Starting June 28, travelers will find the Amazon Kindle for sale in HMSHost branded stores-Simply Books and Authors Bookstores at airports across the country. HMSHost, a world leader in travel shopping and dining, announced today its agreement with Amazon to be the first and only travel retailer of the best selling electronic innovation that is changing the way people buy and read books.
It’s actually not all that many airports:
Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson
John Wayne (Orange County)
Charlotte Douglas International
Salt Lake City
Dallas Ft. Worth
San Diego International
George Bush Houston Intercontinental
Mineta San Jose International
Miami International
Tampa International
Minneapolis-St. Paul
The Sony Reader is available in quite a few more airports than that. But it’s in a high tech vending machine, though, not a store (at least in the US). Igorsk said that he had seen the Sony Reader in the Amsterdam airport at a Capi store.
I had an interesting visit with a Baker & Taylor rep today, and she showed me the Blio iPhone app. This is the first time anyone has seen it, anywhere. BTW, both the iPad and iPhone apps will be available in August.
I was really curious about how Blio would look on the iPhone (and other small screens) because Blio is being promoted as a rich format, and all the demos have been on a desktop. I wasn’t sure that the reading experience could be duplicated on a small screen. I was right, actually, but Blio does come pretty darn close to having the same reading experience on every size of screen.
The iPhone app had support for all the same features of the desktop version: TTS, annotation, text reflow mode. It also had a zoom feature I hadn’t seen before. You can swipe to turn the page, of course, but if you tap the right side of the screen the app will jump to a piece of text and zoom in. Tap again, and it will jump to the next piece of text.
I don’t know that this would win me over from text (but then again, I like text). But the Blio iPhone app is probably going to be the best reading app for its rich format. The only reading apps (that I’m familiar with) which might handle similarly rich content are focused on textbooks, and I don’t think they are as good.
In other news, Blio have a new business partner. Toshiba are going to open their own ebookstore based on Blio called Toshiba Book Place. The site’s up in case you want to check it out. You know, now that I know about this partnership, Toshiba’s new dual screen netbook makes a lot more sense. Toshiba call it an ereader because they expect to run Blio on it.
P.S. I know someone’s going to be thinking about books as apps, especially on the iPad. Yes the book apps have rich content, but they’re locked into the one platform. Blio’s ebooks will be usable across multiple platforms.
The Kobo Android app was announced yesterday, and I thought this was a good idea to try it on a large screen. Everyone knew the Kobo app was going to work on Android phones, but not all Android apps work on a tablet.
BTW, as a favor to those who don’t have access to the Android Market, the install file for the Kobo app is right here.
Kobo
Aldiko has been covered elsewhere, so I’m going to go into a little detail on the Kobo app. WHen you start the app, you’re prompted to log in to your account. The enxt thing you see s a list of ebooks you bought or downloaded, and across the bottom there are 5 menu options: I’m reading, discover, browse, search, and account. I quickly found that they missed a menu option: there’s no way to tell the app to sync with my online bookshelf. But I figured out a way to trick it; downloading a free ebook (or buying one) will force the issue.
The Kobo app is not fast at opening an ebook, but the speed is adequate. Once inside the ebook you have 4 options: font size, font choice (3 fonts), TOC, and day/night mode. Turning the page quite fast. This is a very adequate reading app.
Comparison
The apps both work full screen on the Entourage Edge, and that’s important. The Edge has the highest resolution Android screen available, and not all apps can use the full screen. Some will only work in a window. Think of this screen as being the fore-runner for the large Android tablets and Android netbooks we might see one day.
They are about equally fast at turning the page in a book, and they both have access to an ebookstore. But that’s where the comparison ends. Aldiko is better in every way. It gives you a lot more options in a book and in the library. It has more sources, and most importantly Aldiko supports screen rotation.
I’d get the Kobo app only if you already use it elsewhere, but I would not get it instead of Aldiko.
By now I’m sure you’re used to me quoting someone and telling you why they are wrong. Well, when I agree with someone I don’t see a reason to rehash what they say. But today I’m going to do just that.
