Pogue trashes the Cool-ER

discourse · 06-01-2009, 07:45 PM

sirbruce · 06-01-2009, 08:20 PM

Ouch!

brecklundin · 06-01-2009, 08:59 PM

hehehehe...man, that was a smack-down for sure. But a lot of what the guy did not like, had to do with the mechanics of putting books on the device. And yeah, he also hated the case, the buttons and the UI...so it has to be marginal at best. Then again it is the NYT who is in bed with Amazon...still it seemed genuine and honest, and funny as can be!

Funniest to me was the number of button presses to change the font...unreal!

Gideon · 06-01-2009, 09:03 PM

Dang.... Course Harry Potter isn't on any ebook reader, but still.... dang.

I need to check out their "book store" and see if there is anything to it. Somehow I imagine it's almost all public domain stuff.

Gideon · 06-01-2009, 09:04 PM

Pogue's usually pretty straight forward. I doubt NYT's relationship with Amazon had much to do with the review, but we'll have to see when more reviews start showing up.

rixte · 06-01-2009, 09:32 PM

Definitely it raises questions about the hardware - my biggest concern is how he said the buttons were really hard to press. But most of that review was completely annoying.

I hope somebody from mobileread manages to get one soon for a slightly more comprehensive and realistic review.

discourse · 06-01-2009, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brecklundin

hehehehe...man, that was a smack-down for sure. But a lot of what the guy did not like, had to do with the mechanics of putting books on the device. And yeah, he also hated the case, the buttons and the UI...so it has to be marginal at best. Then again it is the NYT who is in bed with Amazon...still it seemed genuine and honest, and funny as can be!

Funniest to me was the number of button presses to change the font...unreal!

I love Pogue's videos but I felt his review was nitpicking a bit too much. On my cybook it takes 5 button presses to change the font size and 2 to zoom in on a pdf. You would never really do this more than once in the course of reading a book or document. He presented it as if you were forced to only buy books from their store and it is not true that you can't subscribe to magazines. There's software like Calibre that will download your magazines and format them as well as any of your documents and send them to your device for free. And what's with the Taiwan dig, the kindle is made in China.

Here's why I would get this device over the kindle

1. Smaller and lighter
2. $100 less than the kindle
3. Freedom to buy and get tons of free books and content from more than one place
4. Owning and controlling what you buy as opposed to subscribing to content

Alisa · 06-01-2009, 09:45 PM

I would like to hear more about how the books are shareable. I can share my books with up to 6 people with Kindle but I have to register them to my account. I wish I had better details about the workings, though. I've gotten the impression from other users that the license follows the Kindle and remains even if you delete that Kindle from your account and register it to a different account. A poster some time ago said he bought a used Kindle and the books from the previous owner remained even after re-registering and connecting to Amazon. I doubt he would have the ability to re-download but they weren't deleted. I haven't seen verification of this from Amazon but they have said that the license isn't removable from a device, so it seems like it might be true. If I have downloaded a copy of a book for a given Kindle and then de-register it, that license does not return to my license pool. That's why they say you can have as many Kindles as you like on your account but only 6 can have any given book. Am I to take it there is some more flexible way of temporarily registering different devices with the Cool-er? Do they actually let you donate your license to a library when you're done or sell it to someone else? That would be massively cool despite the overall lameness of the device.

Anyway, two of my biggest issues with this thing weren't mentioned: the books are a good deal more expensive and they inflate the number of titles in their marketing speak. Bad form showing the search for HP books coming up empty. Not like Amazon has them, either.

griffonwing · 06-01-2009, 10:02 PM

As for the font changing, I believe he is counting EVERY key punch, including choosing the last font in the list. If there are 12 font choices, he presses the keys to fet to the fonts, then presses 12 more times to go down to the last one.

Now, if it took 16 key presses to GET to the font menu, then yea, the GUI/Menu needs work.

1 click - Menu
6 clicks - Font Family option (7th option in menu)
3 clicks - First option for font (smallest)
10 clicks for smallest font
7 clicks - Last font option
18 clicks for largest font

Unless there were verification popups to make sure you really wanted to change the font, which wasn't shown in the vid. But I can't really see an extra 6 button presses vor verification. Also, he may also be including button presses to go back to reading form the menu.

Either way, I think 16 key-presses is stretching it a bit. Using his journalistic perogative to stretch the truth. If someone buys this, perhaps they can shed a more UNBIASED light.

