Questions for Jetbook owners - Page 2

DebbyS · 08-04-2011, 05:29 AM

Thanks for that info! Note that as a newbie to ebooks and ebook readers (and I don't have or need even a cell phone), I don't know anything about "Adobe Reader Mobile", but if its name accurately describes what it does, that will be good as I use regular Adobe Reader on various computers. "Fit Width" will probably be what I'll use most often, and "The scrolling is not a smooth function like on a computer screen, but jumps a displayed portion worth at a time", I can live with a jump as long as I'm not denied any parts of a page. The width of the screen of the JBL seems to be about as wide as an average paperback book, too.

I think you've helped me decide on my project for my upcoming vacation -- track down a local seller of Jetbook Lite (or if I can't fine one before my vacation, I'll order it on line).

Thanks again! I'll keep watching for your tips and tricks

DebbyS · 08-04-2011, 08:11 AM

Being realistic, I realized I won't find the JBL here in town, so I went ahead an ordered from JR. I also ordered two 2GB SC cards. None of the reviews I read said that the device can read/use SC*HC* cards, which are the norm now. Has anyone tried an SCHC card in the JBL and did it recognize that kind of card and work okay with it?

Catlady · 08-04-2011, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DebbyS

Being realistic, I realized I won't find the JBL here in town, so I went ahead an ordered from JR. I also ordered two 2GB SC cards. None of the reviews I read said that the device can read/use SC*HC* cards, which are the norm now. Has anyone tried an SCHC card in the JBL and did it recognize that kind of card and work okay with it?

Yes, absolutely. I have an SanDisk 8gb SDHC card in mine. Works fine.

DebbyS · 08-04-2011, 10:21 AM

Thank you, Catlady! (Cats know everything worth knowing! -- just ask 'em) I can use the two regular SD cards in my older camera, it's good to have back ups of those. I like SanDisk products, particularly their 8gb thumbdrives, so I'll purchase some SDHC cards here in town

Ken Maltby · 08-04-2011, 11:43 AM

E-books generally are quite small files and 2GB can hold a lot of books, thousands.

I have my eBook Library on a 4GB SDHC card now and it is using 1.67GB to hold
6,528 files in 48 folders. (That's less than half full.)

The cost per GB has steadily fallen for SD cards, so you need not buy more capacity
than you can use. If and when you need more, there should be better cards available
at a lower cost, by then.

I have posted a few things you might consider when/if you get your very own JBL, for
the most part it is a matter of backing up what comes loaded on the JBL's internal
memory to a folder on your PC and reformatting the internal memory to FAT32 (the same
as your SDHC cards). [ Clicking on my name will give you options that will make finding
my earlier posts a little easier.]

If you end up liking your JBL as much as some of us do, you might then want to consider
getting a couple of sets of rechargable batteries and a charger, to have a convenient and
inexpensive way to keep it powered.

Luck;
Ken

DebbyS · 08-04-2011, 12:28 PM

I'll check out and print your tips, thanks! I hope you go further into FAT32. I already use rechargable batteries (AA, fortunately) in my camera, 4 in the camera and 4 to spare, because I always get a low-battery alert in the middle of someplace fabulous (be it the Balloon Fiesta here in Abq or stalking a new bird).

jlg432 · 08-05-2011, 05:23 PM

If you are still into scanning I would consider adding a OCR program to convert the output to text. Some will even covert to a word document which can then be saved as RTF, HTML, TXT and you can even incorporate MS's reader format. From these you can create PDF files that will allow text flow.

OMNIPAGE is one OCR program that I have used and it worked great.

John

jlg432 · 08-05-2011, 05:27 PM

As for batteries I would recommend the newer AA nimh series that maintain there shelflife charge for a long period of time over the older nimh series.

John

cromag · 08-05-2011, 09:45 PM

I'll second the recommendation for "low self-discharge" batteries. The best known brand is Sanyo's Eneloop, available at Amazon.com, Costco, and some other places. And there are some other brands, but check the label to be sure they are "low self-discharge." There's a huge difference between these and conventional NiMH batteries.

