One of the things I was looking forward to at CES was getting a chance to look at Bridgestone’s QR-LPD screens. This is a type of color epaper technology that’s been under development for quite a few years and is only just beginning to hit the market.

Vivitek is the distribution partner for the ereaders with the Bridgestone screen, and they were at CES this year.They brought both devices I’d heard about before: an 8.2″ eReader and a 13.1″ (e-Pad as they called it).

There was a third example of Bridgestone’s screen in the booth; it measured 4.1″ and was designed to be shelf tags in a super market.

I only have a video of the 8″ ereader because the larger device just didn’t do enough to justify shooting a video. It’s targeted at the professional market and the demo software running on it was designed for real estate agents and couldn’t actually do much.

The colors on the Bridgestone screen would best be described as washed out. Screen refresh was slow, and the ereader couldn’t actually do much besides turn the page. (If you can’t see the color in the photo or video, try watching again in HD.)

As you can see from the video, the screen refresh rate was slow. But I’m told that the software is still under development, so hopefully that will improve.

The 8.2″ eReader is expected to be available soon in Taiwan and they don’t know when the e-Pad will be released.

I just got word over twitter that Amazon have enable ebook lending for the Kindle. Here’s the summary from the help page, and you can find out ore from Amazon.

Eligible Kindle books can be loaned once for a period of 14 days. The borrower does not need to own a Kindle — Kindle books can also be read using our free Kindle reading applications for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices. Not all books are lendable — it is up to the publisher or rights holder to determine which titles are eligible for lending. The lender will not be able to read the book during the loan period.

Amazon

Interesting story today. B&N didn’t bother to keep track how many Nooks they sold this holiday season. The B&N servers that are supposed to support downloading ebooks and Nook activation crashed on Christmas, and the servers are still down. The problem is actually bigger than that. The servers that support the B&N community discussion boards are also down. Apparently so many people are on the site, complaining about their Nooks not working that B&N can’t handle the load. I don’t know how many people are reporting the problem because I can’t even load the site.

How could they have allowed this to happen? Seriously, folks, they should have seen it coming months ago. Count how many Nooks are sold, and subtract the number that number that get activated right away. You’ll be left with an approximate number of Nooks that will be activated right after Christmas. It’s not rocket science.

Every site I know (that is involved with ereaders) saw a spike in traffic on Christmas day (and today, too). For example, my traffic tripled yesterday, and I expect to see about twice nearly triple the normal traffic today. MobileRead saw their best day ever yesterday, and TeleRead also  saw a significant jump. How could B&N not have planned for this?

It’s simply pathetic.

via Twitter

The 9″ Pandigital Novel is not one of those gadgets that get launched with a lot of fanfare. It  popped up on the FCC website a few months ago, and then it popped up on QVC.com without any actual announcement from Pandigital. I do find that a little odd, considering that this is the best tablet in its price range.

Update: This review is over a year old and slightly out of date. There’s a new hacked firmware for the 9″ Novel that adds Android Market and other apps. It’s worth getting.

If you want to know how good, this is the device I plan to carry around at CES 2011. I’m planning to go laptop-free on the show floor and only carry this tablet and a Mifi (for the web connection). Yes, that’s what I think of this tablet.

But I feel that I should also add that I keep seeing a hardware problem. My tablet kept turning itself on when left unsupervised.  On several occasions I’ve opened the case in the morning and found the battery depleted.

Hardware

The 9″ Pandigital Tablet is based on a 9″ LCD screen (800×480) with a resistive touchscreen, Wifi, accelerometer, stylus, SD card slot, and 2 GB Flash. It runs Android v2.0 (which means you’ll be able to install most apps). On the upper edge is the Sd card slot and the USB port. On the left edge is the power jack, and on the right edge is the power button, volume buttons, and headphone jack. There are 4 buttons on the front below the screen: back, home, menu, and forward.

