Augen "The Book" is a Orphan

[Metal Mick]

Originally Posted by RadioMan52

<snip>
Still love my TB's,found a interesting quirk if you open a book then go back and go to start playing a mp3 file than go back and start reading the book again you have audio in the background.
Makes me happy.
Regards.
Radioman52

Hi RM52, et al,

interesting - and I wonder if it is intentional?

I hooked up a cheap pair of buds to it and found that the music was far too loud, even on the lowest setting, so better quality 'phones with an inline volume control thingy would be the go.

I am still fairly happy with my TB - I haven't even bothered with anything other than the reader tools on it, except for the mp3 player. I'd be a lot happier if the files I fed it had some semblance of consistency: I'm working my way through Lee Child's books, downloaded from my library, and each has had different formatting so far. I'm up to #6...

But now that I know ereaders are for me (and my family), I can look into a high-end device, or at least one that has a company that supports it.

Cheers,

[brennivin]

Originally Posted by RadioMan52

Still love my TB's,found a interesting quirk if you open a book then go back and go to start playing a mp3 file than go back and start reading the book again you have audio in the background.
Makes me happy.
Regards.
Radioman52

Not 100% certain, but I believe that's an intentional thing.

Regardless, one thing I found about playing music while reading ... whether you start the book, and then music, or music then book, you need to use the "back" button to navigate between the two. And not the "home" button, that'll stop the music playback. Just a tip

[mkvlli]

Hi!!! New to forum. I bought my TB from Kmart back in August while browsing the store to spend the money that was burning a hole in my pocket. Even though I'm not green when it comes to tech(I have three laptops/netbooks that I repaired/customized), I haven't had the pleasure of an e-reader. While I wasn't looking to spend $200-plus on a device I may not like, the price for TB seemed reasonable for the featues it promised.

In November, I got a Dell Streak. It has e-reader capabilities, and has since replaced the TB as my reader. But I still liked the TB, and since I didn't want the purchase to be in vain, I repurposed the TB by filling it with recipes and constructing a stand for it to sit in my kitchen. It sits in the portrait position up high enough to plug in power and speaker cords. I sometimes display a picture while I listen to music, although I wish it could slideshow pics. And if I want to watch a movie/clip, I just turn it on its side to landscape.

I haven't used it for anything else since I got the Streak, but would gladly use it for other purposes...

Its just sad that Augen is not supporting this device anymore...

[protheus]

Originally Posted by mkvlli

Its just sad that Augen is not supporting this device anymore...

I'm still skeptical that they're not. I've seen no word from Augen on the matter (maybe I missed it...); just some people who think that if they wanted to keep selling it, they couldn't possibly ignore firmware problems for so long. This may be a bad assumption.

Chris

[Dorlys]

Hello mkvlli,
Thanks for the great idea about the recipes! I am going to try it.
Thanks again to everyone for their comments. This is such a polite forum and people are so helpful.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Dorlys

[The QCC]

No, The Book is not an orphan. It is selling well enough on Amazon.com at a higher price than when introduced at K-Mart.

The Book may be a cheap alternative to more expensive readers, but if reading is what you want to do then The Book does the job.

It's not e-ink, so outdoor viewing is questionable.
It's not a fast book loader, but page turns are fast.
It's wide and a bit heavy, but manageable.
It's got this wonderful little joystick to move from page to page.
It's support by Calibre is OK (sort of), so book management is relatively easy.
It's supported by Adobe Digital Editions, so buying books is easy.

What The Book is not is a Wi-Fi hero. The method of reconnecting to a Wi-Fi access point is crude. The browser speed is good only for the Google home page to search for crossword puzzle answers.

The actual Wi-Fi range is about 12-15m.

And the Mobileread.com site actually looks like the site as seen in a real browser.
The second big problem with the browser is the inability to rotate the screen and see the whole width of a page.

Watching movies and listening to music is possible, but why buy an ebook reader for tasks better suited to a large screen and decent speakers.

