BeBook Review - really a great device...

[tompe]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

The BeBook has a different name but it is otherwise the same as the Hanlin. Support and discussions in that group are appropriate to the BeBook. There will be an organization change at some point to group products differently but the trend will be to group by manufacturer, not by brand since there are way too many brands and the expertise is the same between most of them.

So were do you discus the company that sell the product? Discus how there support is, how they answer email and so on. I have not seen that information for Bebook and I suspect it is because it does not have a sub forum and people fell that to ask such questions in the Hanlin forum is wrong.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by tompe

So were do you discus the company that sell the product? Discus how there support is, how they answer email and so on. I have not seen that information for Bebook and I suspect it is because it does not have a sub forum and people fell that to ask such questions in the Hanlin forum is wrong.

Asking any question about the BeBook in the Hanlin forum is fine. At some point the forum name will likely be changed to Jinke since they are the ones that make it. Dealer questions are generally always appropriate in the device forums. Setting up dealer forums for every dealer would be very difficult, we would end up with hundreds of forums.

Dale

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Hi orwell2k

Thanks for the review. Have you checked the real size of the PDF's you used. If you have a real A4 size PDF how does it look? You said PPT files were difficult to read and I would expect this to be true of PDF files as well if they were targeted at letter size or A4 as the majority are.

Have you tried images yet? How do they come across? how do you like the bookmark features? I do not believe the mobi font can be changed currently although it is likely the fb2 font can using Trutype fonts.

dale

PDF documents were all formatted for A4 - work documents, so I have the page settings defaulted to A4, same as printing to paper (e.g. Word doc formatted for A4 then a PDF "print" created). Same as for the PDF generated from PPT files.

Native PPT files don't read very well on the BeBook except at max zoom, but I am very surprised at how well the A4 PDFs read (such as the PDF created from the PPT file @ 1 slide per page). I have not yet tried to tailor the PDFs I create to better fit the BeBook display (e.g. using CutePDF or some such app).

And also remember I say the PDFs read well at zoom - default zoom (whole page A4) is usually hard to read; next zoom is OK (margins cropped, bottom of the page cropped so you have to page over to continue reading); max zoom at 1/2 original A4 page per screen in landscape works very well for me.

Some people will be annoyed at having to read twice as many pages in PDF, or having the device sideways, but I think it's fine, and in this mode the text is very clear, and figures are good. This doesn't bother me since eBooks are reformatted for displays and tend to have a lot more "pages" than the paper versions for the same amount of text, so I figure this is the same principle except there's no real page reformatting.

The PDF eBooks I've tried are 144mm x 230mm (~75% of A4 L x W, ~54% A4 area).

Images display quite well, albeit monochrome. In fact I was surprised at the definition possible with only 4 grey scales, but a standard photo/pic is perfectly clear. Technical diagrams (e.g. block diagrams, networks) are also quite nice on the device, as are maps. I don't find the image aspects as overly important at the moment, except for the eComic fans, but I'm sure this is one aspect of all these devices that will improve dramatically in the near future.

Bookmarking seems kind of limited (seems like only 5 per doc, but I haven't experimented yet) - usage is simple, and it seems easy to search/jump to bookmarks. I will test this feature more shortly.

The Mobi font face is internally selectable (i.e. you have a choice of 3 fonts: arial, times and IBOOKN). Arial looks best to me, but I would like to be able to try Verdana, Tahoma, Helvetica, etc. for comparison. FB2 font choice is similar, but I have to play some more to check out all the options. I'm also interested in how Russian text displays (in FB2s and other ebook formats).

Hope this helps.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

The Mobi font face is internally selectable (i.e. you have a choice of 3 fonts: arial, times and IBOOKN). Arial looks best to me, but I would like to be able to try Verdana, Tahoma, Helvetica, etc. for comparison. FB2 font choice is similar, but I have to play some more to check out all the options.

Allowing font selection for MOBI is a plus over the iLiad, which also uses the Java MoibiPocket Reader and has no easy way to change fonts for MOBI. I saw in another thread that it still uses the way to big line spacing shared by all the other Java Readers (including the Kindle).

You can put additional .ttf fonts in the Fonts directory on the SD card, see Bebook PDF font size. I assume you then need to reboot to get the new fonts. Are these selectable for FB2 and/or MOBI?

[gesit]

Originally Posted by drmathprog

Sorry if this is a dump question, but why doesn't BeBook have its own forum section like Kindle, Sony 505, Cybook, etc?

There is a forum for the bebook: mybebook.com/forum/
good luck

ham

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by cjp

Excellent review - you gave a real account of what was surprisingly good, what you and expected and it came through, and your honest account what what might be lacking (not much there though...BeBook seems to have a good deal when it comes to a Reader.)

Thanks for taking the time to be one of the first to give us a good review.

minor aspect - Does the HUGE screaming icon words "BEBOOK" on the front bother you (or any one else) at all? The design, although utilitarian and I like it for that, could be greatly enhanced by having a smaller, much smaller, tasteful logo. The EZReader seems to suffer the same GIANT logo thing too!

