hope that helps!

Y.

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

We (US) have both GSM and CDMA networks nation wide depending on the carier. But all the carriers claim to be working toward 4G LTE? I think lts is just generic term not a technology (Long Term Evolution).

AM I ???

I guess we're all

But just to weigh in on the mobile phone debate, I'm interested to hear both networks are nationwide now, as not long ago it was the case that the type of coverage depended on region, and of course carrier.

I bought my first digital GSM mobile in Australia in 1995, and coverage in cities was complete and between population centres was not bad. I went to Europe in 1998 and my phone worked, no problems, even with my Aussie SIM (roaming). I slipped in a Euro SIM and it still worked. I went to other countries and it still worked. I bought newer GSM phones and it worked everywhere, every time.

Except the US - because their GSM was a different frequency band. So enter the newer phones, tri-band GSM to cater for the fact the the GSM phones that work anywhere in the world don't fit the fragmented US standard(s). Now we have 4-band... 'nuff said...

Anyway, we're here to talk about eReaders, and I'm yet to hear any convincing argument as to why the Sony can't be shipped outside the US. I'm not talking about the one or two resellers that do it, at huge cost, and the limited expansion into Canada and UK. I'm talking about having a product for everyone to see on the Web for a few years, advertising it for sale on the web, but not shipping outside the US.

Apart from the obvious "we don't want to..." answer (after all, that's Sony's right), or the more tenuous "it doesn't make business sense...," I just don't get it. What legal issues are there for a device with no wireless (PRS-500/505) and no dangerous components (e.g. explosives, chemicals, etc.)?

And what does Sony care if it ships to Pigsknuckle, Arkansas for $10 or Lederhosen, Germany for $50? Being in business I figured they wouldn't care if they got paid in greenbacks, euros, rubles, dinars, rupees or even those cursed $CDN to the north! It's all revenue and sales to them.

DVD region coding is evil but almost understandable from a pure greed and market tyranny point of view. But we're talking eBooks here! I can buy any paperback in a bookstore in Timbuktu (provided they have an English language section) that I can buy in the US. In fact, I can often have a more diverse selection outside the US! But those same books can't be bought as freely in e-format outside the US (Sony and Amazon online stores are restricted to US credit cards and postal addresses, even though nothing is mailed), and heaven forbid I should wish to read them on a mobile eReader!

I'm sure someone can explain it all to me. Meanwhile I'm gonna ignore Sony and Amazon Kindle (especially now that it's Oprah's choice!) for the rest of my life and settle back and read my BeBook...

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by mrdini

I have the same issue with my V2, & in a way, I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one to see this issue.

I have found a workaround for this - basically, you need to use Disk Utility (in the Applications/Utilities folder). Click on the disk, then "Unmount", NOT "Eject". If you perform an "Unmount", the V3 shouldn't reconnect. At this point, you can unplug the V3 without OS X complaining (even if you haven't ejected it).

Hope that helps!

Y.

You're a genius!! I tried it before but didn't wait long enough - it takes about 5-10 seconds on my iMac to react and unmount, but once I unmount both the SD card and BeBook internal memory I can unplug it. Great tip - I'll let the BeBook people know as well (since I asked them on the forum on Friday).

Cheers again! And a final

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

I guess we're all
SNIPPED

Anyway, we're here to talk about eReaders, and I'm yet to hear any convincing argument as to why the Sony can't be shipped outside the US. I'm not talking about the one or two resellers that do it, at huge cost, and the limited expansion into Canada and UK. I'm talking about having a product for everyone to see on the Web for a few years, advertising it for sale on the web, but not shipping outside the US.

Apart from the obvious "we don't want to..." answer (after all, that's Sony's right), or the more tenuous "it doesn't make business sense...," I just don't get it. What legal issues are there for a device with no wireless (PRS-500/505) and no dangerous components (e.g. explosives, chemicals, etc.)?

