Bookeen producing eInk reader for Baen Bar - IF they get 1k orders - Page 2

yvanleterrible · 01-17-2007, 12:00 PM

I'm with you on this Vash, but we must remember that the actual crop of readers are meant for static display, preventing many HTML features.

NatCh · 01-17-2007, 12:31 PM

The lack of images is a bit annoying, but RTF reflows just fine.

NatCh · 01-17-2007, 12:42 PM

Here's some more info from the Baen Bar:

Quote:

It's a Bookeen reader.
If you want a SDK you'll have to buy it from Bookeen and they will have to support it.
As of now we've no information on it.

The device is to be drag and drop.
The computer will see it as a USB drive.
We're cheap on your behalf and that's just one thing more that saves you money.

It's a built in battery.
In practical terms, after the warranty runs out you get to use the iPod solution and pry apart the case to change it out yourself.
When will you have to do this?
Unknown.

mcdaniel · 01-18-2007, 01:31 AM

I have been following the BaenBar discussion of ereaders, and their recent decision to try and go with the Bookeen reader (apparently the StarEbook version, not the 3rd gen version shown on the Bookeen website). Unless something happens before they place the necessary info for ordering the devices, I plan to place a firm order, i.e., I am willing to go ahead and either send and check or place a credit card order at this point.

However, if there are too many delays, I may wind up buying a SonyReader as an interim solution - though I don't want to take that financial hit!

Robert

Snappy! · 01-18-2007, 10:37 AM

I just made a trip to compusa yesterday and got a first hand look at the Sony Reader. I walk away very impressed with it. To be honest, it is so readable and clear at all angles, it almost felt like it has backlight!! But in the end I didn't get one ... the sales person was very eager to shove onedown my throat though. I asked if they have one and she brought me to the cashier and started scanning the UPC!! hehe ... Two things stop me from getting the Reader just yet. One, no native HTML support ... and I mean, renering + hyperlinking to local files. I have a huge volume of reference reading materials (6000+ files) that are cross linked. If I have to convert each of them individually and loose the hyperlinkings in the process, I'm out. So gowerpoint's uBook reader would be an excellent choice! Did I mention that I got a registered licence for the uBook? And their licence is a one for all type, meaning I can use any of the versions of ubook on a PocketPC, HandheldPC and computer with just one license. Now this is one honest and good company! 8)

Second thing is native support for Chinese character display. I've gotten Chinese display and input all setup in my SHARP Zaurus c1000, so any new reading device must support Chinese text.

I only need Chinese text support for the books, English menu is perfectly good for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by da_jane

It would be so that I could read books without conversion. Sony doesn't read html natively. Many, many romance e-publishers offer html as a format choice, plus a read reader can convert secure files into html format. That is a huge deal for me. I bought my Sony Reader with a 2 year accident protection plan. I feel confident that I won't lose money on this transaction.

There isn't anything about the Sony Reader except for the screen that makes me want to stick with it. There isn't any content that it sells that I can't get somewhere else, cheaper. It doesn't offer a great browsing format. A way to make notes. It just has a beautiful screen.

If I can get the beautiful screen that reads htmls natively, Sony loses me as a customer. Bookeen partnered with Gowerpoint Ubook reader in the past and I hope that program is the basis for its e-reading software. Gowerpoint allows to have bookmarks, display pictures, has a great library feature. The only thing it doesn't do is allow you to rate your books. Other than that, I think it is a wonderful ebook program.

Snappy! · 01-18-2007, 10:42 AM

I just made a trip to compusa yesterday and got a first hand look at the Sony Reader. I walk away very impressed with it. To be honest, it is so readable and clear at all angles, it almost felt like it has backlight!! But in the end I didn't get one ... the sales person was very eager to shove onedown my throat though. I asked if they have one and she brought me to the cashier and started scanning the UPC!! hehe ... Two things stop me from getting the Reader just yet. One, no native HTML support ... and I mean, renering + hyperlinking to local files. I have a huge volume of reference reading materials (6000+ files) that are cross linked. If I have to convert each of them individually and loose the hyperlinkings in the process, I'm out. So gowerpoint's uBook reader would be an excellent choice! Did I mention that I got a registered licence for the uBook? And their licence is a one for all type, meaning I can use any of the versions of ubook on a PocketPC, HandheldPC and computer with just one license. Now this is one honest and good company! 8)

Second thing is native support for Chinese character display. I've gotten Chinese display and input all setup in my SHARP Zaurus c1000, so any new reading device must support Chinese text.

