Recently Purchased a Cool-ER

[AJW]

Hi everyone,

I'm a newcomer to the forums here, but I've been reading e-books for years, first of all on a Palm Vx, then on a few PocketPC devices, a couple of Blackberries, an iPhone and now I've recently purchased my first dedicated ebook reader the Cool-ER.

I've had the device a little over a week now and I'm loving it. It seems responsive and well put together. I've not had any technical issues with it, and the only improvement I'd suggest is to allow you to turn the device on straight to the book you were last reading, rather than turning it on to the library.

The e-ink display looks great. I wasn't sure what to expect there having never seen one in person before this, but it doesn't disappoint.

The device is a nice size, not too large, fitting easily into most pockets, including the inside pocket of a suit jacket!

The buttons are a little stiff to press but that strikes me as a benefit more than a problem considering the device can be carried in a pocket quite easily. You don't worry about turning the pages by accident while it's in your pocket.

I'm a Mac user and the device authorised with Adobe Digital Editions on my Mac (running Snow Leopard if anyone's wondering) and then I could transfer my purchased content over without any problems.

I also have other documents I wanted to read on the device in a wide variety of formats which the Cool-ER seems to have no problems with. Books with graphic covers at the front display adequately on the greyscale screen.

The main thing that attracted me to the Cool-ER was the battery life. Reading e-books on my iPhone is fine however the battery life leaves a bit to be desired, and when I saw this unit promising 8000 page turn battery life, I knew I had to get it. Somehow I couldn't see the iPhone managing to keep going through a trans-atlantic flight or other long reading periods.

I've not played with any of the multimedia settings such as audio playback or the Soduku game, I only intend to read documents on the device. I'll stick with my iPhone for audio and games.

Click here for high res photos

[sassanik]

That is great news!

Did you upgrade your firmware to the latest version?

Have you tried using Calibre with it yet? It should work with it, at least the windows version supports Cool-er.

Amy

[AJW]

I've not touched the firmware yet as it's working very nicely now and there seems to be no indication what the firmware update does.

If they list new features in line with a firmware update I'll update, until I hear about a worthwhile change in a future firmware I'm not going to fix something that isn't broken.

Calibre doesn't seem to work on Snow Leopard which is what Operating System I'm running. I'm using various other softwares to convert ebooks currently.

[sassanik]

From my understanding the new firmware fixes some of the display issues (serious crash stuff that can develop after a while) and with it when you turn on the Cool-er it defaults back to the last book you were reading... I think.

In general the Cool-er is stable for day to day use, not normally crashing during a reading session (at least not for me) rather there are freezes that occur such as the one I had where the device got stuck on the gradient page.

One of these days the mods are supposed to get Cool-er its own forums area.

Amy

[AJW]

Originally Posted by sassanik

From my understanding the new firmware fixes some of the display issues (serious crash stuff that can develop after a while) and with it when you turn on the Cool-er it defaults back to the last book you were reading... I think.

Have you not tried this new firmware yourself then?

[AJW]

Well, I tried the upgrade tonight and boy was that a mistake!

My Cool-ER didn't respond as it indicated it would in the firmware upgrade instructions and nothing really happened after a greyscale screen showed up.

Now I can't get the unit to get past the greyscale screen by attempting to start the F/W upgrade or a normal reset.

I'm exchanging email with the cool-er support people at the moment and they're indicating that they'll send me out a return label and when they receive my faulty unit they'll send out a replacement.

[sassanik]

Oh no! That is no good!

No I am waiting on my new Cool-er at the moment. I managed to get my Cool-er stuck on the gradient screen.


Amy

[AJW]

I've just been out and bought another Cool-er. I'm not going to be playing around with the firmware on this one!

I just don't do patient very well when it comes to my toys.

[codeMonkey]

I had a similar problem after a couple of weeks - the gradient when trying to reboot and then nothing.
The Cool-er support people suggested I update the firmware to fix the gradient problem, which I tried, but unfortunately had no success.
I've sent my reader back this weekend and apparently they'll be sending me a new one that's already been loaded with the new firmware, once they've examined the old one.

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by AJW

Hi everyone,

I'm a newcomer to the forums here, but I've been reading e-books for years, first of all on a Palm Vx, then on a few PocketPC devices, a couple of Blackberries, an iPhone and now I've recently purchased my first dedicated ebook reader the Cool-ER.

I've had the device a little over a week now and I'm loving it. It seems responsive and well put together. I've not had any technical issues with it, and the only improvement I'd suggest is to allow you to turn the device on straight to the book you were last reading, rather than turning it on to the library.

The e-ink display looks great. I wasn't sure what to expect there having never seen one in person before this, but it doesn't disappoint.

