In the midst of all the new e-book devices hitting the market, don’t forget the tried and true reader. Right now Ebookwise has their reader on sale. You can save $10 on the device and also receive free shipping (Fedex ground). Faster shipping is available and is also discounted. I really like their reader, especially since it has backlighting and a dictionary. I have found their customer service to be excellent and there is a user forum with a great bunch of folks. Another plus is the library software available. The software costs $14.95 and is really worth the price. While there are free methods for converting text for the reader, the software makes it so much easier. Just think, if you already have a few SMC cards from back in the day or don’t need more than 10 books on your reader at any given time, you can buy four EBW1150 for the price of one Kindle. That’s a family pack! The only drawback is one that is common to all other devices and that is DRM and the availability of books. Still, there are a lot of multi-format books available at Fictionwise and free e-books that are already formatted for the device. And of course you can brew your own.
Here’s the sale and shipping summary from their site:
Reader with 64mb SMC 129.95
Reader with internal memory only 99.95
Reader with 128mb SMC 169.95
Last Ship Dates for Christmas Delivery
USA Ground: order no later than Noon EST December 14
USA 2-Day: order no later than Noon EST December 20
CANADA Ground: order no later than Noon EST December 10
CANADA Air: order no later than Noon EST December 19
I really like the Eee, but I felt really frustrated by the lack of webcam support. It’s a shame that Pidgin does not support video because I was really psyched to use the webcam. Why? The webcam on the Eee is excellent. I have owned a few webcams and never have I had one that worked as well. I would always look to dark and had to practically sit under a flood light to be seen. Yes I am dark skinned, but come on. I tested the Eee webcam in just regular light and immediately I could actually see myself. I had read that there is now an update (beta) for Skype that supports the Eee webcam. I read the instructions on installation and it just seemed too intricate. So I instead I installed Windows XP Professional. I chose the Professional version because that was all I had on had that included SP2. Installation went smoothly and without any incident. Since I had an external CD/DVD drive I simply followed the instructions included in the user guide. I was concerned that Windows would run slowly, but it doesn’t. I then installed Yahoo Messenger. Before I knew it I was broadcasting my video to my daughter. The only other programs I installed were Open Office and Google Talk. Anything thing else I will run from either a SD card or flash drive. I feel bad in a way because I gave up so quickly on Linux. I may decide to go back to it, but I doubt it.
Back in September I had pre-ordered an Eee PC from Citrus Micro (CM). I picked them because I didn’t have to make a non-refundable deposit. That should have been my first clue. I bought the notebook from New Egg since they were the first with the device in stock and I couldn’t wait. Then my daughter wanted one so I left my pre-order with CM opened. When she sent me her half of the money, something told me that I should buy from New Egg, but I was feeling the small guy business trying to make it, so when their representative called me, I decided to go ahead with CM against my intuition. I was told that the Eee PCs would be in that week and sent out no later than 3 days later. Well that was Nov 7th. Today is the 20th. In the meantime, I have been following the conversation over at Eeeuser.com forum. That was my second clue. I got a bad feeling that I was being taken for ride. So I called and basically got smoke blown up my skirt. The rep even went so far as to say that New Egg really didn’t have any on stock. He said no one did. He then went on to tell me that in order to get Asus to send the device, it had to be paid for. So when I tried to pin down a time frame the answer was that he didn’t know. Yet I couldn’t cancel my order, hmm—. That was the final clue. Then Best Buy after reporting a two week wait got theirs in and people had already started to receive their purchase. On top of that New Egg ran out earlier this week, but they already have them back in stock. I have not received one word from CM. There have been no updates to me via email or on their site. I called my credit card company and let them know my situation and they have taken the charge off of my card. I then went back to New Egg and ordered. I thought that businesses could not place a charge on a card until the item shipped. A quick glance on Eeeuser.com forums shows that I am not alone. I tried today to get in touch with the rep I had talked to before, but now no one is available. There’s not even a voicemail option. This is bad and it seems as though CM thinks I am dumb enough to keep accepting their lies. I know that some people at the beginning did receive their purchase. That doesn’t make me feel better. I not only didn’t get mine, but I have no explanation, have been made to feel as though I am powerless to do anything about it, and most important I have disappointed my daughter. Yes, I am really upset.
Amazon’s Kindle has finally arrived and it looks just like the prototype. Sometimes things can be so ugly and odd that they can become cute. At the very least it will get attention. Maybe this is Amazon’s angle: They are concentrating on performance and function rather than aesthetics. The reader is already for sale on Amazon’s site. There are videos of the reader in action along with celebrity endorsements. Engadget has an unboxing report and more if you want a different perspective. One thing that interests me is that the Kindle does offer some sort of sharing. So as long as devices are tied to one account they can share a book. That means my husband and I could read the same book at the same time, provided we both have a Kindle. For people on the go, you can browse, buy, and download a book anywhere, anytime. No need for a wireless hotspot or connection. While this is a good idea, it doesn’t really interest me. What would be great is if it had some sort of lighting capabilities. I refuse to spend big money on a reader then buy a clip on light. Still for some reason I want this reader. Even weirder is that I think this is the device that will finally put e-books on the map. It’s just so odd and ugly that it begs for a home.
Tablet Blog reported that ACCESS Garnet VM is now available for download. For those of you who own a Nokia device, but miss the Palm operating system you are now in luck. With this emulator you can have your cake and eat it too. Tablet blog has posted videos of the emulator in action. I plan to try it out on my N800 and my husband’s N770. While the emulator doesn’t take advantage of the full screen of the Nokia, this could be quite useful for e-books. I do like FBreader, but it would be great to have Mobipocket and Palm’s reader available on my Nokia. If you want to give the emulator a try, click here. You will have to enter your name and email address. Afterwards you will receive an email linking to the download area. Instructions are also available on the site. After I give it a try, I’ll post on my findings.
NAEB has announced the price for their Cybook 3 reader. The reader will go for $375. From what I can tell this is the deluxe package that Bookeen offers for $450. So if you live in the U.S. this should save you on shipping. How much I do not know, but it should be a lot less than the approximately $33 if you had ordered directly from Bookeen. If you are in Europe, NAEB asks that you order from Bookeen directly. Another point is that NAEB is responsible for your warranty. The warranty is essentially the same as Bookeen’s. So, is this a deal? I say no.
While this represents a substantial savings of $75, it only counts if you were going to buy the deluxe package. In a previous post I came to the conclusion that it is not worth buying the deluxe version. I don’t need many of the items offered in this package. For instance, right now Geeks.com is selling the USB Travel AC Wall Charger for $3.50. This sale is just for the weekend and they had about 245 left. So if you need one, make sure you drop by soon. Bookeen is selling an adapter for 23.95.
Another issue is warranty. If you purchase your reader through NAEB, they are responsible for the warranty. That means for service, repair, and replacement, you would have to deal with them, not Bookeen. I just don’t see how NAEB plans to handle this. They have ordered 1,000 units. Depending on the sales, then I suppose they will order another set. At any rate they would have to depend on Bookeen for replacement units at some point. I do not know if NAEB is a retailer. They may be, but I don’t get a warm fuzzy when it comes to the warranty. For me, I don’t need a middle man. I would rather deal directly with Bookeen. They have been more than great when I was having problems with my Cybook 2. So when I buy a Cybook 3 next year, it will be from Bookeen. By the way, Bookeen’s notice about new orders shipping between December 5 and December 13 still applies. NAEB has not issued a ship date yet.
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