I only need Chinese text support for the books, English menu is perfectly good for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by da_jane

It would be so that I could read books without conversion. Sony doesn't read html natively. Many, many romance e-publishers offer html as a format choice, plus a read reader can convert secure files into html format. That is a huge deal for me. I bought my Sony Reader with a 2 year accident protection plan. I feel confident that I won't lose money on this transaction.

There isn't anything about the Sony Reader except for the screen that makes me want to stick with it. There isn't any content that it sells that I can't get somewhere else, cheaper. It doesn't offer a great browsing format. A way to make notes. It just has a beautiful screen.

If I can get the beautiful screen that reads htmls natively, Sony loses me as a customer. Bookeen partnered with Gowerpoint Ubook reader in the past and I hope that program is the basis for its e-reading software. Gowerpoint allows to have bookmarks, display pictures, has a great library feature. The only thing it doesn't do is allow you to rate your books. Other than that, I think it is a wonderful ebook program.

Cthulhu · 01-18-2007, 12:33 PM

I wonder just how far the economy of scale could be pushed in a case like this?

Sadly, it seems that there are too few takers on this new device (I'm still on the fence about this purchase, though I'm trying to inveigle a friend to get one), so Bookeen may not reach their 1,000 orders mark.

However: what if 10,000 people said yes to the device at $30?
;-|

Yeah, probably won't happen. But I know that I could blow $30 on an e-ink device much easier than $300.

yvanleterrible · 01-18-2007, 01:33 PM

It will happen in 10 years when readers will be a simple sheet of touch sensitive platic.

Then we'll show our old PRS just like the recent show of walkmans!

da_jane · 01-18-2007, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

@ da jane... Html is so easy to deal with. What I do is open the book with Word, pass it through a reformating macro,change the properties of the document and resave it under an other name in RTF format. That takes under two minutes. Quite worth it for a ten hour read. With PDF; open document in Acrobat reader, select all, copy and paste in Word. Then pass it through the macro and save in RTF. ET three minutes. The "copy" is the culprit in this process, it seems to go on forever...

I know how to transfer it but I have hundreds of books and I hate having to convert each one to read. Plus, the whole idea of the electronic library is to be able to tote it around with the books I may want to read, not just the ones I took the time to convert. Further not all my htmls can a) be reformatted into word and b) I have remember to increase the font size and c) they tend to lose important formatting cues (i.e section breaks) and d) certain books have a differnet html for each book meaning I would have to convert 20 some files to read it - etc.

No thanks. That's why my friend has been using my sony reader for the past three months and I have been using my trusty old HP with the gowerpoing ubook reader. That and because it's backlit.

For the average consumer, the requirement to fiddle with a file in order to get it to be readable is a major drawback and for the romance reader who also likes ebooks (i.e., the ones who buy from Ellora's Cave or Samhain etc) these books aren't offered in the propriety format of BBeB but in non DRM formats like html, PDF and the like. Sony isn't immediately compatible for them where as the Baen Bookeen would be.

RWood · 01-18-2007, 04:31 PM

I have converted over 100 books from PDB to RTF for the Sony Reader. Some work better than others. A lot of the newer and recently revised conversion tools make this a snap.

I looked through the box I have in the basement (an almost complete set of Bantam "Doc Savage" reprints from the 60s and 70s) and noticed that every page looks the same -- there was no creativity in the typesetting. Just one model and they followed it throughout. Therefore I don't feel bad or cheated that all of the books I have converted to RTF seem to look the same.

nekokami · 01-19-2007, 09:03 AM

Someone needs to make a bulk conversion utility that works as easily as the Stuffit "DropStuff" utility. Set your preferred output format and destination in advance, then just drop any acquired file to it and it will land in the destination folder in the desired format. This should be technically feasible... at least for non-DRM files.\

da_jane, if it were that easy, would it work for you? Not that I'm discouraging your purchase of the BAEN/NAEB/Bookeen device, just wondering from a usability perspective.

NatCh · 01-19-2007, 11:29 AM

The Amber folks have an app that'll batch convert HTML to RTF, but it's one of the few they want to be paid for, though there is a 30 day free trial ....

dstampe · 01-19-2007, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NatCh

The Amber folks have an app that'll batch convert HTML to RTF, but it's one of the few they want to be paid for, though there is a 30 day free trial ....

Why is it that so many of the HTML-to-RTF converters lose fomatting? The Amber converter sets everything to left justified. Probably most are based on an old open-source converter and can't be bothered to add value. The only half-resonable one I've seen for this is the SautinSoft converter, and it's more expensive yet.

