Order Number, blog and March2008

[Halk]

Hmm, 126** means a good few hundred between yours and mine... guess I shouldn't hold my breath

[magiske]

But nice fast shipping.. Less then 24hours from shipping til I got min today..

So fare, just love it.. But could REALY use folders

/M

[binzer]

I was all dejected reading about you guys getting your Cybooks, but I just checked my email and mine shipped today (2 days early!). I also thought BoB used UPS, but they actually use USPS which means I'll get it just before I go to Hawaii now. I'm sooo excited And now I can be happy for you guys without being bitter and jealous!

For those who have got theirs already, any complaints besides no folders? How's the page-turning?

[magiske]

Page-turning is better then I expected, works just fine. Could use a 10 page skip or a goto search word.

/Mads

P.S As others have pointed out, don't panic if you ordered the std. edition. The CyBook is under the cardboard..

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Halk

Hmm, 126** means a good few hundred between yours and mine... guess I shouldn't hold my breath

Mine's 124**, but no further info been sent, as yet ..........
( though - as expected, the money's been taken )

[ottocrat]

Mine arrived too - nice fast shipping.

I'm going to post a proper review of my own in due course, but here are some quick first impressions:

- Light! Wafer thin. Too thin, possibly! But once in the (lovely) leather case it's just right.

- This is my first encounter with e-ink. I confess I'm a little disappointed. In strong light it's very good, in anything less... well, quite honestly it's not that far beyond what we had a decade ago with monochrome LCD screens. And at least my Psion 5mx was backlit.

- Speed - ouch! The low responsiveness will take some getting used to. It's a fact of life with the e-ink hardware I guess but it's not just the very slow pageturns which bother me, it's also the slow library navigation speed.

- Which brings me to my number one concern: navigation. I have a library of several hundred e-books totaling around 5gb. How on earth am I going to navigate them on the CyBook?!? This machine desperately needs a firmware update to allow directory browsing, and a title search function.

- Finally, my 4gb SD card makes it hang when inserted. This isn't good.

Anyway, all in all, I'm slightly underwhelmed, I hope it will grow on me.

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by ottocrat

I confess I'm a little disappointed. In strong light it's very good, in anything less... well, quite honestly it's not that far beyond what we had a decade ago with monochrome LCD screens. And at least my Psion 5mx was backlit.

You can read your Cybook on the beach in the full sun. You cannot read on your Psion there because it is backlit

Epaper is like real paper, you can't read in the dark

Play around with the fonts, make them bold for example. I read at home with only indirect ambient light. And I'm over 50 so my eyes need a lot of contrast. But I think it is great reading. The contrast is like that of a newspaper

[HarryT]

Read the spec! SD cards above 2GB in size are not supported. Best thing to do as far as library navigation is concerned (at least until/unless we get folder support) is to organise your books on your PC, and just have on the Gen3 those books that you're reading at the moment.

I'm astonished that you're disappointed by the screen. Everyone I show my Gen3 to has been absolutely stunned by it. There's just no comparison to a mono LCD screen.

[firstclown]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm astonished that you're disappointed by the screen. Everyone I show my Gen3 to has been absolutely stunned by it. There's just no comparison to a mono LCD screen.

I'll beg to differ on this point. I think the e-ink screen is amazing, but the XO Laptop has a monochrome mode for the screen that is amazing and, I think, a technology that could make an amazing next gen ebook. The problem with those though is battery life will not last for days on end and I think that's a respectable trade off.

Personal prefs apply, of course, but if you can get your hands on an XO, I recommend taking a look at it.

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by firstclown

I'll beg to differ on this point. I think the e-ink screen is amazing, but the XO Laptop has a monochrome mode for the screen that is amazing and, I think, a technology that could make an amazing next gen ebook.

Try to use it in full sunlight.

And oh yeah...there is another small problem

Approximate weight: 1.45KG with LiFeP battery; 1.58KG with NiMH battery;

[firstclown]

Originally Posted by Ortep

Try to use it in full sunlight.

And oh yeah...there is another small problem

Approximate weight: 1.45KG with LiFeP battery; 1.58KG with NiMH battery;

Oh, it's totally unwieldy. That's one reason I didn't use it or keep it. Also, the battery maybe lasted 2 hours. I'm not saying the XO was an amazing eBook reader, I'm saying the screen could be used in one. I did use it in sunlight and it looked great. Better resolution and more grays than an e-ink and no backlight (which I personally wouldn't want anyway).

I realize now that I'm completely off topic of the current thread. I bought a Great Point Light from the local Barnes and Noble and it works great. Just clip it on to the leather cover and it lights up the whole page. It does glare a little though.

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Point-Li...5329763&sr=8-2

[ottocrat]

Thanks for the comments. Re the SD card, that'll teach me to read the spec properly. I suspected it was a problem with the card, I went in for a 2 gig card but they were all out so I came out with a 4 gigger. I'll just take it back and try again. Good to know that this is a 'feature' not a problem...

About the screen: what can I say? As per my original comment, in strong light of course it excels, and traditional LCD screens cannot compete; unfortunately I live in Belgium so strong light is not something I come across very often! Saying it can be read on a beach in full sun is all well and good, but that's not where I use it!

I'm not saying it is like the screen on my old Psion, of course it is a completely different technology. BUT: in dim lighting, such as you get on my metro into work for example, or here in my office, the contrast is not great. Better than the Psion's, but not dramatically better. Also, despite the matte finish, reflections are a problem. I say this because people should be aware that they are not buying the equivalent of ink on paper. It's still a screen, for all the hype.

One further problem I've experienced since getting to the office with my new gadget: it won't mount as a drive under Windows XP. It mounted fine under OSX at home. Are special drivers required?

Anyway, I confess I've had this slight sense of anticlimax before when finally receiving a long-awaited gadget, and no doubt it will pass once I get stuck into using the machine as intended: to read good books.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by ottocrat

One further problem I've experienced since getting to the office with my new gadget: it won't mount as a drive under Windows XP.

Huh ?!

[ottocrat]

It is recognised and allocated a drive letter, but when I try to access it I get an error message: "Please insert a disk into drive X:"

I'm not sure what's causing this. I have no problem reading thumb drives etc on this machine...

[HarryT]

Make sure the cable is properly plugged in. Try using a different USB port. On some machines, not all the USB ports are the same, and it'll work on some and not others.