When it rains it pours. Lately, it seems like news of a new e-book device surfaces daily. Pretty soon we will be faced with so many buying decisions. To add to the confusion I will throw in another choice. By the end of the year there will be another E-ink device on the block. It is Jinke’s Hanlin V9 .This reader will have a flexible plastic screen measuring 10 inches. Formats supported include PDF, DOC, HTML, TXT, and CHM. I haven’t seen anything on the price, but I m guessing that it will cost at least $450. It doesn’t have a touch screen, but if it does come in at that price or lower, then it may be a viable alternative to the iRex iLiad that costs $700,. If you want a reader with a touch screen you won’t have to wait too long. By the end of January 2008, Jinke plans to release the V9t (pictured), which is basically the V9 with a touch screen. The only drawback I can see from the specs is that both readers only support SD cards up to 2GB capacity. The third model V9c due out at the same time as the V9t tops out at only 1GB. I don’t know if these devices will arrive to market on time, it seems that most readers don’t, so take these dates with a grain of salt. If you are not in the market for a large screen device, Jinke has a couple of models out now, the V3 and V8. These are selling for $329 and $299 respectively. You can read about hands on experience with the V3 here on Mobileread. I strongly suggest reading this thread before buying. Apparently Jinke still has some devices in stock that don’t have the Vizplex screen and unless you specifically ask for it, you may not get it. Also, from what I read on the thread, there is $20 charge for the upgrade. Circumstances may have changed so ask questions before you decide to go for it.
The folks over at Baen got together to develop their own e-book device. So in March 2006 NAEB LLC was created. Their mission statement is:
This is a reader by us for our own use and for any other book lover who just wants to read books without being trapped into anyone else’s business plan.
We will not lock you into any one format, or try to dictate your choice of download sites. We don’t want anyone doing that to us and we’re not going to do it to you.
This is a bare bones reader. That means you can carry a small library with you and we don’t have to charge you the earth for it. If you want something that does text messaging you’ve bought the wrong device.
No DRM and no hidden “gotchas” what you see is what you get.
We intend this reader to support as many formats as possible.
People interested in buying the e-book were allowed to sign up with no obligation to buy. Potential buyers could also voice their feature request on their forum. I signed up quite some time ago and try to monitor the progress from time to time. The device is going to be supplied by Bookeen. That should have been my first clue that Bookeen would be coming out with a new reader. At any rate, I just read on Derek Benner’s Blog that he has received a sample reader. His comments (first review) will be posted soon on the Mobileread forum. From the picture he posted, the screen on the new reader is much clearer. I just wish that the text was the same size on both for a better comparison, but I’m sure he just wanted to give everyone a taste as soon as he could. The picture I have here is small. You can get a much better view by clicking on the photo on Derek’s blog. I look forward to the review.
You could use this time by getting your e-book content ready. I like Book Designer. The writer is Russian, but has English support included. The previous link is to their blog. Click here for the application’s home site. The best feature is that it can convert to and from many formats including Rocket e-book, EBW1150, Hiebook, Sony reader, Ebookman, and iLiad. You may be reluctant to try this since the sites aren’t in English, but there is help. Check out this thread on Mobileread. Not only can you read more on installation and use, you can also download the needed files. Mobileread also has a Wiki dedicated to Book Designer here. Downloads are also available on the Wiki. It may take some to really get the hang of it, but once you do, you’ll find this a very useful application. Just look at it this way: you won’t notice how long it’s taking for your new device to either come out or be delivered. Best of all it is free. After dropping a few Benjamin’s for a new e-book reader you need some relief.
The saga is over without any excitement or incident. I had just checked the repair status on Sunday and my husband’s IT was still waiting for parts. I was more than surprised when I got an “missed delivery” notice from the Post Office. We picked it up this morning to find that he was given a swap out device. The device was complete with everything except the battery. Since per instructions, we didn’t mail the stylus, battery, battery cover, or the silver hard cover, it’s like getting a bonus. Only thing is that the invoice said the N770 is now out of warranty. So here’s to hoping that we don’t get another WSOD. All in all it was a painless experience and my husband is glad to have his N770 back.
I read over at Mobileread and Teleread that Amazon’s Kindle reader is due out on October 15th. By that time we should also have the Cybook. So is e-ink now the de facto standard for e-book devices and is this what we want? I ask because I know the first thing out people’s mouth will be that there is no back light. Then others will attempt once again, to explain the technology and why there can’t be any backlighting. It seems that someone has decided that e-book device screens have to look exactly like a book. Now e-book advantages are reduced to being able to carry a full library around and immediate gratification. That’s not enough for me. I want a full digital experience. If I want my device to be exactly like a book, then I would never have bought an e-book device. E-ink has its place. It’s great when I am outdoors, but I tend to do most of my reading inside. I don’t want to pay $350 or more and then buy a book light. I tried searching for the best light and ending up spending a small fortune before I gave up. I found some that were good, but I spent more time adjusting than reading. Really, I just don’t get why everyone is so excited by this technology. Personally, I would rather have read that E-book Technologies is debuting a new reader this year complete with a LCD screen. Ideally, it would be a thinner and larger screen EBW1150, SD card memory, and in color like the REB1200. Also keep the stylus!
Then there’s format. I have come to accept DRM since I know this is a battle that I can’t win. So if it takes DRM to be able to read a bestseller then, so be it. What I don’t like is any reader having only one format. Forget being able to convert documents to fit the reader. I don’t want to do that. I want my reader to do it for me. At the current prices they should. I want to read books for Palm ereader, mobi, MS lit, etc. I want to read a pdf file without using a magnifying glass. So far not one of these e-ink, or LCD devices can do that. At least with the EBW1150 I can use a dictionary, search, highlight, and annotate. Plus I don’t have to pay three times the cost. I remember that the Rocket e-book not only had the features of the EBW, but it also had a graffiti like handwriting input system. I think it was called Allegro. It’s like the new devices are going backwards instead of forward. Then when they fail, it’s because people prefer paper. Give me a break. The saddest thing of all is that I know I will buy the new devices one by one. I am addicted.
Here we go again. In the past week we got news about Amazon’s Kindle, Cybook is due anytime now, and a brief peak at the new Sony reader. Everyone is excited; hopes are high that the e-book is finally coming into its own. In my opinion we could have ten devices coming out and it still doesn’t change the things that need to be changed. That’s the prolific proprietary formats, along with availability and price of content. There are just too many formats and I believe that it is a barrier to new adopters. The average person picking up a Sony reader doesn’t know this. Most people don’t know about Project Gutenberg. That’s why Sony can act like they are giving customers a gift buy offering 100 classics for free. It’s not until they get it home and set up that they realize that they are locked into Sony for content and locked out of other sites that sell e-books. Then they question, “Which format works with what device and why isn’t content available for all devices?” Format confusion and the fact that you can’t get your books from where you please, are a turn off. Unless they happen to stumble across user forums to overcome this, the device just may sit on a shelf or find its way to EBay. Another barrier is pricing. If a person buys a book for $20, after reading it, he or she could choose to sell it, share it with a friend. E-books can’t do that, so why must we pay the same price as a hardback? This must change. In order for technology acceptance to take place, there has to be perceived usefulness. There has to be some incentive for the customer to move to digital reading. After all they just paid the average of $300 for the device and now pay the same price for an e-book as a paper book. Lastly, availability of e-books needs to increase. I would love to buy older books that are no longer in print as well as new books on release date in e-book format. When I think back to my first device, it got little use simply because I couldn’t find anything that I wanted to read. If I didn’t know better, I would think that e-book device makers are setting up their wares for failure.
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