It ships with a case, power supply, USB cable, and an 8GB microSD card. Yes, the card size is strange. But it works, so who cares. And as much as I appreciate the case I do wish it didn’t stink so much; fortunately the smell faded after a few days.

It has a stylus, but I didn’t need it. I was quite content with using my fingers. The screen is very responsive. Oh, and if you are concerned about the screen resolution, I have to say that I wasn’t bothered by it (and I’m picky). I expect that the only ones who will notice and be bothered by the screen resolution are tech snobs (like me). The geometry is a little odd, I must admit, but it works.

I’ve been using this tablet late at night. With the WordPress app I can visit TDR and approve posts as well as leave short responses. I don’t think i could use this tablet for a full blog post, but for short stuff it’s great. And this is the first Android tablet that I thought was worth using for this purpose.

Apps

It ships with the same apps as the other Novel tablets, of course: browser, email, Facebook, etc. And like the other Novels this tablet doesn’t have the Android market. That wasn’t a problem, though. I didn’t have any trouble finding apps for this tablet becuase I used to be my favorite app store, SlideMe.

I have my usual apps, but there’s one in particular that I’d like to mention. I recently discovered a web browser called Dolphin. Do you want to know how good it is? This is the first time that I’ve mentioned browsing as a strength of Android tablets. Actually, it’s so good that I stopped installing my usual web apps so I could replace them with Dolphin.

Video & Audio

I tested the 9″ Novel with my usual videos. It did not do well. It had trouble playing the sample video (640×480 at 30fps) that shipped with the tablet without dropping frames, and it completely failed on my test videos (720p MOV). This isn’t going to be PMP, ever.

I also tested it with some Youtube videos. The videos streamed without pause or jumps. Sound quality was okay, but the built in speaker wasn’t nearly loud enough even for a quiet room. But there’s a headphone jack,  so it’s not a serious problem.

Reading experience

The Novel shipped with Pandigital’s usual reading app, of course, but I never like it. I went and got Aldiko and Kindle right away. Now that I’ve imported my ebook library, I’m happy with the tablet.

I also want to mention that the PD reading app does a very good job with PDFs on the 9″ screen. You can use your fingers to scroll around the screen while zoomed, and yes, you can reflow a PDF.

Opinion

I think I’ve made it clear that I really like this tablet. If you’re trying to decide between the larger and smaller Novels, let me assure you that the extra few inches of screen real estate is worth it.

Do you recall that tablet with an odd screen size that I showed you last month? It’s now available from the Home Shopping Network for $199.

The Next3 is based on a 8.4″ LCD screen (800×600). According to the spec sheet it has 2GB Flash, a SD card slot, Wifi, accelerometer, headphone jack, and speakers. Like the Next2 I reviewed last week, the Next3 is tied to the Borders ebookstore.

But unlike the Next2, the Next3 runs Android v2.1. This is very good news; it means that you shouldn’t have trouble installing apps.

I’d want to get my hands on it before making a recommendation, but at $200 i think this might be a good value. The Next2 was a decent tablet, and I expect the Next3 to be a good one, too.

I finally got my hands on one of the Next2 ereaders I showed you a couple months ago. This is a pretty decent ereader, and it was slightly better than I expected.

Read on for my review.

Hardware

This is a minimalist ereader based on an Android tablet. It has a 7″ (800×480) resistive touchscreen, 2GB Flash, a SD card slot, Wifi, accelerometer, a headphone jack, and 2 page turn buttons. It runs Android v1.5. It ships with a reversible case, USB cord, and power supply.

You can’t swap the page turn buttons, but I didn’t find that to be such a problem. And TBH, I’m pleased just to have the buttons. I have the feeling that this was a hybrid design. They took a tablet and changed it just enough to make it a usable ereader.

The resistive touchscreen is the good kind (trust me, there’s a difference) and I thought it was easy to use and more responsive than some I’ve had my hands on. This tablet lacks the 3 standard Android buttons, but that’s okay. They’re on the taskbar at the top of the screen.