DebbyS · 08-06-2011, 05:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlg432

If you are still into scanning I would consider adding a OCR program to convert the output to text.... John

Thank you for the tip. If I had a lot of time, I'd certainly consider that, and there are OCR programs built into the PaperPort I use. it seems, though, that the books I've been scanning (I'm working on my Ludlum collection right now) clock in at +400 pages, and I'd have to check them all for the accuracy of the OCR, adding at least another hour onto the process, maybe a lot more. We OCR whatever we can at work since it's a typing business and I don't want to type anything I don't have to

The benefits of OCR are many -- but the time to check an long book... when I know the picture of the page will be exact and close enough for my purposes... well, time is a drawback

If I could take six months off instead of the well deserved week I'm taking shortly... sigh!

Batteries: I use common ones in my camera (a Canon model), and my rechargables are currently Rayovac s. They do last quite a long time, though I do take along an extra set wherever I go in case I get into an intense session of taking pictures of birds

I'll keep the recommended ones in mind if I come across them or the next time I order from Amazon.

jlg432 · 08-06-2011, 01:14 PM

I also have had several Canon's - Powershot A70, A95 and now the SX20is. I also loaded up on batteries Ni-Cads at first and then NiMh but I found that the Canon was such a miser on battery power that my stand-by's would lose a lot of stored power before I would get around to using them. Now I have just two sets of the long shelf life's assigned for my SX20is. They still take the same time to charge as regular NiMh but they can sit around for a much longer time and still be near to full capacity when used. As soon as one set gets depleted I re-charge them. With the older NiMh series I would re-charge all of them the day before an outting just to make sure that I had a good set of stand-by's.

The A70 bit the dust a year ago and my A95 is starting to have some issues as well but still works - just not that reliable w/re to picture quality.

John

DebbyS · 08-06-2011, 07:43 PM

I have a 20x SX10is, which replaced a 3x A80

I haven't noticed any batteries losing stored power -- but haven't watched out for it, either. I tend to use my camera the most heavily on Sundays, when I go for walks and bird watching, and every so often the camera will warn that the batteries are low, better ask that rare bird to pause whatever it was doing while you change to a fresh set. But I expect I'll use the same batteries in the JBL when it comes... it's only been a few days -- what's the delay???

My stay-cation starts on 8/13, so it should be here by then

DebbyS · 08-11-2011, 09:30 PM

A brief report and a moderately brief question.

My Jetbook Lite came today (8/11) about a week after I ordered it from J&R and in time for my vacation next week! I’m quite pleased with the speed of the service and plan to tell them so. I’ll also be sure to check them for other toys I need.

I’ve only played a bit with the JBL and will get more into it when I have more books to put on in it, then I can also report again. I can say that due to going back about 25 pages into this thread and reading anything that seemed JBL related, I was ready for several of the challenges that came with first use. I recommend that anyone waiting for the arrival of their JBL take a look at the great resource this particular part of the forum provides.

My question. I know there is only a smallish amount of room in the memory (would it be RAM? maybe "storage" is more accurate) of the JBL, and a bunch of it is taken up by free books. One can add more books to that as well. The user can also put books on a card and slip that in. It will be easier for me to put my large, home-made PDFs on the card than in that wee bit of built-in memory.

But! Does the JBL, say, copy the book I want to read from the card into that wee bit of memory (or try & fail if it is too big a book) and then try (and fail) to manipulate it from that internal memory so I can read the book, or does the JBL work with the card and it’s much bigger memory? Another way to put it might be: if I have a book that is too big for the internal memory so I put it on the card... will JBL balk at that or happily work with the card?

I hope this question makes sense. I scan books at a high resolution and it turns out I can read them on a large computer screen if I wish because the letters are sharp. If the book is old and turning yellow, I scan that book at gray scale and increase the contrast so the resulting pages look as much black and white as possible. However, this makes for a larger PDF than if the book were newer and the paper nearly white (and can be scanned at Black and White). My new JBL was able to show one of these latter, originally B&W scanned books pretty well, about half a page at a time once I remembered to turn off the Flow and tell it Fit to Width (which I read back around page 22 or so here

.