But regardless, it looks cheap, keys are cheap plastic, hard to press. I'll pass on this one.

sassanik · 06-01-2009, 10:08 PM

I think that the cool-er not having a wireless connection is not a big deal. I like being able to download my books onto my computer and then transfer them. I know that in theory with the kindle that you could re-download the book if something happened to kindle you had. But I would be paranoid about that.

He also seemed to like the kindles design as far as its appearance, which I find to be a huge turnoff. The keyboard is icky to me.

He also doesn't mention that the kindle only supports its own format easily, you can get other formats but its a bit of work.

I am a bit worried about the repeated mentioning that the buttons are hard to press, I hope that is worked out before it ships.

Amy

brecklundin · 06-01-2009, 10:20 PM

sassanik:

Have you been able to try a Kindle for a while? I ask because I felt the same way when I was ordering my K1 last summer, but much to my surprise, I found I do not even see the keyboard when reading on it (which i do not do often for other reasons). But the way the thing is designed to be held, the keyboard actually is below where your eyes will be focused. Sort of like a keyboard on a laptop, I know it is there, but I never really even notice it.

Like I said, I was sure i would hate the keyboard, but ironically, I do not, in fact it is one of my favorite parts of the Kindle. But of it is something a person will not use, then it is wasted cash and space.

BTW, excellent point about the buttons because it is likely the device tested was not a RTM version of the reader but rather a late stage release candidate.

brecklundin · 06-01-2009, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gideon

Pogue's usually pretty straight forward. I doubt NYT's relationship with Amazon had much to do with the review, but we'll have to see when more reviews start showing up.

I agree, in fact I like his commentary. My better half got me reading the NYT as we really no longer have a decent newspaper anywhere in CA anymore. I find the NYT is very well done and offers honest observations on any number of topics.

Now slightly OT...

A.O. Scott has become my FAVORITE movie critic and well, we all know what an evil bastarde Will Shortz is anyway...but gawd love the man, he keeps me entertained for hours on end with the puzzles. BTW, if you are a crossword sorta person, I highly recommend the movie Wordplay. It's a documentary but is almost a Best in Show for competitive crossword puzzlers. Will Shortz is a major part of the movie.

katysax · 06-01-2009, 10:30 PM

A lot of what he doesn't like about it also bugs me about the Sony Reader. I have both the PRS 505 and the Kindle2. I think the UI on the PRS 505 is an ugly, geeky mess. And changing font sizes isn't quite as hard as what he showed, but it is slow and the result is often ugly. Pdfs can be read, but they are also tiny and when you reflow them they are messed up. You also have to connect to your computer.

Still I use both the 505 and the Kindle2, each has its merits. Depending on the book and format, it often looks better on one or the other. Also, each handles different DRM.

His description of the buttons on the Cooler really sounded like a problem and the interface sounds even uglier than the Sony interface.

I could live without the keyboard on the Kindle, but it is sometimes useful for finding things - like where a word occurs in a document.

sassanik · 06-01-2009, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brecklundin

sassanik:

Have you been able to try a Kindle for a while? I ask because I felt the same way when I was ordering my K1 last summer, but much to my surprise, I found I do not even see the keyboard when reading on it (which i do not do often for other reasons). But the way the thing is designed to be held, the keyboard actually is below where your eyes will be focused. Sort of like a keyboard on a laptop, I know it is there, but I never really even notice it.

Like I said, I was sure i would hate the keyboard, but ironically, I do not, in fact it is one of my favorite parts of the Kindle. But of it is something a person will not use, then it is wasted cash and space.

BTW, excellent point about the buttons because it is likely the device tested was not a RTM version of the reader but rather a late stage release candidate.

Alas I can't afford a kindle currently and none of my friends have one. I currently have a eb1150, which is awesome, and my iphone. I would not be adverse to trying out a kindle if someone would want to loan me one for a few weeks!

I think the kindle would definately benefit from people being able to see it in person and try it out at a store. I tried out a Sony PRS 505 at the Sony Store.

Anyway I think its very exciting that we are getting more and more ereaders on the market!

Amy

=X= · 06-02-2009, 01:12 AM

My interpretation if this review was "if it's not it kindle it stink"! Pretty much all of his criticisms for not having all of the Amazon features. Essentially he could slam all the other eBooks for the same reason.

I found it interesting that when he mentioned amazon "TTS" no mention of this feature being disabled.