Apps

Since the Next2 runs v1.5, you will have trouble installing apps. So it’s good that it ships with certain basics such as a file manager, web browser, email, an app store, as well as a Youtube app. All are the basic apps you’d find on any Android tablet and they work fine, with the exception of the Youtube app.

Update: The Next2 got a firmware update early this year. Current models should be running Android v2.1, a much newer version of the OS.  it should be a lot easier to find and install apps.

As you might know, the Youtube app for Android can’t play all Youtube videos. But this one might be kinda funky. I’ve searched for my standard test clips and I can’t find them. This is rather odd. I’ve found them with other versions of the Youtube app, so I really don’t know why they don’t turn up on the Next2.

The app store is one I’ve seen before. It’s okay, but it’s one of the smaller stores and the selection isn’t very good. It also doesn’t help you screen for compatible apps.

Sidenote: if you’re interested, one of my test videos on Youtube is "High on Firefly". I use it for an audio test because there is one particular word that poor speakers will screw up. Play the video and listen for the line "he lives by one law – Murphy’s". If the last word sounds like "herpes" then the speakers are poor quality.

Video & Audio

It ships with video and audio players, yes. I don’t have the hearing to judge audio, but I watched the included  clip and it was shown full screen at 30 fps without dropping any frames. For a budget tablet, that is impressive. But then I played a couple clips I shot myself. The Next2 can’t handle MOV 720p at 30fps.The video and audio don’t stay in sync.

I don’t expect it to play full screen, but I think it should at least be able to handle the file and gracefully downgrade it. I have other tablets that can do that much.

Reading Experience

The Next2 is tied to the Borders ebookstore, and the registration process is a pain. They want me to enter my Adobe ID, which tells me that this isn’t using the borders/kobo app, just the Borders ebookstore. Fortunately, you don’t have to have a Borders account to read your own ebooks.

Sidenote: I usually don’t bother to authorize my ereaders. I will do it sometimes in order to make sure a particular device can or if I’m helping someone troubleshoot. But it’s generally too much of a nuisance. As a rule I download an ebook and strip the DRM right away. It’s much less hassle to just get rid of it right away. DRM is a pain in the ass.

The only annotation option is bookmarks, and the only font option is font size (5 sizes). But it does at least have TOC support and a jump to page option.

Page turn speed was okay for both Epub and PDF (when not in zoom mode). When you zoom in on a PDF, page turn is quite slow. But on the upside you can use the touchscreen to scroll around each page of the PDF.

The Next2 can’t reflow PDFs, only zoom. This isn’t much of a problem for a 7″ screen, but the Next2 also can’t crop the PDF (remove the white space around the edges). That is a shortcoming, because on 7″ screen the standard PDF is quite readable if you can crop it.

Opinion

All in all, I’m rather pleased with this ereader. It’s comfortable to hold and page turns are reasonably fast. But it’s also rather heavy, and I’m concerned about the battery life when it’s left in standby. Be sure to turn off the Wifi when you’re not using it. I didn’t and the Next 2 kept trying to stay connected to my home network (even though it was in sleep mode). This drained the battery in only a few days.

So B&N just sent out an email announcing that the Nook SDK is now available. Now any Android developer can port their app to the NookColor. There’s one detail I want you to notice.  This is actually the NookColor SDK and it will not help you port Android apps to the Nook. Isn’t that interesting? B&N want people to develop for their platform, but only for their tablet and not the more numerous Nook ereader. I wonder why? Yes, I know they announced that it would be for the NookColor back when the NC was launched, but I half expected the SDK to support both platforms.

BTW, I’m not sure this is worth the bother. The NC has been hacked, and apparently it’s a bog standard Android tablet.  Here's a long list of apps that have been tried and work just fine. Look it over, and then ask yourself if you really want to have to work through B&N.

NookDeveloper

I’ve just gotten this juicy piece of gossip from an former txtr employee. The 6″ txtr reader, which was supposed to have launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, has been quietly abandoned by the company.