Forrester research put out a press release in which the announced:
Despite an ongoing industry debate about how to define tablets, Forrester believes they should be classified as a form of personal computer. Tablet sales in the US will go from a modest 3.5 million units in 2010 to 20.4 million units in 2015, a 42 percent compound annual growth rate. Starting in 2012, tablets will outsell netbooks, and by 2014, more consumers will use tablets than use netbooks. In 2015, tablets will constitute 23 percent of PC unit sales.
I think they’re right, but not because of the sales figures. I think netbooks are dead as a product niche.
The netbook, as originally conceived, had a7″ screen, sub 1GHz CPU, and 1GB RAM. The problem with these specs is that no one really liked them. Common complaints were that the screen and keyboard were too small and that the CPU was to slow. The early models were quickly replaced with ones that had 9″ screens, then 10″, and then 12″ screen. I checked Amazon before writing this post, and the 9″ screens have died out as well. There’s only 1 manufacturer listed as producing a netbook with a 8.9″ screen; all the rest are 10″ and above.
I don’t see that the 10″ netbooks are really all that different from laptops. It’s really a matter of opinion as to whether a particular device is one or the other. And this is doubly true for the 12″ models. I have a 4 year old laptop that has much the same specs as a current netbook (I anticipated the trend). They called it a laptop then , but it would be a netbook now. The only difference is sematics.
Netbooks are a market niche that didn’t really serve a purpose, and had devices that no one really wanted to use. The netbook niche is dead. All that’s left now are low end laptops.
Laura Dawson thinks so, and I respectfully disagree. Here is what she said:
There will be fewer brick and mortar bookstores. By a factor of a lot. Possibly a third of bookstores in the US will close when Borders is finished with its death spiral and Barnes & Noble and successful independents have picked up what business makes sense in those locations. But for that newly-deprived third of bookstore customers? Where will they get their books?
…
How long do you think it will be before they realize that if they order ebooks, they don’t have to wait even 24 hours before they get what they want? How long do you think it will be before instant gratification means that suddenly these underserved areas are hotbeds of ebook consumption?
I have a couple reasons to disagree.
When it comes to buying ebooks, the cost is too high and the process is too difficult. The only store that makes it easy to buy ebooks is Amazon. B&N comes in second (becuase of the 3G on the Nook), but have you seen their site? It’s not easy to navigate.
My other reason is that I don’t think most people are that adaptable. People will continue to buy paper books because that’s what they’re used to doing. Now, Amazon will pick up a lot of sales, but that’s going to be in paper books, not ebooks.
My opinion on adaptability is based on my own personal experience. I am a not too old geek, and I would rather not tell you how long I knew and used Google before I stopped pondering "What about X?" and switched to "Let’s Google X and see what comes up". Most people won’t make the leap from one to the next without someone to show them the way. We would need a critical mass of ebook fans before ebooks could expand into that bookstore deprived third of the population, and we just don’t have it yet.
Update: This review is based on the original firmware. Much of what I say about the software is no longer valid.
I hadn’t planned on writing this post. As you might know, Pandigital had the Novel pulled from shelves on Wednesday so they could load a new firmware. Kohl’s said it was a recall, so I returned my unit. I wasn’t pleased with it, and I decided to wait a few weeks and see what happened.
But then a fracas occurred over my use of the word recall. A couple people made snide remarks about my credibility and veracity, and I do not feel that I can let that slide. I feel that I have to respond and justify the remarks I made in my first impressions post.
Fortunately, I ordered a Novel online Saturday night (before I knew I could get one in store). It arrived Thursday.
First things first. The Novel was not designed as an ereader; it is a tablet. I cannot see any indication in the hardware design that the developers considered how someone might hold it while reading. The design screams “budget tablet”. Consider how the headphone jack, power jack, and card slots are on 3 different edges. That strikes me as a design decision based on cost, not usability. In fact, I just went through my collection, and all of my ereader have the exposed ports and slots on either the top or bottom edge.
Do you want to know another detail that screams cheap tablet? There’s no USB host. That’s not a big deal for an ereader, but this is actually an Android tablet and could certainly support it.
I said before that the Novel was heavy. Yes, it is heavier than any other hand-held ereader, but what I should have said was that it is deceptively heavy. It is about the size of the Nook or Kindle, so you’d think it weighs the same. But the Novel weighs more.
I also said that it wasn’t a one handed ereader, and I still think that. I think you should hold the Novel in 2 hands because of the weight and the slippery back. Also, I could not reliably swipe and turn the page with my thumb when holding the Novel in my right hand.
