First Cybook reflections ..

[treadmill]

I just received my new Cybook. It was really lightweight and thin. The display looked marvellous and I thought that I had the perfect ebook reader.

BUT

When I started to read the books, I noticed that button presses required a lot of perssure. I had to grit my teeth and keep pressing the buttons. Around a couple of hours I had hand pain due to the immense pressure I had to exert just to turn a page.

All users of the Cybook can expect thumb and finger problems similar to "gamers thumb" and "blackberry thumb". The device ultimately fails because its not comfortable to use.

Hopefully bookeen allows users to remap the volume controls such that they can be used for page turning. (They're a lot easier to press) Even with this, the cybook isn't comfortable for reading.

I feel really bummed out... My $500 has been wasted...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by treadmill

When I started to read the books, I noticed that button presses required a lot of perssure. I had to grit my teeth and keep pressing the buttons. Around a couple of hours I had hand pain due to the immense pressure I had to exert just to turn a page.

There's something wrong there; it needs firm, but certainly not "immense" pressure.

[Loopy65]

Originally Posted by treadmill

I just received my new Cybook. It was really lightweight and thin. The display looked marvellous and I thought that I had the perfect ebook reader.

BUT

When I started to read the books, I noticed that button presses required a lot of perssure. I had to grit my teeth and keep pressing the buttons. Around a couple of hours I had hand pain due to the immense pressure I had to exert just to turn a page.

All users of the Cybook can expect thumb and finger problems similar to "gamers thumb" and "blackberry thumb". The device ultimately fails because its not comfortable to use.

Hopefully bookeen allows users to remap the volume controls such that they can be used for page turning. (They're a lot easier to press) Even with this, the cybook isn't comfortable for reading.

I feel really bummed out... My $500 has been wasted...

i agree that where the volume buttons are would be a better place for the page turns and also agree that you have to apply definite 'pressure' to get a page turn but as Harry says 'immense pressure' suggests that there's something wrong !!

Loopy

[HarryT]

Have you tried using both the "right" and the "down" sides of the button, to see which you find better? I find using "right" to be a lot more comfortable than "down". Both work (at least on a page with no hyperlinks).

[Krystian Galaj]

I use a pen to press the page turning buttons now, as it was hard on my fingernails.

[Loopy65]

Originally Posted by Krystian Galaj

I use a pen to press the page turning buttons now, as it was hard on my fingernails.

yikes! .. mine isn't that hard at all! .. i think i was just spoiled by the ease of page turning for the iRex during the 3 months i had it !!

Loopy

[ashalan]

Originally Posted by treadmill

When I started to read the books, I noticed that button presses required a lot of perssure. I had to grit my teeth and keep pressing the buttons. Around a couple of hours I had hand pain due to the immense pressure I had to exert just to turn a page.
...
I feel really bummed out... My $500 has been wasted...

While I wouldn't go as far as saying I wasted money (I'd buy the device again tomorrow if mine broke today ) I still have to agree with treadmill to some agree.

The page flipping experience is far from what I'd expect it to be, especially when you consider that flipping pages is the most common action. I find the button takes too much pressure to work (not immense pressure, but still too much). Also the button has pretty sharp edges (my daughter actually hurt herself trying to flip a page).

Moreover, as already discussed elsewhere, the Cybook tends to be unresponsive to page flipping button 'clicks' 1 out of 10 times. Sure, there is a way to press the button to ensure the CyBook always responds to requested paging ... but do I really want to firmly press the button down and hold it for a split second when I want to flip a page?

Also, for my taste, the position of the navigation button could have been almost anywhere on the device, but not where it is now I really never held a paper book the way the CyBook makes me hold it. Normally I position my thumbs along the edges of the pages, the remaining fingers behind the book, or I cradle the book in hand with the thumb at the bottom and the remaning fingers at the top. But then, I guess that part if a matter of personal preference.

Apart from page flipping I am a VERY happy new CyBook user and in the office today the device got quite a few Oohhs and Ahhs and 'Where did you get that and how much did it cost?'

[treadmill]

I'm gonna try the pen technique just mentioned. I'm also thinking about using a coin (or some other thing for leverage).

It would really be great if we could somehow configure the centre button to do the page flipping. The page flipping button is what we need to push the most, so the centre button would work best. [B](Lets all email bookeen on this one)

And you know what else would work? Some kind of auto page turning feature. If we could set the reader to turn pages every 5 or 6 pages. (Kinda like the slideshow feature thats already present)

I've had friends who've gotten blackberry thumb and that was just by pressing the buttons on a cellphone (which are much easier to press).... Trust me, you guys need to watch out for thumb injuries.

And if anyone has tips on making page turning easier (like the pen technique), please share !

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by treadmill

Hopefully bookeen allows users to remap the volume controls such that they can be used for page turning. (They're a lot easier to press)

Based on the manual, it seems that the 4 keys in the "left view" are ripe for remapping. At a minimum "delete file (not available)" should be changed to page forward.

