NAEB/Baen sells Cybook OEM device for US$375

[JSWolf]

The Sony Readers allow up to 6 devices to be registered via their DRM scheme. 1 has to be a computer and the others can be a combination of computer or reader.

[dcalder]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I believe Derek already said they wouldn't have them for Christmas. So you'll probably need to go direct.

Ah. That must've been posted in another thread that I missed seeing; the last update that I saw on this one indicated that the store would be up and running at the end of this past week. (No specific mention of shipping dates was present.) Phooey. NAEB's got the nicer/more useful bundle for the money, compared to Bookeen. Ah well. Guess I'll have to decide whether the date of arrival or the value for the money is the more critical issue for me...

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by dcalder

When will the readers actually be available for purchase, shipment, and delivery? I've been holding off on ordering a Cybook in order to get one of these but I'd really like to get it before Christmas. If the NAEB readers aren't ready very soon, I'll probably give in and order from Bookeen before their shipping dates shift any later.

Just a short, short update. See, part of the issue involved was getting a merchant checking account that we could tie into our website. We had planned to do so through HSBC, but we found out, late in November, that we couldn't do through them because we were attempting to open the account at their New York offices while our corporation was incorporated in Nevada. So we decided to go with another bank. The bank we chose had offices in California, quite literally in my home town, so that's the one we chose. *BUT* California has recently *changed* the identification requirements for LLCs and we needed to get a Certificate in Good Standing with California. I took all our paperwork down to the Secretary of State office in Sacramento (I live in one of it's suburbs.) last week. They took it all, and our money, and later notified me that the registration was 'rejected' because we *DIDN'T* have a CiGS from Nevada. On Friday, I got a CiGS sent out from Nevada and we're just waiting for it to arrive. I'll then trot on down to the SecState's office and re-file. At that point in time, probably tomorrow or Wednesday, we'll have every 'T' crossed and 'I' dotted so we'll be able to finally complete the process of opening our merchant account!

It ain't easy getting everything organized when some corporate officers live in Washington, some in New York and one in California! Please bear with us.

Derek

[dcalder]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

At that point in time, probably tomorrow or Wednesday, we'll have every 'T' crossed and 'I' dotted so we'll be able to finally complete the process of opening our merchant account!

Any further news regarding when ordering will actually be possible? And when shipping will actually start?

If ordering will open up by the end of the week and shipping start sometime between then and when Bookeen's next lot of readers is due to ship, then I'll probably keep waiting for NAEB. Otherwise... well... waiting with a firm date in mind is one thing; waiting for a nebulous "soon" is a lot more difficult. Especially when I keep eyeing up the OLPC and thinking that the G1G1 program would be a lot more in the spirit of holiday giving than buying a Cybook and benefiting no one but myself...

Though, if I stick with a Cybook and NAEB runs into more delays, I'm rather less than certain that simply ordering a Cybook directly from Bookeen is a good idea, considering that Bookeen's site is down - again. Especially since there's still nothing on their blog to explain the first outage, let alone the second one.

[mcdaniel]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Just a short, short update. See, part of the issue involved was getting a merchant checking account that we could tie into our website. ....

It ain't easy getting everything organized when some corporate officers live in Washington, some in New York and one in California! Please bear with us.

Derek

December 8, 2007 (10:07 AM PST): Derek, we appreciate that a small business often encounters problems in setting up bank relationships, etc. But, please remember that a small business depends upon good customer relationships to succeed. We have been waiting for many months to give NAEB our Cybook Gen 3 purchase orders. I, and I suspect many others, are beginning to wonder if NAEB will ever be ready to accept firm orders. Status reports help us remain committed. Please post a new update ASAP.

Robert

[HarryT]

Just wondering Derek; couldn't all this stuff have been done in advance, so you were ready to go when the Gen3 was actually released?

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Just wondering Derek; couldn't all this stuff have been done in advance, so you were ready to go when the Gen3 was actually released?

Harry, (and Robert McDaniel...)

Yes, some of it *could* have been done in advance. And much of this *was* done in advance. However, when push came to shove with getting our merchant checking account set up with HSBC, we ran into a snag. The snag was - despite over a month of prep work with them - we weren't informed of the 'fatal flaw' (That's not until mid-November.) in which we could not apply for an account at their New York office because - and somehow this slipped past their eagle-eyed vigilance for several months - we were incorporated in Nevada, not New York where our CFO was located. Oops! So, quick hustle to re-structure for us to have me become our Treasurer/CTO (as I live in California). Oops again! I live in Citrus Heights, a suburb of Sacramento and HSBC doesn't have a single branch in our area! And they just felt hincky about me not living within 25 miles of their nearest branch. (It's more like 100 miles.)