I hope JBL loves cards because I don't want to go looking for a PDF splitter or wind up buying the books in some ereader format (and spending money again on the same book).

Ken Maltby · 08-12-2011, 12:41 AM

Like most devices that use SD cards, the JBL works fine with most SD cards, but you
can find some makes and models that the device will have issues with. Under that rare
situation, a re-format of the card is usually all that is required for it to work.

The JBL reads ebook files off the SD card directly, in fact that is where I keep almost all
my ebook library. I copied the supplied files and folders of the JBL's internal memory into
a folder on my PC, and keep very little in the internal memory (a "Books" folder and a
"Pictures" folder are required in the root of the internal memory, but they can be empty,
and mine are almost so.)

The JBL will throw up a "Too Big" error message for some files, but that has more to do
with the construction of some components of the file than its actual size overall. You
should be able to produce .pdf files that present no problems to the JBL.

As to large documents; I use HTML as my format of choice for large manuals, but only if
a conversion to .epub using Calibre results in a file that the JBL has problems with.

I have a 23MB Manual on my JBL, so size is not likely to be the problem all by itself.

I would start with a 4GB SDHC for your JBL and see how much room that gives you.
You can find 4GB class 6 SD cards on sale at <$10.

Luck;
Ken

DebbyS · 08-12-2011, 05:06 AM

Thank you for easing my mind! I realized I could simply try it and see if it works

, then report back here my results... so I'll do that. I failed earlier to note that when I said "big", I mean in the realm of, oh, 120 MB (thus I chuckle a bit when you report a 23MB book... I'm thinking, only 23MB!). Last night I even made a special effort to save The Bourne Supremacy in three parts, trying to make the book smaller (in a sense), but they came out to 72 megabytes each...! I know the "problem" is the way I'm scanning them (high res) and the way I'm saving them (original, medium quality), they have no choice but to be large... but if I ever have worsening eye problems and need to project such a book on a bigger screen, I'll have no trouble reading it! Hmm, maybe I should resave it smaller as a test, have two versions... and report those results, too, for others who scan...

08-04-2011, 11:43 AM	#20
Ken Maltby Wizard Posts: 4,466 Karma: 6900052 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: The Heart of Texas Device: Boox Note2, AuraHD, PDA,	E-books generally are quite small files and 2GB can hold a lot of books, thousands. I have my eBook Library on a 4GB SDHC card now and it is using 1.67GB to hold 6,528 files in 48 folders. (That's less than half full.) The cost per GB has steadily fallen for SD cards, so you need not buy more capacity than you can use. If and when you need more, there should be better cards available at a lower cost, by then. I have posted a few things you might consider when/if you get your very own JBL, for the most part it is a matter of backing up what comes loaded on the JBL's internal memory to a folder on your PC and reformatting the internal memory to FAT32 (the same as your SDHC cards). [ Clicking on my name will give you options that will make finding my earlier posts a little easier.] If you end up liking your JBL as much as some of us do, you might then want to consider getting a couple of sets of rechargable batteries and a charger, to have a convenient and inexpensive way to keep it powered. Luck; Ken Last edited by Ken Maltby; 08-04-2011 at 11:47 AM.

08-12-2011, 12:41 AM	#29
Ken Maltby Wizard Posts: 4,466 Karma: 6900052 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: The Heart of Texas Device: Boox Note2, AuraHD, PDA,	Like most devices that use SD cards, the JBL works fine with most SD cards, but you can find some makes and models that the device will have issues with. Under that rare situation, a re-format of the card is usually all that is required for it to work. The JBL reads ebook files off the SD card directly, in fact that is where I keep almost all my ebook library. I copied the supplied files and folders of the JBL's internal memory into a folder on my PC, and keep very little in the internal memory (a "Books" folder and a "Pictures" folder are required in the root of the internal memory, but they can be empty, and mine are almost so.) The JBL will throw up a "Too Big" error message for some files, but that has more to do with the construction of some components of the file than its actual size overall. You should be able to produce .pdf files that present no problems to the JBL. As to large documents; I use HTML as my format of choice for large manuals, but only if a conversion to .epub using Calibre results in a file that the JBL has problems with. I have a 23MB Manual on my JBL, so size is not likely to be the problem all by itself. I would start with a 4GB SDHC for your JBL and see how much room that gives you. You can find 4GB class 6 SD cards on sale at <$10. Luck; Ken Last edited by Ken Maltby; 08-12-2011 at 12:49 AM.