I will admit that my concerns about the how you hold the Novel are really not that important. I have a couple tablets that I read on; most have to be held in both hands. Then again, they were not marketed as ereaders. The Novel was.
Main Menu, Library
I’m going to pass on defending my remarks on the main menu and the library. I didn’t criticize the main menu because the only people who’d care would be software developers. And my only valid complaint about the library was its lack of speed.
Apps
I’m also going to pass on the apps. You can get them on other Android tablets, and I’m treating the Novel as an ereader anyway.
Reading
I made a mistake before when I compared the Novel with the old eReader Android app. The Novel doesn’t use a newer version of the eReader app; it uses a Nook Android app. I say this because the Novel has the same reading abilities as the Nook. I’m still disappointed, though, because the old eReader app is better than the Nook app.
BTW, since the Novel is an android tablet, I think it’s fair to compare its Nook app to other Android reading apps. Take Aldiko for instance. I’ve used Aldiko on the Archos 5 IT, and it is significantly more capable than the Nook app. Aldiko has the formatting support similar to what I like in the eReader.
Screen refresh & Response rate
I stand by my complaint about the response rate. This is the slowest tablet I’ve ever seen. Luckily, this is probably a software issue. I checked the FCC filings, and the unit they tested had a Samsung s3c6410xh-53 CPU, which runs at 533MHz (I think). That’s plenty fast enough for the job – once they fix the software.
But the Novel is still slow. Do you want to know how slow? I still have the Gajah BK6001, and I compared the page turn speed of the 2 devices. The BK6001 was faster than the Novel, even though it has an E-ink screen. Now that, my dear, is slow.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter whether you think of the Novel as a tablet or an ereader It comes in a distant second to any other device I’ve used. There are better ereaders out there and there are better tablets out there.
I’ve been waiting for one of these for a while now (you don’t want to hear me whine, beg, and plead; it’s not pretty). But I finally got one about 2 weeks ago. I was busy at the time so I didn’t post my first impressions (they were generally good). I’ve posted about Gajah before; they’re a tech company based in Singapore. I’ve called them the most widely distributed ereader company you’ve never heard of, which I believe is true. This model is fairly new. Gajah had a dummy at CES 2010, and from what I can tell it only came on the market a couple months ago.
I’m not happy with the pictures I took, so here is a product image from Gajah. It will give you a better idea of the hardware design.
Key Points
broad (but poor quality) ebook format support
no DRM support
looks good
feels solidly built
reasonably stable firmware
limited formatting options
limited organization options
no image support
battery life: did not test
in general, a marginally adequate reading experience
Hardware
The 6001 is one of the nicest looking ereaders I’ve seen. The one I received is black with a gray trimmed edge. The case finish is matte (meaning it’s not shiny or slippery). The left edge is rounded, and the other edges 3 are beveled. On the upper edge is the power button, and on the lower edge is the microSD card slot, microUSB port, and head phone jack. There are 11 buttons on the face plate to the right of the screen, and below the screen are 4 buttons and a d-pad (music, menu, d-pad, back, font size). The page turn buttons are in the bottom right had corner.
I like the fact that it has a matte finish. My general rule is that shiny = slippery, and a slippery ereader is more difficult to hold.
I’ve found exactly one problem with the hardware, and that is the page turn buttons. I couldn’t use the 6001 with one hand because they’re much too close to the corner. But, this isn’t a serious problem and it can be fixed easily. The accelerometer will be enabled in a later firmware, and if I can hold it sideways the page turn buttons will be under my right thumb. Or, Gajah could add extra functions to a couple of the buttons on the side of the screen.
One other issue that might concern you is the microUSB port. It’s not one I recognize, so you’d need to be careful about not losing the cable.
Software
Menus
The main menu has 6 options: Reading History, Book, Music, Picture, File Explorer, System Settings, and User Manual. You can select the menu options with either the d-pad or the buttons on the side of the screen.
The Book and Music menus are basically the same; you see 10 items per page and the page turn buttons show you the next or previous page. These menus don’t have folder support, but since the 6001 does have a file manager it’s not a big deal.
