Has anyone bought a Jetbook Lite?

[marcosv]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I'm curious how it handles "support of DRM format through Barnes & Nobles". Does anyone know?

I bought one during that NewEgg special. It works with the *.pdb files where you enter your name and credit card info. Tried books from eReader and Fictionwise. Bought a book on the www.bn.com site and it worked as well.

Big problem: that annoying possibility that you get words/a line truncated at the beginning/end of a screen page when the font isn't small enough to display the whole page. I'm sure Etaco will fax then soon (fingers crossed).

I kinda like the Jetbook Lite's interface. You can easily toggle between landscape/portrait modes with a dedicated button. The shiny page forward/back buttons at the lower left corner work great. Using the left/right arrow keys to page back/forward within long lists of items is really nice too.

The LCD nature of the screen isn't as nice as a eInk display (compared the JetBook Lite with my friend's Sony 503), but, it's good enough.

I've decided to cancel my Nook order. What's the point in buying a Nook at full price when the JetBook Lite might just work out for now?

I'm wondering if the Jetbook Lite will ever support the Barnes & Noble EPub DRM scheme or other EPub DRM schemes.

[sherryk_us]

I just got my new jetbook lite. I bought it on a whim because it reads the secure ereader books at Fictionwise and I have a lot of micropay dollars. So many that I used them to buy the reader and still had a lot left over. The reader does work with those drmed books, but entering my name and credit card number for each new book means I won't make that my default format.

It reads epub nicely so far as well as html--web pages I've saved, for example.

I love the way it fits in the hand and the page turns are great for a leftie like me. I also like the screen. I know opinions vary on this, but I think the screen contrast is better than my Sony 505 screen or my husband's Kindle. In addition, it has several font size options easily selected and a dictionary (thank you, God!). This may become my favorite reader. I feel bad in a way because I paid way more for the Sony 505 and really thought about the purchase, but this reader I bought on a whim is really great!

[leequick1]

Originally Posted by sherryk_us

entering my name and credit card number for each new book means I won't make that my default format.

I was wondering what I was doing wrong. Now I just went back and read what it wanted, actually did it and I am in. So thank you,

I have 4 ereader ebook readers, Nook, Palm, iPhone and the jetbook. Three mobi readers, Cybook, Palm and iPhone. I find the Rocket/rb1100 readers, the Jetbook to be the most comfortable, with the Nook right after the the Jetbook. Cybook is the most uncomfortable of all to use, difficult to hold because it is on made for righties, the most difficult to change pages due to the placement of the control and the strength needed to push the damn thing.
For speed the Nook is right up there with the speed of the rest, except the Cybook is the pits, so so very slow, I have to push the page forward button the sentence before I am ready to change page.

[sherryk_us]

I'm glad my musings helped. I consider it a bit of a pain to have to input all those numbers for each new book. And when you first see the screen it's not entirely clear how to do the inputting.

BTW, maybe this question is in the wrong place, but does anyone know if you remove the sd cards while the reader is on or off? I put it in while it was on and it seemed happy, but then I went out today and bought a sinful amount of memory on a new card and I'm wondering if I need to take the old one out while the jetbook is off or on?

Thanks.

Sherry

[Kris777]

Originally Posted by sherryk_us

I'm glad my musings helped. I consider it a bit of a pain to have to input all those numbers for each new book. And when you first see the screen it's not entirely clear how to do the inputting.

BTW, maybe this question is in the wrong place, but does anyone know if you remove the sd cards while the reader is on or off? I put it in while it was on and it seemed happy, but then I went out today and bought a sinful amount of memory on a new card and I'm wondering if I need to take the old one out while the jetbook is off or on?

Thanks.

Sherry

I'm usually remove and insert my SD cards with ebooks when jetBook is ON.
jetBook remove or add folders from my SD card very quickly.


I do the same for both jetBook and jetBook-Lite.

[sherryk_us]

Thanks Kris!

Sherry

[kirbinster]

Just ordered one from Newegg on Thursday evening for my wife and it came today (saturday) with their free shipping. She loves its, can't believe how sharp and crisp the display is.

[Speedy eReader]

Hi Everyone:

I am really impressed with the level of knowledge of most of the Mobile Read forum members here. A few people could even earn the title “expert”. That is why I know this is the right place for finding answers. Why not share what you have learned by writing a review or article about the Ectaco Jetbook?

Our e-Reader page is looking for twenty more reviews on all the popular models so we could use your help. You can find reviews & more on the Kindle 2, Kindle DX, Nook, Sony Pocket, eSlick & Pocketbook 360: http://bit.ly/6fvuf1

[Kris777]

You can find the latest jetBook-Lite reviews here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16858723010

[AdamGott]

My wife seems to enjoy hers. It is a lot easier if you remove the DRM (but we can't do that here in the USA because it is illegal) and then you don't have to mess with trying to enter you cc# and name.