Note that I’m calling it gossip because I don’t have confirmation yet, but it does fit with mutterings I’ve heard elsewhere. And the txtr reader did drop from sight in mid September, so this rumor is plausible.

Txtr (the company) are actually not doing all that well; they’re also losing a lot of customers to Bluefire. I’ve heard from my contact with Bluefire, Micah, that Bluefire have so many ebookstores who want to hire Bluefire to make an app that he can’t even respond to all the emails.

And if you’re wondering how a 50+ person company is being beaten by a 6 person team then I suggest you download both apps on to your iPhone. Try them and ask yourself which one is better.

Here’s a video of what the txtr reader looked like before it died:

Do you remember how back in August I told you Pocketbook was working on an ereader with a Mirasol screen? They’re finally ready to confirm it.

Pocketbook put out a press release today. They’re going to have their newest ereader on display at CES 2011, and yes it will have a Mirasol screen. I’m a little surprised that they announced it this early.

Update: I just heard back from one of my sources with Pocketbook, and he gave me a few technical details (but no pictures, sorry). Their prototype can currently do 12 frames per second (video is usually 30 fps), and a Mirasol  screen costs about one and a half times the cost of an E-ink screen. My source also said that it should hit the market in Q3 2011.

Second Update: Okay it turns out they’re not ready to confirm it. This was an accidental release.

From the press release:

PocketBook USA, the North American division of PocketBook International, will display their entire line of ereader products at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 6-9.

One of the world’s top five producers of electronic reading devices, PocketBook sells more than 50,000 ereaders each month through offices in the USA, Germany, Russia, China and the Middle East with a distribution network covering more than 20 countries worldwide.

The company will showcase six different product models — PocketBook Pro 602, Pro 902 – standard models, PocketBook Pro 603, Pro 903 – premium class models, PocketBook IQ701, and Mirasol – PocketBook’s newest model.

…

The IQ701 offers a number of different features including a seven-inch color TFT touch screen with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Functioning on the Android 2.0 operating system, this model is best suited for customers seeking entertainment in an ereader. The newest PocketBook model, Mirasol, features Qualcomm’s full-color Mirasol display which is based on a reflective technology.

The HomeSurf 8, a tablet from the UK based consumer electronics company Binatone, just sjhowed up on the FCC website today.

It’s based on an 8″ (800×600) screen and runs an unspecified version of Android (my guess is 2.0) Th einternal photos were too fuzzy for me to make out any details, so all I have to go on is the product page and external photos. It has Wifi, a stylus, a microSD card slot, and 2GB Flash. As you can see from the lead picture, the HomeSurf 8 ships with a cradle. It’s just a charging station, unfortunately.

I’d like to tell you what it’s selling for in the UK, but it’s not carried by any of Binatone’s retail partners. I don’t know when it will be released.

FCC

by Mike Cane

It shouldn’t have to be this way, either.

Harriman House thought so highly of the late Max Gunther’s long out-of-print books that they’ve gotten not only the print rights, but the eBook ones too.

While the print editions are probably very readable, the eBook ones are just a disaster.

Thanks to Moriah Jovan, I’m able to compare screensnaps of the bad Kindle formatting with iPad screensnaps I took from an ePub version sample available at the iBookstore.

Click = big

Click = big

While the cover’s dimensions are suitable for an 600×800 eInk screen, the cover is lost in all of the whitespace of the iPad’s larger screen. Publishers need to create large eye-popping covers for tablets.

The indicia:

Click = big

Click = big

Notice how it all clumps together in the Kindle version and even has some very bizarre line breaks!

It’s not much better on the iPad, either:

Click = big

No blank lines between the block paragraphs, as there would be in a proper print version. No publisher would even allow that in a professionally-produced print version, so why let it pass here?

Click = big

Moriah doesn’t like the fact “Harriman House, 2010? is in gray text. But it works on the iPad:

Click = big

Notice however that the line is now left-aligned, not right-aligned!

And here comes the horrendous formatting in the Kindle version:

Click = big

It’s just about all one block of text! What were they thinking?