You have 3 sorting options: file name, date, and file type. Sorting by the title, author, or some other metadata isn’t an option. Again, you do have a file manager so it’s not a big deal. You also have the option of searching by file name (you enter the name similar to a text message on your cellphone).
I’m generally satisfied with the menus. The 6001 lacks some library features, but the file manager makes up for it (mostly).
Before I get into the reading experience, I want to point out one shortcoming: the 6001 doesn’t have a sleep mode. On the other hand, it does have a pretty fast boot time. If Gajah can’t add the sleep mode then they might want to look at adding a boot option, and let the 6001 open to the most recently read book.
Reading experience
The 6001 can’t do much with an ebook. You have 4 font sizes, bookmarks, and you can jump to a page. The list of basic abilities the 6001 doesn’t have is much longer, and it starts with pictures, cover images, dictionary lookup, highlighting, annotation, and support for Epub table of contents.
Because of the lack of features, uncomfortable hand position and missing sleep mode, I would describe the reading experience as barely adequate. Part of the reason I’m disappointed is that I’m pretty sure there are software features that Gajah did not implement. I infer from the format support that the 6001 uses FBReader, and I know that FBReader has quite a few margin, line spacing, justification, and font size options (it also supports images). I think it would improve the reading experience if Gajah adds these features in later firmware.
Opinion
It’s an okay ereader, and I’m sure someone will be happy with it. But there are cheaper ereaders on the market that are significantly more capable and have more options. I would not recommend this ereader to anyone unless it is cheaper than the Kobo ereader, or it gets a new firmware.
Where to get it
This ereader is currently available in Australia as the Pico Life 6001. It’s carried by OfficeWorks, and it has a retail of 297 AUD ( ~233 USD + tax). Here are the specs (from the Officeworks product page):
Hanvon was one of the more interesting booth visits at BEA 2010. They had quite a few models on display, including their current 5″ ereaders, an 8″ ereader, the Touchpad (10′ Win7 tablet), and several 6″ ereaders that are just coming on the market.
I had the opportunity to interview the Liu Yingjian, the co-founder and chairman of Hanvon.
E-reader plans
Hanvon have a goal: to lower the price of their ereader to below $100 this year. (Given that Fry’s has repeatedly dropped the price of the N516, I think this is certainly possible.) Their new ereader, the N618, is going to be available in the US in September, with a retail of $269. It’s already being sold in China.
Hanvon aren’t intimidated by the iPad. They just released a 10” tablet called the Touchpad, and they are currently working on a smaller version with a 7” screen. They also a 9.7” model under development (which should be out by the end of the year).
The N800 has an8″ E-ink touchscreen, Wifi, microSDHC card slot, and it supports Adobe DE DRM. I was told it was on the market now in China, and it should be available in the US late in the fall.
A dummy model of the N800 was at CES2010, but I didn’t get a chance to touch it because they kept it under glass. This one wasn’t charged, unfortunately.
I spent the most time with the N618. It’s a 6″ model with touchscreen, Wifi, and a microSDHC card slot . It was quite pleasnat to use. I don’t want to slam Hanvon, but they really seem to be into the whole industrial chic. It’s not a problem for me; I like it. But most everyone else is going for a softer more smoothed out design in their ereaders.
Hanvon also had a N620 on display. This is one of their 3G/EVDO/CDMA models, and it’s currently on the market in China (partnered with China Mobile). They actually have 4 different models listed on their website (which is why I listed the 3 different technologies). Hanvon are looking to bring it to the US in September, but wouldn’t name the wireless partners they were considering (of course). This next picture is of one of the other N620 models.
Hanvon are currently selling over 100k devices each month in China, and they expect this to go up as they open more Hanvon branded retail stores.
Ebookstore Plans
I had the opportunity to interview the Liu Yingjian, the co-founder and chairman of Hanvon. Mr. Liu said (through his translator) that they have different plans for the Chinese and foreign markets. Hanvon is working to develop their own ebookstore in China, but outside of Chine they’re only planning to sell the hardware, or partner with a local distributor who might run an independent ebookstore.
The main problem Hanvon has in China is publisher stonewalling. Publishers are afraid to put their titles in the Hanvon ebookstore because they believe that they will be copied and shared immediately (Not to different from the US.) Interesting enough, digital collections in schools and libraries don’t share this stigma.