The device is a nice size, not too large, fitting easily into most pockets, including the inside pocket of a suit jacket!

The buttons are a little stiff to press but that strikes me as a benefit more than a problem considering the device can be carried in a pocket quite easily. You don't worry about turning the pages by accident while it's in your pocket.

I'm a Mac user and the device authorised with Adobe Digital Editions on my Mac (running Snow Leopard if anyone's wondering) and then I could transfer my purchased content over without any problems.

I also have other documents I wanted to read on the device in a wide variety of formats which the Cool-ER seems to have no problems with. Books with graphic covers at the front display adequately on the greyscale screen.

The main thing that attracted me to the Cool-ER was the battery life. Reading e-books on my iPhone is fine however the battery life leaves a bit to be desired, and when I saw this unit promising 8000 page turn battery life, I knew I had to get it. Somehow I couldn't see the iPhone managing to keep going through a trans-atlantic flight or other long reading periods.

I've not played with any of the multimedia settings such as audio playback or the Soduku game, I only intend to read documents on the device. I'll stick with my iPhone for audio and games.

Thanks for the pics. I like the look of the device, especially in silver. The web page always seems to be out of stock, so I may pre-order if the wait is not too long.

One thing I'm curious about is the Cool-ER handling of FB2 files. Apparently it has all the features, but I would like to see it in action. Any chance you could test some FB2 books? If you don't have any I can send you some, or you can find a lot on:

http://manybooks.net/

Pics of your test would be nice. Thanks again!

[AJW]

I've yet to encounter any FB2 format books, but I'll grab one from the site you linked and take a photo or two as soon as I can.

Borders bookshops in the UK are selling the Cool-ER as is Argos, which is where I purchased mine from, rather than via their website. If you look around you might find some regional shops near you selling the Cool-ER

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by AJW

I've yet to encounter any FB2 format books, but I'll grab one from the site you linked and take a photo or two as soon as I can.

Borders bookshops in the UK are selling the Cool-ER as is Argos, which is where I purchased mine from, rather than via their website. If you look around you might find some regional shops near you selling the Cool-ER

No such luck in Netherlands, I'm afraid. Stores like Media Markt have the usual suspects like Sony, but I want FB2 support.

Borders seems to ship to EU, and the price is a little less than the EU price, so I might try that - once I'm happy with the FB2 support.

Cheers!

[AJW]

As requested, you can see a couple of images of a FB2 file here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajwrigh...75565/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajwrigh...81481/sizes/o/

The FB2 file I tried doesn't seem to have any built in font specification like PDF and other files have so it seems to use your reader font settings. You can specify one of 3 fonts, and choose from 8 sizes.

I've taken the photos with the default font/size I use but if you'd prefer to see a file with it any bigger/smaller let me know.

[orwell2k]

Thanks for the photos - looks good. I like the silver device, but that one seems to be the most popular colour, although all colours are sold out at the moment (Pre-Order only).

What kind of setting options do you have with FB2 - any chance of seeing the menu? Can you select various fonts, sizes and so on in FB2 (because I really hate arial!)?

Do you mind if I send you a nicely formatted FB2 for you to try - no need to post pics, you can just tell me if you like how it displays or if there is a problem. I'll PM you.

Lastly, what kind of battery life are you usually getting. With my BeBook I can easily go a week (5-7 days) before thinking about a recharge, and that usually means the battery is down to half or 1/4. This is with a normal reading load - if I really spend the day reading it shortens a little, but I can still go for days like that before even thinking about the battery.

I was a little annoyed yesterday when I saw a mobileread interview of the German developers of the upcoming Txtr device, and he asked about the battery life, stating most devices had poor performance until the recent Sonys. I take real exception to this kind of comment, and it happens often on these forums, which are very Kindle- and Sony-centric. He was comparing it to the iLiad battery life, which is crap (~4 hours use). But this kind of comment really shows a lack of consideration of the other alternative devices that are out there. And is just incorrect. I am keen to see the new Txtr device, and will compare it to my excellent BeBook for things like battery life, readability, usability etc.
[/rant]

Thanks again!

[AJW]

Feel free to send me over a file you'd like me to try out, I'll pm you my e-mail address if you'd rather send it directly.

I'll get a shot of the font menu tonight so you can see how that works.

What I found oddest about the Txtr device is that with all the formats it supports, and a name like that, it apparently doesn't support txt files!

I've not really experimented with battery life, my reading time varies wildly from day to day, but I heard that lithium-polymer batteries survive longer when they're charged more frequently compared to when they're run down to nothing routinely, so I've been charging it every few nights. The battery hasn't been going down very fast in that time.