Delstar OpenBook at Walgreens

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Delstar Info

Bob,
We do have a device we are completeing that does use DRM and it is called the Delstar BookSmart. If youd like i can email you a spec sheet for it. Just email me your email adress @ info@delstar.net .

Freddy M
Delstar

I've contacted your company a couple times now. Can you provide an email address that you are actually paying attention to?

[bryanzs]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I've contacted your company a couple times now. Can you provide an email address that you are actually paying attention to?

I was pleasantly surprised to get an email back from them (from that email address) earlier today, so at least we know that email address does work.

Originally Posted by imaredr

I just went to Delstar and I get the same message:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /downloads/ on this server.

So do I need to log in or something? Or is there another download site? Right now I am prone to agree that this reader is not usuable. If I wasn't a member of MR, then how would I even know that there was a firmware update available? I see nothing on the Walgreen's site to even give me a clue.
Up until now I thought that buying Sungale's Cyberus was a bad move, but now....At least we have a rep from Delstar here. I hope this firmware, if I can get my hands on it will be of some good.

Ellen

The rep from Delstar (Freddy) indicated that it would be available tonight or tomorrow, along with video instructions on how to install the update, so perhaps we have to wait until tomorrow for that 'downloads' link to work properly?


While I agree with the other posts that this all indicates too early a release for the product, I think it's great that - on the first day that these units are in anyone's hands - they're responding with an update to fix the things we're finding initially. Assuming, of course, that the update does fix these things...and that's something we'll only find out tomorrow, I guess.

[imaredr]

Originally Posted by bryanzs

While I agree with the other posts that this all indicates too early a release for the product, I think it's great that - on the first day that these units are in anyone's hands - they're responding with an update to fix the things we're finding initially. Assuming, of course, that the update does fix these things...and that's something we'll only find out tomorrow, I guess.

Thank-you for reminding me of the positives. I am holding off on doing anything with mine so I won't become so biased that I am totally turned off to the device. Once the update is available I will revisit the Openbook and start fresh.

Ellen

[JohnScarbi]

I got it in the mail but it doesn't read PDFs or EPub format (even though it is supposed to)! It does this weird static like thing with the screen when I try to load a PDF or EPub. Doc files transferred there don't even show up. TXT files however, are working.

[Donnageddon]

This is getting intriguing

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I've contacted your company a couple times now. Can you provide an email address that you are actually paying attention to?

Are we sure this guy really is from delstar. He could just be someone jerking our chain. I'll be brutally honest, this device has so many shortfalls that it will take them weeks if nt months to correct them.

[Marlonsarmiento]

Ordered one today, love the fact the company is making themselves available to the public. Thanks for the reviews it help in my decision too.

[ColdSun]

Jack,

I mean no disrespect when I say this, and I think it is very important that everyone post their opinion, but I'm wondering why anyone working at a small company would continue to post here after reading these comments? I highly respect your honest opinion, and in fact I read almost all of your posts on other forums here at MR, but you might be just a tad less brutal about it.

And if not, well then, that is ok too. I shall remain your friend even if you don't like what I have to say, because for some reason I still like your honesty and frank opinions.

[JohnScarbi]

Oh I just read the previous forum pages. I guess an update is coming. I mean the fact that it doesn't read PDFs or Epubs is not a minor problem... considering it is an e-book reader. LOL. This is also surprising that Walgreens would have such a faulty device listed in their Sunday print ad. We shall see how this all turns out. Maybe I should not have been such a cheapskate and just gotten the Sony E-Reader. LOL.

[Marlonsarmiento]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Are we sure this guy really is from delstar. He could just be someone jerking our chain. I'll be brutally honest, this device has so many shortfalls that it will take them weeks if nt months to correct them.

From what I saw in previous post Paradigm Shift is the company that manufactures the device, DELSTAR is the US distributor. So the updates are from Paradigm (I could be wrong), the update may be a simple switch to unlock built in features. This happens with phones all the time, same phone two different carries, but features are turned off.

[JohnScarbi]

It would be nice if they would put some notice out about these problems on their website instead of just on a forum. And what is with this "you got the error message because we were just uploading it to the site" That post was hours ago and you still get the same error message on their download page. Well I suppose I will check tomorrow. I am trying to be positive, but you know I don't have 100 bucks to throw down the drain......

They must be getting a lot of calls though seeing as this was advertised nation-wide. I am surprised there are not more forums and message boards talking about this device. A google search just gives me a ton of coupon websites and buried in between those is the MobileRead forums.

[Scott_T]

I loaded an epub on mine and it worked besides not having any formatting

[intobooks]

I'm disheartened to hear that there are so many bugs from the get go. I'm trying to hold off judgement until after the promised firmware upgrade.

[Vienna01]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Are we sure this guy really is from delstar. He could just be someone jerking our chain. I'll be brutally honest, this device has so many shortfalls that it will take them weeks if nt months to correct them.

Could it be that Delstar froze the firmware/software much earlier this year, but continued to fix things intended for early release now?

[Highroller]

Originally Posted by Vienna01

Could it be that Delstar froze the firmware/software much earlier this year, but continued to fix things intended for early release now?

If so, sounds like they would have done much better to distribute as polished a firmware as they could from the beginning.

All these formatting problems are pretty horrible when its primarily an ebook reader. I mean did they even test the device at all? I know of other even cheaper devices that are color if all I wanted to read was text files. I do thing the rep is from delstar. At least 1 if not 2 people from the forum called delstar on the telephone and they said they were coming to the forum.