I don't find the logo that offensive. It may jump out at you in the photos, but it seems much more sombre in real life! Although a subtle BeBook logo with maybe just the "BE" part, somehow distinctively drawn to become as iconic as a well known apple symbol, would be nice. But as you point out the no-nonsense utilitarian design is appealing, and more importantly, seems to work well as a user.

Glad the review was of some use.

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by gesit

There is a forum for the bebook: mybebook.com/forum/
good luck

ham

Yeah, but it would be nice to have one here as well. The BeBook forum is nice, but this one has more comprehensive info for eBook users in general.

Let's see what happens once the re-org of the site is done!

[Slite]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

Yeah, but it would be nice to have one here as well. The BeBook forum is nice, but this one has more comprehensive info for eBook users in general.

Let's see what happens once the re-org of the site is done!

There is a forum for BeBook.... The Hanlin V3 forums, it's general for all rebrands...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

Strange then that you can buy a Sony TV all over EU. I wonder how Sony solved that problem when there is not so many EU wide distribution and sales channels.

I would imagine that it's the eBook store that's the issue. There appear to be legal reasons why it would be difficult for Sony to allow non-US customers to access the US Sony eBook store, so they need to set up a bookstore in countries where they release the Reader, as they've done with Waterstones in the UK. You can't expect most users to mess around for format conversion tools, so it's important to have a local source of easily-bought eBook when releasing the Reader in a country.

The benefit of a device supporting a format such as MobiPocket is that such restrictions don't apply - there are already many eBook stores which well in Mobi format to customers world-wide.

[orwell2k]

I'll answer the technical question here, and leave the political one to another reply

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Orwell,

Hi great review. Just a few comments and questions.

So, if you turn the BeBook over in the case, does the cover then open on the right side of the device? If not, I'm confused.

The case opens in the normal sense (like a book, you open the top from right to left). The confusion comes in with the clasp, which I am used to being connected to the back cover and being secured on the front cover when closed. This one is secured to the front cover and clips onto the back when closed. Hence (my) natural instinct to open the case with the back cover facing up (i.e. the clip facing up).

The BeBook comes secured on the right side when the case is open, but I have personally found that I prefer the BeBook rotated 180 degrees so it's on the left side when open (and oriented for reading). This means the case opens from the left (opposite to a "normal" book), but it places the page turn buttons on the left case edge, making it easy to hold the BeBook/case in your left hand and page turn as desired.

That seems a nice touch. I assume this is not so much so that the drives don't mount on the PC, but so that you can read while the device is charging. Is that the case if you just select to "charge battery"? Also, does this prompt display if you plug it into a mains USB charger?

Yes, when you choose charge only you can still read. When you choose connect you get a little picture of a BeBook connected to a PC, telling you you can transfer files and when you disconnect, the reader will return to normal mode (i.e. for reading).

Good question on the USB charger! I assume so, since it just detects the USB connection, not the actual PC. I guess if you happen to choose OK it will attempt to connect then give you some failure message - I will try this and let you know.

I think all the other devices do this too. What you may be thinking of is that on the CyBook if you turn it off/sleep it opens back to the library/book list rather than to the page you left of on. Both my Kindle and Sony always come back to the exact page I left off... however, I don't turn them "off".

I understand. The BeBook functions the same way. If you power down, the BeBook boots to the main bookshelf screen when you power on. When you put an SD-card in it switches automatically to that Bookshelf (you can switch back to internal memory if you wish).

The "sleep" in the BeBook seems to be the keylock function (push power button once without holding 3 secs) - in this mode the screen blanks except for the little message at the bottom saying it's in keylock. When you push the power button again, the BeBook returns to whatever page/book you were last at (assuming you haven't removed the SD-card in the meantime).

Ok... two questions to this.

1. What size page was the PDF formated for. Many PDF eBooks at not actually 8.5x11 but a smaller trade paperback page size.
2. How old are you?

How old? Not sure of the relevance, but I'm 40

The PDF sizes I used were mainly A4 (metric equivalent to US Letter 8.5 x 11, although A4 is a few mm taller and a few mm thinner). They were basically PDF prints I made of work documents, PPT slideshows, etc. The one real eBook I tested was 144mm x 230mm (~75% dimensions of A4, ~54% page area of A4)

Now a couple of questions that you didn't answer.

1. What is the font selection like?

2. What about justification, can you set Left or Full justification for all the flow able formats?

3. Are you willing to try OpenInkpot on it...? I would love to see a great review on that also. You can do it without replacing the current firmware.

1. Font selection is limited at the moment, but I haven't played with it much. It seems you can load TTF fonts in a "Fonts" directory on your SD-card, and then in the settings menu you can choose to substitute the iBook font with one of them. Depending on the reader (FB2, MOBI, etc.) you can usually choose between a couple of fonts, but I would like to see much more flexibility (e.g. load your Fonts folder and be able to choose from any of them in any reader).

