Sharper Image Literati

[CWatkinsNash]

My new Literati will be here tomorrow. I saw a question that came up a couple of times but I don't think it got answered - the "missing" book files. The Kobo apps don't store ebooks as ePubs. If you use the apps to get the books, the book files are stored in a database. Kobo offers ePubs, however, so you can download those from the website using Adobe Digital Editions as described in a previous post. (Even if you've already gotten the books through the app, you can go to the Kobo website and download them as ePubs from your list of purchases.) It's really a matter of preference, but I prefer to use the ePubs and skip the Kobo apps whenever possible. I'll probably download the free books but I'm not a fan of Kobo, and there are plenty of other places to get Adobe or non-DRM ePubs.

Regarding the Literati firmware, not a whole lot of information has gotten around yet. There is a small group working on hacking it, and a new forum has been started: http://forum.literatidevs.com/. Not much there yet, it's brand new, as in only days old, but I think there's a post on there about obtaining the update file online and updating from the SD card instead of wifi, which may be of interest to those with wifi issues.

If you want to see the inside of a Literati: http://nightflyertechblog.blogspot.com/.

I'm already in the process of converting some of my ebooks for the "test drive" when it gets here tomorrow. I can't read for too long on an LCD, but there are times the backlight and color will come in handy, and for $40, I couldn't resist. It's interesting that what could be considered a spectacular failure for Sharper Image is turning into the first cheaply priced ereader. I can only hope that those who have trouble with them seek help here and elsewhere before throwing in the towel. Seems like persistence is paying off for most people so far.

[MR. Pockets]

Thanks for the links! Unfortunately, most everything at the forum is over my head, but I was able to add a small tidbit of info to the internet "hack" thread.

I took apart a literati (white) that had inexplicably died and the insides looked nothing like the photos in that blog or in another blog I found (http://mgroves.com/literati-ereader-hacking/).

I may have to take apart another and upload photos of it.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by MR. Pockets

Thanks for the links! Unfortunately, most everything at the forum is over my head, but I was able to add a small tidbit of info to the internet "hack" thread.

I took apart a literati (white) that had inexplicably died and the insides looked nothing like the photos in that blog or in another blog I found (http://mgroves.com/literati-ereader-hacking/).

I may have to take apart another and upload photos of it.

How long ago was the one you took apart? I'd like to get ahold of a dead LookBook to take apart and compare with the Literati you had. The Literati and the Lookbook use the same firmware, are very similar, and were built to be branded by other companies, so I wouldn't be surprised to find that they started out the same and changed to meet the budget of the branding retailer. (People were calling them "modified Literatis", and they were being sold at CVS pharmacies and other places.)

[catiebug]

I have to say, after some initial hiccups getting this up and running, I'm really enjoying my Literati. I got it in the BB&B sale, plus the 20% coupon, plus the rebate, so I was OK with the problems I was having - just needed to do some internet-fu to fix the corrupted disc issues and learn about the internet hack. I figured, for less than a tenth of the price of the PRS-950, I could put in some effort...

I like the color screen (I originally thought the LCD would be a problem, but with the adjustable brightness, it's working OK), I like the idea of the internet hack (haven't succeeded with that...yet), I like the SD card compatibility, I like the potential of the keyboard.

Ok, the battery life sucks, but I'm never somewhere that doesn't have electricity, so it's not that big a deal. My only real complaint is the PDF handling, but I'm going to try whacking some PDF books through Calibre and see if that helps any.

In short, my opinion on this device has gone from "hey, cheap e-reader" to "cheap piece of junk" to "diamond in the rough".

[MR. Pockets]

I took it apart about 3 days ago and had bought it just a few days prior to that. I'll see if I can get some photos of one posted soon. (I forgot to take pics of the one I had taken apart, so I'll open another.)

[Meemo]

I picked one up yesterday at BB&B - for $40 I couldn't resist. Updating went well, wifi works fine, I've got the handful of books I'd picked up at Kobo downloaded to it, I've successfully loaded a library book to it. Night reading is great with the display turned down to the lowest brightness setting.

One odd thing - those 25 free classics that were loaded on it initially are now missing - can't quite figure out where they went. It's not a big deal, I can get them anywhere - just wonder where they went??