The Hanvon ebookstore has around 60k titles now, and this is expected to grow to 100k by August. Their goal is to have 200k by the end of the year. Around 150 of the titles are magazines and newspapers. There are about 500 publishers in China, and Hanvon is trying to sign them one by one.
Editor’s Note: This post is based on a booth visit and interview at BEA 2010. It’s psoted late becuase a couple weeks ago WordPress was eating posts, and this was one of them.
Update: This post is based on the original firmware. Much of what I say about the software is no longer valid.
This post is a collection of first impressions. I usually post this on the day I get a device, and then post a full review a coupe weeks later. If I were you, I wouldn’t decide for or against the Novel based on this post. At best, you might use this post to help you decide to wait.
I bought it at Kohl’s. Someone posted a comment yesterday and said that most stores now have it in stock. At my local store, it was behind the jewelry counter.
So what do I think? I’m not happy with it, and here’s why:
touchscreen is funky
Wifi is broken buggy
the Novel is slow to respond to input
you can’t charge over USB
few options in reader
few organization options in library
Before you read further, I want to make it clear that I don’t slam an ereader without good reason. Everything in this post is written based on having the Novel in front of me. I didn’t say very many nice things about the Novel because I couldn’t find any. I actually went into this with high hopes, and I’m disappointed. The Novel is a rather unexceptional device.
Hardware
First, the Novel is rather heavy. This isn’t going to be a one handed reader. It’s also not easy to hold; I wish they had included a case with a strap. The back is slippery and the device is just a little too wide for me to grip the edges. For full details on the hardware, check out the product page at Pandigital.net.
The touch screen is behaving funny. I’ve found that I have to press and hold for it to notice my request. Then I calibrated the screen, and its behavior got stranger. Whenever I tried to use the keyboard it kept returning the wrong key. The calibration really screwed something up. I think the Novel has a serious problem here. Update: Installing the new firmware and then forcing a reboot fixed the problem.
BTW, this screen sensitivity problem isn’t due to Android. I have other Android devices and they all behave about the same. This is a hardware or software problem on the Novel.
Main Menu
It’s divided into 3 parts. The top is a bunch of shortcuts to various parts of the B&N ebookstore, the middle shows 10 ebooks from the Novel, and the bottom has app icons (like you might find on a Home screen). From what I can tell you cannot install third party apps.
Wifi is broken
The Novel can’t see my Wifi network. I tried all the normal troubleshooting and nothing worked.Two other devices are on that network, so there must be something wrong with the Novel.
Update: The Novel could see other networks, so there must be some technical detail about my home network the Novel doesn’t like.
Library
The library menu is done in the same style as iBooks (and the ones iBooks copied). You can see 20 thumbnails of ebook covers at a time. You can sort by date, title, or author, but you don’t have any option to display your ebooks differently (a list, for example). I have a huge collection, so this is going to be a serious problem. They do give you the option of building collections called bookshelves, but this is still piss-poor sorting options.
Response time is slow. I swipe to turn the page and see more titles and it takes a couple seconds to respond. That is unacceptable.
Do you know what bothers me the most? The fact that so many ereader companies didn’t do basic research about their customer base. The person who is most likely to get an ereader is one who reads a lot. Some one who reads a lot might want to take a lot of books with them at once. You can’t do that on a lot of ereaders because the library management is crap.
Reading
Speaking as someone who likes the old eReader Android app, the one on the Pandigital is deeply disappointing. You don’t have any options for margin, line spacing, font, justification. Actually, I can’t see that the Novel has any customization options at all (aside from font sizes and a night read option).
It has bookmarks highlighting, and you can add notes. I can’t click on internal links, and the Novel doesn’t appear to support the Epub table of contents. But at least it respects the margins set in the Epub file.
Page turns are slow (for an LCD). I’m also beginning to regret that the Novel doesn’t have page turn buttons. The only page turn option is swipe, and you don’t have the option of changing it to screen taps. Why did they do that, I wonder?
Apps
I can’t find a way to see the apps on my SD card, and with out Wifi I can’t try to download them. The Novel does come with a browser and other apps, but without the ability to add more I really can’t recommend this tablet.
Conclusion
The novel fits in my old Kindle cover (sorta), so I’ll be carrying it with me this week. I plan to have the full review up by Friday.