Did anybody notice when he criticized the eBook store for lack of ebooks and showed a "0" search result, he was looking for a "Harry Potter" book. He should have been fair and showed the same search on the Amazon page.

The video was great entertainment value but aside from that it was a very poor review.

Sorry I'm with John Stewart's view on the media, its the journalist job and responsibility to do a good job on any story they write
=X=

06-01-2009, 07:45 PM	#1
discourse Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 96 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Finland Device: NOOK Simple Touch with GlowLight, iPad 1	Pogue trashes the Cool-ER

06-01-2009, 10:08 PM	#10
sassanik Guru Posts: 774 Karma: 1211741 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Oregon Device: EB1150, iPhone, Cool-er Purple, Pocketbook 360, Kindle Fire	not wireless I think that the cool-er not having a wireless connection is not a big deal. I like being able to download my books onto my computer and then transfer them. I know that in theory with the kindle that you could re-download the book if something happened to kindle you had. But I would be paranoid about that. He also seemed to like the kindles design as far as its appearance, which I find to be a huge turnoff. The keyboard is icky to me. He also doesn't mention that the kindle only supports its own format easily, you can get other formats but its a bit of work. I am a bit worried about the repeated mentioning that the buttons are hard to press, I hope that is worked out before it ships. Amy

06-02-2009, 01:12 AM	#15
=X= Wizard Posts: 3,671 Karma: 12205348 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: Galaxy S, Nook w/CM7	Translation "if it's not it kindle it stinks"! My interpretation if this review was "if it's not it kindle it stink"! Pretty much all of his criticisms for not having all of the Amazon features. Essentially he could slam all the other eBooks for the same reason. I found it interesting that when he mentioned amazon "TTS" no mention of this feature being disabled. Did anybody notice when he criticized the eBook store for lack of ebooks and showed a "0" search result, he was looking for a "Harry Potter" book. He should have been fair and showed the same search on the Amazon page. The video was great entertainment value but aside from that it was a very poor review. Sorry I'm with John Stewart's view on the media, its the journalist job and responsibility to do a good job on any story they write =X= Last edited by =X=; 06-02-2009 at 01:14 AM. Reason: typo (2)

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Pogue slams B&N for incorrect Nook specs	anurag	News	8	01-22-2010 02:08 AM
Classic David Pogue (New York Times) on the Nook	Loopy65	Barnes & Noble NOOK	13	12-13-2009 08:29 PM
David Pogue slams the Nook	anurag	News	42	12-11-2009 12:16 AM
Classic Two more Nook Reviews: Pogue and Mossberg go thumbs down	Ocean	Barnes & Noble NOOK	8	12-10-2009 12:29 AM
Engst to Pogue: E-Book piracy not a given	Alexander Turcic	News	85	06-11-2008 01:05 PM

06-01-2009, 08:20 PM	#2
sirbruce Provocateur Posts: 1,859 Karma: 505847 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Columbus, OH Device: Kindle Touch, Kindle 2, Kindle DX, iPhone 3GS	Ouch!

06-01-2009, 08:59 PM	#3
brecklundin Banned Posts: 1,906 Karma: 15348 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: mine	hehehehe...man, that was a smack-down for sure. But a lot of what the guy did not like, had to do with the mechanics of putting books on the device. And yeah, he also hated the case, the buttons and the UI...so it has to be marginal at best. Then again it is the NYT who is in bed with Amazon...still it seemed genuine and honest, and funny as can be! Funniest to me was the number of button presses to change the font...unreal!

06-01-2009, 09:03 PM	#4
Gideon Wearer of Pants Posts: 1,050 Karma: 7634 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Norman, OK Device: Amazon Kindle DX / iPhone	Dang.... Course Harry Potter isn't on any ebook reader, but still.... dang. I need to check out their "book store" and see if there is anything to it. Somehow I imagine it's almost all public domain stuff.

06-01-2009, 09:04 PM	#5
Gideon Wearer of Pants Posts: 1,050 Karma: 7634 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Norman, OK Device: Amazon Kindle DX / iPhone	Pogue's usually pretty straight forward. I doubt NYT's relationship with Amazon had much to do with the review, but we'll have to see when more reviews start showing up.

06-01-2009, 09:32 PM	#6
rixte Addict Posts: 300 Karma: 396757 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: new oasis, paperwhite, ipad, kobo	Definitely it raises questions about the hardware - my biggest concern is how he said the buttons were really hard to press. But most of that review was completely annoying. I hope somebody from mobileread manages to get one soon for a slightly more comprehensive and realistic review.