Fingers are crossed that it'll keep working - I kinda like it, especially for the price!

[wvcherrybomb]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

My new Literati will be here tomorrow.

Hey, no fair! Mine won't be here until Thursday.

Thanks for the links. I haven't checked them out yet but I'm glad you found some info sources. Now that reader is out there at such low prices, I think think we will be seeing much more personal experience info.

Originally Posted by catiebug

In short, my opinion on this device has gone from "hey, cheap e-reader" to "cheap piece of junk" to "diamond in the rough".

This seems to be the consensus from those who persist. I'm quite excited to get my hands on it. A 2 year old could master my K3 so I'm really looking forward to this challenge.

It seems the Literati is now sold out at BB&B online and most stores. Now I wish I would have ordered two.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb

Hey, no fair! Mine won't be here until Thursday.

Thanks for the links. I haven't checked them out yet but I'm glad you found some info sources. Now that reader is out there at such low prices, I think think we will be seeing much more personal experience info.

It's not my fault that I'm closer to New Jersey than you are. That's the price you pay for being where it's 40 degrees warmer than here. Tomorrow I'll come here and brag about my Literati and you can brag about the weather. Seems fair.

As soon as I decided to order one I went looking for info. Not a lot of it out there, but I agree that we will be seeing more soon. Who would've thought the Literati would be 75% off (and more, with coupons) just four months after release.

[wvcherrybomb]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

It's not my fault that I'm closer to New Jersey than you are. That's the price you pay for being where it's 40 degrees warmer than here. Tomorrow I'll come here and brag about my Literati and you can brag about the weather. Seems fair.

The weather here hasn't been much to brag about lately.

Looking forward to your first impressions!

[MR. Pockets]

Originally Posted by Meemo

I picked one up yesterday at BB&B - for $40 I couldn't resist. Updating went well, wifi works fine, I've got the handful of books I'd picked up at Kobo downloaded to it, I've successfully loaded a library book to it. Night reading is great with the display turned down to the lowest brightness setting.

One odd thing - those 25 free classics that were loaded on it initially are now missing - can't quite figure out where they went. It's not a big deal, I can get them anywhere - just wonder where they went??

Fingers are crossed that it'll keep working - I kinda like it, especially for the price!

Glad you are liking it so far!

To get the books back you will need to do a factory reset. Back up anything you have loaded on it (the reset deletes all files but the original ones) and reset it. (The factory reset option is in settings under "advanced".) You should have your books back.

[Dave@Kobo]

Originally Posted by Meemo

I picked one up yesterday at BB&B - for $40 I couldn't resist. Updating went well, wifi works fine, I've got the handful of books I'd picked up at Kobo downloaded to it, I've successfully loaded a library book to it. Night reading is great with the display turned down to the lowest brightness setting.

One odd thing - those 25 free classics that were loaded on it initially are now missing - can't quite figure out where they went. It's not a big deal, I can get them anywhere - just wonder where they went??

Fingers are crossed that it'll keep working - I kinda like it, especially for the price!

Hello Meemo,

When you're in your Library, check if your viewing your Library by "New". If so, using the d-pad select either "By Title" or "By Author" (from the Library). The 25 preloaded books should appear. Viewing your Library by "New" will only display those books that have been purchased or newly added to the device; therefore, the preloaded books will not appear. I hope this helps.

-Dave

[Dave@Kobo]

Originally Posted by Kismatt

Hi all

Well, I bought a Literati at lunch today, and I think 2 more people here at work are going to get it as well, since Bed Bath and Beyond has them on clearance for $39.95 in the stores.

It did 2 software updates after I connected it to the WiFi, and synced my Kobo library without a hassle (after I remembered my password...). I'll be trying the Overdrive library from home, and have printed out the instruction manual.

I have been using my G1 for books, and I keep touching the Literati screen instead of using the buttons! Navigating by buttons is hard after using a touchscreen.

The software updated to 2.0, and looks like it's working well. Have the issues with the Kobo Desktop software been resolved?

Hi Kismatt,

The Literati is now fully supported on the Kobo Desktop software. Feel free to use the Desktop application to add/remove books from your account and sync it with the device.