Reed College was one of the colleges and universities selected by Amazon to run a Kindle DX pilot program last fall. They released a report on the program back in February, but I didn’t come across it until just this week. I don’t think anyone else has written about it either.
The Reed College Kindle DX program covered 43 students in 3 upper level classes. Students agreed to fill out online surveys twice during the semester, join in group discussions, and respond to emails during the semester. The results reported by the students aren’t too surprising. There was quite a lot of detail in the 11 page report, and here are some of the highlights:
The Good:
the Kindle has a legible screen (when comapred with LCD), even though it wasn’t as sharp as real paper
battery life was long
the students thought the DX was quite durable
over the air distribution
single function benefit. Not being able to check their email was a plus because it reduced distractions.
The Bad:
PDFs couldn’t use the DX’s annotation features
images & color
the process of finding compatible content was hit or miss
loading PDFs was difficult
library functions were disappointing
page refresh was slow enough that it hampered the students
it was impossible to have multiple texts open at once
highlighting and annotation features were diffcult to use
As I’ve said before, I don’t think an E-ink screen can be used for a textbook. I really feel that E-ink is mainly good for relatively straightforward reading like fiction. When your reading requires frequent page turns or having several books open at once, I think you’re better off using an LCD screen.
The real title for this session is “I’ll never pay more than $9.99 for an E-book!”, but that doesn’t work quite so well. The presenter was Michael Norris, senior analyst for Simba Information, an independent research house based in Connecticut.
The first thing he told us was that when you look at survey data, be aware of bias & out of context information. (Well, I thought this was rather obvious, but given how some report survey data without really thinking about it, maybe not.)
Norris also doesn’t believe any of the future projections he’s heard because he knows that new tech will probably come out in the mean time. He next said that the consumer has a different relationship with a book than with any other media. If someone goes on iTunes and buys 10 songs, there’s a good chance they will listen to all those songs that night. But if someone buys 10 books then those books might never be read. People buy ebooks for really boring reasons. For example, his wife uses Kindle4iPhone because she already has an iPhone and doesn’t want to carry anything extra.
Simba has run this survey twice. The first was in January 2009 and the second in January 2010. The survey group was all US consumers, and responses came from across the nation. They started with really basic questions, and then built up to the more detailed ones. He didn’t share all the data (it’s for sale), but here is something they learned:
Jan 2009 survey – 8% of respondents bought at least one ebook in 2008
Jan 2010 survey – 9% bought at least one ebook in 2009
In comparison, 57% of consumers bought at least one print book in 2009 (56% in 2008).
64% of people who buy ebooks think print books are overpriced
64% of people who buy print books think print books are overpriced
He also showed some of the data that Simba got from their partner Simmons Market Research. It turns out that the number of people who buy just a few ebooks a year is similar to those who buy just one or two paper books.
One last piece of data: the most popular ereader is a PC. I’m not surprised; that matches with other market data I’ve seen.
James Murdoch attacked the British Library’s plans to digitize their several hundred year old, 40m page archive in a speech yesterday. The archive will be available online, but only as a for pay service. Here is an excerpt the Guardian:
"This is not simply being done for posterity, nor to make free access for library users easier, but also for commercial gain via a paid for website. The move is strongly opposed by major publishers. If it goes ahead, free content would not only be a justification for more funding, but actually become a source of funds for a public body."
Speaking after the speech Murdoch said he was not planning any immediate action against the British Library but stressed "from the publishing industry’s point of view we are very, very concerned about some of the approaches that they seem to be taking. But at the same time there is a dialogue with the library about it."
"The copyright holder needs to be part and parcel of determining how further exploitation digitally is conducted and that really has to be the centre of this," he said. The worry for News International, of course, is that the British Library’s move could undermine its paid-for content model. "It’s not to say that there is a big fight here: what there is, is a question right now is: they are looking at those assets and asking 'how do I do these things' and they would like to reach as many people as possible, and rights holders are saying 'hang on a minute'."
He has a point, but I disagree about the real problem. As I see it, the real issue is that in the UK you’ve created these vast taxpayer funded, quasi governmental, non-for-profit organizations who then go out and compete with commercial enterprises. Take the BBC, for example. Do you remember how some were upset when the BBC announced the free news apps? This is more of the same.
