Gen3 What do you love/hate about your Cybook - G3?

[etherspin]

love screen,form factor, font capability,battery, calibre options,format support.
hate : button feel & placement, lack of folders / other library views, hate dead buttons like the delete one.

[K-Thom]

love: it's doing what it's supposed to do, and it's doing it nicely

hate: the position and form of that navigational button! My Rocket eBook was three times the weight of the Gen3 but it was much easier to hold it with one hand and open a new page!

Folders? Don't get me started on that one ...

[Godzil]

Hate ? Nothing

Dislike ?
- Function button placement (on the left and the right)
- The 5way button is on the right, I prefer it on the left (even if i'm officialy right handed, I hold my Cybook with the left hand)
- Some bad blocks (for windows) in the Flash area that led to strange bug/freeze
- Font menu is broken if you put more than 15 fonts
- Mobipocket SDK bugs
- Screen fragility (but it's true for ALL device, and especialy the biggers one)
- The Delete button that have no use... It should be used for anything the user want on actual functionalities

Love ?
- Reactivity (yes I found my cybook more reactive than other devices I used)
- Font management (I love to have Monaco 9pt (my prefered fixed size font)) and putting any strange font I have
- Battery life
- The Boot screen (just joking I will love to change it with mine personalized)
- 5/10/20 book/page library view
- Cover display on each views
- The hability to remove the flash effect
- Everything can be done (or nearly) with only the 5way button!

Neutral:
- I WANT ePub! (folder is a bonus, but not a showstopper)

[K-Thom]

The ability to remove the flash effect

Godzil, what is your experience with the ghosting effect when turning "flashing" off? How long is the previous screen visible? Does it have a lasting effect, especially when used over a long period of time?

[Godzil]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

Godzil, what is your experience with the ghosting effect when turning "flashing" off?

How long is the previous screen visible?

Ghosting, with or without flash is an eInk "feature", the flash is here to have the least ghosting as possible, but it's still here, and it really depend on the differents images you display (by image it can be books or real images like JPEG)

If the contract change a lot the ghosting will be the most visible, and a flash is almost necessary. If you just turn page, you may notice the old text, but it's not so visible. I already readed 50/100 pages of a book without the flash and without having to much ghost that can render the reading impossible.

Does it have a lasting effect, especially when used over a long period of time?

The ghosting is *NOT* a permanent thing and since globaly the same pixel changes with page turn the ghost is really light with text. For picture it's not the same beast, and it's really visible when you display/hide the menu.

[tompe]

Personally I think the battery life is very bad since it is only 3-4 days with the Cybook on all the time and I very often forget to charge it in time.

[Idoine]

For the battery, I think personally it would be best to count in reading hours, not days.
It's not rare I spend 3 to 6 hours reading, several days in succession, and then, when I need to go out, I recharge it to avoid a freeze at the wrong moment !

[Godzil]

I didn't remember the last time I charged my Cybook, but it was a least more than one week. I don't read each day, but I always read by 30min sessions if it's in a week day or largely more during night or weekend, and the battery is actualy between 30% and 40%. I can't says the real read time since the last recharge, but it is more than 6 hours.

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by tompe

Personally I think the battery life is very bad since it is only 3-4 days with the Cybook on all the time and I very often forget to charge it in time.

You will get 4-5 days if you switch it off during the night. And if you make it a habit to plug the charger in every night, it will keep you going forever. You can even forget it 2 days in a row

The battery life is more than enough for most people. I don't even carry a charger if I'm on a trip that is less than a week. But then again: I switch it off during the night and I switch it off if I know I won't be using it for more than an hour. For example a 4 hour drive in a car or during the hours that I work. That is more or less the same with the lights in my house and the heating. If I don't need them, I switch them off.

The 40 seconds boot time is no problem for me. If I want to read I push the button, grab a cup of coffee or a beer and walk to my chair. I can start reading as soon as I sit.

Originally Posted by Idoine

For the battery, I think personally it would be best to count in reading hours, not days.
It's not rare I spend 3 to 6 hours reading, several days in succession, and then, when I need to go out, I recharge it to avoid a freeze at the wrong moment !

It is not exactly reading hours but also page turns. Keeping the same page will give you days. But turning as fast as you van will give you probably 1 hour.

The marketing guys tell you batterylife is 8000 page turns. Real life is probably 7000. A normal page turn is actually 2 flashes. Sou you can read 3500 pages. It will take you about 1 sec to go to the next page. That is about 1 hour.

There is of course also a (small) power drain just to keep it active so you wont actually read 3500 pages with one charge

[gerraldo]

Originally Posted by Ortep

The marketing guys tell you batterylife is 8000 page turns. Real life is probably 7000. A page turn is 2 flashes. Sou you can read 3500 pages. It will take you about 1 sec to go to the next page. That is about 1 hour.

Ther is of course also a (small) power drain just to keep it active so you wont actually read 3500 pages with one charge

No, it's 7001 pages. They promise 8000 page turns, you say in real life it's 7000, so you can read 7001 pages... (no need to half anything and why even bring in the flashes???)

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by gerraldo

No, it's 7001 pages. They promise 8000 page turns, you say in real life it's 7000, so you can read 7001 pages... (no need to half anything and why even bring in the flashes???)

Because when you press 'next' page it is actualy 2 pages. The first one is the flash, the second one is the real page. You only see the end result, but the screen is refreshed twice. It does not matter that you cannot read what's in between. It still usses the same amount of power to do it
If you switch of the flash you will get more reading time, but also some ghosting

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Ortep

You will get 4-5 days if you switch it off during the night. And if you make it a habit to plug the charger in every night, it will keep you going forever. You can even forget it 2 days in a row

I do not think you should have to do this and it would work badly since I would forgot to put the Cybook in my bag in the morning a lot.

Of course you can work around limitations. My point was that the current battery time is very bad compared to other readers.

[Godzil]

Originally Posted by Ortep

Because when you press 'next' page it is actualy 2 pages. The first one is the flash, the second one is the real page. You only see the end result, but the screen is refreshed twice. It does not matter that you cannot read what's in between. It still usses the same amount of power to do it
If you switch of the flash you will get more reading time, but also some ghosting

Nope, the flash is taken account in the "page turn" value, and it will not take more power with or without the "flash". (The waveform with and without have the nearly the same time of execution and the fact that the screen become black or white will change nothing in the power usage)

And the "flash" is a one pass process not a two pass

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by Godzil

And the "flash" is a one pass process not a two pass

You can switch it off. So there must be a diffence.

As far as I know any page change cost the same amount of energy. It is the build-up of the static charge to rotate the pigment that costs energy.

http://www.eink.com/technology/howitworks.html

During a flash the page is completey turned to another colour (Black or white) After that process the new page is displayed. To me that sounds like two changes: Negate wat was on screen and display something new

[Godzil]

Originally Posted by Ortep

You can switch it off. So there must be a diffence.

Yes there are a difference:
- Higher ghosting
- Some people dislike the flash effect

and, I reread the documentation on the Appolo chipset and Epson S1D1532 chip PVI didn't give anything about waveform for the appolo, but epson say that without flash and with flash the gray waveform have the same display time (around 800ms @ 25°C)