[DJHARKAVY]

With the new firmware update (.15), you only need to enter it once.

[Thundergirls]

I also took advantage of the newegg pricing, and even with the DHL handoff to the post office (free shipping) it arrived in less than a week.

Mine is software version 14i with patch v15.

The readability is great, you don't need a lot of light but you do need a light source. Even lamp bouncing off the ceiling makes it very visible without strain.

About 90 MB of the internal 100MB memory was used with public domain books. Most of them are available to me anyway via my ebookmall account, so I may delete them in order to keep my favorite books available. I do have a dedicated 1 GB SD card which could take quite a while to even begin to fill up.

My eReader books from Fictionwise had a very low font size, I don't have really bad vision, but I might get it if I tried to read this. A flaw, perhaps not on the part of the book but the DRM format that the font size is apparently disabled.

I've converted a lot of books in my library to the epub format, and I finally get why that's so popular. Even images showed up in epub versions, where mobi versions didn't show them on the Jetbook. Call me old-fashioned, I like being able to see the cover of the book before I start to read it. Most of my converted epub files also seemed a little smaller than their counterparts (mobi, ereader).

Holding the book is a delight. It's not at all awkward. Turning pages is easy too, there's the page button on the lower left, the 4-way on the right that gives left-right (back-forward) turning, plus the somewhat flimsy sliding piece on the left. I plan on NOT using that a lot, seems like it could break easily.

The device is really light-weight, and while at $150 (or $119 if you shopped well) it may be a good competition for Kindle and Nook, it still seems more like an $89 reader. And in truth, I think over time we'll see more ereaders in the under $100 range, which will allow more and more people to get in to the world of digital books.

The pages turn quickly and the search function is REALLY fast. I've used it to substitute for a linked Table of Contents.

DRM is of course a bit of controversy. But when you consider the amount of pirated books that are freely offered on the net via file sharing sites and torrents, it is completely understandable to me that publishers want to protect their market. I also make my living with "intellectual property," and it's most disheartening to see your hard work (and paycheck) being given away by those who cannot respect the creators of the materials they appear to enjoy.

The credit-card DRM worked fine on my Jetbook, but I did have to enter it every time for every book, unlike my eReader on my PC that only requested it once, and then all the other books that were bought with that same credit card were recognized without issue.

A downside of the Jetbook is the inability to follow table of contents. This is a pretty useful element of ebook reading, and all my mobi books with a TOC have worked fine on all my readers, PC, PDA, and Blackberry.

Oh, an interesting and slightly off-topic note; I've found Blackberry 8703e units from ebay for about $30, and you can load Mobireader onto them from your PC's Reader software. I keep my BB loaded with all my new purchases, it's a great, cheap way to get an ereader, and the battery life is great, and can be charged via USB.

Back to the Jetbook, I have respect for the manufacturer, and appreciate the simplicity of it, no wifi, no 3g, no mp3. It's for reading books.

The final limitation of the Jetbook, which seems to be that of all the readers, is that PDF files aren't all that easy to view. The zoom feature allows you to make a portion of the page bigger, but not to increase the file size. I've acquired some PDF books in the past, and even on a laptop they aren't nearly as easy to read as a Mobi or even an MS Reader book. Too bad they are probably the future standard of textbooks, manuals, and medical journals. Epub is MUCH better.

Ideally though, it's an ereader for those of us that have a bit of skill with reformatting (read into that what you will) in order to optimize our purchases while respecting copyright. I've never "shared" a book I've purchased yet, but I have taken steps to make the book usable to me, so I can read on whatever device I'm in the mood for.

If you only planned on using it for DRM books, it might be a bit of a disappointment. But for the vast amount of public domain books, it's quite a neat piece of hardware. DRM is the only thing that limits its performance, and can you really blame the device for that?

I also am awaiting a NOOK (est. ship of 2/12) and it will be interesting to see, from a plain usability viewpoint, just how much more bang for the buck is included for twice the price. But I have no problems recommending the Jetbook Lite to anyone with the skills and time to use programs like Convert Lit and Calibre to get the most out of their purchases.

[Linda!]

WOW! Excellent review, Thundergirls! I learned a lot about the JBL from it.

[DaleDe]

Update to 15 to end the need to enter the number over and over.

[P.X. Fort]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Update to 15 to end the need to enter the number over and over.

He did mention that it has "...software version 14i with patch v15..." So does this mean it has 1.5. If so he still needs to enter the cc# every time