[thydere]

Got my Cybook too.

Though I never had an eBook device before and don't know people who own those for comparison with other devices, I feel that I made the right choice with this one.

I like both the Design of the device and the placement of the Buttons (it's exactly the way I hold books when im sitting lazily on my couch ) - though I agree that the navigation button could have been much nicer if it had been one of those found on Mobile Phones or Playstationcontrollers - and turning the delete button into a shortkey to the bookmark menu would also be appreciated. I don't mind the plastic outlet - though it is pretty lose on the left button side thus resulting in creaks when holding it there.
The supported file types include the ones I require - I prefer html as it is the one easiest to convert and reuse, though it would be nice if Bookeen would support more elements, as neither toc support (by parsing the h1-6 elements) nor metatags (html intrinsic, dublin core) are supported at the time being.

So far I've read a whole day nonstop on the device without any eye problems I usually get when reading digital text. This alone, though it is more a benefit of the used eInk display than the Cybook itself, is worth it!

However I discovered some problems. One of ten page turns the device does not actually turns the page although it does process something as can be seen by the green activity light. Pressing the page turn button again will then do the trick (is that the same problem You discovered, ashalan?).
At the beginning I've changed the fonts several times to see whether I actually like a serif or sans-serif font better. This behaviour (after 3 or four repeated changes) lead to a crashing of the device in that the display froze at the last displayed screen and the device was definitely off (no button response pressing the power button resulted in the startup process). This is reproducible (deleting the font cache doesn't help).
Sometimes the device does not remember the last read page when jumping into the library and back. Over a period of several hours the last remembered page did not change - no matter to which page (first, last, inbetween,...) I turned. However after an irreproducible crash while turning pages it worked again.
These problems might only be related to html pages since so far I've read content in that format only.

The device also does not remember its Flashing Refresh setting. I prefer the no refresh setting since the remaining text fragments kind of feel like reading a real book or a newspaper with thin or semi-translucent pages, but I have to reset this setting every time since its set to on the next time I power the Cybook off and on again.

However after my initial play and discover period and once I switched to reading, I was pleased with the Cybook. I think it is a pretty good device - and will become even better, once Bookeen improves the stability and adds some more features to its html part (toc generation from structure elements, display of current page, metadata, ...).

Besides: is there a possibility to zoom in/out when viewing pictures?

[ashalan]

Originally Posted by thydere

However I discovered some problems. One of ten page turns the device does not actually turns the page although it does process something as can be seen by the green activity light. Pressing the page turn button again will then do the trick (is that the same problem You discovered, ashalan?).

Yup. There is a whole thread talking about this by the way, which you can find here : https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16456

I found pressing the button firmly down and holding it for a split second always works. Yet, as I mentioned, it's not exactly the way I would want it to be ... can't have everything, can I?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by thydere

Besides: is there a possibility to zoom in/out when viewing pictures?

Not at the moment; hopefully they'll add an "image mode" for zooming/panning images like the PDA and desktop versions of the Mobi reader have.

[leeloo]

It's very small, very light, and very, very cool. It was easy to load the 50-odd books I had accumulated while waiting, using VMWare Fusion on my Mac Mini to run the MobiPocket desktop software. The library looks quite cool, although navigating through hundreds of items would be a pain.

In order to turn a page it does require a solid, prolonged press of the quite firm button. I noticed that at first I was very tense when holding the Cybook, which made my thumb tire out. But when I made myself relax (it really is very, very light, so needs virtually no effort to hold) turning pages became almost unconscious. (The machine does seem to get into a state sometimes where the press is acknowledged -- the green light goes on -- but not enough to actually turn the page.)

Indeed, my highest praise is that it is possible to forget the medium entirely and concentrate on the message -- it seems just as easy (maybe even easier) to become engrossed in a book on the Cybook as with its dead-tree counterpart.

I very much look forward to taking the Cybook with me when I travel, no longer leaving me prey to the quality of bookshops (and time to visit them) at my destination. And being able to hold my new son in one arm and the Cybook in the other hand and read comfortably is marvelous (:

[Moonraker]

My first impressions of the Gen 3 are very favourable - apart from a sore thumb. In just 30 mins of reading my thumb was hurting and I knew I wouldn't be happy until I got it sorted.

My solution was to use a chisel-shaped ink eraser. This is firm enough to press the page forward button without damaging the device.

Another thing I noticed was that the page was whiter with better contrast than that of my iLiad. The iLiad is a first generation device and has had long daily use since I got it.

I am very pleased with the way HTML files flow nicely even though they cannot display images yet.

[Barcey]

I've noticed that the page forward button on my has worn in over time. I'm not sure if others have the same experience. After reading the first day my thumb was a little sore but now I don't even notice it. I don't think it takes more pressure to push the button then clicking the spring on a pen. I certainly never had the kind of experience that treadmill is describing though. Sounds like a button defect.