RWood · 01-19-2007, 01:09 PM

There are other choices. Convert Doc from Soft Interface does keep all formatting in the resultant RTF file. I just checked and the price has dropped to $499.95. The ABC Amber Text Converter costs $24.95 or even less if you buy a bundle of their converters.

dstampe · 01-19-2007, 06:18 PM

Hmm, the documatentation etc. for ConvertDoc looks--how shall I put it-- unprofessional for that kind of money, which does not give confidence. Also there's no mention of font embedding in PDF files.

I tried the ABC converter, it loses paragraph formatting on the files I tried it on.

The book(s) I'm trying to work pn were unpacked with ConvertLit, and contain more than 30 seperate HTML files. In addition, this book has certain character's dialog in boldface or italic, or special formatting. Finally, I need large fonts to use the Reader, so this makes the whole process more difficult as font conversion (face and size) are required too.

01-18-2007, 01:31 AM	#19
mcdaniel Member Posts: 24 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2007 Device: Cybook Gen3	Interested in the reader I have been following the BaenBar discussion of ereaders, and their recent decision to try and go with the Bookeen reader (apparently the StarEbook version, not the 3rd gen version shown on the Bookeen website). Unless something happens before they place the necessary info for ordering the devices, I plan to place a firm order, i.e., I am willing to go ahead and either send and check or place a credit card order at this point. However, if there are too many delays, I may wind up buying a SonyReader as an interim solution - though I don't want to take that financial hit! Robert

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01-17-2007, 12:00 PM	#16
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	I'm with you on this Vash, but we must remember that the actual crop of readers are meant for static display, preventing many HTML features.

01-17-2007, 12:31 PM	#17
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	The lack of images is a bit annoying, but RTF reflows just fine.

01-18-2007, 12:33 PM	#22
Cthulhu Technologist Posts: 488 Karma: 585237 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: I'm between Cities Device: SONY Reader PRS-500	I wonder just how far the economy of scale could be pushed in a case like this? Sadly, it seems that there are too few takers on this new device (I'm still on the fence about this purchase, though I'm trying to inveigle a friend to get one), so Bookeen may not reach their 1,000 orders mark. However: what if 10,000 people said yes to the device at $30? ;-\| Yeah, probably won't happen. But I know that I could blow $30 on an e-ink device much easier than $300.

01-18-2007, 01:33 PM	#23
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	It will happen in 10 years when readers will be a simple sheet of touch sensitive platic. Then we'll show our old PRS just like the recent show of walkmans!

01-18-2007, 04:31 PM	#25
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	I have converted over 100 books from PDB to RTF for the Sony Reader. Some work better than others. A lot of the newer and recently revised conversion tools make this a snap. I looked through the box I have in the basement (an almost complete set of Bantam "Doc Savage" reprints from the 60s and 70s) and noticed that every page looks the same -- there was no creativity in the typesetting. Just one model and they followed it throughout. Therefore I don't feel bad or cheated that all of the books I have converted to RTF seem to look the same.

01-19-2007, 09:03 AM	#26
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	Someone needs to make a bulk conversion utility that works as easily as the Stuffit "DropStuff" utility. Set your preferred output format and destination in advance, then just drop any acquired file to it and it will land in the destination folder in the desired format. This should be technically feasible... at least for non-DRM files.\ da_jane, if it were that easy, would it work for you? Not that I'm discouraging your purchase of the BAEN/NAEB/Bookeen device, just wondering from a usability perspective.

01-19-2007, 11:29 AM	#27
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	The Amber folks have an app that'll batch convert HTML to RTF, but it's one of the few they want to be paid for, though there is a 30 day free trial ....

01-19-2007, 01:09 PM	#29
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	There are other choices. Convert Doc from Soft Interface does keep all formatting in the resultant RTF file. I just checked and the price has dropped to $499.95. The ABC Amber Text Converter costs $24.95 or even less if you buy a bundle of their converters.

01-19-2007, 06:18 PM	#30
dstampe dstampe Posts: 50 Karma: 17 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Canada Device: Sony PRS-500	Hmm, the documatentation etc. for ConvertDoc looks--how shall I put it-- unprofessional for that kind of money, which does not give confidence. Also there's no mention of font embedding in PDF files. I tried the ABC converter, it loses paragraph formatting on the files I tried it on. The book(s) I'm trying to work pn were unpacked with ConvertLit, and contain more than 30 seperate HTML files. In addition, this book has certain character's dialog in boldface or italic, or special formatting. Finally, I need large fonts to use the Reader, so this makes the whole process more difficult as font conversion (face and size) are required too.

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