06-01-2009, 09:45 PM	#8
Alisa Gadget Geek Posts: 2,324 Karma: 22221 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Paperwhite, Kindle 3 (retired), Skindle 1.2 (retired)	I would like to hear more about how the books are shareable. I can share my books with up to 6 people with Kindle but I have to register them to my account. I wish I had better details about the workings, though. I've gotten the impression from other users that the license follows the Kindle and remains even if you delete that Kindle from your account and register it to a different account. A poster some time ago said he bought a used Kindle and the books from the previous owner remained even after re-registering and connecting to Amazon. I doubt he would have the ability to re-download but they weren't deleted. I haven't seen verification of this from Amazon but they have said that the license isn't removable from a device, so it seems like it might be true. If I have downloaded a copy of a book for a given Kindle and then de-register it, that license does not return to my license pool. That's why they say you can have as many Kindles as you like on your account but only 6 can have any given book. Am I to take it there is some more flexible way of temporarily registering different devices with the Cool-er? Do they actually let you donate your license to a library when you're done or sell it to someone else? That would be massively cool despite the overall lameness of the device. Anyway, two of my biggest issues with this thing weren't mentioned: the books are a good deal more expensive and they inflate the number of titles in their marketing speak. Bad form showing the search for HP books coming up empty. Not like Amazon has them, either.

06-01-2009, 10:02 PM	#9
griffonwing Suave Swabby, Savvy? Posts: 1,602 Karma: 520350 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Harrison, ARrrr, USA - southern Ozark mountains Device: Slate Blue PEZ (Astak Pocket Pro), CVSCX-9300 Quad-band watch phone	As for the font changing, I believe he is counting EVERY key punch, including choosing the last font in the list. If there are 12 font choices, he presses the keys to fet to the fonts, then presses 12 more times to go down to the last one. Now, if it took 16 key presses to GET to the font menu, then yea, the GUI/Menu needs work. 1 click - Menu 6 clicks - Font Family option (7th option in menu) 3 clicks - First option for font (smallest) 10 clicks for smallest font 7 clicks - Last font option 18 clicks for largest font Unless there were verification popups to make sure you really wanted to change the font, which wasn't shown in the vid. But I can't really see an extra 6 button presses vor verification. Also, he may also be including button presses to go back to reading form the menu. Either way, I think 16 key-presses is stretching it a bit. Using his journalistic perogative to stretch the truth. If someone buys this, perhaps they can shed a more UNBIASED light. But regardless, it looks cheap, keys are cheap plastic, hard to press. I'll pass on this one.

06-01-2009, 10:20 PM	#11
brecklundin Banned Posts: 1,906 Karma: 15348 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: mine	sassanik: Have you been able to try a Kindle for a while? I ask because I felt the same way when I was ordering my K1 last summer, but much to my surprise, I found I do not even see the keyboard when reading on it (which i do not do often for other reasons). But the way the thing is designed to be held, the keyboard actually is below where your eyes will be focused. Sort of like a keyboard on a laptop, I know it is there, but I never really even notice it. Like I said, I was sure i would hate the keyboard, but ironically, I do not, in fact it is one of my favorite parts of the Kindle. But of it is something a person will not use, then it is wasted cash and space. BTW, excellent point about the buttons because it is likely the device tested was not a RTM version of the reader but rather a late stage release candidate.

06-01-2009, 10:30 PM	#13
katysax Enthusiast Posts: 44 Karma: 222 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Los Angeles Device: Kindle2, Kindle DX, prs 505	A lot of what he doesn't like about it also bugs me about the Sony Reader. I have both the PRS 505 and the Kindle2. I think the UI on the PRS 505 is an ugly, geeky mess. And changing font sizes isn't quite as hard as what he showed, but it is slow and the result is often ugly. Pdfs can be read, but they are also tiny and when you reflow them they are messed up. You also have to connect to your computer. Still I use both the 505 and the Kindle2, each has its merits. Depending on the book and format, it often looks better on one or the other. Also, each handles different DRM. His description of the buttons on the Cooler really sounded like a problem and the interface sounds even uglier than the Sony interface. I could live without the keyboard on the Kindle, but it is sometimes useful for finding things - like where a word occurs in a document.

Advert

Advert