Yes, I do have The Book. I use it for reading.

Carl

[brennivin]

I'd like to add one thing to Qcc's list ...

It's color, and at 7" slightly larger than the average reader (keep the dirty jokes to yourself ) so it's fairly good for reading comics (as a folder of JPGs).

[zombiehorror]

Hello all! Just throwing in my 2 cents. I was looking into an e-reader around Black Friday and happened upon The Book for $90 with a rebate of $20. I immediately did what I always do and started looking for reviews on the product; which were so-so. Well seeing as how it was cheap, color, could play music/video and came with case intact I decided to go for it! My wife and I both got one (though she hasn't really done anything with hers as of yet) and at first I was thinking I got gypped. I couldn't get an SD card to read to save my life! The internet access was worse than 56k! I ended up opening my wife's up and low & behold hers read the SD card just fine so I used hers to get mine booted up and since then have had no problem. I, like others I have seen, am using mine for e-comics though I view mine as PDF's (converted from cbr/cbz with the help of Comic Rack). The comics for the most part are smooth but some do hang up forcing you (or sometimes taking you) back to the main menu and then starting over. One solution I've found for snagging pages is to use the "GoTo Page" function located in the menu accessed near the toggle button. I have also successfully converted dvds into avi's using Winx Free DVD Ripper and they play beautifully and look as well as can be expected on the small screen...and actually if I do say so they surpassed my expectations! And though I've not really used The Book as an e-reader I do plan to at some point and I see no reason why it won't live up to that purpose!! One of the biggest things that comes in handing with The Book is patience, this is definitely not an easy plug and play device but with a little work it can be an enjoyable multi-media device!! I'd rank it around a 3 outta 5....I do wish they could work on the internet access speed!

[Madmik]

Few inputs - I ordered TB from States online (and I will never, ever, ever use cheating robbing UPS in my life), it came with updated firmware already, and besides things, which can't be fixed - as annoyingly loud clicking tough page keys and hyper-sensitive G-sensor (though this can be possibly altered in firmware), there are things which can:
1.Synch of joystick (no clicks, so I mainly use it) with G-sensor
2. Change of default font and format in settings.

Otherwise it is pretty good reader.
Another thing - I use only DRM-free files - mostly from Baen Books(Baen doesn't believe in DRM...) and their free CDs or from manybooks.net. Calibre (version which comes with device is old one, so it's better to upgrade from Calibre site) works very well with EPub files and you can tell it where put files - in memory or on SD card (reads without problems on my device...). EPub files (after font change for each file) formatting looks pretty well. Haven't tried video or MP3 yet.

[RadioMan52]

Originally Posted by The QCC

No, The Book is not an orphan. It is selling well enough on Amazon.com at a higher price than when introduced at K-Mart.

The Book may be a cheap alternative to more expensive readers, but if reading is what you want to do then The Book does the job.

It's not e-ink, so outdoor viewing is questionable.
It's not a fast book loader, but page turns are fast.
It's wide and a bit heavy, but manageable.
It's got this wonderful little joystick to move from page to page.
It's support by Calibre is OK (sort of), so book management is relatively easy.
It's supported by Adobe Digital Editions, so buying books is easy.

What The Book is not is a Wi-Fi hero. The method of reconnecting to a Wi-Fi access point is crude. The browser speed is good only for the Google home page to search for crossword puzzle answers.

The actual Wi-Fi range is about 12-15m.

And the Mobileread.com site actually looks like the site as seen in a real browser.
The second big problem with the browser is the inability to rotate the screen and see the whole width of a page.

Watching movies and listening to music is possible, but why buy an ebook reader for tasks better suited to a large screen and decent speakers.

Yes, I do have The Book. I use it for reading.

Carl

Glad that you are enjoying "The Book" I had two that I " picked up as returns from the K-Mart debacle for a very low price, used them for a few months and now they are "gifted" to my friends that are on fixed incomes and do not buy any eBooks using the crippled wifi I did set up a Calibri on their computers and they are happy campers .