I think they were counting on something the iPad tried to do:

Click = big

Notice that the iPad tried to insert some spacing between the paragraphs. But this is still bad formatting and should be redone.

It doesn’t get any better as it continues:

Click = big

Click = big

Really, just a line of asterisks as a separator? Do proper dingbats cost more? I don’t think so. An amateur would do that line of asterisks back in the days of IBM Selectrics and Liquid Paper. It has no business showing up in the 21st century in an eBook!

Below is just a rough I did myself. I took the Kindle sample, converted it to HTML, dumped it in Atlantis, and just put in proper paragraph indents. This is just messing around. I’m not saying this is pro quality (it’s damn well not!):

Click = big

So they can get proper frikkin paragraph indents, they just didn’t bother to do the little bit of extra work that would take.

I’ve recommended Max Gunther’s books. They’re excellent. But I can’t recommend these eBook versions until Harriman House lives up to its commitment to Gunther and formats them properly

I’m looking at my Lookbook right now, and the words "squandered potential" come to mind.

I first heard about this ereader from the internal CVS docs that someone sent to Engadget. I’ve been quietly waiting for it to be released, and I got mine about a 2 weeks ago. It’s a Kindle clone based on a 7″ LCD screen, and I’ve covered the physical description in detail in my previous post.

Before I get into the review, it’s important for you to know that the Lookbook is a close relative of the Literati that we reviewed a several weeks ago. It has the same Kobo reading app and ebookstore access, so it shares a lot of the same shortcomings with respect to formatting, margins, etc. But one difference is that the Lookbook has page turn buttons instead of the Literati’s swipe pads. I like buttons; they’re  a heck of a lot easier to use.

I actually like how the Lookbook is designed, and if not for the poor reading experience, many debilitating bugs, missing web browser, and difficult joystick, I would recommend this devices to anyone. To be exact, I think it sucks as an ereader but it has potential has a MID. I think there’s a market niche for an MID that looks like a Kindle clone, and if the Lookbook had the right software it would fit in that niche.

Unfortunately, the Lookbook is crippled by a SD card bug similar to the one found on the Literati, so I can’t load my own ebooks. It also can’t find ebooks that I’ve copied to its internal Flash storage. This is a pass fail for me.

The Lookbook also shares the wide margins, limited font choices, and poor formatting found on the Literati. But do you know what’s really odd about this? I checked and the Kobo iOS app doesn’t have the same problems; it showed the ebooks as made by publisher. So I really have to wonder why Kobo handed over the crippled reading app. I suppose there was nothing better, but if that were true then I wouldn’t have released the app.

BTW, there have been a couple requests in the reviews of the Literati that I discuss how color image look on the screen. I can’t. The ebooks I get from Kobo don’t have pictures, and I can’t load my own. The cover images are often in color and they look nice, but without other images I really don’t care.

Battery life was disappointing; it only lasted 4 days between charges. The really bad part is that I didn’t use it much, so it was in sleep mode most of the time.

One last problem that the Lookbook shares with almost all Kobo reading apps is the slow loading of ebooks. that isn’t a bug they can fix; it’s unfortunate consequence of how the reading app was designed.

The ebooks you buy from Kobo aren’t stored on the ereader as Epub files. Instead, they’re all crammed into a SQLite database. The ebooks are slow to load becuase first they have to be extracted from the database.

If you’re wondering why they did this, well, it probably seemed like a good idea at the time. It let Kobo get around the $75k per device license fee that Adobe charge for Adobe RM. Yes, that’s a nice chunk of change they saved, but in exchange Kobo inflicted a worse reading experience on us all. I don’t think that was a good trade.

Opinion

I’m almost tempted to keep the Lookbook. It’s a poor ereader for $149, but I really want to see what happens once hackers start messing with the firmware. Give this device a decent reading app (FBReader) and a web browser and it would be a serious competition in the ereader market.