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08-04-2011, 05:29 AM	#16
DebbyS Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 1472692 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Albuquerque, NM Device: Jetbook Lite; Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)	Thanks for that info! Note that as a newbie to ebooks and ebook readers (and I don't have or need even a cell phone), I don't know anything about "Adobe Reader Mobile", but if its name accurately describes what it does, that will be good as I use regular Adobe Reader on various computers. "Fit Width" will probably be what I'll use most often, and "The scrolling is not a smooth function like on a computer screen, but jumps a displayed portion worth at a time", I can live with a jump as long as I'm not denied any parts of a page. The width of the screen of the JBL seems to be about as wide as an average paperback book, too. I think you've helped me decide on my project for my upcoming vacation -- track down a local seller of Jetbook Lite (or if I can't fine one before my vacation, I'll order it on line). Thanks again! I'll keep watching for your tips and tricks

08-04-2011, 08:11 AM	#17
DebbyS Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 1472692 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Albuquerque, NM Device: Jetbook Lite; Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)	Being realistic, I realized I won't find the JBL here in town, so I went ahead an ordered from JR. I also ordered two 2GB SC cards. None of the reviews I read said that the device can read/use SCHC cards, which are the norm now. Has anyone tried an SCHC card in the JBL and did it recognize that kind of card and work okay with it?

08-04-2011, 10:21 AM	#19
DebbyS Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 1472692 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Albuquerque, NM Device: Jetbook Lite; Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)	Thank you, Catlady! (Cats know everything worth knowing! -- just ask 'em) I can use the two regular SD cards in my older camera, it's good to have back ups of those. I like SanDisk products, particularly their 8gb thumbdrives, so I'll purchase some SDHC cards here in town

08-04-2011, 12:28 PM	#21
DebbyS Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 1472692 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Albuquerque, NM Device: Jetbook Lite; Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)	I'll check out and print your tips, thanks! I hope you go further into FAT32. I already use rechargable batteries (AA, fortunately) in my camera, 4 in the camera and 4 to spare, because I always get a low-battery alert in the middle of someplace fabulous (be it the Balloon Fiesta here in Abq or stalking a new bird).

08-05-2011, 05:23 PM	#22
jlg432 Addict Posts: 237 Karma: 15786 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: jetBook, ALP, Pandigital 7"Color(Black+ White), Kyros MID7015a	If you are still into scanning I would consider adding a OCR program to convert the output to text. Some will even covert to a word document which can then be saved as RTF, HTML, TXT and you can even incorporate MS's reader format. From these you can create PDF files that will allow text flow. OMNIPAGE is one OCR program that I have used and it worked great. John

08-05-2011, 05:27 PM	#23
jlg432 Addict Posts: 237 Karma: 15786 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: jetBook, ALP, Pandigital 7"Color(Black+ White), Kyros MID7015a	As for batteries I would recommend the newer AA nimh series that maintain there shelflife charge for a long period of time over the older nimh series. John

08-05-2011, 09:45 PM	#24
cromag Surfin the alpha waves ~~ Posts: 26,360 Karma: 459765791 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: New Jersey Device: Jetbook Lite & Mini, Nook STR, Kobo, Hanvon N516, Kindle 2, Androids	I'll second the recommendation for "low self-discharge" batteries. The best known brand is Sanyo's Eneloop, available at Amazon.com, Costco, and some other places. And there are some other brands, but check the label to be sure they are "low self-discharge." There's a huge difference between these and conventional NiMH batteries.

