On ebooks and living in the future
November 17th, 2007 | Published in Books, Computers, eBooks | 20 Comments
Rumour has it that Amazon will be announcing (or possibly even launching) their ebook initiative on Monday. Included with this is their first foray into the world of hardware manufacture with the “Kindle”1 ebook reader.
Earlier this month, the good folks at Bookeen launched (as in: actually shipped) their third-generation ebook reader, appropriately called the “Cybook Gen 3“. I’ve been watching their progress avidly, and the second I heard that the Cybook was shipping my credit card and I leaped into action. Being quick on the draw, I managed to get my order in early enough to get one of the first shipments. Within days (possibly hours) their initial supply had sold out and all other orders were delayed from a Nov 2 ship date to sometime in mid-December.
I received my Cybook (from Paris, via FedEx) on Nov 7 and have been using it daily since. I’ve taken some pictures, which you can view over at my flickr photo set.
It is, as I say, very much like living in the future. There are some rough spots of course, but also some unexpected highlights. Here’s a quick rundown:
Readability: The contrast and resolution on the Cybook are great. I’m really impressed by the clarity and readability. These e-ink based ebook readers do not include a backlight, so you can only read them anywhere you can read a regular book. The Cybook screen is nicely matte, so there’s no glare issue whatsoever. Grade: A-.
Memory: The Cybook comes with 64mb of content memory and has an SD slot for memory expansion. The 2gb of additional memory I’ve added will allow me to put somewhere in the region of 3000-5000 books on it. Grade: A+++ I’m living in the future.
Weight and size: roughly 300g including cover and battery; roughly the same height, width, and thickness as a 300 page regular (non-trade) paperback. Grade: A+.
Battery life: the Bookeen folk estimate that a full charge should last around 8000 page turns. The e-ink technology apparently only draws power when changing what’s displayed, using no power otherwise. At this point I’ve read around 300 pages and the battery indicator is still pegged at 100%. Grade: A+.
Ghosting, page turn speed: Both excellent. I have seen no evidence of ghosting yet, but this may be an issue that takes a few tens of thousand of page turns to appear. I will post an update later if this happens. Page turn speed (the length of time it takes to completely change the display after pushing the button) is excellent. Not instantaneous, but still faster than actually turning a page in a physical book. No complaints here at all. Grade: A-.
Formats: The Cybook allows you to read ebooks in four formats — mobipocket, HTML, PDF, and plaintext. The mobipocket format is, by far, the best. HTML is second best being quite readable with functioning hyperlinks (assuming the hyperlinks are within the same document — these things aren’t hooked up to the internet). Plaintext is OK, but hard-wrapped formats get all messed up — I need to find a script to un-hard-wrap the Gutenberg plaintext files. PDF — well it depends for what size paper the PDF was formatted. If the PDF is formatted to a paperback-sized page, it’s fantastic. If the PDF is formatted to 8.5×11, then it’s utterly illegible with no way to resize the fonts or zoom the pages (that I have found). Grade: A+ for mobipocket, B+ for HTML, B- for plaintext, D for PDF.
User interface: Overall the UI is good, but not great. The “menu” button (which you use to navigate back to the main library screen, set bookmarks, adjust font sizes, etc) is awkwardly placed. The main “select” button is really too clicky — it’s just loud, when it should be silent. The little rubber cover for the USB port is a bit flimsy, doesn’t really get out of the way sufficiently, and is bloody impossible to remove when the cover is on. I am somewhat tempted just to rip it off now and save myself the trouble of dealing with it entirely. Otherwise, the Cybook is great. Grade: B.
Cover: Nicely made, well designed, good fit. Only comes in a somewhat disappointingly ugly brown and costs an extra $40. Hopefully other covers will come available over time. The cover is absolutely essential, however, even though it is brown. Don’t fool yourself into thinking otherwise. It’s worth every penny. Grade: A.
Manufacturing quality: The Cybook is well made and feels very solid. I definitely don’t feel as if I have to baby it or be excessively cautious when slinging it into bags or backpacks. The cover helps, of course, and I strongly recommend you buy a cover if you get one of these. Grade: A.