You might recall that last week Dymocks announced they were adding support for Epub and DNL formats. One comment I made was that I was surprised (at this late date) Dymocks was still selling the Iliad as their only ereader. It turns out I was wrong.
Dymocks sent a PDF to Gizmodo AU that shows the other 6 ereaders that they sell. Guess what? They’re not listed on Dymocks' website. I’m not surprised, really. The Iliad isn’t there either!
No, wait. I just found some pages through Google. The pages for the Eco Reader, Irex DR1000s, Bookeen Cybook, Hanlin V3, and Bebook One exist, but they appear to be orphans. I can’t find any link to those pages on the Dymocks site itself. (and searching Dymocks for variations of "ereader" doesn’t work.) And I just discovered that Dymocks has been selling the Bebook Neo since mid-March. But they’re only sold at the one store in Sydney. WTF?!?
And do you know what’s really strange (I’m talking Dymocksian level of nuttiness)? The Bookeen Cybook, Irex DR1000s, and Hanlin V3 aren’t listed on the PDF, and I only accidentally found through Google. Not only does Dymocks hide the product pages on their website, these 3 models aren’t carried in that one store!
I can take this one step further into the Dymocks Zone. If you look at the PDF, you’ll see that none of the devices support Mobipocket DRM, Adobe Reader DRM or MSReader DRM, which were the only DRM formats sold by Dymocks before last week. My point: Dymocks were selling ereaders that cannot work with the ebooks Dymocks were selling.
Update: Someone pointed out the the Bebook One originally supported Mobipocket DRM. Yes, it did. But it’s listed as supporting Adobe DE DRM, so my statement is still mostly correct. The DRM support changed with a firmware update, and there is no sign that Dymocks sold the Bebook with the older firmware.
If you know me from MobileRead, then you also know that I have a rather large collection of ereaders. As part of my collection, I have 5 of the Sony Data Discman. If you’re wondering WTH I’m talking about, I don’t blame you. I didn’t know these devices existed until I happened to come across one on Ebay.
You might recall that before the Sony Reader PRS-500, Sony also had an ereader called the Sony Librie. It was only sold in Japan, and it was a horrendous failure largely because Sony couldn’t provide enough content (and wouldn’t let you create your own). But the Librie isn’t Sony’s first ereader. That honor goes to the Data Discman.
Sony first released the Data Discman in Japan in the year 1990. They were later introduced into the USA in 1992 (and at least one model was sold in Europe). Several dozen different models were produced, and they were priced around $600 and up. Here’s a picture of one of the first:
The screen is monochrome, and rather low in resolution. As you cann see, there is a keyboard, d-pad, and several more buttons. Do you want to know what media it used (I hope you’re sitting down)? CDs. Yes, the Sony Data Discman used a 3.5″ CD. Here is a different shot of the same model:
Earlier this week, I found someone who is still using his DD-20. At least, he was using it until it died a few months ago at the age of 18 (in gadget years, which is ~googol human years). I have one, and even though it’s not fully functional, it works well enough that he can use it.
So my Alex arrived last week, and I’ve had a lot of fun playing with it. I have to say that this was an easy review to write. I’ve found very few things wrong with the Alex, and in general, I like it.
You might also want to read my other posts on the Alex. They cover my first and second impressions of the device, and that’s where you’ll find my opinion on the hardware. I also found an unboxing video yesterday.
Browsing
You can browse with just the LCD screen, and it will feel much like your standard, vanilla, Android browsing experience. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) But then there is something that the Alex can do that no one else can. You can display a web page on both the LCD and epaper screen. You can’t interact with the page as shown on the epaper screen, though; it’s just there for display.
I do like browsing with the epaper screen. Learning how to do it was easy, and I rarely made mistakes. If I wasn’t wedded to my laptop, I’d probably use the Alex for some of my browsing (RSS feeds, blogs, forums).
Email
I had high hopes for this. didn’t work for me. All of my email is tied into my Gmail account, and the Alex refused to accept the security certificates from Google. And do you know what’s really odd? I can still log in to Gmail with the browser. This was a waste of time. The email client isn’t very good, and it only works on the LCD screen. I much prefer using the browser to access Gmail. That way I can use the epaper screen as well as the LCD.