Update: The Lookbook is now available at Overstock.com for $123. This doesn’t change my mind about it as an ereader, but the price is tempting.

The problem with the internet is that it has such a short memory. This unfortunately makes it necessary to dredge up old news and remind people.

Cherrypal just announced a 7″ Android tablet for $188. Don’t order it; you"ll never get it.

I was scammed by Cherrypal and Max Seybold last December. His business is nothing but a scam, and I’m surprised he keeps getting away with it.

I first came across Cherrypal back in December 2009. They had just announced "grab-bag" type laptop for $99. The idea was that the laptop would be made from whatever parts that could be found cheap and that would have certain minimum specs. I bought one, and that was my first mistake.

Here’s what I wrote about Cherrypal back on 13 January 2010. When I wrote it, I hadn’t yet figured out that Cherrypal was a scam.

First, let’s cover the lies told to me. I ordered a Cherrypal Africa laptop on 21 December. I waited a couple days for an email about when my order was shipped, but received nothing. I did not get a response from Cherrypal until after the 4th email I sent. The email I received on 30 December said that I would get a tracking number the next day, and that I would receive my order soon. Needless to say, neither event occurred. I still do not have my laptop, nor have I gotten a refund.

Second, let’s consider what I had to say to get a response at all. My first 3 emails were ignored. In order to get a response to the 4th email, I had to include my concern that this was a scam. When I sent a 5th email to point out the broken promises, it was ignored as well. My 6th email did get a response, but that may have been because I asked "Where is my F***ing laptop"? It was questionable, yes, but I am very angry about the treatment I have received. Four weeks had gone by without a word from Cherrypal other than when I poked them.

My last response from "Max Sebold" was that I would get a refund by Wednesday (today). It has not happened.

Third, there was supposed to have been a blanket email sent to all outstanding orders. I did not get it. Other than when I poked them, I did not receive any emails from Cherrypal. According to this PDF, which was supposedly sent to all customers, my order should have been refunded on 2 January. I did not get the PDF, and I still do not have my refund.

I never got my refund and I never got my netbook. I was scammed.

P.S. I strongly urge you to go read the accounts of other people scammed by Cherrypal (here, here, here, here, and here). Note that some of the stories date back to Christmas 2008. This scam has been going for a long time.

P.P.S. If you’ve been scammed by Cherrypal, please post a comment with your story. I want to hear from you.

I think they may have learned from their mistake with Gentouch 78.

Augen just announced that they will soon sell no less than 6 Android tablets ranging in size from 7″ to 10″, with retail from $199.99 to $599.99. All the tablets run v2.2 and all will support Adobe DE DRM.

First up are a pair of 7″ tablets, the Latte, and Latte Grande.   Both have Wifi HDMI out, 2GB Flash, and a SDHC card slot.

• The Latte has a 7″ WVGA resistive touchscreen (800×480), a stylus, and retails for $199.
• The Latte Grande is a big step up for only $50 more. It has a 800 MHz CPU, 7″ multi-touch capacitive touchscreen (800×600), accelerometer, compass, and light sensor.

Next is the Espresso series, and these babies will support Android v3.0. All have Wifi, Bluetooth, a 3MP camera, accelerometer, compass, and light sensor.

• The base Espresso model has a 7″ multi-touch capacitive touchscreen (800×600), 1GHz Cortex A9 CPU, 8GB Flash, microSDHC card slot. All this for $349.
• The Espresso Dolce has a 10.2″ multi-touch capacitive touchscreen (1024×768), 1GHz Cortex A9 CPU, 8GB Flash, microSDHC card slot. Retail is $429.
• The Espresso Doppio is the tablet convertible I showed you in the first image. It’s a dual boot system with Android/Ubuntu as options. It has a 10.2″ multi-touch capacitive touchscreen (1024×768), 1GHz Cortex A9 CPU, Wifi, Bluetooth, 8GB Flash, 2 USB ports, trackpad, and a 160GB HD. All this for $599.

