Monday, May 5 Martha Stewart Show » Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos

[Kingston]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Kingston,

I have owned all the devices (except the Kindle, which I can't buy) which is why I feel able to make meaningful comparisons. I don't "worry" about my Gen3 - I'm sorry to hear that you do.

I fail to see any mention of me 'worrying' about my Cybook in my posts, but that proves my point. You are blissfully unaware of the very serious deficiencies of the Cybook when compared to all the other current devices.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thanks, I will!

Over to you, Kingston. Given the existance of this Mobi bug, why do you want page numbers? What are you going to use them for?

One of the methods used by politicians in this country and also over the pond is to change the subject when one is obviously wrong.

I could care two hoots and a holler about Mobireader. Until recently I did not even have a Windows computer, and I only used Mobireader (6.0) to get the PID's for my 2 Kindles.

You can talk about Mobireader if you wish, but I think readers of this board need to be informed of the problems to be had when using Cybook--problems that just don't exist with other dedicated ereader devices because they have undergone extensive user testing. Apparently Bookeen skips such testing as unnecessary. I hope you are not advising them to do so.

I was discussing the relative merits of ereading devices, the problems with Mobireader do not concern me and they are not relevant to what we were discussing before you changed the topic. If you re-read my post I explained that I read the same book on different devices. With those having some sort of numeric labeling system I can get within 6-8 page turns of where I am on the other devices---the other devices that are not Cybook.

With Cybook it can take 3-5 minutes or more to find the exact spot. I don't expect Kindle, Iliad or Sony to find my place spot on, but they do quickly get me very close to where I left off. With Cybook it is fishing in the dark.



So let's stay on topic.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Kingston

I fail to see any mention of me 'worrying' about my Cybook in my posts, but that proves my point. You are blissfully unaware of the very serious deficiencies of the Cybook when compared to all the other current devices.

You said:

Cybook is an ok reader but a device costing near $400 should be worry free....something Cybook definitely ain't!

I interpreted that as meaning that you worried about your Gen3. My apologies if I understood you.

Could I ask what the "very serious deficiencies" are that you consider the CyBook to have? The only thing I've ever encountered which could remotely be considered a bug is the fact that it very occasionally misses a key press when you want to turn a page, and you have to press the button again to make it register. I don't consider that to be a significant problem. I know that some people have had issues with bookmarks and lost positions in books, but I have not experienced any of these issues with my machine.

One of the methods used by politicians in this country and also over the pond is to change the subject when one is obviously wrong.

I could care two hoots and a holler about Mobireader. Until recently I did not even have a Windows computer, and I only used Mobireader (6.0) to get the PID's for my 2 Kindles.

You can talk about Mobireader if you wish, but I think readers of this board need to be informed of the problems to be had when using Cybook--problems that just don't exist with other dedicated ereader devices because they have undergone extensive user testing. Apparently Bookeen skips such testing as unnecessary. I hope you are not advising them to do so.

You asked "why doesn't the CyBook display page numbers?". I gave you a very good reason why it doesn't - perhaps you overlooked that? The reason I suggested that it doesn't is that there is a major bug with page numbers in the MobiPocket Reader "engine". This is the reading "engine" that's in the CyBook's firmware and which it uses to display books.

I was discussing the relative merits of ereading devices, the problems with Mobireader do not concern me and they are not relevant to what we were discussing before you changed the topic.

Yes, they were entirely relevent - MobiPocket Reader is the "reading engine" that's in the CyBook's firmware. You were saying that you wanted the ability to jump to a page number. I told you that this could not be reliably done on any MobiPocket device because of the bug which is present on ALL devices which use MobiPocket - including the CyBook. I suggested a method - using the Windows Mobi reader - using which you could easily see the effects of this bug for yourself. You may wish to try what I suggested and you'll see just how completely unreliable page numbers are on ALL MobiPocket devices including the CyBook.

So let's stay on topic.