BTW, I’d had trouble before because the time and date were wrong on my Alex. I didn’t realize that would cause problem.
Apps
Yes, you can install third party apps on the Alex. Some will not work, and you can’t use any of them on the epaper screen. When you use an app, it will feel like you’re using it on an Android phone. It’s too small for me.
But it’s still a nice feature. I’ve installed the eReader Android app, and I like that I can have 2 ebooks open at once. Another good use would be to have Twitter (or some other social networking app) open while reading an ebook. You could tweet while reading. Again, it’s not for me, but I can see the value in it.
The Reading Experience
If you’ve looked at pictures of the Alex, I’m sure you’ve noticed that it’s longer than most other 6′ ereaders. If you’re concerned that it might be awkward to use, don’t be. I think the page turn buttons are just right for holding the Alex in my right hand. I can’t hold it in my left, true, but that’s fine by me. It’s quite good as an ereader. I think that will satisfy almost everyone.
BTW, you can hold it in your left hand if you leave the LCD screen on. There’s a white icon on the screen that’s labeled “ePUB”. It acts as a right page turn button.
The in-book menu takes a little getting used to. There’s the white icon on the left, and on the right is the book title and author and a slider bar that shows your current location in the book. There is a row of 12 icons along the bottom: Library, table of contents,the annotation options, dictionary, font size, go to page, and ad to collection.
The row of icons turned out to be a better idea than I originally thought. I could tell at a glance what each icon did, and even though they’re not all on the screen at once, it was easy to scroll the row to find the one I wanted.
The Alex has quite a lot of annotation options: bookmark, highlight, text note, voice memo, and you can link to external files (audio, video, PDF) as well as linking to web pages. At first I was concerned about the in book menu; the icons are small and I thought I’d have trouble selecting the right one. I was wrong. It was surprisingly easy to use, and very rarely did I mess up.
I’ve read several ebooks on the Alex, and I’ve tried out all the annotation options. In general, I like it both as a basic reader and for its annotation abilities. I did find one problem, though. This is a small niggle, but I quickly learned to turn off the LCD screen when not in use. The brightness of the LCD really bugged me when I was trying to read off the epaper screen.
Reading Addendum
I discovered last night that theAlex has a second fully functional reading mode. I went to see a movie last night, and of course I brought the Alex with me so I could read during the trailers. When the lights dimmed, I turned on the LCD screen and kept reading during the opening credits. I synced the LCD screen so it showed the same contents as the epaper (scrolling was required). I tapped the screen to turn the page.
This second mode isn’t going to win out over the epaper screen, but it’s nice that Spring Design gave us the option.
A Second Reading Addendum
Someone pointed out that I forgot to discuss specific format support. Epub support is great, PDF not so much. You cannot use all the neat annotation features with PDFs. Also, the Alex does not reflow PDFs.
Library
The Alex doesn’t have the best library interface, but it’s pretty good. There are 5 menu options: recent downloads, my collections, titles, authors, and latest read. You can sort the title list by author, title, or date. The author list is an actual index of authors, not just another list of the titles. I’m glad it’s there because that’s how I like to organize my library ebooks. You can also search the contents of the library by title or author.
On the downside, I did find a quirk with the library: it can’t see folders. It’s not just that you can’t use a folder inside the library; it’s that the software can’t see folders at all. If you copy a folder full of ebooks on to the Alex, they will not be seen and added to by the library. Weird, huh?
But the library works well, so it’s not a big deal.
Bookstore
As you probably know, the Alex has Wifi and you can download ebooks from the web. In order to make this easier, Spring Design put a bookstore on the Alex. Now, I expected to see the bookstore. But I didn’t expect that it lists multiple ebook sources, including several that only carry free ebooks: Feedbooks, Google Books, and Project Gutenberg. Yes, all those sites are available online, but this makes it a lot easier for the average user to find ebooks. This was a pleasant surprise.
BTW, the bookstore isn’t an app. Clicking on one of the stores takes you to the website. The bookstore experience is web browsing, basically.
Conclusion
I do like the Alex. It has a solid hardware design and it’s both easy to use and very capable. If you buy one, I bet you’ll be very happy with it. On the other hand, it costs $400 and I’m not sure it’s worth the money.