2. Justification seems to be set at FULL, and I haven't seen a way to select any other. It seems to work well, although I wish you could deselect hyphenation in FB2 formats as it sometimes overdoes this. For TXT and RTF it also seems to be FULL justify, while for Word docs it seems to use LEFT justify, and again no way to change any. Strangely enough in RTF mode I noticed in the settings you can choose page orientation (i.e. you can force it to rotate to either 90, 180 or 270 degrees - could be useful, but I've only seen this in RTF).

3. I saw some info on the BeBook forum regarding OpenInkpot, and you can run a "live" version from the SD card, so I will try it soon - I'm also very interested to see how it goes. Any Open Standard is worth supporting if it does the job well!

Cheers!

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Don't ruin such a great review with such FUD. I think the above was uncalled for. Sony has released the reader in Canada, UK and soon to be France and some other European countries. It just takes time to get the device and distributors together. Face it, as much as the EU is one big happy place, there still aren't many EU wide distribution and sales channels.
***

I figure this aspect was part of my decision to choose BeBook, so why not include it in the review?

As a general observation, where did it all go wrong? DVD region coding was one of the most blatant efforts at market control by US business, and that still trickles down to effect every notebook computer owner on the planet (actually every computer owner, but notebooks are the ultimate in mobile DVD players, and yet they're region-locked - stand up for your rights and unlock them yourself, on principle, even if you never play a DVD!). As for eBooks, we hear phrases like "book distribution rights" - doesn't this smack of the same tripe justifying DVD region coding?

"Canada, US and UK" are 3 out of 192 UN member states (~1.6%). "France and some other EU countries" adds a few more to the pot (~2-3%). This low statistic hides the population and wealth distribution of those countries, of course - hence the business decision to not care about anywhere else (why market eReaders in Azerbaijan, Angola, Australia or Argentina?).

But the point is that eReaders are not an overly new concept - I've been after one for at least 5 years, and people in Europe and other regions (e.g. Asia, Australia, Latin America, Russia) have been looking for devices like this as well. Add to that the ridiculous "US only" limitations of the online stores for both Amazon and Sony eBooks (only US addresses, US credit cards, etc.), and their products become pointless outside of the little clique of "deserving" states.

I think FB2 is one of the best open eBook formats around, and it was developed in Russia (there is a huge archive of free Russian literature online), and has a sizable following there and around the world. Apps like the Haali Reader, Stanza, FBReader can view them, Book Designer 4 can convert almost any other format (including many encrypted/DRM files) to FB2 (as well as almost any other format).

Can Sony eReader or Kindle handle FB2? What about other formats? Some years back the Sony PRS-500 was available for people outside the US by ordering from China, then updating the firmware to anglicize it (menus, etc.) - what a pain. I considered it, then rejected the idea because I would have to convert everything to LRF format (or just use TXT).

I'm sure these issues will change/improve in the future, but Sony lost me years ago when they resisted all flash memory formats except their own crappy proprietary "memory stick" that was used by nobody. At least now they allow SD-cards, after how many years? When will they include other open ebook formats on their readers?

Maybe I'm wrong and should get a Sony. Maybe the BeBook is crap (I don't think so, but I'm just one voice). But Sony and others make it so damn hard to just get one that I'm happy to support someone who can deliver to me outside the US, in a reasonable time, for a reasonable price, with some hope of supporting open formats and future enhancements and development.

I do not know if BeBook will meet these future needs, but I know Sony will never do so. So I choose to support BeBook for now - if they can't keep their promises then I'll try someone else later.

[/rant]

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by Icey

Hi ! Can you tell me how the device work with Manga ( pdf format or whatever ... )
thank you !
Very nice review

Hi Icey,

Can you supply some samples of what you would like to read (or maybe a download link), and I can try them on the device.

I tried a PDF called "Kenji de Manga" which seems to be some kind of guide, and it viewed OK. The original is not great quality (nothing can be done about that) but I could read it and it looked fine. If I can try something you want to read I can give you an assessment of that.

Cheers!

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

How old? Not sure of the relevance, but I'm 40

I ask because now that I am in my 40s what was "perfectly readable" when I was 25 is now, not so much. Since "perfectly readable" is subjective I was curious how old your eyes were. I wasn't being disparaging.

BOb

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I ask because now that I am in my 40s what was "perfectly readable" when I was 25 is now, not so much. Since "perfectly readable" is subjective I was curious how old your eyes were. I wasn't being disparaging.

BOb

That's cool. But now that you explained, I too have noticed some things are not as readable as they used to be, and when I wear contacts I have more trouble accommodating objects at close range. I'm not at the reading glasses stage yet, but I guess it's a matter of time.

Given my non-perfect vision, I find the BeBook quite easy to read (as I'm sure most eInk Vizplex devices should be). I usually choose small or medium font size (i.e. setting 2 or 3 out of 5 (biggest), so not too bad yet).

Source quality for PDFs will be a determining factor in their readability regardless of age and probably device. I'm happy so far with most PDFs (A4 format and eBook size).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Icey

Hi ! Can you tell me how the device work with Manga ( pdf format or whatever ... )
thank you !
Very nice review

The Sony Reader PRS-505 or PRS-700 are the best 6" eink devices for manga because of the native 8 shades and the very good software dithering.