With the greatest respect, we are staying on topic. We were discussing the issue of page numbers. I was describing a bug in the MobiPocket reader which affects page numbers on every device which implements the MobiPocket reader, including the CyBook.

[Kingston]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You were saying that you wanted the ability to jump to a page number. I told you that this could not be reliably done on any MobiPocket device because of the bug which is present on ALL devices which use MobiPocket - including the CyBook. I suggested a method - using the Windows Mobi reader - using which you could easily see the effects of this bug for yourself. You may wish to try what I suggested and you'll see just how completely unreliable page numbers are on ALL MobiPocket devices including the CyBook

<sigh> Now I know how Alice felt conversing with the Jabberwocky.

I can reliably jump to a page number on any other of my devices which use MobiPocket, including the Iliad and Kindle. You saying it ain't so does not in any way make it not so. It's just a fact of life, easily verifiable by any user who has one of those devices.

Again, I think Cybook has shortchanged we, the users, by not including this feature in their software.

I feel we are in some endless loop where I post back to you and you just don't 'get' it.

Capice?

[HarryT]

If you have 5 minutes free at some point, would you mind trying the little experiment that I described on the iLiad, please? The iLiad certainly exhibited the bug I described at the time that I sold mine. I would be interested to know if they've fixed it in the latest o/s release.

Yes, I know it doesn't happen on the Kindle. I don't know what the "units" that the Kindle numbers are (paragraphs?), but they aren't pages. The Mobi reader bug is specifically a paging bug.

[Kingston]

I just tried your experiment on the Iliad. I chose page 201 in a book, zipped all around the book.

Went back to 201 and bingo, same page as before.

[HarryT]

Sounds as though iRex have fixed the bug in the iLiad version of the Mobi reader. Good news - thanks for testing it!

What happened previously is that you'd get as far as page 201 by paging through the book from the start (as I assume you did), then later do a "goto page 201" and end up somewhere different. "Goto" is consistent - you'll always end up at the same point in the book with a "Goto page 201" - but it's a completely different place to the point that shows as page 201 if you go through the book a page at a time from the start.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you have 5 minutes free at some point, would you mind trying the little experiment that I described on the iLiad, please? The iLiad certainly exhibited the bug I described at the time that I sold mine. I would be interested to know if they've fixed it in the latest o/s release.

Yes, I know it doesn't happen on the Kindle. I don't know what the "units" that the Kindle numbers are (paragraphs?), but they aren't pages. The Mobi reader bug is specifically a paging bug.

Kindle uses 128 bytes (characters) as a unit of measure. This means every actual page is a range of numbers.

Dale

[Kingston]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sounds as though iRex have fixed the bug in the iLiad version of the Mobi reader. Good news - thanks for testing it!

What happened previously is that you'd get as far as page 201 by paging through the book from the start (as I assume you did), then later do a "goto page 201" and end up somewhere different. "Goto" is consistent - you'll always end up at the same point in the book with a "Goto page 201" - but it's a completely different place to the point that shows as page 201 if you go through the book a page at a time from the start.

To get back to my main point, by using the page readout in Iliad or Sony or whatever I can extrapolate where (or about where) the same place is in the Cybook and use the utility, ie. GoTo page 201.

Cybook needs to display the page numbers so myself and others can quickly find a place. Whether or not it is spot on, at least let me get close to my designated place. As it is now, I need another device which DOES display page numbers as an adjunct to using the Cybook.

If you have some pull with Bookeen, I hope you will use it Harry to urge them to include page display in the next upgrade.

__________________________________________________ ______________
Now, can we talk about something else?

With your powers of obsfucation you should run for Parliament!!!


[Definition: 1. obsfucation

To totally obscure with non-germane information in a verbose manner, with the intent to provide a non-answer, and provide total befuddlement.
Any politician worth his salt is an artist in obsfucation.

Government bureaucrats are masters of obsfucatory behavior.]

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Kingston

If you have some pull with Bookeen, ...

Sadly not!