DRM: Buying ebooks (mobipocket format, f.e.) requires that you enter your device PID before you can download the book. This, I assume, is how they’re enforcing Digital Rights Management (DRM), which is just a fancy way of saying “you can’t lend other people your ebooks, ever”. Given that ebooks are currently priced roughly equivalent to physical books, this is an annoying pain in the ass. Publishers are really going to have to rethink the pricing scheme on these things, because paying the same for a DRM’d ebook and a regular physical book is just nonsense. Grade: bullshit.
Overall, I’m very happy with my Cybook. It’s small, light, comfortable to read, and does its job well. Unlike the rumoured Amazon “Kindle”, it doesn’t do wifi or have a keyboard or read email (wtf), but I’m really OK with that. I spend all day on the Internet — when I’m reading it’s quite specifically an opportunity for me to get the hell away from the machines.
I’m very excited by the possibilities Amazon’s ebook initiative may open up. Currently buying ebooks can be challenging — the seller sites tend to be atrocious, and selection is slim. Being able to buy mobipocket-format ebooks through Amazon.com (with all its reviews and whatnot) would be absolutely brilliant. We’ll see what happens on Monday!
1 – “Kindle”, seriously? Def’n: catch fire; cause to start burning. That’s a little Fahrenheit 451 of them.
November 17th, 2007 at 1:51 pm (#)
Ever since Computers started and Star Trek showed us those cool portable displays, geeks have longed for something like ebook readers. And with the birth of E-ink, that dream is closer. But every incarnation has that blasted DRM — the anti-consumer technology de jure. After I slideshow’d the cool pixs, I read your review and was waiting for other shoe to drop, the DRM shoe, killing a great thing. And sure enough, there it was. The only reason to buy a device like this is to read a book and they make it so overly hard and expensive to get one. The next step is of course to rev-eng mobipocket format and start making a tex-2-mobi module or similar ;-) Is Jon Johansen busy this week?
November 17th, 2007 at 1:51 pm (#)
Ever since Computers started and Star Trek showed us those cool portable displays, geeks have longed for something like ebook readers. And with the birth of E-ink, that dream is closer. But every incarnation has that blasted DRM — the anti-consumer technology de jure. After I slideshow’d the cool pixs, I read your review and was waiting for other shoe to drop, the DRM shoe, killing a great thing. And sure enough, there it was. The only reason to buy a device like this is to read a book and they make it so overly hard and expensive to get one. The next step is of course to rev-eng mobipocket format and start making a tex-2-mobi module or similar ;-) Is Jon Johansen busy this week?
November 17th, 2007 at 2:02 pm (#)
I don’t have a huge issue with the DRM, I just have an issue with them pricing DRM’d items the same as a physical book. The price should be reduced by, I’d say, at least 50% off the softcover price (I refuse to buy hardcover anymore). So if a new paper softcover is out for $20, I’d be OK with paying $9-10 for a DRM’d ebook version. Now, give me a *non* DRM’d version and trust me to not be a total bloody criminal, and I’ll pay the full $20.
It’s up to the publishers, really. As it stands it’s just ridiculous. Why in the world would I pay full price for a book that I can’t then let my boyfriend read, or lend to a coworker? Cycling books through our social circle is a matter of course and always has been. DRM’d ebooks make it significantly more difficult and expensive, which is just a shame.
November 17th, 2007 at 2:02 pm (#)
I don’t have a huge issue with the DRM, I just have an issue with them pricing DRM’d items the same as a physical book. The price should be reduced by, I’d say, at least 50% off the softcover price (I refuse to buy hardcover anymore). So if a new paper softcover is out for $20, I’d be OK with paying $9-10 for a DRM’d ebook version. Now, give me a *non* DRM’d version and trust me to not be a total bloody criminal, and I’ll pay the full $20.
