Earlier this month my husband and I went on our first cruise.  In my effort to pack lightly I only took one tech gadget with me and of course that was an e-book reader.  I wanted something small, light, but with enough screen space.  I decided to take me latest acquisition the Jetbook. Here’s my take on the reader along with some photos:

What in the box: Besides the reader itself, you get a neoprene pouch that has a Velcro closure.  The case has what feels like a hard, but flexible plastic sheet for added protection.  I also got an AC adapter, and USB cord.  A Windows CD (by Livingsoft) with phrase books, flashcards, and dictionaries is included.  No software for the reader is included or needed.

TIP: On the reader  there is a pdf with a listing of places to download free books.  Some I have never come across and plan to check them out.

Features: 

This reader is small as well as thin.  I have taken a picture of it next to the Ebookman and Sony reader to give some perspective.  Still, the screen size is really nice at 5 inches.  For me the screen was the biggest selling point.  The reader measures in at 6″ x 4.25″ x 3/8″.  It easily fits in any of my purses and weighs only 7.5 ounces.  Like most e-book readers these days, the Jetbook has MP3 capabilities.  All of the features in this section are user friendly. I loaded one song and one podcast to test it out.  Barry White sounds pretty good, but not as good as hearing it on my iPod.  The spoken word is a lot better.  I listened to TWIT (Leo LaPorte). One of the features of the device is that you listen while you read.  This could be great for kids who are beginning to read.  You could add the audio of the book so that he/she could read along.  I see children books with CDs in the dollar stores all the time.  Of course this could work for adults too.  You could listen to your book while driving (using a FM transmitter) and then later pick it back up and read when you can.  Of course you would have to find your place if you don’t stop at the end of a chapter.  Settings include return to Playlist, the ability to turn off the LCD, Playmodes, Background Music, and Hot Keys.  I saw no way to bookmark, but you can pause but when I returned to what I was listening to it went back to the beginning instead of where I left off.  I doubt if I ever will use the audio with any frequency.  The reader only accepts up to a 2gb SD card.  That is more than enough for simple text, but audio books can eat up space quick.

There is also a picture viewer, but to me that makes no sense.  The reader is not color and the reader is text only.  So why a picture viewer when I can’t include the book cover, photos, and drawings in my book?  The sample picture included looked like a pdf converted to jpg.  It was hard to read, but I could zoom and then pan across and down.  This may be useful to some.  I was thinking of converting some of my craft patterns to jpg images for a easy reference when traveling outside the house.

In the user setting you can set language, dictionary, volume, fonts (Ariel and Verdana), auto power off, and auto page turn. Auto page turns can be set to never, 5 seconds, and 10 second increments up to one minute.

Battery life:  I am charging the reader about once a week.   I suggest actually turning the unit off if you are not coming back to it with a day or so.  Standby drains the battery and in two days of the Jetbook in standby I got a low bat warning.  I haven’t tested the battery for audio in background or simple audio listening.  Turning of the LCD when listening should prolong battery life.

Durability:  The reader feels solid in my hands.  The housing is plastic, but not flimsy in the least.  I have dropped the reader a few times from a few feet and it seems ok.  I think the Jetbook should hold up to normal use.

Loading text: This is easy.  Just drag and drop.  I made additional folders for easier file management.  You can chose to list books by author or title. Don’t worry this choice can be changed any time. 

TIP:  When adding titles rename them as follows:

Author_Name#Title_of_Book

 So it will look like this: Herman_ Melville#Moby_Dick_or_The_White_Whale

I am not the best when reformatting books for a reader.  I want to read and if I took the time to really clean up text, I doubt if I would ever get around to the book.  So there are times that there is a lot of space between words and breaks in the middle of a sentence.  With that said I think my books looked better on the Jetbook than other readers I have, even after I change the font size.  I found that changing the alignment setting from left to justify works nicely.  I like reading in portrait mode, but there is a button that lets you change orientation.  I like that better than having to go into settings.  There are only two rotation choices: 0 degrees and 90 degrees.  The landscape mode at 90 degrees is harder for me to hold and keep from pressing the numbers along side by mistake.  Page turning is different and I wish that I could change the setting on the slider and buttons.  If there is a way I haven’t found it yet. My only other problem is that sometimes I get it mixed up with the settings button that is directly above rotation.  There is also a button that lets you zoom without going into the menu.

Pros:

Dictionary:  I love the dictionary included.  All I have to do is press the menu button, then select dictionary.  This highlights the first word on the page and then all you have to do is to navigate using the jog pad to the word you want and press ok.  It was almost like have my Rocket book back, but without the touch screen.

Screen:  I was worried that the screen would be green like the Ebookman or Kolin reader.  I was worried for nothing.  In regular light reading is great, but the brighter the better.  In the Sun the screen is better than e-ink, but then again I am not a real big fan of e-ink.  Page turns are so much quicker which really enhances my reading experience.  I am glad that someone out there is creating alternative devices.

File Management:  Users can manage both internal and external memory.  I can delete books, create folders, copy books from one folder to another, and rename files. 

Choice of font size:  There are six choices from 12 to 32.  So for people with vision disabilities this is a plus. 

Page turning:  There are three ways to turn pages in addition to auto page turn.  There is a slide bar on the left, a toggle button on the bottom left, and a jog pad on the bottom right.

Cons:

No html, doc, rtf format support.  But there is hope via this site message:

It seems that JetBook does not support some e-book formats, why is that?
We are working on additional e-book format support, but at the same time we have found that 90% of free sources (sources containing almost every needed book on Internet) use either TXT or DOC format.

No way to add additional fonts

No backlight.  This is an LCD screen not e-ink so this was doable.  I read this on their website: 

On/off/standby Switch:  This button depends on how long you push the button.  This took some time for me to catch on to and sometimes I put the device in standby when I want it off.  So it can take me a few tries to get the device to turn on when I come back to it.

Why is there no backlight in JetBook?
We deliberately removed the backlight from JetBook’s original specification after a lengthy consultation with ophthalmologists in the US. We were advised that if we wanted to make JetBook closer to a sense of a regular book, we should not use any backlight. Similar to a computer monitor, if you read by looking at a source of light your eyes get tired within 1-2 hours and you need a longer rest to recover. As for a regular paper book, we all read in reflected light where the eyes do not get tired (if you get tired just switch the font to a next, larger size and you may continue to enjoy your reading). This is the main reason why the backlight was not implemented. Next month we will offer you a clip on light that will allow reading under limited light conditions without getting your eyes strained. Shouldn’t I be the one to chose?

Final Thoughts:  This is one of the easiest-to-use e-book readers I have come across.  There are cons to the reader, but I wouldn’t let that be a show stopper.  I think that the Jetbook is excellent as a second reader and compliments the on-the-go person.  Too bad that the price tag is $349, but you can easily buy it for $50 off.  Simply click on “Learn about Discounts” and fill in what you would like to pay for the reader.  I entered $280, but their only counter offer was $299.  So I took it.  Now I wish I had waited because the reader comes in two more colors now: White and Grey.  One of the reason why I never bought the newest Cybook is that I wanted the reader in white.  I also noticed that Ectaco has a English/Chinese reader (M218B) in white.  The M218B has the extra bonus of HTML format support.  So would I buy again?  Certainly.  I have been really happy using the device to for my summer reading.

Here’s my Cover Solution.  It is a photo brag book.  I found it at an outlet type store and the photo pages were gone.  I got it cause it looked like I could use it one day with wither a PDA or e-book.