[MR. Pockets]

Well, first some new info I found. There are two different hardware versions of the literati. You can find which you have by looking at the HW Version number found in the settings overview. 2.6.24.223 is the old version, 2.6.28.E13 is the new version. (Or on the literati box, right above the barcode there are two numbers. The one on the right will be 19027 or 19028, 19028 being the new hardware.)

I have access to both versions and took one of each apart. The new version has a much "cleaner" build. Supposedly it also has a built in 2G sd card that has 1G unused though it only allows access to 256MB. I was unable to identify anything as an sd card, but that doesn't count for much. (BTW, they appear to have different batteries judging by the printing on them.)

The first photo is the new version with the back beside it. The next three are of a pcb board directly under the board with the usb and power plug on it. I don't know what it is but it says "GPS" on it. The last two are of the two different versions side-by-side.

I couldn't get the silver strip off of the new version so that is as far into it as I got.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by wvcherrybomb

The weather here hasn't been much to brag about lately.

Looking forward to your first impressions!

It's snowing like a you-know-what and we're expecting 2 inches. But it's pretty so I won't offer to trade.

Okay, first impressions. The box was kind of cool, and the free cover was a nice touch. Note: It says to charge for 6 hours before use. I let it charge for as long as I could stand, which was about 3.5 hours, but left it plugged in and turned it on.

I like the screen. I like the responsiveness of the controls. I turned it on, set date, time, and such and then enabled wifi and logged on to my network. It connected quickly and immediately notified me of an update. It updated to 1.6-something. I didn't immediately remember that I needed to manually turn the wifi back on, but as soon as I did, it notified me of another update. I let it do it's thing, and now I have v 2.0.

Note - after the first update, it remembered my network key, but after the second update I had to re-enter it, so keep it handy if you don't have it memorized.

Reading - The page turn buttons are far more sensitive than I expected. Touch-sensitive rather than push. Took me a minute to adjust since all the other controls require a firm touch. Pages turn quickly. The default settings were hard on my eyes, but with the brightness controls I was able to get to a level I could read at for a while. I noticed that the pre-loaded books (or at least the few I browsed through) have more whitespace than I'm used to.

Other - I think it's cute that I can change the shelf style. Navigating through the shelf pages was a little slow, but not too awful. It goes faster if you switch to "cover and text" view instead of the covers-only shelf view. Though I don't plan to use the store much if at all, the store loads quickly and is no harder or easier to use than the Kobo site.

That's about the extent of my impressions right now. Very nice. I like it, it's functioning properly so far, and I got a heck of a deal, which always makes everything seem better. I'll probably change the store tab to a search engine with the web hack later.

One more thing - mine is the older hardware version, not the newer one, so no free gig of space for me. Fortunately I have a 4gb SDHC card I'm not using at the moment.

EDITED TO ADD: (kind of important) - The included USB cable did not work properly - my computer would not recognize the device (it installed an "unknown device" driver then said the device was not working properly) and the device did not recognize it was plugged in. I found a cable with the same size in my bag of miscellaneous cables, and at first it didn't work - I had to go into device manager, uninstall the flagged USB storage device driver and then reconnect. After that, it installed the correct driver and is working as it should.

[wvcherrybomb]

Originally Posted by MR. Pockets

I don't know what it is but it says "GPS" on it.

Uh oh! Break out the foil hats! Now I know why the giveaway prices ... they are watching us

Thanks for posting the pics. I find things like this extremely interesting. I didn't even realize there were two versions of the Literati.

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

That's about the extent of my impressions right now. Very nice. I like it, it's functioning properly so far, and I got a heck of a deal, which always makes everything seem better. I'll probably change the store tab to a search engine with the web hack later.

One more thing - mine is the older hardware version, not the newer one, so no free gig of space for me. Fortunately I have a 4gb SDHC card I'm not using at the moment.

Thanks for posting your thoughts. I came this afternoon specifically checking for this post. I can't wait to get mine tomorrow.

I already have an SD ready and waiting since I didn't expect it to have much space. I had also read about some problems people were having accessing the memory. Not that I would give up on putting books on the unit itself, I just wanted to play with all the functions right away.