Wired Reviews the Cool-er

[Gideon]

Cool-er E-Book Reader Leaves Us Feeling So Very Cold

As you can imagine, it didn't do well. Got a 5/10.

Some excerpts:

For 250 bucks you get a slim, lightweight reader available in eight, bright candy colors, that supports formats like ePub, Txt, JPEG and PDF. It also comes with a 6-inch E Ink display — the same size screen on both the Kindle 2 and the Sony PRS 505.

The Cool-er looks eerily similar to Sony's ubiquitous device, right down to the placement of the buttons for the page turn. It's also almost the same width, 4.6-inches to Sony's 4.8-inches, and just a smidge taller.

That's pretty much where the physical similarities end. Although Cool-er gets geek points for offering a Linux OS, 1GB of storage, and the option to flip the screen to landscape and portrait modes, the hardware has an unrefined, shoddy feel. The hard-to-press buttons are enough to give you Carpal Tunnel-esque pains after just a few minutes of use. But that's not the most agonizing part of the Cool-er.

Navigating the menu is horrendously difficult. Say you're trudging through Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence and want to switch over to Twilight. It takes about four clicks to get back to the main index page. Adjusting the font size had us stumbling through the menu, even restarting the device twice because we couldn't figure out how to change the font or increase the size. And there's no search feature so if you have say a dozen books stowed, be prepared to go clickety-click chronologically to find the publication you want.

They also mention the price difference between the Cool-er store and Amazon's. Gladwell's Outliers is 70% more expensive ($17 versus $10).

So nothing earth shattering in this, just corroboration of things we'd already heard.

[Gaurnim]

This review appears in the news bar in GMail, which is cool as it increases awareness for ebook readers in general.

[Tuna]

It's a little bit misleading, as the Cooler doesn't require you buy things from their store. Interread may have done themselves no favours by trying to sell the service and the device as a single proposition.

As for the hardware, it's a tad unfair to single the Cooler out for not having wireless access when they are also comparing it to the Sony PRS-505.

That said, I've commented before on the problems in getting the user interface right when you just buy in firmware - and reviews like this only back up the fact that you have to do more than copy iPod colour schemes to make a device as useable as an iPod.

[Tuna]

To be honest, I'm not very convinced by the recent Wired reviews.

I'd like to see a more in depth review of the Cooler to get a better feel for it.

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by Tuna

To be honest, I'm not very convinced by the recent Wired reviews.

I'd like to see a more in depth review of the Cooler to get a better feel for it.

Cool-er has been shipped to me, so there will be a full review pretty soon. It should be here tuesday at the latest.

What bugs me a bit in that WIRED review is the fact that (like all the other reviews I've seen so far) it doesn't seem to care about the device itself, but slams the Cool-er because of the doubtful quality of the ebookshop. I don't see the connection, frankly. I can buy from every bookshop I like and put the books on that, so where's the problem?

[JSWolf]

We don't even know that wired actually had a reading device in hand for the reviews other than a Kindle of some flavor.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

What bugs me a bit in that WIRED review is the fact that (like all the other reviews I've seen so far) it doesn't seem to care about the device itself, but slams the Cool-er because of the doubtful quality of the ebookshop. I don't see the connection, frankly. I can buy from every bookshop I like and put the books on that, so where's the problem?

This has been my problem with most reviews as well, including the reviews that praise the Kindle. To me, in the balancing scales, a device's ergonomics, formats accepted, usability, reliability, and readability scores are more important than the particular bookstore associated with the device. I think a device that gives access to a greater number of formats and bookstores is better than a device that gives access to fewer, assuming all else is nearly equal.

[Gideon]

The store is relevant to plenty of people. If I had access to every bookstore but the Amazon bookstore, I'd never have an eReader because the other bookstores fail so thoroughly at having content I want at competitive prices.

It talks plenty about the device itself - they say it's of shoddy craftsmanship, has a terrible interface and hard to press buttons. What are you wanting from a review that isn't from an ebook expert? This seems to be about in line with much of the other things I've read on the device.

I don't think we should doubt Wired had a device in hand for the review - Wired runs a tight enough ship that such a impugning judgment is not warranted or fair. You might not like their judgment, but that is a very different thing then essentially calling them liars.

I'm not endorsing the review, I just stumbled upon it and felt it might be useful to some people. I don't particularly care about it in any regard - though I like the colors.