It’s up to the publishers, really. As it stands it’s just ridiculous. Why in the world would I pay full price for a book that I can’t then let my boyfriend read, or lend to a coworker? Cycling books through our social circle is a matter of course and always has been. DRM’d ebooks make it significantly more difficult and expensive, which is just a shame.
November 18th, 2007 at 5:17 am (#)
Dria, thanks bunches for your detailed review and the many pictures of the Cybook! I’ve ordered my Cybook this week, but due to the delay in shipping, I’ll have to wait until early December before I can play with it. I can’t wait!
Have you already tried converting .txt and .html files with the Mobipocket Creator? As far as I understand this programme is available for free on the Mobipocket website.
November 18th, 2007 at 5:17 am (#)
Dria, thanks bunches for your detailed review and the many pictures of the Cybook! I’ve ordered my Cybook this week, but due to the delay in shipping, I’ll have to wait until early December before I can play with it. I can’t wait!
Have you already tried converting .txt and .html files with the Mobipocket Creator? As far as I understand this programme is available for free on the Mobipocket website.
November 18th, 2007 at 9:41 am (#)
Sandra: I haven’t tried the Mobipocket creator yet. I’ll have to give that a shot! Thanks for the tip.
November 18th, 2007 at 9:41 am (#)
Sandra: I haven’t tried the Mobipocket creator yet. I’ll have to give that a shot! Thanks for the tip.
November 18th, 2007 at 11:46 am (#)
I’m playing with the Creator at the moment — and I have to say it produces beautiful results. Of course, I can only view the books in the Mobipocket Reader on my PC, but what I see looks promising.
When you convert txt files you should click on “suppress hyphens” and “suppress single carriage returns” to get proper paragraphs. If you want to add a bookcover to a file, you have to create a new publication. You can also add cover pics when converting files, but they won’t show up in the library. Duh.
November 18th, 2007 at 11:46 am (#)
I’m playing with the Creator at the moment — and I have to say it produces beautiful results. Of course, I can only view the books in the Mobipocket Reader on my PC, but what I see looks promising.
When you convert txt files you should click on “suppress hyphens” and “suppress single carriage returns” to get proper paragraphs. If you want to add a bookcover to a file, you have to create a new publication. You can also add cover pics when converting files, but they won’t show up in the library. Duh.
November 18th, 2007 at 5:12 pm (#)
Sounds great. I’ll have to check it out :)
November 18th, 2007 at 5:12 pm (#)
Sounds great. I’ll have to check it out :)
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:59 am (#)
My Cybook was received on November 7. I charged and loaded it with books I have created using Mobipocket Creator software. But in less than 4 hours of initial operating time, the screen failed.
One should be aware that the e-ink technology uses an underlayment that is somewhat fragile. While the glass overlay does not easily break or crack, the underlayment is easily damaged.
I had taken precaution in having learned as an owner of the iRex iLiad product for more than one year. Its underlayment was broken and handled by iRex as a warranty repair with all costs (shipment back to iRex support in Germany and return) born by iRex.
I hope the same will occur in my having sent my Cybook back (after waiting for e-mail advice of RMA) but with Bookeen requiring me to arrange and pay for shipping to France. (All that was handled by iRex, even down to their sending me the return shipping packaging.)
I am not an e-ink techie. So, I cannot know what it is that makes e-ink underlayment apparently fragile. My conjecture is that damage had already occurred in its initial shipping as the packaging of the item was not very protective.
The product suffered no difficulties from how I handled it. As I am an educated consumer of e-ink products, I immediately placed the Cybook in its leather holder and kept it there until removing it for packaging it for return to Bookeen. And then, I used the substantially better packaging that brought my iRex iLiad safely to me.
I can state that my few hours of hands-on experience with the Cybook was very exciting. The appearance of the Mobipocket Reader selections and its general improvements from the 2nd gen e-ink technology were sources of cheer. Most impressive for me is the user accessible/replaceable battery. That is an important differentiator for the Bookeen product even given the long usage estimate between charging. Regardless of the initial experience of page turns between charging, all lithium batteries eventually require replacement (as any battery will only charge a certain number of cycles). And to have to ship a unit to France (or to Germany, in the case of the iLiad) for battery replacement is just nonsensible. Here is hoping that other matters do not arise such as repeated screen replacement… Goody
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:59 am (#)
My Cybook was received on November 7. I charged and loaded it with books I have created using Mobipocket Creator software. But in less than 4 hours of initial operating time, the screen failed.