AUGEN only wishes that they never made the deal to market this low cost china remake and ignore any users complaints with NO improvements except the Adobe DRM fix which was a lawsuit in the making from the mass marketers and they even blew that when they screwed up the G sensor. So lets face reality for all intents "The Book" is a orphan device and will so since no tech crew even wants to play with it.

It is a bit baffling to me that anyone in their right mind would pay more then the K-Mart price for this device.
When you can get eBook readers that run circles around the TB in the $100 range.

As a replacment for my reading use I picked up two Cruz Readers 103.V3 from Best Buy for $99 each they are full android 2.1, 533 MHz, Color 7 inch Wi-Fi that WORKS and it even has “N” connectivity has a 4 gig internal SD card and you can put in a monster external SD card on them.
It comes with the normal bevy of bloated applications one mass market (Borders)eBook applications , this being no problem since a very vibrant user community has “cooked” the Firmware so that it has full Android Market 800 MHz and I have almost every reader software that is out their on it and this for $99.

Sale is going on this week

The only item that I miss from The Book is the ability to read talk

[wdilworth]

I acquired TheBook and have had nothing but trouble getting books onto it. Mainly downloads from the library that work fine on my laptop. Based on this thread, it looks like I need a firmware update to improbe the epub reader.

With augenus.com being dead, I need to know if anyone has any idea where I can get the firmware updates for it.

my system date is 2010-10-13
AH version GH321
Adobe Reader version 9.1.28890

thanks for any help or guidance you can provide.
-Wayne

[zmm]

Does anyone have information on a eReader website that Augen (The Book) owners can use to purchase digital books and download directly onto ereader or even download from computer to eReader? I have been searching for a week and can't find any support anywhere to help answer this question. Below I have copied the following statement from Ebooksmedia.com, which was the official website to purchase ebooks for the Augen eReader. PLEASE HELP !!

As of July 1, 2011, the EbooksMedia.com has been discontinued. The ability to create new accounts or purchase content from this site has been disabled. Past customers are strongly encouraged to download and archive all previously purchased titles at this time. After August 30, 2011, titles will no longer be available for download from this site.

I confirmed with ebooks.com that they do not have a compatiable DRM copyrights for this unit/ereader and I am at a dead holt to finding any other support to help answer this question.

[The QCC]

The Book has a basic web browser. I use it to download books from my local library. The library uses the Adobe DRM system as does The Book.

You can create an account on an ebook site like Kobo and puchase books in the Adobe DRM format using The Book's web browser..

I have done both while travelling, but I prefer to use my computer and the Calibre library manager.
http://calibre-ebook.com/

Carl

[Renegad e-Reader]

WOW! Hi everyone. I realize I am a bit late to the conversation, and I am new to the "community". I don't even know if any of you nice people will even see a new post on a forum/topic this old? That said, I have read every post here, and I am sad to hear that Augen is such a consumer fraud case. I am even more disappointing in Menards (where I bought it) Like a few others here, this was my first experience w/e-readers. I bought mine on Black Friday 2010. I thought $79(plus a $20 Menards Rebate), was a "REALLY" good deal. Especially with all the features/capabilities it offered. I mean really folks, I still look at the box/packaging and think, "wow, maybe I am missing something?' But, I now have confirmation of the obvious. I, well I should say We, and countless others really got ripped off. I will say that I got it >PRIMARILY< for an e-reader, and >YES<, it does do that. I still use it for reading every night. However, I bought >THIS< one because it >OFFERED SO MUCH MORE< for the money. I want to say THANK-YOU to all who commented, I have learned a few good ideas for using it as I am going to upgrade soon. AND TO "AUGEN" I say "thank" you, for the lesson learned.

[Renegad e-Reader]

[QUOTE=zombiehorror;1342324] "successfully converted dvds into avi's using Winx Free DVD Ripper and they play beautifully and look as well as can be expected" Really? I will have to try that one. Thanks