And then there is the Espresso Firma. This baby has a 7″ resistive touchscreen(800×480), a 600MHz dual core CPU, Wifi, Bluetooth, and 2GB Flash. Retails is $349. It also has this odd pen that’s supposed to let you write on paper, and the strokes will be transmitted to the Firma. I’ll believe it when I see it.

I got a Literati about a week ago, and I was 1 of 4 blogs to get it. I’m sitting here right now, watching it fail to load my personal ebooks, and I’ve decided that I’ve used enough to give my opinion.

DON’T BUY IT!

At the very least wait for a firmware update. I have a number of complaints with the Literati, and I’ll take them one by one. But first I’ll give you a summary of its abilities.

Highs

• HTG, I can’t think of any

Lows

• poor formatting
• no annotation options
• slow to load ebooks
• buggy & unstable
• page turn buttons are iffy

The Literati is a Kindle clone that doesn’t bother to make use of its keyboard. It has a 7″ LCD screen, Wifi, and supports the Kobo ebookstore.  The library is pretty much identical to the Kobo PC app, so I’ll skip it here and jump straight to the reading abilities.

The Literati has no annotation options (not even bookmarks). This really bugs me. Why put a keyboard on a device if you don’t plan to use it? You have 5 font size, 2 font choices, and you can adjust the brightness (seven settings). There is a dictionary, but you can’t select a word on the screen (you have to type it in).

I also don’t like the joystick, but there are so many other problems that I’ll skip this one.

Page Turns

I’m covering this irritation first because even if you disagree with my other complaints, this one will give you pause. The Literati doesn’t have page turn buttons. Instead it has spots on the case that are touch sensitive. I hate it. You can’t tap and turn the page; only swipes work. The swipe sensor is also incredibly sensitive. I keep having trouble with it flipping forward, and then back to the page I just read. I also have trouble with it not recognizing a swipe, which irritates me to no end.

I can’t load my own ebooks

I took one of my SD cards with my standard Epub library (about 600 titles) and stuck it in the Literati. It can’t find the ebooks. In fact, it can’t find any ebooks (not even the Kobo ones already on it). I tried a second time with a SD card that had only a dozen titles; the same thing happened.

I’ve never actually had an ereader fail to load ebooks before. I’ve sometimes had to reboot, but in the end the books were loaded. This is a pass fail for me.

Kobo formatting sucks

Until I started using the Literati, I didn’t realize that Kobo ebooks had such limited formatting. I’ve downloaded a dozen freebies, and they are all the same. There’s space between paragraphs and no indents. I hate it. If you appreciate a well designed ebook then you will hate it too. I’m also annoyed by the large margins, but that’s really just a minor problem given the rest of the formatting issues.

The Kobo editions are also significantly less pretty than their counterparts. I have several commercial titles in both Kobo and another format. The Kobo edition always lacks the subtle refinements found in other editions. Heck, Kobo ebooks are actually less pretty than Kindle ebooks, and that’s saying something.

And I just noticed that on a couple of ebooks, the Kobo edition doesn’t even have the full TOC. WTF is Kobo doing different from everyone else? It makes no sense.

Here are a couple of photos that show the relative formatting. The same title is on both ereaders. BTW, I’m showing 2 photos because the first shows a section break that the Kobo edition doesn’t have.

(click  = big)

Update: Mike Cane pointed out that it’s not fair to compare the different font size. Well, those are the font sizes I find comfortable on each ereader. Yes, the font is larger on the Literati, but it’s the fault of the Literati. I think the font is bigger because I hold it further away.

I just crashed the Literati again

I tried to bring up the TOC and the Literati rebooted. That’s not the only bug. It also takes a long time to load an ebook every time I open it. This isn’t just the first time; it’s slow every time I open an ebook. The Literati isn’t recognized as a USB drive. This actually isn’t a big deal; I’m sure it will be fixed. But it’s irritating nonetheless.

Opinion

The Literati costs $159, and the K3  Wifi costs $139. I don’t see any reason to get the Literati over the Kindle.