Thus, scrambling around to find a *national* bank we can work with leads to Bank of America. Not a problem as there's a branch just 5 miles from my home. However, the department *I* must deal with is in San Francisco. And they're willing to (Nay! Eager!) help, but there are a few paperwork glitches (Let's face facts, dealing with the paperwork over the phone whilst FAXing isn't all that optimum.) and the people who're in charge of dealing with LLCs is new to the position... (Did I mention that state banking regs have changed? Yep. Just enough that all the paperwork we've already accumulated for BofA is not "quite" sufficient.) By this time it's December 3rd. (And yes, that means we missed a few days of form-filling due to the Thanksgiving holidays.)

Finally, I've discovered *ALL* the forms needed by me to file with the State of California for receiving a Certificate of Good Standing... I'm at the Secretary of State's office and... Did I mention that the SecState's website and the phone support person *failed* to mention I need a CoGS from Nevada??? Yep. You guessed it. I've got every form and all but that one! So that very day I went on line and ordered it from Nevada. And it's wending it's way here. *STILL* hasn't arrived!!! (Carson City, Nevada's like 200 miles from Citrus Heights, CA.) If I weren't disabled and living on a fixed income, I'd have *DRIVEN THERE* and picked it up!

I'm not an expert in what it takes to get registered as a valid LLC in either Nevada or California - but I'm rapidly approaching that level of knowledge. And as soon as that scrap of paper is in my hands I can complete the process of opening the merchant checking account.

Of course, were I a sole proprietor, not working under a DBA, I could have gotten away with *HALF* the paperwork - and we'd already be open for orders. Please bear with us.

BTW, even under the *BEST* of circumstances, were we to place our order tomorrow, the earliest we'd get the first half would be early/mid-January, with the rest following in a week or so. Thus we have been informed.

Derek

[mcdaniel]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Harry, (and Robert McDaniel...)

Yes, some of it *could* have been done in advance. And much of this *was* done in advance. However, when push came to shove with getting our merchant checking account set up with HSBC, we ran into a snag. The snag was - despite over a month of prep work with them - we weren't informed of the 'fatal flaw' .... Did I mention that the SecState's website and the phone support person *failed* to mention I need a CoGS from Nevada??? Yep. You guessed it. I've got every form and all but that one! So that very day I went on line and ordered it from Nevada. And it's wending it's way here. *STILL* hasn't arrived!!! (Carson City, Nevada's like 200 miles from Citrus Heights, CA.) If I weren't disabled and living on a fixed income, I'd have *DRIVEN THERE* and picked it up!
....
BTW, even under the *BEST* of circumstances, were we to place our order tomorrow, the earliest we'd get the first half would be early/mid-January, with the rest following in a week or so. Thus we have been informed.

Derek

Many thanks Derek for the update information. I, for one, find it easier to put up with delays if I am kept regularly informed. Your earlier status report seemed to indicate that everything would be finished this past work week, so I was disappointed that no news was posted.

Robert

[kleykenb]

Originally Posted by ashalan

... anybody tried to use Mobipocket Reader and Sony's Software (Connect?) with Wine?

Been using Wine under Linux sucessfully to even play games and as far as I know Wine should also work for Apples running OSX+ (it's Unix after all).

So maybe anybody can give it a shot.

I tried it but did not get very far and probably gave up to quickly but since the installer for MobiPocket is in .msi format and not .exe and Wine was not able to deal with that I stopped there.

[kkingdon]

Originally Posted by ashalan

... anybody tried to use Mobipocket Reader and Sony's Software (Connect?) with Wine?

Been using Wine under Linux sucessfully to even play games and as far as I know Wine should also work for Apples running OSX+ (it's Unix after all).

So maybe anybody can give it a shot.

I had a partially successful result. I'm using a recent vintage of wine under Fedora Core 8. I've also previously found and run scripts that download and install Internet Explorer under wine, so that may have had some effect also. In any case, I was able to install the mobipocket desktop .msi file. The window layout is not perfect, and the title thumbnails don't display properly, but if I change the library layout to show the detailed title view, I was able to see all of the titles. If I select a title, I can read it OK -- the page navigation keys and mouse widgets work fine. I haven't tried more than the basic reading features, so I don't know if there are additional limitations.