One should be aware that the e-ink technology uses an underlayment that is somewhat fragile. While the glass overlay does not easily break or crack, the underlayment is easily damaged.
I had taken precaution in having learned as an owner of the iRex iLiad product for more than one year. Its underlayment was broken and handled by iRex as a warranty repair with all costs (shipment back to iRex support in Germany and return) born by iRex.
I hope the same will occur in my having sent my Cybook back (after waiting for e-mail advice of RMA) but with Bookeen requiring me to arrange and pay for shipping to France. (All that was handled by iRex, even down to their sending me the return shipping packaging.)
I am not an e-ink techie. So, I cannot know what it is that makes e-ink underlayment apparently fragile. My conjecture is that damage had already occurred in its initial shipping as the packaging of the item was not very protective.
The product suffered no difficulties from how I handled it. As I am an educated consumer of e-ink products, I immediately placed the Cybook in its leather holder and kept it there until removing it for packaging it for return to Bookeen. And then, I used the substantially better packaging that brought my iRex iLiad safely to me.
I can state that my few hours of hands-on experience with the Cybook was very exciting. The appearance of the Mobipocket Reader selections and its general improvements from the 2nd gen e-ink technology were sources of cheer. Most impressive for me is the user accessible/replaceable battery. That is an important differentiator for the Bookeen product even given the long usage estimate between charging. Regardless of the initial experience of page turns between charging, all lithium batteries eventually require replacement (as any battery will only charge a certain number of cycles). And to have to ship a unit to France (or to Germany, in the case of the iLiad) for battery replacement is just nonsensible. Here is hoping that other matters do not arise such as repeated screen replacement… Goody
December 21st, 2007 at 4:15 pm (#)
Nothing compares to a real obsolete book. I havent’t read one for ages.
December 21st, 2007 at 4:15 pm (#)
Nothing compares to a real obsolete book. I havent’t read one for ages.
June 12th, 2008 at 7:49 pm (#)
The Kindle has one (at least one) feature you would like. The ebooks sell at a substantial discount. Sony, like Bookeen, ripe you off on the prices.
Also,briefly, the Kindle can change print sizes(6 different sizes), download ebooks wirelessly without a computer, have a very large selection of books, and can surf the internet (free of charge).
I have not tried the Bookeen product, but the Kindle beats my Sony ebook reader hands down.
Anyone want to buy a Sony ebook reader at a large discount? (I’m not kidding)
June 12th, 2008 at 8:35 pm (#)
I actually recently sold my cybook to a friend. It’s a great piece of gear, I’m just too attached to old-skool books to give them up.
The Kindle would be pretty tempting, but it’s not available in Canada yet. The convenience of being able to just download books on demand is a HUGELY compelling feature.
Alas. Maybe someday we’ll get them up here :)
June 12th, 2008 at 7:49 pm (#)
The Kindle has one (at least one) feature you would like. The ebooks sell at a substantial discount. Sony, like Bookeen, ripe you off on the prices.
Also,briefly, the Kindle can change print sizes(6 different sizes), download ebooks wirelessly without a computer, have a very large selection of books, and can surf the internet (free of charge).
I have not tried the Bookeen product, but the Kindle beats my Sony ebook reader hands down.
Anyone want to buy a Sony ebook reader at a large discount? (I’m not kidding)
June 12th, 2008 at 8:35 pm (#)
I actually recently sold my cybook to a friend. It’s a great piece of gear, I’m just too attached to old-skool books to give them up.
The Kindle would be pretty tempting, but it’s not available in Canada yet. The convenience of being able to just download books on demand is a HUGELY compelling feature.
Alas. Maybe someday we’ll get them up here :)