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by Gideon

I'm not endorsing the review, I just stumbled upon it and felt it might be useful to some people.

It's good to know what is being said/written about reading devices, but this was a shoddy job of a review and likely not too enlightening to regulars here. When I want to know about a device, I find much more useful information here from folks that actually use it. This means that one has to wait for official release of the device, of course.

Neither the general nor the tech "press" does a good job talking about reading devices, at least for my needs/purposes/biases.

[MaggieScratch]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

Neither the general nor the tech "press" does a good job talking about reading devices, at least for my needs/purposes/biases.

Hear, hear. Some prefer the breadth of offerings from Amazon and convenience of wireless download of Kindle, some prefer the openness and privacy of the non-Amazon devices, and a good review would mention both possibilities rather than dismissing anything that isn't a Kindle. Such reviews just display the ignorance of the reviewer. It's a shame that some of these tech sites don't have knowledgeable reviewers. If they hired someone like that to review computer games there would be a mass uprising.

[JSWolf]

After what Wired did to the photos of other readers, I would not trust any reader review from them. Bah!

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50528

[kelly1010]

Originally Posted by Tuna

As for the hardware, it's a tad unfair to single the Cooler out for not having wireless access when they are also comparing it to the Sony PRS-505.

I agree...Wireless isn't the the most important thing to have on a reader...and a reader isn't "bad" if it doesn't have wireless.

Originally Posted by Tuna

To be honest, I'm not very convinced by the recent Wired reviews.

I'd like to see a more in depth review of the Cooler to get a better feel for it.

I would like to see a review from someone who has actually TOUCHED, bought a book, and read a book on the Cool-er.

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

Cool-er has been shipped to me, so there will be a full review pretty soon. It should be here tuesday at the latest.

What bugs me a bit in that WIRED review is the fact that (like all the other reviews I've seen so far) it doesn't seem to care about the device itself, but slams the Cool-er because of the doubtful quality of the ebookshop. I don't see the connection, frankly. I can buy from every bookshop I like and put the books on that, so where's the problem?

I agree. As long as I can find the books I want somewhere, I'm happy. I don't need to buy from Amazon just because it's Amazon.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

We don't even know that wired actually had a reading device in hand for the reviews other than a Kindle of some flavor.

Originally Posted by rhadin

This has been my problem with most reviews as well, including the reviews that praise the Kindle. To me, in the balancing scales, a device's ergonomics, formats accepted, usability, reliability, and readability scores are more important than the particular bookstore associated with the device. I think a device that gives access to a greater number of formats and bookstores is better than a device that gives access to fewer, assuming all else is nearly equal.

exactly. the reasons why I looked at the Kindle had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I could buy books from amazon.

Sorry...this is just my opinion. I would be much more likely to buy a cool-er than a Kindle. And I've read too many biased and misleading reviews written by the fine folks at WIRED to take anything they say seriously. I prefer to trust the people on this website who actually USE the ebook reader for more than 5 minutes before claiming that it's a piece of crap.

[griffonwing]

Originally Posted by Gideon

The store is relevant to plenty of people. If I had access to every bookstore but the Amazon bookstore, I'd never have an eReader because the other bookstores fail so thoroughly at having content I want at competitive prices.

I don't see any competitive prices with many of their "Kindle-Only" books. How competitive can their books be if, for example, I cannot purchase Stephen Lawhead's King Raven books except only on the Kindle.

If they would do away with their foolish exclusivity and allow non-Kindle readers to purchase the books in a format of their choice, they woulod get more business.

As such, they are doing more to halt and stagnate the ebook market than that are of increasing it.

[fugazied]

70% more expensive for a virtual item is quite obscene. I wonder what the real cost is though, considering Amazon probably have some crazy discount deals worked out with publishers.

I initially though this device might be a nice entry level reader for kids. But with the navigation issues it just looks like a poor choice for anyone.

[griffonwing]

Originally Posted by fugazied

70% more expensive for a virtual item is quite obscene. I wonder what the real cost is though, considering Amazon probably have some crazy discount deals worked out with publishers.

I initially though this device might be a nice entry level reader for kids. But with the navigation issues it just looks like a poor choice for anyone.

Publishers might get more money per book as Kindle-only exclusive, but compare that to the increased volume of sales if they would release in epub, mobi, pdf, bbeb, etc... They would actually see more (much more) profit, as well as sell more books to the public, and get the much-loved work into the hands of their beloved readers.