08-06-2011, 01:14 PM	#26
jlg432 Addict Posts: 237 Karma: 15786 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: jetBook, ALP, Pandigital 7"Color(Black+ White), Kyros MID7015a	I also have had several Canon's - Powershot A70, A95 and now the SX20is. I also loaded up on batteries Ni-Cads at first and then NiMh but I found that the Canon was such a miser on battery power that my stand-by's would lose a lot of stored power before I would get around to using them. Now I have just two sets of the long shelf life's assigned for my SX20is. They still take the same time to charge as regular NiMh but they can sit around for a much longer time and still be near to full capacity when used. As soon as one set gets depleted I re-charge them. With the older NiMh series I would re-charge all of them the day before an outting just to make sure that I had a good set of stand-by's. The A70 bit the dust a year ago and my A95 is starting to have some issues as well but still works - just not that reliable w/re to picture quality. John

08-06-2011, 07:43 PM	#27
DebbyS Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 1472692 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Albuquerque, NM Device: Jetbook Lite; Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)	I have a 20x SX10is, which replaced a 3x A80 I haven't noticed any batteries losing stored power -- but haven't watched out for it, either. I tend to use my camera the most heavily on Sundays, when I go for walks and bird watching, and every so often the camera will warn that the batteries are low, better ask that rare bird to pause whatever it was doing while you change to a fresh set. But I expect I'll use the same batteries in the JBL when it comes... it's only been a few days -- what's the delay??? My stay-cation starts on 8/13, so it should be here by then

08-11-2011, 09:30 PM	#28
DebbyS Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 1472692 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Albuquerque, NM Device: Jetbook Lite; Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)	A brief report and a moderately brief question. My Jetbook Lite came today (8/11) about a week after I ordered it from J&R and in time for my vacation next week! I’m quite pleased with the speed of the service and plan to tell them so. I’ll also be sure to check them for other toys I need. I’ve only played a bit with the JBL and will get more into it when I have more books to put on in it, then I can also report again. I can say that due to going back about 25 pages into this thread and reading anything that seemed JBL related, I was ready for several of the challenges that came with first use. I recommend that anyone waiting for the arrival of their JBL take a look at the great resource this particular part of the forum provides. My question. I know there is only a smallish amount of room in the memory (would it be RAM? maybe "storage" is more accurate) of the JBL, and a bunch of it is taken up by free books. One can add more books to that as well. The user can also put books on a card and slip that in. It will be easier for me to put my large, home-made PDFs on the card than in that wee bit of built-in memory. But! Does the JBL, say, copy the book I want to read from the card into that wee bit of memory (or try & fail if it is too big a book) and then try (and fail) to manipulate it from that internal memory so I can read the book, or does the JBL work with the card and it’s much bigger memory? Another way to put it might be: if I have a book that is too big for the internal memory so I put it on the card... will JBL balk at that or happily work with the card? I hope this question makes sense. I scan books at a high resolution and it turns out I can read them on a large computer screen if I wish because the letters are sharp. If the book is old and turning yellow, I scan that book at gray scale and increase the contrast so the resulting pages look as much black and white as possible. However, this makes for a larger PDF than if the book were newer and the paper nearly white (and can be scanned at Black and White). My new JBL was able to show one of these latter, originally B&W scanned books pretty well, about half a page at a time once I remembered to turn off the Flow and tell it Fit to Width (which I read back around page 22 or so here . I hope JBL loves cards because I don't want to go looking for a PDF splitter or wind up buying the books in some ereader format (and spending money again on the same book).

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08-12-2011, 05:06 AM	#30
DebbyS Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 1472692 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Albuquerque, NM Device: Jetbook Lite; Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)	Thank you for easing my mind! I realized I could simply try it and see if it works , then report back here my results... so I'll do that. I failed earlier to note that when I said "big", I mean in the realm of, oh, 120 MB (thus I chuckle a bit when you report a 23MB book... I'm thinking, only 23MB!). Last night I even made a special effort to save The Bourne Supremacy in three parts, trying to make the book smaller (in a sense), but they came out to 72 megabytes each...! I know the "problem" is the way I'm scanning them (high res) and the way I'm saving them (original, medium quality), they have no choice but to be large... but if I ever have worsening eye problems and need to project such a book on a bigger screen, I'll have no trouble reading it! Hmm, maybe I should resave it smaller as a test, have two versions... and report those results, too, for others who scan...