And what does Sony care if it ships to Pigsknuckle, Arkansas for $10 or Lederhosen, Germany for $50? Being in business I figured they wouldn't care if they got paid in greenbacks, euros, rubles, dinars, rupees or even those cursed $CDN to the north! It's all revenue and sales to them.

DVD region coding is evil but almost understandable from a pure greed and market tyranny point of view. But we're talking eBooks here! I can buy any paperback in a bookstore in Timbuktu (provided they have an English language section) that I can buy in the US. In fact, I can often have a more diverse selection outside the US! But those same books can't be bought as freely in e-format outside the US (Sony and Amazon online stores are restricted to US credit cards and postal addresses, even though nothing is mailed), and heaven forbid I should wish to read them on a mobile eReader!

I'm sure someone can explain it all to me. Meanwhile I'm gonna ignore Sony and Amazon Kindle (especially now that it's Oprah's choice!) for the rest of my life and settle back and read my BeBook (for info, I'm currently reading Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" - if my above comments don't annoy a few people, I'm sure my choice of reading material will...)

Essentially it has to do with rights issues.

The gist of the matter is that for most English language books the North American and European rights are sold separately. Any e-bookstore naturally gets the books from the rightsholder in the country where that bookstore is located.

In other words you can't necessarily get the same book in the US and Timbuktu - The US publisher probably doesn't have the rights to distribute that book in Timbuktu.

Many of them sell worldwide based (as far as I know) on the principle that the transaction takes place in the country where the store is located; much like a European visitor in the US buying a book in Borders. They can still take it home even if the US publisher doesn't have European rights to the book.

This is fine for pure e-book stores, but not for someone like Sony.

If they sell hardware in Germany, they need to make sure they have the rights for that territory for any book (or any book bought with a credit or coupon) bundled with the reader. That means they either set up a store for each country or partner with a local store to make sure they have the right editions. Essentially the reader being a physical object puts them into that country as far as rights are concerned.

It doesn't matter for books bought from stores like Fictionwise, but with Sony's own DRM being tied to the device it certainly does matter for Connect.

That's why Sony Canada allows access to the Connect store and Sony UK uses Waterstones: different rights. (Though it gets messy with Canada because some books have North American rights and others have Commonwealth rights- so sometimes Canadians get the US editions and other times they get the UK editions.)

Making deals in all those countries takes time.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Essentially it has to do with rights issues.

The gist of the matter is that for most English language books the North American and European rights are sold separately. Any e-bookstore naturally gets the books from the rightsholder in the country where that bookstore is located.

I do not think it is North America and Europe. I think it is North America and UK. In Sweden there is no problem buying from US Amazon or UK Amazon. And bookshops by books both from UK and US so they can sell both editions.

So if ebooks works as books it would be no problem for the Sony Bookstore to sell English books to Sweden. It would probably be a problem selling them to UK.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by tompe

I do not think it is North America and Europe. I think it is North America and UK. In Sweden there is no problem buying from US Amazon or UK Amazon. And bookshops by books both from UK and US so they can sell both editions.

So if ebooks works as books it would be no problem for the Sony Bookstore to sell English books to Sweden. It would probably be a problem selling them to UK.

No it's not North America and UK: it's each rights territory. The rights determine where you can sell the book from not who you can sell it to. Amazon US can sell any book that it has US rights to to anyone in any country they ship to. Amazon UK can sell any book that it has UK right to to any one in any country they ship to. Britons can buy from Amazon US, and Americans can buy from Amazon UK.

The catch is that if the rights have been sold to different publishers in the UK and US you cannot buy the UK edition from Amazon US and you cannot buy the US edition from Amazon UK.

When Sony starts selling readers in any given country they are now on the "from" not the "to" side of the equation in that country, so the store (whether their own or their partners') can only sell books they have the rights to in that territory.

Any purchase from a UK reader account is considered to be made "from" the UK, so UK rights apply. This is true regardless of the physical location of the device.